Story highlights Since Election Day, the Dow Jones is up more than 8%

John MacIntosh: Liberals who've profited from stock market gains should channel their returns to fighting Trump policies

John MacIntosh was a partner at a leading global private equity firm, where he worked from 1994 to 2006 in New York, Tokyo and London. He now runs a nonprofit in New York. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Opponents of President-elect Donald Trump with significant stock market investments have a problem. We've made a lot of money since Election Day (the Dow is up almost 9%), yet it feels morally wrong to have profited from the victory of a man we consider unfit for office and whose policies we viscerally oppose. It's like possessing stolen property or being the unwilling beneficiary of a nefarious scheme.

Worse yet is the reason for the market's rise. At a time when interest rates are rising, stock prices should be under pressure. Yet we've seen outsized gains because the market expects that corporate profits will go up under the Trump administration. And they probably will

John MacIntosh

But where will these extra profits come from? They are unlikely to be the result of improved productivity, technological innovation or increased capital investment. Trump has no coherent policies on these issues.

What seems far more likely is that the additional profits are just the extra money that corporations will be allowed to extract from the American people under the Trump administration. An extraction that is particularly objectionable since corporate profits are already at an all-time high (as a percentage of GDP) and the money will be taken from those who can least afford it: subprime borrowers (Goldman and the banks are up), young people (for-profit education organizations are up), future generations (if corporate taxes go down now, taxes will have to go up later), those living in climate-exposed areas (oil stocks are up) and other vulnerable citizens (for-profit prisons are up).

So to me, my post-Election Day profits are just the present value of other people's future misery. How can I rid myself of these ill-gotten gains? There are four options:

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