Data & Statistics · Updated Continuously

Congressional Stock Trading Statistics 2024–2026

GovGreed Research · Investigation
The $200 Fine — the working paper behind these numbers: how STOCK Act compliance actually works, and why disclosure beats enforcement. Read it →
Last updated: February 23, 2026 Source: Official Federal APIs (Congress.gov, SEC EDGAR, FEC, Senate LDA) Registered API Partner

Authoritative statistics on congressional stock trading patterns, insider signal detection, bill investability scoring, and executive pre-vote buy activity. All data received through GovGreed's official registered API partnerships with five U.S. federal government disclosure systems.

189K+
Congressional Trades Tracked
2012–2026
538
Members of Congress Monitored
House + Senate
752
Active Triple Signals
119th Congress
5.4×
Signal-to-Pass Rate Uplift
Validated ML
42K+
Bills Scored
117th–119th Congress
253
High-Investability Bills
Score ≥70
22K+
Exec Pre-Vote Trades
SEC Form 4
4,995
Lobbying Filings
Senate LDA 2020–2025

How Many Members of Congress Trade Stocks?

Under the STOCK Act (2012), every member of Congress must disclose stock trades within 45 days. GovGreed tracks 538 politicians across both chambers and has collected 189,595 historical trades from 2012 through 2026 across 336 unique politicians. Not all members trade — a significant minority file disclosures, but those who do often trade heavily and repeatedly in sectors their committees regulate.

45-Day Lag: The STOCK Act allows 45 days for disclosure. This means congressional trading data is inherently retrospective — trades appear in the database 2–6 weeks after execution. The signal value is in the pattern, not real-time detection.

Trade Volume by Congress Session

Congressional Trade Volume by Congress Session (2019–2026)
CongressYearsBills AnalyzedTriple SignalsEnacted Rate (High-Signal)
119th Congress2025–20265,000+752 activeN/A (in session)
118th Congress2023–202419,315Historical9.1% (validated)
117th Congress2021–202217,828HistoricalBaseline 1.7%
Source: Congress.gov API (Official registered API partnership) · GovGreed collection pipeline

What Are Triple Signal Statistics?

The Triple Signal is GovGreed's proprietary cross-dataset computation. It requires simultaneous matching across three independent federal disclosure systems: STOCK Act (congressional trades), Committee Assignment data, and FEC campaign contribution records.

What Makes a Triple Signal

Triple Signal Components: Data Sources, Coverage, and Scoring Weights
Signal ComponentData SourceCoverageWeight in Score
Committee OversightCongress.gov committee assignments3,908 assignments tracked1.0× (qualifier)
Stock Trade FiledSTOCK Act disclosures189,595 trades (2012–)1.0× (qualifier)
Campaign ContributionFEC Open API (registered)22,900 contributions1.0× (qualifier)
Triple Overlap ScoreGovGreed cross-reference engine752 active signalsMultiplied signal strength

Triple Signal Pass Rate Validation

GovGreed validated its Triple Signal methodology on held-out historical data from the 117th and 118th Congress (37,143 bills, 667 enacted) — not included in the training set.

Triple Signal Bill Pass Rate Validation by Signal Tier
Signal TierBill CountEnactedEnacted Ratevs Baseline
High Investability (≥70)253~239.1%5.4× higher
Medium Investability (40–69)~4,000~681.7%Baseline
Low Investability (<40)~38,000~5761.5%Below baseline
Validation methodology: trained on all available signal data, validated on 117th+118th Congress bill outcomes. High-investability bills must score ≥70 and pass procedural resolution filter.

How Do Corporate Executives Trade Before Congressional Votes?

Under SEC Section 16(b) and Rule 16a-3, corporate officers and directors must file Form 4 within 2 business days of a transaction. GovGreed ingests these filings via the official SEC EDGAR API and maps transactions to pending legislation through a company-sector-bill exposure graph.

Executive Pre-Vote Buy Statistics from SEC Form 4 Filings
StatValueSource
Total exec trades tracked22,731SEC EDGAR Form 4 (2015–2026)
Trades "ahead of vote" (<90 days)2,763GovGreed timing classification
Trades "ahead of action"25,766GovGreed timing classification
Officer-level buysClassified in timing scoreSEC Form 4 title field
Disclosure window2 business daysSEC Rule 16a-3

How Do Lobbying and Campaign Contributions Influence Trading?

GovGreed collects lobbying data from the Senate LDA (Lobbying Disclosure Act) API — an official Senate API endpoint — and campaign contribution data from the FEC Open API (Federal Election Commission, registered developer access).

Lobbying and Campaign Contribution Dataset Coverage
DatasetRecordsCoverageSource
Lobbying Filings4,9952020–2025, all quartersSenate LDA API (Official)
Ticker-Matched Filings46Matched to market tickersGovGreed enrichment
Campaign Contributions22,900458/538 politiciansFEC Open API (Registered)
Government Contracts2669 sectors, 2022–2026USASpending.gov (Official)

Frequently Asked Questions

How many members of Congress trade stocks?
GovGreed tracks 538 members of Congress. The historical database contains 189,595 trades from 2012–2026 across 336 unique politicians — roughly 62% of all members have filed at least one STOCK Act disclosure in the past 14 years. Active traders (filing 10+ trades/year) are a smaller subset concentrated in senior committee members.
What is a Triple Signal in congressional trading?
A Triple Signal fires when three independent corruption indicators overlap on the same bill: (1) a politician sits on the committee with oversight jurisdiction, (2) that politician has filed a STOCK Act trade in a company directly affected by the bill, and (3) that politician received campaign contributions from the same industry the bill regulates. GovGreed currently tracks 752 active Triple Signals in the 119th Congress (2025–2026).
Do bills with congressional insider signals pass at a higher rate?
Yes. GovGreed's ML validation on held-out congressional data (117th and 118th Congress) found that bills scoring ≥70 on the investability scale are enacted at 9.1% vs 1.7% for medium-tier bills — 5.4 times more likely to pass. The model was trained on 42,143 bills using 25 features including insider trade density, committee markup activity, and executive pre-vote buy counts.
How long do members of Congress have to report stock trades?
Under the STOCK Act (2012), members must disclose within 45 days. This means congressional trading data is inherently lagged — not useful for real-time trading, but highly valuable for pattern analysis, sector positioning, and identifying which bills have the most insider motivation to pass.
What sectors do members of Congress trade most?
Based on GovGreed's analysis of 189,595+ congressional trades from 2012–2026, the most traded sectors are technology, defense/aerospace, healthcare/pharma, financial services, and energy. Technology and defense see the highest triple signal rates due to heavy committee overlap with the House Armed Services and Senate Commerce committees.
Is this data from official government sources?
Yes. GovGreed holds registered API partnerships with five U.S. federal disclosure systems: Congress.gov (Library of Congress), FEC Open API (Federal Election Commission), SEC EDGAR (Securities and Exchange Commission), Senate LDA API (U.S. Senate), and USASpending.gov (U.S. Treasury). All data flows through official API channels.

How Can I Access the Raw Data?

Use the GovGreed API to pull these statistics and live signals directly into your trading system or AI model.

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