How to read a congressional trade report
A periodic transaction report (PTR) is the form a member of Congress files after trading a security. Each row gives the owner, the asset, whether it was bought or sold, the trade date and a dollar range; it never gives the exact amount, the price paid or the reason.
In brief
- Owner tells you whose asset it was: the member, the spouse, a dependent child, or held jointly.
- Type is purchase, sale (full or partial) or exchange.
- Two dates matter: when the trade happened and when it was reported.
- The amount is one of ten fixed ranges, starting at $1,001–$15,000.
- Each row on this site links to the original filing.
What is a periodic transaction report?
A periodic transaction report is the public form a member of Congress files to disclose a trade in a stock, bond or similar security. House members file with the Clerk of the House; senators file with the Senate's electronic disclosure system. One report can list one trade or dozens.
The reports are separate from the annual financial disclosure, which lists what a member owns and owes once a year. A PTR records a change: something was bought, sold or swapped.
What does each column mean?
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Owner | Whose asset it was. House reports use SP (spouse), DC (dependent child) and JT (joint); a blank means the member. Senate reports spell it out: Self, Spouse, Joint or Child. |
| Asset | The name of the security, usually with a ticker symbol. Some rows have no ticker: bonds, private funds and other assets. |
| Type | House: P (purchase), S (sale) or S (partial). Senate: Purchase, Sale (Full), Sale (Partial) or Exchange. An exchange is a swap, most often after a merger. |
| Transaction date | The day the trade happened. |
| Notification date | House reports only: the day the member says they learned of the trade. |
| Amount | A dollar range, not an exact figure. |
On this site the same fields appear in each member's table as Security, Side, Trade date, Disclosed, Lag, Value and Flags, with a link to the source document in the last column.
What does a member's page on this site show?
Each member with a report on record has a page that starts with the seat, party, the date the current term began and the member's committees, followed by one paragraph that sums up the record. The Follow button beside the name adds the member to your free watchlist, which then shows each new report as it is disclosed (see how to follow). Below that, in order:
- Most-traded stocks. The tickers that appear most often in the member's reports, with the number of purchases and sales and the sum of the ranges as filed. An "Also on record" note means the company's own page here lists lobbying reports or federal contract awards. It describes the company, not the member.
- Year by year, and whose trades. Trades counted by the year of the trade, and by the owner the report names: the member, the spouse, a dependent child or a joint holding.
- How this record compares. The member's number of trades, median days from trade to report and share of trades reported after 45 days, beside the same figures for every member with at least one trade on record here. Members who reported no trades are not part of the comparison.
- Committee assignments. Current committees and subcommittees, with any leadership post. They are listed for context. This site does not match trades to committee business, and a seat on a committee is not evidence about any trade.
- Disclosed trades and filings. Every row with its link to the original report, then the list of reports themselves.
The page ends with other members from the same state, members who traded the same tickers, and short answers to the questions people ask most about that member. All of it is counted from the same rows as the trade table.
Which date should I look at?
Both, because the gap between them is the point. The trade date tells you when the member bought or sold. The disclosed date tells you when the public could first know. A member has up to 45 days, so a trade you are reading about today may be six weeks old.
The Lag column on this site is the number of days between the two. When it is more than 45, the row carries a "late" flag. See late disclosures.
The trade map counts a trade in the period when it was disclosed, not when it happened, so the 30-day view shows what became public in the last 30 days.
Why is the amount a range?
Because the law asks for a range. The form offers ten brackets, from $1,001–$15,000 up to over $50,000,000, and the member ticks one. A row marked $15,001–$50,000 could be a $16,000 trade or a $49,000 trade; nothing in the filing says which.
That has consequences for any total you see, here or elsewhere. Our guide to amount ranges explains how this site adds them up.
What is not in the report?
The report does not give the share count, the price, the profit or loss, or the reason for the trade. It does not say whether the member chose the trade personally or whether an adviser did. It does not show what the member still holds; that is in the annual disclosure.
It also says nothing about what the member knew. A purchase before good news is a fact about timing, not evidence of anything else.
What if a report is corrected?
Members can file an amendment that replaces an earlier report. When a Senate amendment replaces a report on this site, the earlier version's rows are removed so the trade is not counted twice.
Reports filed on paper or as scanned images cannot be read automatically. This site holds them until a person has transcribed them (83 are waiting now), so a member who files on paper may show fewer trades here than they reported. The coverage section of the methodology gives the current counts.
Questions and answers
What does SP mean on a congressional trade report?
SP means the asset belongs to the member's spouse. House reports also use DC for a dependent child and JT for a joint holding; a blank owner means the member.
What is a PTR in Congress?
A PTR is a periodic transaction report, the public form a member of Congress files after buying, selling or exchanging a security worth more than $1,000.
Do congressional trade reports show how many shares were traded?
No. A report gives a dollar range and the trade date. It does not give the number of shares, the price or the profit.
Why do some congressional trades have no ticker?
Because the asset is not a listed stock. Bonds, private funds and other assets are reported by name only, so they appear in a member's table but not on the trade map, which is organised by ticker.
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Not investment advice. This guide explains public records and how this site presents them. It makes no recommendation to buy or sell anything. All guides · All questions · Report an error