Congressional Net Buying of S&P 500 Stocks (30-Day, Range Midpoint)

## What this measures

The net dollar value of S&P 500 common stock purchased minus sold by members of the U.S. House and Senate, their spouses and dependent children, in transactions disclosed over the trailing 30 days. Each transaction counts at the midpoint of the amount range it was filed in (range midpoint), because the law requires ranges, not amounts. Daily, from 2020.

## Why it matters

Congressional trading is watched closely by the public and the press. The aggregate says whether members' reported activity in S&P 500 stocks leaned toward buying or selling, without singling out anyone.

## How to read it

Above zero: more bought than sold in the reports disclosed over the last 30 days; below zero: more sold. Values are estimates from filed ranges; a single large-range trade can dominate a quiet month, so compare with the count of transactions (in each observation's metadata) and read the trend, not a single day.

## What it does not say

Ranges, not amounts: a $1,001–$15,000 trade counts as $8,000.50 whatever its real size, and open-ended ranges count at their floor. Disclosure lag: the STOCK Act allows up to 45 days, so the series is dated by disclosure and describes trades made weeks earlier. Common stock of current S&P 500 members only; options, funds and bonds are excluded, and companies that left the index are not counted (survivorship). Scanned paper filings are included only after verification. Every member of both chambers and every party counts the same way; nothing is weighted by who traded. It is not a trading signal and says nothing about any member's motives.

## Source

Periodic transaction reports filed with the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives (disclosures-clerk.house.gov) and the Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records (efdsearch.senate.gov), parsed by Palanor; only verified transactions count (see palanor.com/congress-trades#methodology). U.S. Government works. Use is governed by the Ethics in Government Act, 5 U.S.C. §13107(c), which bars commercial use other than by news and communications media for dissemination to the general public; Palanor publishes these aggregates under that news-media exception, free and public. Member data: congress-legislators (CC0).

## Revision — 2026-09-26

Universe updated to current S&P 500 constituents (8 out, 3 in). Out: Builders FirstSource, Molson Coors and The Trade Desk, which left the index on 21 September 2026; Electronic Arts, which was taken private and left on 5 August 2026; and MongoDB, Cloudflare, Snowflake and Zoom, which were never members and had been included in error since May 2026. In: Bloom Energy, Everpure and Illumina, which joined on 21 September 2026. Membership now comes from a dated constituent list refreshed monthly. The corrected list applies from 26 September 2026. Readings before that date are unchanged.