How Big Are Congress's Stock Trades?
Mostly small. Of the 29,051 transactions members of Congress have disclosed with a reported amount range, as of October 29, 2026, 72.1% were in the smallest range on the form, $1,001 to $15,000, and 87.6% were at $50,000 or less. 228 transactions (0.8%) were reported above $1 million, and they came from 30 of 227 members. Filings give a range for each transaction and never an exact figure, so every number here is a count of transactions by range.
Key numbers
- 72.1% of the transactions disclosed by members of Congress were reported in the smallest range on the form, $1,001 to $15,000: 20,954 of 29,051 transactions with a reported range (Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
- 87.6% of the transactions disclosed by members of Congress were reported at $50,000 or less (25,450 of 29,051; Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
- 228 transactions disclosed by members of Congress were reported above $1 million, 0.8% of the 29,051 with a reported range; they came from 30 of the 227 members with a disclosed transaction (Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
- Among congressional trades in an asset with a ticker symbol, 80.3% were reported in the $1,001 to $15,000 range (18,905 of 23,553; Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
- The typical member of Congress with ten or more disclosed transactions reported 64% of them in the $1,001 to $15,000 range (median of 123 members; Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
- Congressional trades in assets with a ticker symbol add up to at least $354 million counting each at the bottom of its reported range, and $1.21 billion counting each at the top (23,553 trades; Coldpine, disclosures through October 29, 2026).
Every range, counted
A periodic transaction report lists each purchase and sale with one of a fixed set of amount ranges. The table counts every transaction in its reported range. The third column keeps only assets with a ticker symbol (listed stocks and funds), which leaves out Treasury bills, private partnerships and other holdings that make up many of the largest entries. The fourth leaves out the single largest filer, Rohit Khanna, whose household accounts are 12,738 of the 29,051 transactions (44%).
| Reported range | Transactions | Share | With a ticker | Without largest filer | Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,001 to $15,000 | 20,954 | 72.1% | 80.3% | 57.8% | 177 |
| $15,001 to $50,000 | 4,496 | 15.5% | 13.8% | 21.7% | 142 |
| $50,001 to $100,000 | 1,436 | 4.9% | 3.0% | 7.9% | 85 |
| $100,001 to $250,000 | 1,210 | 4.2% | 1.9% | 7.0% | 78 |
| $250,001 to $500,000 | 422 | 1.5% | 0.5% | 2.4% | 44 |
| $500,001 to $1,000,000 | 305 | 1.0% | 0.3% | 1.8% | 38 |
| $1,000,001 to $5,000,000 | 121 | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 24 |
| $5,000,001 and above | 48 | 0.2% | <0.1% | 0.3% | 10 |
| Over $1,000,000, no upper bound | 59 | 0.2% | <0.1% | 0.4% | 4 |
| All ranges | 29,051 | 100% | 23,553 | 16,313 | 227 |
Shares in the third and fourth columns are of that column's own total, shown in the last row. The smallest range holds 72.1% of all transactions, 80.3% of those with a ticker symbol, and 57.8% once the largest filer is set aside, so the headline share depends partly on one household that files thousands of small trades. The last range, "Over $1,000,000" with no upper bound, is the form's top category for assets held by a spouse or dependent child; see whose trades they are.
Member by member
Counting each member once tells a similar story with a lower number. Among the 123 members with ten or more transactions, the median member reported 64% of them in the $1,001 to $15,000 range, and 15 reported every one there. At the other end, 30 of 227 members (13%) have disclosed at least one transaction above $1 million. By chamber, 72.9% of House transactions and 62.6% of Senate transactions were in the smallest range, and 25 of 195 House members and 5 of 32 senators reported one above $1 million. The two chambers are compared over the same months in does the House or the Senate trade more stocks.
Who reports the largest transactions
The 228 transactions above $1 million are concentrated: the ten members below account for 189 of them. Only 67 of the 228 are in an asset with a ticker symbol. The rest are Treasury securities, private funds and partnerships, real estate interests and business holdings.
| Member | Chamber | Above $1 million | All transactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doris O. MatsuiD-CA | House | 29 | 33 |
| Josh GottheimerD-NJ | House | 28 | 898 |
| Michael T. McCaulR-TX | House | 26 | 4,193 |
| Darrell E. IssaR-CA | House | 22 | 22 |
| Nancy PelosiD-CA | House | 20 | 67 |
| David TroneD-MD | House | 18 | 35 |
| Jefferson ShreveR-IN | House | 17 | 18 |
| Scott H. PetersD-CA | House | 14 | 290 |
| Kevin HernR-OK | House | 9 | 382 |
| Richard BlumenthalD-CT | Senate | 6 | 521 |
A large reported range reflects the size of a household's accounts. It says nothing about why a transaction was made, and it is not evidence of wrongdoing by any member. For how often each member trades, see the most active stock traders in Congress.
How much money is that?
The filings do not say. Because each transaction is a range, the record supports a floor and a ceiling and nothing in between. Counting every transaction at the bottom of its range, the 29,051 transactions add up to at least $1.24 billion. For the 23,553 trades in assets with a ticker symbol, the floor is $354 million and the sum of the range tops is $1.21 billion (5 of those trades have no upper bound on the form and are left out of the top figure). Those totals count purchases and sales together, so they measure activity, and say nothing about what anyone holds. This article gives the bounds and no midpoint estimate, since the true figure can sit anywhere in the range.
What this does and does not show
Most of what Congress discloses is small next to the attention it gets: about 72 in 100 transactions are at $15,000 or less. The large transactions are real, but they come from a small group of households and are mostly not stocks. Size is also independent of timing and outcome. For what disclosed purchases did afterward, see does Congress beat the stock market, and for the law behind the ranges, what the STOCK Act requires.
Methodology and honest caveats
The base is every transaction in Coldpine's record of House and Senate periodic transaction reports, 29,490 in all, disclosed between January 1, 2023 and October 29, 2026. Of those, 29,051 carry one of the standard ranges and are counted here. 369 have no amount on the parsed record and 70 carry an exact dollar figure or a range that did not parse to a standard one; both groups are left out. The two ranges above $5 million and the "Over $50,000,000" category are combined into one row because they hold few transactions. Purchases, sales and exchanges all count once. "With a ticker" means the filing names a ticker symbol, which covers listed stocks and listed funds. Counts are of transactions as filed, and an amended report can restate one. How filings are parsed is set out in our methodology. Figures are computed live and update as new filings arrive, so they may differ from the ones quoted the day this was published.
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Coldpine is a publisher of intelligence on public Congressional disclosures. Transaction sizes are the ranges reported in the public filings; they are not evidence of wrongdoing by any member. This is informational only, not investment advice, and not a suggestion to buy, sell, or copy anyone’s trades.