What is the STOCK Act, and how does the 45-day disclosure rule work?
By Daniel, The Philosopher Investor · updated September 18, 2026
The STOCK Act, passed in 2012, confirms that insider trading laws apply to members of Congress and requires them to report any securities trade over $1,000 within 30 days of learning of it and no later than 45 days after the trade. Filings are public. The penalty for a late filing is $200, which is why late filings are common.
On the tape, 2026-09-18
The latest House stock disclosures on file run to 2026-09-18: 40 filings from 28 members covering 404 trades. Over the last three months the name bought by the most members is NVDA, reported by 4 members for at least $4K combined. Amounts are the ranges members file, and a filing can lag the trade by up to 45 days, so this is a record of positioning, never a live signal.
What did the law change?
Before 2012, members disclosed their holdings once a year in an annual report, with trades buried inside it and often a year old. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed in April 2012 after a wave of press coverage, added periodic transaction reports: a filing for each trade, on a deadline measured in weeks rather than a year.
It also stated plainly that members and their staff owe a duty not to trade on non-public information learned through their work. That duty was arguably already there under general securities law. Writing it down closed the argument.
How does the 45-day rule work in practice?
The clock has two parts. A member must file within 30 days of becoming aware of a trade, and in any case within 45 days of the trade date. For a trade the member placed personally, awareness is immediate and the practical deadline is 30 days. For a trade in a managed account, the adviser may notify the member later, and the 45-day outer limit is what binds.
Filings arrive in a cluster near the deadline. A trade made on the first of the month typically becomes public in the middle of the following month. The gap between transaction date and disclosure date on any filing tells you how much time the member used.
What happens when a member files late?
The statutory penalty is $200 per late filing, waivable by the ethics committee. For a member trading in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that is a rounding error, and the record shows it: late filings number in the hundreds each Congress, some of them months late, a few of them years. Enforcement beyond the fine has been rare.
This matters for reading the data. A tracker that shows a cluster of buys disclosed this week may be showing trades that happened two months ago. Always read the transaction date, never the disclosure date, when you ask what a member knew and when.
What does a filing not tell you?
The exact amount, because trades are reported in brackets. The reason, because none is required. Whether the member made the decision, unless the account is marked as managed. And the position size that results, because periodic reports show trades, and holdings appear only in the annual report.
It also says nothing about options, futures or crypto in most cases, because the reporting categories were written for stocks and funds. Some members report them, in inconsistent formats. Treat non-stock trades in the data as partial.
Has the law worked?
On transparency, yes. Every trade is public within weeks, trackers read them daily, and press coverage of individual members' trading is routine. On deterrence, the evidence is mixed. Trading volume by members did not fall after 2012, and several academic studies since have found that members' stock picks continue to outperform, especially in industries their committees oversee.
That gap between disclosure and deterrence is why proposals to ban trading outright have gained support in both parties. Until one passes, the data the STOCK Act created is the tool, and the 45-day lag is its main limit.
Common questions
- Does the STOCK Act apply to Congressional staff?
- Yes, to senior staff above a pay threshold, and to certain executive branch officials. Their filings follow the same rules and appear in the same systems, though most trackers focus on members because the volume and the public interest are there.
- Are spouse and children's trades covered?
- Yes. Trades by a spouse or a dependent child are reported on the member's filing with an owner field showing whose they are. Spouse trades are a large share of the data, and some of the most-discussed trading records belong to spouses rather than the member.
- What is the threshold for reporting a trade?
- Any purchase, sale or exchange of a security over $1,000. Trades in broad mutual funds and Treasuries are exempt. The lowest bracket a trade can be reported in is $1,001 to $15,000, so a $1,200 trade and a $14,000 trade look the same on the filing.
- Where can I read the filings myself?
- House filings are on the Clerk of the House financial disclosure site, searchable by member name and year. Senate filings are on the Secretary of the Senate's electronic financial disclosure system. Both are free. Trackers, including the free page here, read the House filings daily and group them by name.
- How is the 45-day deadline counted?
- From the trade date, with a second clock that starts when the member learns of the transaction. The rule asks for a filing within thirty days of learning and no later than forty five days after the trade itself. The later of the two is the outside limit.
- Why was the STOCK Act passed in the first place?
- Because the law on insider trading was widely read as not reaching Congress, and a television report on that gap drew enough attention to force a vote. The act made the duty explicit and added the disclosure deadline that produces the public record we read today.
- Is the late filing fine actually collected?
- Sometimes, and it can be waived. Two hundred dollars is small next to the trades being reported, which is the usual explanation for why late filings keep happening.
- Does the STOCK Act stop members from owning individual stocks?
- No. It requires disclosure and confirms that insider trading law applies to them. Several bills to ban ownership outright have been introduced since, and none has become law.
- What happens if a member trades on something learned in a hearing?
- That is the case the act was written for. Information learned through official duties counts as material non-public information, and trading on it can be prosecuted like any other insider trading. Proving what a member knew and when is the hard part, which is why cases are rare.
- How does this compare with what company insiders must file?
- Company officers and directors file a Form 4 within two business days of a trade, with exact share counts and prices. Members of Congress get up to forty five days and report a bracket instead of a number. The corporate rule produces a faster and more precise record.
More questions
Primary sources
- STOCK Act, H.R. 1148 of the 112th Congress · www.congress.gov
- House Clerk, financial disclosure filings · disclosures-clerk.house.gov
- Senate electronic financial disclosures · efdsearch.senate.gov
- SEC, insider trading enforcement · www.sec.gov