Hillary Clinton made $100,000 in cattle futures through her own research
| Hillary Clinton made $100,000 in cattle futures through her own research | |
|---|---|
| DISPUTED | |
| "Hillary Clinton turned $1,000 into nearly $100,000 trading cattle futures in 1978 and 1979 by reading The Wall Street Journal and making her own decisions." | |
| Domain | Business, Finance & Scams |
| Tactic | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1994 |
| Origin | White House explanations after The New York Times reported the trades in March 1994 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Business, Finance & Scams | |
In March 1994 The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton, then the wife of Arkansas's attorney general and later governor, had turned a $1,000 investment into nearly $100,000 trading cattle futures in about ten months in 1978 and 1979. She was advised by James Blair, a lawyer for Tyson Foods and a friend of the Clintons. The White House first said she made the trades herself after studying the financial press.
The returns were extraordinary, and the account of how they happened changed over time.
What the evidence shows
- Shifting explanations. White House officials first said she made the decisions based on her own research, then acknowledged Blair had advised her and placed many of the orders.
- Margin questions. Records released in 1994 showed that at times her account held positions without the full margin normally required. Her broker, Robert "Red" Bone, had been disciplined by commodity regulators in another matter.
- No charges. No regulator or prosecutor found that the profits were an improper benefit or bribe. Economists who analyzed the trades judged such returns highly unlikely but possible in the volatile cattle market of 1979.
Why it matters
The trades were legal as far as investigators found, but the "own research" explanation did not hold up. Whether the profits reflected favorable treatment remains contested.
Sources
- Jeff Gerth, "Top Arkansas Lawyer Helped Hillary Clinton Turn Big Profit," The New York Times, March 18, 1994.
- White House release of Hillary Clinton's commodity trading records, April 1994.
- The Washington Post, "Records Show Hillary Clinton's Trades Benefited From Broker's Leniency," 1994.