Python function: getPoliticianTradesData()

Specification	Value
Delivery Frequency	continuous
Data Frequency	event-driven
Reporting Lag	< 5 min from filing publication; politician filing delay typically 8–45 days after trade
Coverage	520+ politicians (Senate + House), 4,700+ tickers, STOCK Act disclosures
History	Since 2014-01-02
Availability	Free

Product Overview

Overview

Congressional Trading Activity provides structured, near real-time data on securities transactions disclosed by U.S. Senators and House Representatives, as mandated by the STOCK Act of 2012. The dataset unifies filings from two separate government disclosure systems into a single queryable feed. The dataset contains 68,000+ transactions from 520+ politicians across 4,700+ tickers, with history back to January 2014.

Data Pipeline & Latency

Scalar Field ingests congressional disclosures through two independent, continuously running pipelines:

Senate (EFD): Polls the Electronic Financial Disclosures system at efdsearch.senate.gov every 60 seconds, fetching Periodic Transaction Reports (PTRs). Each new report is parsed into structured transaction rows.
House (Clerk): Polls the House Clerk’s Financial Disclosure portal at disclosures-clerk.house.gov every 5 minutes. PTR PDFs are downloaded and parsed into structured rows. Yearly index archives are also processed for historical coverage.

New filings appear in the database within minutes of publication on the government portals.

Politician Filing Delay (transaction date → disclosure filing, last 12 months, Senate)

How long after the actual trade do politicians file their disclosure:

Delay	% of filings
1–7 days	4%
8–30 days	63%
31–45 days	15%
> 45 days	18%

The STOCK Act requires filing within 30 days of the transaction (Senate) or 45 days (House). In practice, ~67% of Senate filings arrive within 30 days, while ~18% exceed the 45-day window.

Timestamp Semantics: `ts_recv` vs `filed_date` vs `transaction_date`

Timestamp	Meaning	Use Case
`ts_recv`	When Scalar Field’s pipeline first ingested the record (New York time). This is the point-in-time timestamp.	Point-in-time backtesting. Use this as your event timestamp to avoid look-ahead bias.
`filed_date`	When the disclosure was filed/received by the government portal (New York time).	Regulatory analysis. Measures compliance with STOCK Act filing deadlines.
`transaction_date`	The actual date the politician executed the trade.	Event studies. The true economic event date — but only known after the filing lands.

Coverage

Senate: ~75 unique senators with PTR filings, ~1,400 unique tickers, ~16K transactions.
House: ~325 unique representatives with PTR filings, ~3,600 unique tickers, ~53K transactions.
Combined: 520+ politicians, 4,700+ tickers, 68,000+ transactions.
Asset types: Stocks, stock options, municipal securities, corporate bonds, government securities, commodities/futures, cryptocurrency, and more.
Transaction filter: Paper/scanned filings are automatically excluded from the unified feed.
History: January 2014 to present, with continuous updates.

Annual Volume (Senate + House combined)

Year	Transactions
2014	2,213
2015	4,818
2016	4,706
2017	4,775
2018	5,475
2019	6,707
2020	8,721
2021	6,638
2022	4,545
2023	5,381
2024	3,654
2025	8,639

Transaction Split

Across the full dataset: 51% Purchase / 48% Sale / 1% Exchange.

Asset Type Breakdown (Senate)

Asset Type	Count
Stock	11,217
Municipal Security	1,055
Other	908
Stock Option	545
Corporate Bond	438
Commodities/Futures	146
Non-Public Stock	122
Cryptocurrency	7

Asset Type Breakdown (House)

Code	Asset Type	Count
ST	Stock	34,491
GS	Government Securities	2,386
CS	Corporate Bond	1,261
OT	Other	996
OP	Stock Option	721
HN	Hedge Fund/Private Equity	165
PS	Non-Public Stock	146
VA	Variable Annuity	61
OI	Ownership Interest (Holding)	60
AB	Asset-Backed Securities	57

Querying the Data

Basic Usage

from scalarlib import getPoliticianTradesData

# All congressional trades in 2024
df = getPoliticianTradesData(start='2024-01-01', end='2024-12-31')

# Filter by ticker
df = getPoliticianTradesData(tickers=['AAPL', 'MSFT'], start='2024-01-01', end='2024-12-31')

# Filter by politician name
df = getPoliticianTradesData(start='2024-01-01', end='2024-12-31', politician_name='pelosi')

# Filter by transaction date instead of filed date
df = getPoliticianTradesData(start='2024-01-01', end='2024-12-31', date_column='transaction_date')

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`tickers`	str, list, or None	No	Stock ticker(s). `None` returns all tickers.
`start`	str	Yes	Start date (`YYYY-MM-DD` or `YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS`).
`end`	str	Yes	End date (same format; date-only is inclusive).
`politician_name`	str	No	Politician name.
`date_column`	str	No	`'filed_date'` (default) or `'transaction_date'`.

Column Definitions

Congressional Trades Schema

Column	Type	Description
`ts_recv`	datetime	Point-in-time timestamp: when Scalar Field ingested the record (New York time).
`filed_date`	datetime	When the disclosure was filed with the government portal (New York time).
`full_name`	string	Politician’s name (format: `Last, First`).
`filer_type`	string	Role: `Senator`, `Representative`, `Former Representative`.
`chamber`	string	`Senate` or `House`.
`side`	string	Transaction direction: `Purchase`, `Sale (Full)`, `Sale (Partial)`, `Exchange`.
`ticker`	string	Ticker symbol of the security (may be null for non-equity assets).
`asset_name`	string	Full name/description of the asset.
`asset_type`	string	Security type: `Stock`, `Stock Option`, `Corporate Bond`, `Municipal Security`, `Government Securities`, `Cryptocurrency`, etc.
`owner`	string	Ownership: `Self`, `Spouse`, `Joint`, `Dependent Child`.
`transaction_date`	date	Calendar date the trade was executed.
`transaction_value_lower_range`	float	Lower bound of the reported transaction amount range (USD).
`transaction_value_upper_range`	float	Upper bound of the reported transaction amount range (USD).
`description`	string	Additional detail (e.g., option strike/expiry, bond coupon).
`uid_link`	string	Link to the original filing on the government portal.

Amount Ranges

Congressional disclosures report transaction values in ranges rather than exact amounts:

Range
$1,001 –$ 15,000
$15,001 –$ 50,000
$50,001 –$ 100,000
$100,001 –$ 250,000
$250,001 –$ 500,000
$500,001 –$ 1,000,000
$1,000,001 –$ 5,000,000
$5,000,001 –$ 25,000,000
$25,000,001 –$ 50,000,000
Over $50,000,000

Getting Started

Trading

Trading Venues

Market Data

Usage & Pricing

Congressional Trading Activity

Product Overview

Overview

Data Pipeline & Latency

Politician Filing Delay (transaction date → disclosure filing, last 12 months, Senate)

Timestamp Semantics: `ts_recv` vs `filed_date` vs `transaction_date`

Coverage

Annual Volume (Senate + House combined)

Transaction Split

Asset Type Breakdown (Senate)

Asset Type Breakdown (House)

Querying the Data

Basic Usage

Parameters

Column Definitions

Congressional Trades Schema

Amount Ranges

​Product Overview

​Overview

​Data Pipeline & Latency

​Politician Filing Delay (transaction date → disclosure filing, last 12 months, Senate)

​Timestamp Semantics: ts_recv vs filed_date vs transaction_date

​Coverage

​Annual Volume (Senate + House combined)

​Transaction Split

​Asset Type Breakdown (Senate)

​Asset Type Breakdown (House)

​Querying the Data

​Basic Usage

​Parameters

​Column Definitions

​Congressional Trades Schema

​Amount Ranges

Product Overview

Overview

Data Pipeline & Latency

Politician Filing Delay (transaction date → disclosure filing, last 12 months, Senate)

Timestamp Semantics: `ts_recv` vs `filed_date` vs `transaction_date`

Coverage

Annual Volume (Senate + House combined)

Transaction Split

Asset Type Breakdown (Senate)

Asset Type Breakdown (House)

Querying the Data

Basic Usage

Parameters

Column Definitions

Congressional Trades Schema

Amount Ranges