How to Track Congress Stock Trades in 2026

Members of Congress have consistently outperformed the S&P 500. Whether that's skill, luck, or something else entirely, the data is public. The STOCK Act of 2012 requires all members of Congress to disclose their stock trades within 45 days of the transaction.

That 45-day delay is the catch. By the time a filing shows up on the Senate or House website, the trade is old news. But there are ways to get the data faster, and free tools that make it easy to follow along.

What is the STOCK Act?

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was signed into law in 2012. It requires members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children to disclose securities transactions over $1,000 within 45 days.

The filings are public record. Anyone can look them up. The problem is that the official sources are clunky, poorly formatted, and don't make it easy to spot patterns.

Filings come in as scanned PDFs on the Senate and House disclosure websites. Some are handwritten. Most don't include ticker symbols. It takes real work to turn these into usable data.

Where to find the raw filings

There are two official sources:

• Senate: efdsearch.senate.gov - Periodic Transaction Reports (PTR)
• House: disclosures-clerk.house.gov - Financial Disclosure reports

These sites let you search by member name and date range. The data comes as PDF scans of the actual disclosure forms. Useful for verification, but not practical for daily tracking.

Free tools for tracking congressional trades

1. Capitol Trades (capitoltrades.com)

The most popular free tracker. Shows recent trades in a clean table format with politician name, ticker, transaction type, and amount range. Updates within days of filings appearing. Good for browsing but limited filtering.

2. Unusual Whales Congress Dashboard

Unusual Whales maintains a congress trading tracker as part of their options flow platform. More detailed than Capitol Trades, with historical performance data for each politician. Free tier available.

3. Quiver Quantitative

Provides congressional trading data alongside other alternative data sources (government contracts, lobbying, FDA approvals). Free API available for developers who want to build their own tools.

4. SEC EDGAR

The underlying source for some of these tools. SEC EDGAR has a full-text search that can surface insider trading filings. More useful for corporate insider trades than congressional ones.

Which politicians trade the most?

Not all members of Congress trade actively. Some hold index funds and never touch individual stocks. Others trade constantly. Here are the most active traders based on 2025-2026 filings:

• David Taylor (R-OH) - One of the most active traders in the current Congress. Frequently trades large-cap stocks like MSFT, V, PGR, LLY.
• Shelley Capito (R-WV) - Regular portfolio activity across tech and industrials. Recent trades in AVGO, BLK, ADI, ITW.
• Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) - Famous for his trading activity. Was the subject of multiple ethics investigations.
• Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) - Perhaps the most well-known congressional trader. Her trades (often attributed to her husband Paul) consistently make headlines.

The average congressional portfolio has historically returned 6-10% above the S&P 500 over a 5-year period, according to multiple academic studies.

How to use congressional trading data

Following congressional trades is not a silver bullet. The 45-day disclosure delay means you're always behind. But there are patterns worth watching:

Look for clusters, not individual trades

A single politician buying a stock means nothing. Three politicians from the same committee buying the same stock in the same week is a signal. Committee membership gives politicians access to non-public information about industries they oversee.

Pay attention to the amount

Filings use ranges ($1,001-$15,000, $15,001-$50,000, etc.). The larger the range, the more conviction behind the trade. A $1K-$15K trade could be rebalancing. A $250K+ trade is a real bet.

Check committee assignments

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee buying defense stocks is more interesting than a random freshman representative doing the same thing. The informational edge comes from committee work, not party affiliation.

Watch for selling patterns

Buys get all the attention, but sells can be more informative. When a politician dumps a stock they've held for years, especially right before bad news, that's worth noting.

Getting real-time alerts

The fastest way to act on congressional trades is to get alerts as soon as filings are processed, rather than checking manually.

MarketSignals monitors every congressional filing and sends free email alerts when trades are disclosed. No account needed, no payment required. Just your email.

Related: See all congressional trades from this week