Members of Congress have to report the stocks they trade. The reports are public, they arrive on a delay, and they are easy to misread. Here is what the filings tell you, and what they do not.
Under the STOCK Act, a member of Congress files a periodic transaction report when they, a spouse or a dependent child buy or sell a stock worth more than $1,000. The report is due within 30 days of learning about the trade and no later than 45 days after it happened.
House members file with the Clerk of the House and senators file with the Senate Office of Public Records. Both publish the reports online, which is why they are a public record anyone can read.
The forms use set dollar brackets, such as $1,001 to $15,000 or $15,001 to $50,000. A filing never gives the exact amount, so a purchase in a bracket can be anywhere inside it.
That is why counts and totals should be read as a description of the public record, never as a signal to act on.
The Congress trades page collects recent filings by stock: how many trades, how many members, purchases and sales, and the filing lines with their dates and amount ranges.
MarketCast Premium includes Congress Trades: a scene in the Stream and a row on the dashboard that show recently disclosed purchases and sales in two columns. It is off until you turn it on in Settings, and it is presented as a public record, not as advice. See the plans page for what is in Premium.
House filings are published by the Clerk of the House in its financial disclosure database, and Senate filings by the Senate Office of Public Records in its electronic financial disclosure search. Both are public.
No. A disclosure is a public record of what was filed. It does not say why a trade was made, and it arrives after the fact. MarketCast does not give investment advice.
No. Congress Trades is part of Premium, and it stays off until you turn it on in Settings.
MarketCast, the stock market app for TV, is free to download on Fire TV, Google TV, Android TV and Apple TV.