Capitol Trades: Tracking Stock Market Transactions of Politicians

The data is not new as a number of other systems cover this but I am happy for it to get more press.<p>There are a couple things on my top dislikes of US politics and not having more restrictions on politicians is up near the top.<p>I have to follow much more stringent disclosures and controls as part of a large private entity that does investment. It’s absurd that folks making policy, who have a potentially closer ear to the ground are not more restricted.<p>The 30 days self reporting disclosure period is a joke too. It’s after the fact, has no real penalty for being late and AFAIK they don’t maintain any real restriction lists so it has no impact.

Looks like the post title got the wrong “capital”, the name is Capitol (ie, the Capitol Building, where congresspeople work)

This looks like any other blog spam website pushing newsletters and clickbait. Why is it being upvoted here? Are people upvoting out of anger at politicians trading stocks without looking at the website first?

Congressional (or executive branch.....) stock trading is completely unacceptable and should be totally banned. Full stop.<p>With that being said- the idea that they&#x27;re outperforming the market I think has been debunked several times. I&#x27;m sure that they&#x27;re acting in bad faith and <i>believe</i> that they have some kind of precious inside information. But a few different studies have shown that they basically do the same as any group of a few hundred people that pick individual stocks- some outperform, some underperform, and in general their returns are a random walk. See<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;studenttheses.uu.nl&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;handle&#x2F;20.500.12932&#x2F;47365&#x2F;Lis_7882866.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;studenttheses.uu.nl&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;handle&#x2F;20.500.12932&#x2F;47...</a> &quot;no significant abnormal returns&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=4954641" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=4954641</a> &quot;significantly underperform&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;andy.egge.rs&#x2F;papers&#x2F;EggMueller_capitol_losses_jop_2013.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;andy.egge.rs&#x2F;papers&#x2F;EggMueller_capitol_losses_jop_20...</a> &quot;between 2004 and 2008 the average member of Congress would have earned higher returns in a passive index fund&quot;<p>Stick to index funds folks

Public officials should not own stocks full stop.

The page lists trades from two days ago but doesn&#x27;t explain how they get their information. Do some congressmen report immediately?

I&#x27;m a bit uneducated in the ways of shorting options. Is this topical because Mr. President induced a massive stock market meltdown in the US and his friends could have made a fortune for knowing the details and shorted the most likely biggest loss-makers?<p>Or is that not how the markets work?

Richard Burr may have been convinced to not seek reelection to avoid prosecution.<p>“a 2012 law, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, bars members of Congress and their aides from making investment decisions based on inside information they have access to as part of their Senate work, including both criminal and civil penalties for violations. Legal experts say that determining what information is “nonpublic” can be exceedingly difficult; no one has been successfully prosecuted under the law.”<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;feds-wont-charge-sen-richard-burr-with-insider-trading-01611104898#" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;feds-wont-charge-sen-richa...</a>

Personally I think Congress should be obligated to invest in US small cap funds only. Perhaps they could also design state versions and you can invest in some mix between US small cap and state based funds.

I&#x27;ll save everyone hours of headache. The only politician&#x27;s disclosures that are worth anything are Pelosi&#x27;s. And by Pelosi, it is actually her husband that trades but that she has to disclose those trades as a politician. You can also copy Pelosi&#x27;s trades exactly if you are into speculation and you can experience first hand how many of his trades end up -30% or more, but over the course of the year they have a chance of gaining. They gain not so much because there is any meaningful insider information, but because he holds the position for 1 year and we are still in a bull market (even as of tonight).<p>I think it&#x27;s amusing that folks think that politicians have any sort of capability to be able to consistently beat the S&amp;P 500.

I may have missed it, but how &quot;real-time&quot; are these trades? For those trades that appear to be in the last few days, how is it being tracked?

Another great source for trades made by US politicians is <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stockcircle.com&#x2F;congress-stock-trades" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stockcircle.com&#x2F;congress-stock-trades</a>. You can see their whole portfolio and also follow other investors like Warren Buffett to see what they are investing in.

How recent is the data? I want to know what cyber security companies are signing contracts as soon as possible after those congressional committees meet.<p>I have no doubt some moves were made before those tariffs, but it seemed it was telegraphed to everyone.

Politically this is useful, but if you want to use it for trading this is, unfortunately, useless, as they have 90 days before they have to report a trade. IIRC.<p>Also, if you look at congresspeople&#x27;s gains, on average, they are not that great.

Any historical analysis pointing at following politicians in general or any specific politicians is a good investment?<p>Does anyone supply US-POL Dem &#x2F; Rep as an index tracked ETFs?

NANC and KRUZ are ETFs that track your favorite politicians stock transactions and replicate in ETF form.<p>This has been a long standing form of “investing”.<p>See Pelosi’s husband for his track record of “success”.

I am happy that this kind of tracking project exists.<p>The current tariffs policy of Trump&#x27;s regime could even be a market manipulation for their personal enrichnent: send the stock markets crashing with a very dumb financial decision, buy a lot of stocks when they are low, and right after cancel the dumb decision, and then profit.<p>They have nuked the SEC for a reason, haven&#x27;t they?

Let me know which politicians buy VT, I&#x27;ll copy that.

there was a tool like this for tracking c-suiters and the trades of theirs that relate to their own companies, anyone got a link?

I don&#x27;t want to track them, I want to mirror them.

How up to date is this? Months via disclosure?

Is there a CRYPTO equivalent of this?