Guides

STOCK Act disclosures explained

A plain guide to the public reports members of Congress file when they buy or sell stocks, and how to read them carefully.

What is the STOCK Act?

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act became law in 2012. It confirmed that members of Congress may not use private information from their jobs to trade, and it added a fast reporting rule: most trades must be made public within weeks, not once a year.

What has to be reported

• Who: members of the House and Senate, plus many senior staff. Trades by a spouse or dependent child are reported too.
• What: purchases, sales and exchanges of stocks, bonds and similar securities worth more than $1,000. Some assets, like widely held mutual funds, are exempt.
• The form: a periodic transaction report, often called a PTR.

How fast

A report is due within 30 days of the member learning about the trade, and no later than 45 days after the trade. A late filer pays a $200 fee. So even an on-time report can describe a trade made six weeks earlier.

Amounts are ranges

Reports give a value range, not a number. The ranges start at $1,001–$15,000, then $15,001–$50,000, $50,001–$100,000, $100,001–$250,000, $250,001–$500,000, $500,001–$1,000,000, and go up from there. A "$1,001–$15,000" trade might be $1,100 or $14,900.

Where the reports live

• House Clerk: financial disclosure reports (opens in a new tab)
• Senate: electronic financial disclosures (eFD) (opens in a new tab)

Some reports are typed forms; older or paper filings are scanned images, which is why third-party services exist to turn them into data.

What the data can't tell you

• Why a trade happened. Many are routine, scheduled, or made by a financial adviser.
• The exact amount or price.
• What happens next to the stock. A disclosed trade is not a prediction.

Rules on using the reports

The reports are public, but federal law (5 U.S.C. § 13107(c)) makes it unlawful to use them for any unlawful purpose, for any commercial purpose other than by news and communications media for dissemination to the general public, to determine anyone's credit rating, or to solicit money. Reading them for your own information is fine.

Seeing them on your charts

Capitol Tape is a free browser extension that shows these reports beside the stock chart on TradingView, Robinhood, Webull and Schwab. See how it works on TradingView. It is information only, never advice.