General information about public filing rules, not legal or investment advice. Check the primary sources below before relying on any detail.
What the STOCK Act is
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, the STOCK Act, is Public Law 112-105, approved on April 4, 2012. It does two main things relevant to investors:
- It states that members and employees of Congress are not exempt from the insider trading prohibitions of the securities laws, and that each member owes a duty arising from a relationship of trust and confidence to Congress, the United States Government and its citizens with respect to nonpublic information gained in their position.
- It added a requirement to report individual securities transactions within weeks, rather than only once a year in the annual financial disclosure report.
Those transaction reports are the source of WaveMan's Congress trades and of each member's page under Congress.
Periodic transaction reports
The reporting rule now sits in 5 U.S.C. 13105(l). A covered person must file a report of a covered transaction not later than 30 days after receiving notification of it, but in no case later than 45 days after the transaction itself. These filings are commonly called periodic transaction reports, or PTRs.
Two clocks, whichever comes first
The two deadlines exist because a member may not learn of a trade on the day it happens, for example when a broker or a spouse makes it. The House Committee on Ethics describes the obligation as reporting by the earlier of 30 days from being made aware of the transaction or 45 days from the transaction. So a report can arrive up to about six weeks after the trade, and a late report arrives later still.
Who files
The requirement applies to members of Congress, and the House Committee on Ethics says it also covers officers and certain employees. In the House, PTRs are filed with the Clerk of the House, not with the Ethics Committee.
What has to be reported
The covered transactions are those described in 5 U.S.C. 13104(a)(5)(B): purchases, sales or exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other forms of securities that exceed $1,000. The House Committee on Ethics summarizes this as transactions over $1,000 in certain securities.
Spouses and dependent children
Under 5 U.S.C. 13104(e), a disclosure report must also contain the listed information, including securities transactions, for the reporting person's spouse and dependent children, with exceptions set out in that subsection. A report filed by a member can therefore include trades that are not in the member's own name, so a report naming a member does not by itself mean the member placed the trade.
What is excluded
The statute does not require reporting of transactions solely by and between the reporting individual, their spouse or their dependent children.
Value ranges, not exact amounts
The law requires the category of value of each transaction, not the exact amount. Reports therefore show a dollar range rather than a precise figure. Any total built from these reports, including on WaveMan, is an estimate based on the ranges, and our pages say so.
Public access to the reports
Section 8 of the STOCK Act requires the reports to be made available to the public on the official websites of the Senate and the House of Representatives not later than 30 days after they are filed. Combined with the filing window, this means a trade can become public well over a month after it happened.
That delay matters when reading the reports. A member's trade is not a real-time signal the way a Form 4 is for corporate insiders, which must be filed within two business days of the trade.
How these reports differ from corporate insider filings
The STOCK Act and the securities laws for corporate insiders solve different problems, and their reports look different as a result:
- Timing. A corporate insider files Form 4 within two business days. A member of Congress has up to 30 days from notification and no more than 45 days from the transaction.
- Detail. Form 4 gives a share count and a price. A periodic transaction report gives a category of value.
- Scope. Form 4 covers one company's securities held by its own insiders. A periodic transaction report covers a member's covered transactions across any company.
- Where it is filed. Form 4 goes to the SEC's EDGAR system. House reports go to the Clerk of the House.
How to read congressional trade reports
- Check the dates. The gap between the transaction date and the filing date is part of the story. A report filed after 45 days was late.
- Check whose account. Many trades are made by a spouse or in a managed account.
- Read ranges as ranges. A trade in the lowest range and one in the highest can look similar in a simple count.
- Look for patterns, not single trades. Many members trade rarely; a few trade often.
- Remember the law covers conduct, not just disclosure. A disclosed trade is not by itself evidence of wrongdoing, and an undisclosed one is not the only possible problem.
You can browse recent filings on Congress trades, find a member on Congress, or see which members reported trading a company on its page, such as Nvidia or Microsoft. For corporate insiders, see insider buying and our guide to Form 4 transaction codes.
Frequently asked questions
How long do members of Congress have to report a stock trade?
Not later than 30 days after receiving notification of the transaction, and in no case later than 45 days after the transaction, under 5 U.S.C. 13105(l).
What trades does the STOCK Act require members of Congress to report?
Purchases, sales or exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other forms of securities that exceed $1,000, other than transactions solely between the member, their spouse and their dependent children.
Why do congressional trade reports show a range instead of an exact amount?
The law requires the category of value of each transaction rather than the exact amount, so reports show a dollar range. Totals built from them are estimates.
When did the STOCK Act become law?
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 was approved on April 4, 2012, as Public Law 112-105.
Sources
Every rule, deadline and threshold above was checked against these primary documents on 2026-10-12:
- STOCK Act, Public Law 112-105 (April 4, 2012)
- S. 2038, 112th Congress (the STOCK Act) on congress.gov
- 5 U.S.C. 13104, contents of financial disclosure reports
- 5 U.S.C. 13105, filing of reports (periodic transaction reports)
- House Committee on Ethics, Financial Disclosure