How to Track & Understand Government Stock Trades

U.S. officials have to tell the public when they buy and sell stocks. The filings are public — but they're dense, lagged, and easy to misread. Here's how the system works, in plain English, and what the numbers do (and don't) mean.

Who has to disclose, and what

Under the STOCK Act of 2012, members of Congress and senior staff must publicly report any stock transaction over $1,000 within 30 to 45 days, in a Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) filed with the U.S. House Clerk or the Secretary of the Senate. Senior executive-branch officials — Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, and Senate-confirmed appointees — file the same kind of report on OGE Form 278-T, published by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Trades by a spouse or dependent children are included.

How to read a single disclosure

Every filing gives you five things:

• Who — the official (and whether it was their own, a spouse's, or a child's account).
• What — the company and ticker (or a fund/bond by name).
• Buy or sell — the type of transaction.
• How much — a dollar range, not an exact figure (see below).
• When — both the trade date and the disclosure date (they differ).

"Disclosed" is not "traded this week"

This is the single most common misreading. Because filings lag the trade by 30 to 45 days, a disclosure that shows up this week usually reflects a trade made weeks earlier. Reputable coverage always says a trade was disclosed in a given week, never executed that week.

Why amounts are ranges

The law only requires officials to report transaction values in broad bands — for example, "$1,001–$15,000" or "$500,001–$1,000,000." There are no exact dollar figures, so every amount you see is a disclosed range. When people cite a single big number, they're usually quoting the top of a range.

What a "potential conflict of interest" flag means

A conflict flag means the company traded sits in a sector that overlaps the official's role — a lawmaker trading a company in their committee's jurisdiction, or an agency head trading a company their agency regulates. It is a heuristic "potential overlap" worth noticing — not a finding of insider trading or wrongdoing. Disclosure is legal; the flag is context, not an accusation.

The limits of this data

• Amounts are ranges, not exact values.
• The lag means you're always looking at the recent past, not real time.
• Late filings happen; some officials disclose well past the deadline.
• A disclosure shows a transaction, not the official's reasoning or full portfolio.
• None of it is investment advice, and an overlap is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Where the data comes from

It's all public record: the U.S. House Clerk's financial disclosure portal, the U.S. Senate's electronic filing system, and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics for the executive branch. Anyone can read the raw filings; the work is in collecting, cleaning, and explaining them.

How The Potomac Ledger helps

We read every new House, Senate, and OGE filing each week, translate it into plain English, group it by official, and flag the potential conflicts — strictly nonpartisan, no trading jargon, no terminal required. Two free emails a week: Congress on Mondays, the executive branch on Tuesdays.