How to read a congressional periodic transaction report, column by column
By OQRO. Published . 4 min read. Last reviewed .
The short answer
A periodic transaction report (PTR) lists each stock purchase, sale, partial sale or exchange above $1,000 by a member of Congress, a spouse or a dependent child, with the asset name, two dates and one of ten amount bands. It gives no share count and no price. In OQRO's records of House and Senate reports disclosed from 12 July to 7 October 2026, the median gap between trade and disclosure was 40 days.
What a PTR is
A periodic transaction report is the filing members of Congress and senior staff make under the Ethics in Government Act, as amended by the STOCK Act. This article follows the House Ethics Committee's form and instructions. Reports are filed with the Clerk of the House and are searchable on the Clerk's disclosure site. Senators file through the Senate's own electronic system.
The columns
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| IPO box | Whether the filer was allocated shares in an initial public offering |
| Full asset name | The company or security, written in full, not a ticker |
| SP, DC, JT | Optional marks for an asset of a spouse, a dependent child or held jointly |
| Type of transaction | Purchase, sale, partial sale (part of a holding) or exchange |
| Date of transaction | Generally the day the security traded |
| Date notified of transaction | The day the filer learned of it |
| Amount of transaction | One of ten bands of the gross purchase or sale price |
| Spouse or dependent child asset over $1,000,000 | A separate column for assets the filer has no interest in |
The instructions say the amount is the category of the total purchase or sale price, and that any capital gain or loss is irrelevant. So a sale in the $15,001 to $50,000 band is a sale of that gross value, not a profit.
The ten amount bands
$1,001 to $15,000; $15,001 to $50,000; $50,001 to $100,000; $100,001 to $250,000; $250,001 to $500,000; $500,001 to $1,000,000; $1,000,001 to $5,000,000; $5,000,001 to $25,000,000; $25,000,001 to $50,000,000; and over $50,000,000. The last band has no upper limit. OQRO stores the minimum, the maximum and the band text, and never replaces them with a midpoint.
What is not on a PTR
The instructions exclude transactions in real property; widely held investment funds, and any mutual fund or exchange-traded fund; transactions solely among the filer, a spouse and a dependent child; federal retirement programs such as the Thrift Savings Plan; stock splits; bequests; and bank account activity. These may still appear on the annual financial disclosure. Trades in self-directed retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or IRA must be reported.
When it is due
A PTR must be filed by the earlier of 30 days from being made aware of the transaction or 45 days from the transaction. The deadline is not moved to the next business day if it falls on a weekend or holiday, extensions are not granted, and the form states a $200 penalty for filing more than 30 days late. The 30-day clock starts at notification, so the transaction date alone does not fix the due date.
What the dates look like in practice
We measured the gap between the transaction date and the disclosure date for the 1,263 House and Senate records in OQRO's database that were disclosed from 12 July to 7 October 2026, counted on 9 October 2026.
| Gap from trade to disclosure | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days or fewer | 526 | 41.6% |
| 31 to 45 days | 140 | 11.1% |
| More than 45 days | 597 | 47.3% |
The median is 40 days. The long tail is concentrated: 13 of the 47 people in the data have a record over 45 days, and one person accounts for 305 of those 597 records. A gap above 45 days can reflect a late filing, an amended report listing older trades, or a catch-up report. OQRO records the dates as filed and does not decide which.
Five common misreadings
- Taking a band as an exact amount, or its midpoint as the trade size.
- Reading the transaction date as the date the member knew.
- Treating a missing trade as a trade that did not happen, when a fund trade or a paper filing is excluded.
- Assuming a purchase is by the member, when the owner marks show a spouse or child.
- Reading a report as a reason. It records what was traded, and nothing about why.
The guide to the STOCK Act lists the deadline and the penalty, and coverage explains what OQRO reads and how often.
Sources
- House Ethics Committee, Periodic Transaction Report form and instructions (opened October 9, 2026)
- Office of the Clerk, US House of Representatives, financial disclosure reports (opened October 9, 2026)
- STOCK Act, Public Law 112-105 (GovInfo text) (opened October 9, 2026)
- OQRO methodology (opened October 9, 2026)
More questions on this topic
- Can members of Congress trade stocks? What the STOCK Act requires, and what it does not
- What do the dollar ranges on a Congress trade report mean?
- Are a Congress member's spouse and child trades reported?
- Why a Congress trade disclosure can arrive weeks after the trade, and what the amount bands mean
- All questions on congress trading
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This explains public filings in plain words. It is not legal or investment advice. Corrections: contact page.