How Wealthnow's congressional trading data works
Wealthnow's congress pages show stock trades that members of the U.S. House and Senate have publicly disclosed under the STOCK Act, taken from official House Clerk and Senate financial-disclosure records. Filings report value ranges, not exact amounts, and are often filed weeks after the trade, so every figure here is a disclosed range or an estimate built from ranges. They are not investment returns, and they are not a judgment about anyone's conduct.
1. Where the data comes from
- House of Representatives: Periodic Transaction Reports filed with the Clerk of the House (disclosures-clerk.house.gov).
- Senate: Periodic Transaction Reports filed through the Senate's electronic financial disclosure system (efdsearch.senate.gov).
- Wealthnow loads these records into its data API (the same data developers get from the Wealthnow API) and builds these pages from that feed.
- Members are matched by their official Bioguide ID, so one person has one page.
2. What a disclosed trade contains
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Transaction date | When the trade happened, as reported by the filer |
| Disclosure date | When the report was filed |
| Owner | Whose account: the member, a spouse, a joint account or a dependent child |
| Type | Purchase, sale (full or partial) or exchange |
| Asset | The ticker when one is reported, otherwise the filer's description |
| Amount | A value range chosen from the form's fixed brackets |
3. How amounts are shown
The STOCK Act does not require exact dollar amounts. Filers choose a bracket, and these pages show that bracket.
| Filed range | Shown as |
|---|---|
| $1,001 – $15,000 | $1K – $15K |
| $15,001 – $50,000 | $15K – $50K |
| $50,001 – $100,000 | $50K – $100K |
| $100,001 – $250,000 | $100K – $250K |
| $250,001 – $500,000 | $250K – $500K |
| $500,001 – $1,000,000 | $500K – $1M |
| $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 | $1M – $5M |
| $5,000,001 – $25,000,000 | $5M – $25M |
| $25,000,001 – $50,000,000 | $25M – $50M |
| Over $50,000,000 | $50M+ |
Estimated volume (on member and net-worth pages) adds up the midpoint of each filed range. It is an order-of-magnitude estimate of trading activity: ten trades filed at $1,001 to $15,000 give an estimated volume of about $80,000, while the true figure could be anywhere from roughly $10,000 to $150,000.
4. Disclosure lag
The STOCK Act generally requires a periodic transaction report within 30 days of the member learning of a trade, and no later than 45 days after it. The disclosure lag is the disclosure date minus the transaction date. Late filings happen; the lag is shown as filed, with no inference about why.
5. What we clean, and what we don't
We clean:
- A row whose "ticker" is not a security symbol (free-text fragments such as Treasury bill maturities, fund names or bond CUSIPs) is kept out of rankings and ticker pages and shown as the filer's own text. A symbol the filer typed with a label, such as "SYMBOL: OGVXX", is read as that symbol.
- Duplicate member records are merged under one Bioguide ID. The feed groups filings by the filer's name as written, so one member who filed under two spellings appeared twice (3 such records are merged in the current data). The retired page now points to the kept one.
- Hub totals are computed from the member records themselves, so every congress page prints the same member and trade counts.
We don't:
- change filed dates, amounts or owners;
- guess exact amounts;
- calculate investment returns for members' trades on these pages;
- infer intent, insider knowledge or wrongdoing.
6. "Net worth" pages
Members of Congress do not publish a net-worth figure in these reports. Pages titled "net worth" show estimated disclosed trading volume and portfolio concentration reconstructed from filings, not an appraisal of anyone's wealth.
7. Updates
Member pages and ticker pages are built from two snapshots of the same feed, refreshed separately, and each page shows its own date. New filings can appear up to 45 days (sometimes longer) after the trade, so recent weeks are always incomplete. Ticker pages cover the 250 stocks traded by at least 3 members.
8. Corrections
If you believe a trade is shown incorrectly, email support@wealthnow.io with the page URL and a link to the filing. We check it against the original House or Senate record and correct verified errors.
9. Using this data
These pages are for information and research. They are not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Copying a member's disclosed trades does not reproduce their results: filings arrive late, amounts are ranges, and prices move. Developers can use the same data through the Wealthnow API.
Research Congress disclosures against your own holdings
See how Wealthnow would research these Congress disclosures against your own holdings. Politician strategies are research only, and trading from Congress disclosures is not enabled.
Frequently asked questions
Where does congressional stock-trading data come from?
From Periodic Transaction Reports that members of Congress file under the STOCK Act with the Clerk of the House and the Senate's electronic financial disclosure system. Wealthnow builds these pages from those official records.
Why are trade amounts shown as ranges?
The STOCK Act requires filers to report a value bracket, such as $1,001 to $15,000, not an exact amount. Exact amounts are not public, so these pages show the filed bracket.
How late can members of Congress report trades?
Generally within 30 days of learning of a trade and no later than 45 days after it. Each trade on these pages shows the trade date and the filing date side by side.
Does Wealthnow show members' investment returns?
No. These pages show disclosed activity, not returns. Value ranges and filing delays make precise return figures unreliable.
How do I report an error?
Email support@wealthnow.io with the page URL and a link to the filing. We check it against the original House or Senate record and correct verified errors.