What does the STOCK Act require?

The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of Congress, senior executive-branch officials, federal judges, and their spouses and dependent children to publicly disclose securities transactions over $1,000 within 45 days, and confirms that insider trading prohibitions apply to information obtained through their official duties.

What assets does the STOCK Act not cover?

Mutual funds, ETFs, and Treasury bonds are not reportable in the same way as individual securities, and transactions of $1,000 or less are exempt. The law also does not require exact amounts — only wide dollar ranges — or any explanation of why a trade was made.

What is the penalty for violating the STOCK Act?

Late filing carries a $200 fee that the relevant ethics committee may waive. Insider trading itself remains subject to securities law, but prosecutions of members of Congress under the STOCK Act have been extremely rare.

The STOCK Act, explained: what it does and why it matters

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 forced US lawmakers to publicly disclose their stock trades. Here's what it requires, what it doesn't, and what's changed since.

2026-04-08 · 10 min read · By Insider Option

The STOCK Act — full name: the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 — is the single most important piece of legislation for anyone interested in following how the US political class invests in the stock market. It is short, it is consequential, and it is widely misunderstood. This post walks through what it actually does.

Before the STOCK Act

Contrary to popular belief, it was never explicitly legal for members of Congress to trade on non-public information. What was unclear before 2012 was whether the general prohibition on insider trading applied to Congress at all — because the information lawmakers receive through their official duties (committee briefings, unreleased bill drafts) is not exactly "non-public" in the traditional securities-law sense.

The STOCK Act resolved this ambiguity by doing two things: (1) explicitly extending insider-trading prohibitions to Congress and executive-branch officials, and (2) requiring public disclosure of trades so that the prohibition could actually be enforced.

The disclosure requirements in detail

Who must disclose

All members of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
The President and Vice President.
Senior executive-branch officials (roughly 28,000 people at the GS-15 and above level, though disclosure is publicly accessible mostly for the top tier).
Federal judges.
Spouses and dependent children of all the above (their trades are filed under the official's name).

What must be disclosed

Purchases, sales, and exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodity futures, and other securities.
Only transactions over $1,000 — smaller transactions are exempt.
Transactions by the official, their spouse, or their dependent children.

When it must be disclosed

Within 45 days of the transaction, or 30 days of becoming aware of it, whichever is later. This is the notorious "45-day lag" that retail investors complain about.

In what format

Via a Periodic Transaction Report (PTR), filed with the relevant ethics committee. The PTRs are published as PDFs on clerk.house.gov (for House members) and efdsearch.senate.gov (for Senate members).

What the filing actually reveals

The ticker or asset name.
Purchase, sale, or exchange.
Date of the trade.
Amount — but as a range, not an exact number. The ranges are: $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; $25,000,001–$50,000,000; over $50 million.

The prohibition (not just disclosure)

Section 4 of the STOCK Act explicitly states that members of Congress are not exempt from insider-trading laws and that information obtained in their official capacity can constitute material non-public information under Rule 10b-5.

In practice, prosecutions under this section have been extremely rare. Congressional Ethics Committee referrals happen but result mostly in fines, not criminal charges. The most prominent enforcement action — the indictment of Senator Richard Burr in 2020 over COVID-related trades — was ultimately not brought, and the investigation closed without charges.

What's changed since 2012

2013: The online disclosure rollback

The original STOCK Act required senior executive-branch officials to post their disclosures in a searchable online format. In 2013, Congress quietly passed a bill — with no floor debate in either chamber — repealing that requirement for most executive-branch staff. Disclosure for Congress itself was not affected.

Periodic calls for full bans

Several bills have been introduced that would go beyond disclosure and actually ban individual stock trading by members of Congress. As of this writing, none have passed. Bills have been introduced by members of both parties, but the political economy of passing such a bill has so far proven fatal to each attempt.

Late filings and fines

Dozens of members of Congress have been caught filing their PTRs late. The fine is $200 per late filing, waivable by the relevant ethics committee. Critics argue that $200 is not a meaningful deterrent when individual trades are often in six or seven figures.

What the STOCK Act does NOT require

It does not require disclosure of the reason for a trade.
It does not require disclosure of exact amounts — only the range.
It does not cover mutual funds, ETFs, or Treasury bonds. (Pelosi's stock trades are disclosed; her mutual-fund holdings are not.)
It does not require real-time disclosure — only within 45 days.
It does not apply to former members of Congress or their children who have aged out of dependency.

Why this matters for retail investors

The STOCK Act created, probably unintentionally, the largest public dataset of politically-connected stock trades in any modern democracy. Whether or not you believe Congress has informational edge, the data exists and is usable. Platforms like Insider Option exist to make it usable at retail scale.

Frequently asked questions

What does the STOCK Act require?: The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of Congress, senior executive-branch officials, federal judges, and their spouses and dependent children to publicly disclose securities transactions over $1,000 within 45 days, and confirms that insider trading prohibitions apply to information obtained through their official duties.
What assets does the STOCK Act not cover?: Mutual funds, ETFs, and Treasury bonds are not reportable in the same way as individual securities, and transactions of $1,000 or less are exempt. The law also does not require exact amounts — only wide dollar ranges — or any explanation of why a trade was made.
What is the penalty for violating the STOCK Act?: Late filing carries a $200 fee that the relevant ethics committee may waive. Insider trading itself remains subject to securities law, but prosecutions of members of Congress under the STOCK Act have been extremely rare.

Keep reading

How to read a Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) — A field-by-field walkthrough of the disclosure form members of Congress use to report stock trades — including the amount ranges, the asset codes, and the five traps that produce wrong conclusions.
What is Congress stock trading, and why does it matter? — Members of the US Congress legally buy and sell stocks — and publicly disclose every trade. Here's how it works, why it's controversial, and what retail investors can do with the data.
How to track Congress stock trades (5 methods, from free to instant) — A practical walkthrough of every way to follow Congressional stock trades — the official House and Senate portals, bulk data, RSS, ETFs, and trackers — with the trade-offs of each.