Members of Congress must disclose every stock trade over $1,000, but the law gives them up to 45 days to do it. So these trades already happened, sometimes weeks ago. We publish each filing the day it posts and measure how the stock did afterward.
A plain-English guide grouped by the page where each element appears.
Calculations used to rank politicians.
Models the member’s portfolio from trade dates. Positions use the geometric midpoint of disclosed dollar brackets; the range is the span across three runs weighted by the bracket floor, midpoint and ceiling. Brackets are not proportional to one another, so re-weighting can move the result either way — the floor-weighted run is not reliably the lower number. A trade disclosed inside the period but made before it enters on day one of the period rather than being dropped. Every simulation starts at 0%.
Models an outsider copying on filing dates. Every buy adds one equal-size unit; another buy of the same stock adds another unit and increases its relative weight. Full sales close it, partial sales halve its units, and dollar brackets are ignored. A sale with no matching purchase in the period does nothing — there is no position to sell and we never invent one. Filings posted on a weekend or market holiday take the next open session, which is also the first moment anyone could act on them.
A buy succeeds when it beats the S&P 500 over the selected 30 or 90 days; a sale succeeds when it underperforms. A trade is ineligible until that full future horizon has happened and prices exist. Ranking on this column also needs a minimum number of scored trades — set in the column header, five by default — because a single lucky trade otherwise reads as 100% and tops the board. Members below that minimum still appear and still show their rate; they simply do not take a rank on it.
Calendar days from trade to filing for disclosures in the selected period. Green is 0–22, grey 23–35, amber 36–45. Red overrides the median color when the selected period contains any filing above the 45-day limit. This value changes with the filing-date window.
Totals the disclosed low bounds and high bounds. It remains a range because exact dollars are unavailable; sorting uses the arithmetic midpoint of that displayed range.
Fields in the filing-day transaction feed.
Traded is when the transaction occurred. Filed is when it became public. Period access on this feed uses filing date, and one filing may contain several transaction rows.
The reported bracket for one transaction. Sorting uses the bracket midpoint. See Home (Leaderboard) — Money traded for how rows are aggregated.
Compares the stock with the S&P 500 from the trade date through the latest close. Sales are neutral because a later rise is not a gain for the seller.
Opens the original House Clerk or Senate disclosure. It is evidence, not a calculated value, and is never sortable.
Calculations used to rank tickers.
Counts distinct politicians who disclosed at least one trade in the selected filing-date period.
Buy share is buys ÷ (buys + sells); exchanges and transfers are excluded. Above 55% is net buying, below 45% net selling, otherwise mixed. Sort through Buys vs sells.
The same aggregate disclosed range appears here. See Home (Leaderboard) — Money traded.
One member’s analysis and disclosed-trade table.
The page period is gated by filing date, not trade date. The table shows both so readers can see when the event happened and when outsiders learned about it.
Estimated Returns and Equal-Weight Returns use the same definitions as the ranking. See Home (Leaderboard).
Money traded follows the leaderboard range method. Price coverage reports how many visible disclosures can be joined to comparable market prices; unpriceable assets remain visible.
Both reappear on each disclosure row. See Home (Filings) — Stock since and Source.
One ticker’s analysis and politician activity table.
The page period is gated by filing date, not trade date. Both dates remain visible and sortable.
These reuse the ticker-ranking definitions. See Home (Stocks) — Members and Buys vs sells and Net direction.
The same aggregate disclosed range appears here. See Home (Leaderboard) — Money traded.
Both reappear for each politician’s disclosure. See Home (Filings) — Stock since and Source.