Glossary
Congressional Trading Terms
Plain-language definitions of terms you'll encounter on Capitol Trader and in STOCK Act disclosures. From PTRs to amount brackets to insider trading rules.
STOCK Act
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. Federal law that (1) prohibits members of Congress and their staff from trading securities based on material non-public information obtained through official duties, and (2) requires public disclosure of individual stock transactions over $1,000 within 45 days of execution. The Act applies to members of the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as certain executive branch employees.
PTR (Periodic Transaction Report)
The official STOCK Act filing form. Each PTR reports one stock transaction: the security name, ticker symbol, transaction type, transaction date, and amount bracket. PTRs are filed with the House Clerk (House members) or the Senate Office of Public Records (senators) and are made publicly available online. Capitol Trader aggregates and normalizes PTRs from both chambers daily.
Transaction date
The date on which the trade was actually executed — when the buy, sell, or exchange occurred in the market. This is the date the member or their broker placed and filled the order. The transaction date may be up to 45 days before the filing becomes public.
Disclosure date
The date the PTR was filed with the House Clerk or Senate Office of Public Records. This is when the trade became part of the public record. The disclosure date is always on or after the transaction date; the gap between the two can be up to 45 days by law.
45-day rule
The maximum time a member of Congress has between executing a stock trade and filing the required Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) disclosing it. During this window, the trade is invisible to the public. Late filers are subject to a $200 fine. Critics argue this fine is too small to incentivize timely compliance, and that a 45-day window is too long given how quickly market-sensitive information can become stale.
Purchase
A transaction in which the member (or their spouse or dependent child) bought a security. Purchases must be disclosed when the transaction exceeds $1,000 in value. On Capitol Trader, purchases are shown with a green ↑ indicator.
Sale
A full sale of a security position — the member liquidated their entire holding in the security. Must be disclosed when the transaction exceeds $1,000. On Capitol Trader, sales are shown with a red ↓ indicator.
Sale (Partial)
A transaction in which the member sold some, but not all, of their position in a security. The member still holds shares after the transaction. Partial sales are disclosed the same way as full sales but are labeled separately to distinguish them from a complete exit.
Exchange
A conversion or exchange of one security for another. This typically occurs in corporate actions (mergers, spin-offs), trust distributions, or certain retirement account transactions. Exchanges must be disclosed when the value exceeds $1,000.
Amount bracket
The STOCK Act does not require disclosure of exact transaction amounts. Instead, members report which of nine statutory brackets the transaction falls into: $1,001–$15,000; $15,001–$50,000; $50,001–$100,000; $100,001–$250,000; $250,001–$500,000; $500,001–$1,000,000; $1,000,001–$5,000,000; $5,000,001–$25,000,000; and over $25,000,000. Exact dollar amounts cannot be derived from disclosure data.
Spouse disclosure
The STOCK Act requires members to disclose trades made by their spouses and dependent children, not just their own trades. A trade attributed to a member in the disclosure database may have been made by their spouse acting independently. This is a common source of confusion when analyzing a member's trading activity.
Material non-public information (MNPI)
Information that (1) is not yet publicly available, and (2) would likely affect an investor's decision to buy or sell a security if they knew it. The STOCK Act prohibits members of Congress from trading on MNPI obtained through their official duties — for example, using knowledge from a classified briefing to trade stocks of affected companies before that information becomes public.
Insider trading (congressional)
Trading on material non-public information obtained through congressional duties. The STOCK Act made this explicitly illegal for members and staff. However, proving that a specific trade was motivated by MNPI requires evidence beyond timing alone — disclosure records show what was traded and when, but not why or what information the member had at the time.
Trade count
The total number of Periodic Transaction Reports (PTRs) disclosed by a member and available in Capitol Trader's database. This is a count of individual transactions, not a dollar amount or number of positions. Multiple trades in the same ticker on the same day would count as multiple transactions.
Leaderboard
Capitol Trader's ranking of members of Congress by total disclosed trade count in the database. The leaderboard is sorted by transaction volume and shows party, chamber, and most-traded ticker for each member. High trade count reflects active portfolio management, but does not by itself indicate any wrongdoing.
Buy count / Sell count
On ticker and sector pages, buy count shows the total number of purchase transactions disclosed for that security across all members and all time periods. Sell count shows the total sales and partial sales. These are transaction counts, not dollar amounts — they reflect how many individual disclosure events occurred, not the total value traded.
Blind trust
A legal arrangement in which a member of Congress transfers their assets to a trustee who manages them independently, without the member's knowledge of specific holdings or transactions. A properly structured blind trust removes the conflict of interest that STOCK Act disclosure is designed to make visible. Blind trusts are allowed but not required under current law; relatively few members use them.
Sector
The economic sector classification of a company — Technology, Healthcare, Defense, Energy, Financial Services, etc. Capitol Trader assigns sector labels to tickers based on standard industry classifications. Sector pages (e.g., /congress-trades/technology) aggregate all congressional trades in companies within that sector.