US Elections: 'Trump Trade' Gains Pace As Ex-President Builds Momentum; These Stocks Show

'Trump trade', a reference to the bets on stocks that are likely to benefit under a Donald Trump presidency, have gained pace as the former US president builds momentum in the race to the White House.

With barely eight days for the conclusion of the high-stake presidential elections, Republican nominee Trump has taken a 2% lead over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in pre-poll surveys, according to the 538-ABC News live tracker.

The Trump trade, which was on the rise until July of this year, had slumped after Harris replaced the aging Joe Biden in the presidential election. However, over the past month, the trend appears to have reversed.

With crackdown on "illegal immigration" at the core of Trump's electoral campaign, stocks linked to private prison operators have been on the upswing. Companies running private jails expect a likely boost in detentions in the event of a Trump win.

Shares of Geo Group Inc., which invests in private prisons, have surged 18.2% over the past 30 days. They are currently trading at $15.19 apiece on the NYSE.

Similarly, the stock of Corecivic, another leading private prisons manager, climbed 8.2% to $13.69 over the last month.

Firearm stocks are also among those that have been powered up with the growing prospects of Trump's return to the White House. The former president has vowed to strengthen the second amendment to the Constitution—which guarantees Americans to bear arms—and his campaign has indicated the reversal of some of the curbs brought during the incumbent presidency of Joe Biden.

Although Trump has not categorically mentioned any changes in the law, a statement issued by his campaign team said he would "terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden's attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office".

Most gun stocks had sharply risen following the assassination attempt on Trump in July. The momentum has been retained by Vista Outdoor Inc., which has jumped by 12.1% over the past 30 days and is currently priced at around $43.92 per share.

Cryptocurrency is seen as one of the biggest sectoral winners if Trump clinches victory in the White House race. Positioning himself as a pro-crypto candidate, Trump announced in July that he intends to see the United States as the "cryptocurrency capital of the world".

The former president went ahead to say that he sees Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, as "superpower of the world".

Since then, not only is Bitcoin on the rise, but stocks linked to cryptocurrency have also been rallying sharply. Over the past month, Coinbase surged by 15.1% to $205.04 and Riot Platforms Inc. leaped by 29.9% to $9.64.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the media company owned by Trump, has gained sharply since late September. It has since added more than $2 billion to its market value. Over the past one month, the shares have gained by a massive 142% to trade at $38.95 apiece.

The overwhelming response from investors, say analysts, is linked to the expectation that the company would log a jump in advertisements if Trump gets elected to the White House.

Apart from Trump Media, another company that is being increasingly seen through the prism of the presidential polls is Tesla Inc. Elon Musk, who owns the electric vehicle giant, has openly endorsed Trump.

Musk's constant involvement in Trump's poll campaign has raised speculations whether Musk would be serving in a potential Trump administration. However, a spike in Tesla's stock has not been witnessed over the past one month.

Stocks linked to Trump trade—some of them pointed out above—have risen between 8% to 142% in the past month. In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 has gained by only 0.8% over the past 30 days.

Trump trade, according to experts, is likely to continue in run-up to the Nov. 5 electoral showdown. Billionaire financier Stanley Druckenmiller, while speaking to Bloomberg on Oct. 16, said markets appeared “very convinced Trump is going to win”.