How delayed is congressional stock trade data?

Q: How delayed is congressional stock trade data?

By law, up to 45 days. A member has 30 days from learning of a trade to report it, and no more than 45 days from the transaction itself. Late filings push it further. Every congressional trade tracker works from the same filings, so none of them can be fresher than the law allows.

Q: Which filings are faster?

Corporate insider Form 4 filings are due within two business days of the trade, which is why insider buying and selling appears almost as it happens. Institutional 13F holdings are the slowest, due 45 days after the end of each quarter and showing only a snapshot of positions, not individual trades.

Last checked 28 August 2026

By law, up to 45 days. A member has 30 days from learning of a trade to report it, and no more than 45 days from the transaction itself. Late filings push it further. Every congressional trade tracker works from the same filings, so none of them can be fresher than the law allows.

Why can no app be faster?

Because the delay is in the filing, not the pipeline. The document does not exist until the member files it. An app can be fast at noticing a new filing — Tracked Money publishes within minutes of release — but nobody can publish a trade before it has been disclosed.

Does that make the data useless?

No, but it changes what it is good for. A 45-day-old transaction is not a timing signal. It is useful for the pattern it reveals: what a filer accumulates over time, which sectors they concentrate in, and whether their committee work overlaps with their holdings.

Which filings are faster?

Corporate insider Form 4 filings are due within two business days of the trade, which is why insider buying and selling appears almost as it happens. Institutional 13F holdings are the slowest, due 45 days after the end of each quarter and showing only a snapshot of positions, not individual trades.

How should the lag change what you do with it?

Treat a congressional filing as evidence about a filer, not as a trade idea with a clock on it. If a signal is only valuable if you act today, a document that is six weeks old cannot supply it.

How Tracked Money uses this

Tracked Money reads these filings and tells you when one lands — congressional PTRs, insider Form 4s, 13F changes, dark-pool prints and federal contract awards. Every figure links back to the document it came from. Tracked Money has not shipped on the App Store yet.

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Sources

Tracked Money tracks public STOCK Act and 13F disclosures. This page explains public rules and is not legal or investment advice. Regulatory details were verified on 28 August 2026 and can change.