Senator Stock Trades: Who Trades, Who Files Late, and What They Buy

Check the claimThree claims about senators' trades

ClaimSenators trade on what they know, so their buys beat the market.Tap to checkMythCopied the day after disclosure, the typical Senate purchase trailed the S&P 500 by 0.7 points over six months, and 47% beat it.Flip backClaimMost senators file their trades late.Tap to checkMythExcluding one report from Alan Armstrong, only 3.9% of trades took more than 45 days.Flip backClaimA trade listed under a senator is the senator's own.Tap to checkMythOnly 47% are listed as the senator's. 30% are a spouse's and 20% joint.Flip back

Where this data comes from

Senators report trades on Periodic Transaction Reports filed with the Senate's Electronic Financial Disclosures system. Yield Theory parses every electronic report into its congressional-trades dataset, keeping the transaction date, filing date, owner, amount range and a link to the source report.

This analysis covers trades made from January 1, 2025 to September 11, 2026, from 218 reports filed by October 2, 2026. Some reports repeat trades already disclosed, usually as amendments. We count each trade once, on the first report that listed it, which removed 120 repeated rows. The disclosure guide explains each field if you're new to these forms.

From 218 reports to 2,003 trades

1. 218 eFD reports (Filed by Oct 2, 2026) to Parsed rows (Dates, owner, range, link)
2. Parsed rows (Dates, owner, range, link) to Repeats removed (120 amendment rows)
3. Repeats removed (120 amendment rows) to 2,003 trades (34 senators)

Which senators trade the most

The concentration is extreme. The top three senators made 71.5% of all trades and the top ten made 90%. Republicans filed 88% of the trades, while making up 22 of the 34 senators who traded at all. The most-active ranking covers the House and Senate together.

Several of the most active traders are mostly selling. Capito, Whitehouse, Moody and Tuberville each reported far more sales than purchases. That often reflects one-off portfolio changes rather than a market view, which is one reason a list of trades says less than it seems.

Armstrong mostly bought; four of the busiest traders mostly sold

Sheldon Whitehouse92%

Tommy Tuberville91%

Shelley Moore Capito80%

Ashley Moody72%

John Boozman47%

John Fetterman44%

Angus King39%

Dave McCormick29%

Richard Blumenthal27%

Alan Armstrong7%

Who files late

The rules give senators up to 45 days after a trade to disclose it, and generally 30 days after they're notified of it. Our STOCK Act explainer covers the deadlines and penalties.

One report drives the late figures. Armstrong was sworn in on March 24, 2026, after Governor Kevin Stitt appointed him to fill Markwayne Mullin's seat. His first transaction report, filed July 21, listed 703 trades made between March 24 and June 24, at 27 to 119 days after each trade. That report alone accounts for 701 of the 751 trades disclosed after 45 days.

Armstrong's first report landed 27 to 119 days after the trades

Armstrong's 703 trades27–119 days

Median Senate trade30 days

45-day limit45 days

04590120 days

The trades read like a former executive repositioning a large portfolio after taking office. They include a $5,000,001–$25,000,000 sale of shares in Williams Companies, the pipeline company he ran until 2025, and 316 purchases of foreign companies' ADRs, which are US-listed shares of overseas companies. The report doesn't say whether a late-filing fee was paid.

Outside that report, late filing is rare. Katie Britt filed 22 trades from 2025 in one January 2026 report, and Boozman filed 10 of his 335 trades after 45 days. Twelve senators have at least one trade disclosed after 45 days.

Take out one report and late filing almost disappears

All senatorsExcluding Armstrong

1020304050%0

49.0%22.0%

Disclosed after 30+ daysAll senators49.0%Excluding Armstrong22.0%

37.5%3.9%

Disclosed after 45+ daysAll senators37.5%Excluding Armstrong3.9%

Disclosed after 30+ daysDisclosed after 45+ days

What senators buy and sell

Counting how many trades a stock gets can mislead: Dave McCormick bought the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) 22 times, which makes it the "most-bought" ticker on its own. Counting how many senators bought or sold each stock is more useful.

Eli Lilly and Microsoft appear on both lists, so there was no Senate consensus on either one. What stands out is the chip theme on the buy side: NVIDIA, Micron and Applied Materials, the AI hardware chain. On the sell side it's mostly big, mature companies like JPMorgan, Apple, PepsiCo and Lowe's.

Senators bought the chip chain and sold mature giants

Buy-side themeAI hardware

• NVIDIA
• Micron
• Applied Materials

On both listsNo consensus

• Eli Lilly
• Microsoft

Sell-side themeBig, mature companies

• JPMorgan Chase
• Apple
• PepsiCo
• Lowe's

Not every trade is a stock. 47% of rows have no ticker: bonds, private companies, real estate partnerships and foreign shares. The largest disclosed transaction was Jim Justice's sale of Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, the West Virginia resort business, reported as over $50,000,000.

How big the trades are

Ranges hide a lot. Take McCormick's 22 Bitcoin ETF purchases: 12 reported at $15,001–$50,000 and 10 at $50,001–$100,000. The filings support a total anywhere from $680,022 (every trade at its minimum) to $1,600,000 (every trade at its maximum). Any tracker showing one exact figure picked it. Our range calculator does this math for any trade.

22 Bitcoin ETF buys: $680,022 or $1.6 million

Possible total$680,022–$1,600,000

Midpoints, an assumption$1,140,011

$0$500,000$1,000,000$1,500,000

Whose money is it?

Spot the red flag

A headline reads "Senator Capito sold." Which field on her filings changes that story?

A Shelley Moore Capito trade, as disclosed

Senator: Shelley Moore CapitoThe filer, which is why the row sits under her name.Type: saleAccurate, and Capito reported far more sales than purchases.Owner: spouseAll of Capito's disclosed trades were in a spouse's account.Amount: a value rangeA band, not a dollar figure, but it doesn't change whose trade it was.

Tap the line you think is the tell.

Spotted it.Not that line. The owner field. Capito's, King's and Blumenthal's trades were all in a spouse's account and Boozman's were all joint, so check this field before writing "Senator X bought."

Explain every lineHide the other explanations

Before you call a trade "Senator X bought," check this field. Capito's, King's and Blumenthal's disclosed trades were all in a spouse's account, and Boozman's were all joint. Fetterman's reports don't state an owner. Many senators also say an outside adviser makes the trading decisions, which the form doesn't show.

Did copying Senate trades work?

We ran the method from our study of 4,967 congressional purchases on Senate purchases alone: buy each stock the day after it's disclosed, then compare it with the S&P 500 over the same period.

Make a guess

If senators had a timing edge, the stocks they sold should lag the market. Over 90 days after disclosure, how did the stocks senators sold do against the S&P 500?

Tap your guess

Trailed by more than a pointYour guessWithin a point of itYour guessBeat it by more than a pointYour guess

−0123456789.0123456789 ptsStocks senators sold

Spot on.Close, a little low.Close, a little high.Way off, too low.Way off, too high. It was −2.5 pts.

They trailed by a median 2.5 points, and the buys trailed too. When both the buys and the sells lag the index, that's what most single stocks did in a market led by a few giants, not evidence of a timing edge.

Stocks senators sold−2.5 pts

Stocks senators bought−0.4 pts

Senate purchases came closer to the index than House purchases, but still didn't beat it. The one-year figure rests on a smaller and older sample, so give it less weight. The stocks senators sold also lagged the index, by a median of 2.5 points over 90 days. When both the buys and the sells trail the S&P 500, that's what you'd expect from most individual stocks in a market led by a few giants, not evidence of a timing edge.

Our read

Treat a Senate stock tracker as a record of a few people's portfolios, not a read on what the Senate knows. Three senators make most of the trades. Half of the trades are a spouse's or joint account. Two-thirds are under $15,000. And copied purchases haven't beaten the S&P 500.

What a tracker does well is show you where to look. A senator buying a chip stock is a name and a date. Whether that stock is worth owning depends on what the business earns and what's already in the price. That's research, and the filing can't do it for you.

Try it yourself

1. Open a senator's page, for example John Boozman's, and pick a recent purchase.
2. Note the transaction date, filing date, owner and range. Subtract the dates to get the disclosure lag.
3. Follow the link to the original eFD report and check that every field matches.
4. Look up the company on its stock page and write one sentence on why it could beat the S&P 500 from here.

Questions readers ask

Which senator trades the most stock?

In disclosures since January 2025, Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, with 707 trades, almost all from one report covering his first three months in office. Dave McCormick (390) and John Boozman (335) are next, and both file regularly.

How long do senators have to disclose a trade?

Generally 30 days from when they're notified of it and no later than 45 days after the trade. The median Senate trade in this data was disclosed after 30 days. Excluding one late report, 3.9% took longer than 45 days.

Is there a free senator stock tracker?

Yes. The politician-trades directory lists every senator with disclosed trades, and each row links to the official filing. The full congressional-trades dataset can be downloaded as CSV or JSON. Our tracker comparison covers the paid and free alternatives.

Should I copy senators' stock purchases?

The data says no. Bought the day after disclosure, the median Senate purchase trailed the S&P 500 over 90 days, 180 days and a year. The full copying study covers all of Congress.

Go deeper with member research

Senators have been buying the AI chip chain. These are our reports on the same companies:

• Issue 05: NVIDIA Is Building the Credit Market for AI: How NVIDIA's customers pay for GPUs, and where that financing could break.
• The HBM Capacity Trade: Micron's high-bandwidth memory thesis as the evidence stood on December 18, 2025, with timing and valuation kept separate.
• The fundamental research course: 40 chapters, from reading a 10-K to writing your own research memo. The first chapter is free.

Limits of this data

• The data covers electronically filed Senate Periodic Transaction Reports. Paper filings and annual reports are not included.
• Removing repeated trades relies on exact matches of senator, asset, date, type, range and owner. An amendment that changes a field is counted as a separate trade.
• Amount ranges mean trades can't be weighted by dollars.
• The performance figures use daily closes adjusted for splits and dividends. They exclude trading costs and taxes and cover only purchases of listed tickers.
• Late filings can still add trades to past months. Figures reflect reports available on October 2, 2026.