How to cite and reuse Spot the Money

How should I credit the site?

Name the site and link to the page the figure came from. In running text, "according to Spot the Money" with a link is enough. Under a chart or table, use Source: Spot the Money (spotthemoney.com).

Link to the specific page, not the home page. Pages are rebuilt as new filings arrive, so say when you looked: a total you quote today may be different next week.

How do I get a formatted citation?

Use the "Cite" button at the top of any page. It opens a small panel with the citation in four styles, each with the page's last-updated date and today's date already filled in, and a "Copy citation" button. Charts and single trades have the same panel behind their Share buttons, with a link that goes straight to that chart or that row.

The four styles look like this:

Copying keeps the italics when you paste into a word processor. A citation for a single trade also names the original filing and gives its address.

Should I cite this site or the original filing?

Both, when the claim matters. The filing made with the government is the record; this site reads it, adds it up by stated rules and links back to it. If you report that a member of Congress sold a stock, the member's own report is the source and this site is where you found it.

Every row in every table has a link to its filing in the last column: the Form 4 on the SEC's EDGAR system, or the periodic transaction report on the House Clerk's or the Senate's site. The "Sources and method" section at the foot of each member, insider, stock and company page lists how many filings from each source are behind the page, the dates they span, and where to read them.

Totals, rankings and charts are this site's arithmetic. Cite those to this site, and read the methodology for the rules used, especially for congressional amounts, which are tops of ranges.

Can I use the charts and tables?

Yes, with the credit. Three ways are built in:

• Link. Each chart's Share button gives a link that opens the page at that chart.
• Image. "Save image" in the same menu downloads the chart as a picture with its title, legend, the site name and the date.
• Embed. Charts on member and stock pages offer embed code that shows the live chart on your own site with a source line.

Please do not crop out the site name or alter the figures. If you rebuild a chart from the numbers, credit the site as the source of the data.

Are there legal limits on reuse?

Yes, two, and they apply to anyone who uses the records, not only to this site:

• Congressional financial disclosure reports may not be used for a commercial purpose (news and media reporting to the general public is excepted), to establish anyone's credit rating, or to solicit money (5 U.S.C. § 13107(c)).
• Information copied from FEC reports may not be sold or used to solicit contributions or for commercial purposes (FEC guidance). This site publishes donation totals only, never individual donors.

SEC filings, lobbying reports, contract records and Treasury rates carry no comparable restriction. The full reuse terms are in the terms of use. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Can I download the data?

Yes. The downloads page lists every file, free and without signing up. They are plain CSV files that open in Excel, Google Sheets or any statistics package, and they hold the same rows the pages show, each with a link to its original filing.

• One member or one ticker. Use the "Download CSV" link above the trade table on a member's page or a stock's page. A member's file holds every trade on record, including those beyond the newest 200 the page lists.
• Everything at once. The downloads page has one file with every congressional trade, insider transactions cut into one file per quarter, lobbying filings per quarter, federal contract awards, the roster of members with their committee seats, and Treasury and I bond rates.
• What the columns mean. The downloads page explains every column. Congressional rows carry a low and a high amount, never an exact value; Form 4 rows carry shares, price and value.

The files are rebuilt whenever the site is, usually once a day, and their addresses do not change, so a script can fetch the same address each day. Please fetch a file at most once a day and do not crawl the pages instead.

There is no file of campaign donations: this site holds a recent sample of receipts and never lists individual donors. The limits on reuse described above apply to downloaded files exactly as they do to the pages; the files with congressional trades fall under 5 U.S.C. § 13107(c). For anything the files do not cover, write to contact@spotthemoney.com.

What if the figure I cited is later corrected?

Filings are amended and this site fixes its own mistakes. A correction that changes a published number is logged on the corrections page with its date. Because pages change, the access date in your citation is what shows which version you saw.

Questions and answers

Related guides

• What disclosure data cannot tell you
• Why congressional trade amounts are ranges
• How to use the trade map
• Campaign donations: how to read FEC data

Sources

• 5 U.S.C. § 13107, public access to congressional reports and limits on their use
• FEC: sale or use of contributor information
• 52 U.S.C. § 30111