Guide

How to track congressional stock trades

Members of Congress are required by law to disclose their stock trades. That makes some of the most-watched money in the market a matter of public record, if you know where to look and how to read it.

Why congressional trades are public

The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of Congress, and many senior staff, to disclose securities transactions, generally within 45 days. The goal was transparency around potential conflicts of interest. The side effect: a continuous, public stream of trades from people with unusual proximity to policy and regulation.

Where the data comes from

Disclosures are filed as periodic transaction reports with the House and Senate, and related ownership filings show up in SEC systems such as EDGAR and Form 4. You can read these raw, but they are slow to parse one filing at a time, which is why most people use an aggregator.

How to actually use the signal

1. Filter for relevance. A committee member trading in a sector they oversee is more interesting than a broad index purchase.
2. Watch clusters, not one-offs. Several members buying the same name in a short window is a stronger signal than a single trade.
3. Respect the delay. Trades are reported up to 45 days late, so treat them as context, not a timing tool.
4. Tie it to your own book. A disclosure only matters to you if it touches a thesis or holding you already care about.

How Axiom does it

Axiom's Congressional Trading Tracker pulls these disclosures and lets you filter by party, committee, sector, and timing, then surfaces the ones that intersect your actual holdings. Instead of doom-scrolling filings, you see the handful of trades that are relevant to the portfolio you already own, right next to your conviction scores and theses.

It is one of nine systems in Axiom, alongside the 9-factor conviction model, tax intelligence, and an AI analyst built on Claude that can answer "did any committee members buy into my sectors this month?" in plain English.

Congressional disclosures are public data presented for informational purposes. Axiom is research and analytics software, not investment advice. See our Disclosures.