Key facts
- President Donald Trump reportedly executed 21,000 trades in 2025, a volume higher than any other president.
- Trump's trading activities generated over $2 billion in income, including $1 billion from cryptocurrency.
- The Trump Organization claims Trump's investments are managed by independent third parties to avoid conflicts of interest.
- Direct indexing allows investors to own individual stocks within an index, enabling tax-loss harvesting and portfolio customization.
- Direct indexing assets have grown to $864 billion, more than doubling since 2020, due to technological advancements and lower costs.
- The strategy enables investors to claim capital losses against gains, deferring taxes and reinvesting savings.
President Donald Trump reportedly executed 21,000 trades in 2025, a volume significantly higher than any other president and likely any other politician. These trades generated over $2 billion in income, including $1 billion from cryptocurrency. The Trump Organization stated that Trump's trading is automated and managed by independent third-party managers to avoid conflicts of interest, dismissing a recent request for information from Democratic lawmakers as a "baseless political stunt."
Experts suggest that Trump's high trading volume could be achieved through direct indexing, an investment strategy that has seen substantial growth. Direct indexing involves investors owning the underlying stocks of an index directly, rather than through an ETF. This approach allows for greater customization and tax efficiency, particularly through tax-loss harvesting, where underperforming stocks are sold to offset capital gains.
This strategy, once exclusive to high-net-worth individuals due to high costs and the lack of fractional shares, has become more accessible. Technological advancements, free trades, and the availability of fractional shares have lowered costs, making direct indexing comparable in price to some ETFs. Wealthfront, a firm that helped coin the term "direct indexing," oversees $99 billion in client assets and noted one medium-sized account made over 4,500 trades in large-cap companies in 2025 for tax savings.
Direct indexing is suitable for investors with significant capital gains income, such as real estate investors or those compensated with company stock, who can benefit from writing off losses. It also appeals to those seeking to customize portfolios for ESG preferences or to avoid existing concentrated positions. However, the strategy is not without drawbacks, including potentially higher fees than ETFs and tracking errors, which is the difference between the product's return and the index it tracks.