What do the dollar ranges on a Congress trade report mean?

What are the categories?

The House Ethics Committee's periodic transaction report form and instructions set out the categories a filer ticks for the amount of a transaction:

The instructions say to report the category of value of the total purchase price or total sale price, or the fair market value in the case of an exchange. A separate column on the form, "Transaction in a Spouse or Dependent Child Asset over $1,000,000", exists for assets owned by the spouse or dependent child in which the member has no interest (see spouse and dependent child trades).

Is the range about profit?

No. The instructions say the gross amount of a transaction, not the gain or loss, determines the category, and that the threshold for reporting is reached when the gross amount of a single purchase or sale exceeds $1,000, including transactions that result in a net loss. The form's own example: a sale of a $5,000 asset previously bought for $7,000 must be disclosed even though it produced a $2,000 loss. So a range tells you the size of the trade, never how well it worked out.

What does a range hide?

A trade reported as $1,001-$15,000 could be $1,001 or $15,000. The next category starts at $15,001, so the ranges are wide at the top: the range from $1,000,001 to $5,000,000 spans a factor of five, and the last category has no upper bound. That has three consequences:

• Adding up ranges does not produce a total. A sum of lower bounds and a sum of upper bounds can differ by a large multiple.
• A midpoint is a convenience, not a fact. Any figure shown as a single number for a range is an estimate someone chose.
• Two trades in the same category may differ in size by an order of magnitude.

For that reason OQRO keeps official ranges as ranges and does not show an invented single figure.

How does a report treat partial sales?

The form has a "Partial Sale" box for when only a portion of an asset is sold, for example half of the shares in a company. The range then refers to the amount sold, not to the whole holding.

When is the amount known?

The instructions give a filer until the earlier of 30 days from being made aware of the transaction or 45 days from the transaction, and the report is certified by the member's signature as true, complete and correct to the best of the member's knowledge and belief. A $200 penalty is assessed on anyone who files more than 30 days late. The range reflects the filer's own category choice at that time.

Is the same scale used in the Senate?

We read the House form. The STOCK Act applies to both chambers, but we could not open the Senate's own form by script, so this article states the ten categories only for the House. Check the Senate's form before comparing the two. How each chamber publishes is covered in how the House and Senate publish disclosures.

What does a range look like when you add trades together?

A small illustration shows the problem. Suppose four reports for the same member, each a purchase: three in the $1,001-$15,000 category and one in the $15,001-$50,000 category. The smallest the four could add up to is $18,004 (three times $1,001 plus $15,001). The largest is $95,000 (three times $15,000 plus $50,000). The two ends are more than five times apart, and the filings do not narrow it further. That is why a total built from ranges is a wide band, not a figure.

The lowest category starts at $1,001 because the reporting threshold is a transaction that exceeds $1,000, so smaller transactions are not reported at all. A report that is absent is therefore not proof that no trade occurred; it can mean the trade was under the threshold or excluded by the instructions.

What else is on the form next to the amount?

The House instructions list the other entries that go with the amount: the full name of the asset (a ticker symbol alone is not permitted), the type of transaction (purchase, sale or exchange), the transaction date and the date the filer was notified of it, and a box for shares allocated in an initial public offering. The amount is one column of several, and the two dates matter as much as the range when you read how late a report was. The instructions also say a brokerage statement may not be sent in place of completing the form.

What this does not tell you

A range does not say how many shares were traded, at what price, or what the member earned. It does not say why the trade happened, who decided it, or whether the member knew of it in advance. The form excludes some transactions entirely, such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and the federal Thrift Savings Plan. The politician trades page lists the reports as filed, with each range kept as a range and a link to the official filing, and the STOCK Act guide explains the law behind them.