Congress Trading Monitor
Show HN: A website that tracks every stock trade Congress makes
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What is Congress Trading Monitor?
Congress Trading Monitor is an open-source interactive dashboard and comprehensive open dataset that tracks every stock trade disclosed by U.S. Senators, Representatives, and senior executive branch officials under the STOCK Act. The tool aggregates data from three official public sources into one unified, searchable dataset: the House Clerk's Financial Disclosure portal, the Senate eFD system, and the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) for the executive branch.
The platform contains 54,000+ disclosed transactions from 2012 to present, covering 380+ filers across the House, Senate, and executive branch including cabinet officials. It tracks over $5B in estimated notional volume across stocks, bonds, ETFs, crypto, and other assets. The tool provides transaction-level detail including ticker, asset name, buy/sell classification, amount range, and disclosure latency, plus late-filing flags where the 45-day STOCK Act deadline was missed.
Key features include an overview dashboard with global KPIs, alpha index, cabinet spotlight, and leaderboards; a filers page ranked by activity, volume, late-filing rate, and buy/sell split; a tickers page showing which securities attract the most political money; a filter bar by administration, branch, chamber, party, source, and date range; per-filer and per-ticker pages with personal timelines and return overlays; and a command palette (Cmd+K) for quick navigation. The tool is designed for investors, researchers, journalists, policymakers, and anyone interested in tracking congressional trading activity and potential conflicts of interest.
The data is served as static JSON loaded client-side with no backend required, and the project is open-source under MIT license. Administration tagging (Obama, Trump I, Biden, Trump II) enables cross-term comparisons, while per-filer and per-ticker drill-downs include return computations against price data.
Congress Trading Monitor pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
The Congress Trading Monitor is completely free and open-source under MIT license. The dashboard at congress.kadoa.com is accessible to anyone without payment. All data is served as static JSON and loaded client-side with no backend required. The source code is available on GitHub for self-hosting. The underlying data collection service (kadoa.com) offers paid Flex and Enterprise plans for businesses needing scalable data extraction, but the Congress Trading Monitor itself remains free. Users can get the full historical dataset with continuous updates by contacting the developers directly.
Congress Trading Monitor pros
- Open-source with MIT license for full transparency
- 54,000+ transactions tracked from 2012 to present
- Aggregates three official government sources in one place
- Daily data updates ensure current information
- 54,000+ trades covering $5B+ in estimated volume
- 380+ filers including House, Senate, and cabinet officials
- Transaction-level detail with ticker and asset names
- Late-filing flags highlight STOCK Act deadline violations
- Administration tagging enables cross-term comparisons
- Interactive overview dashboard with KPIs and leaderboards
- Command palette (Cmd+K) for fast navigation
- Per-filer pages show personal trading timelines
- Per-ticker pages show return overlays and performance
- Filter by party, chamber, branch, and date range
- No backend required - static JSON loaded client-side
- Alpha index tracks congressional trading performance
- Cabinet spotlight highlights executive branch trades
- Buy/sell split analysis for each filer
- Volume-based ranking of most active traders
- Searchable across all disclosed transactions
Congress Trading Monitor cons
- Data lagged with median 28 days from trade to disclosure
- 19% of filings miss the 45-day STOCK Act deadline
- Senate pre-2015 paper-filing PDFs currently skipped
- OGE Form 201 request-only entries (~80% of OGE) not fully covered
- Estimated dollar amounts shown as ranges not exact values
- No live updates - data refreshes daily not real-time
- No notification system for new trades yet
- LLM-grounded ticker resolver still in development
- Free-text asset names may have incomplete coverage
- Return computations depend on price data quality
Frequently asked questions about Congress Trading Monitor
What is the Congress Trading Monitor?
The Congress Trading Monitor is an open-source interactive dashboard and dataset tracking every stock trade disclosed by U.S. Senators, Representatives, and senior executive branch officials under the STOCK Act. It aggregates 54,000+ transactions from 2012 to present across three official government sources.
What data sources does it use?
The tool aggregates data from three official public sources: the House Clerk's Financial Disclosure portal, the Senate eFD system, and the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) for the executive branch. All data is parsed from publicly available STOCK Act disclosures which are public records under the Ethics in Government Act.
How often is the data updated?
The data is updated daily. The GitHub repository shows daily refresh commits, with the latest refresh on 2026-05-29. However, there is inherent lag since the median time from trade to disclosure is 28 days.
Is the tool free to use?
Yes, the Congress Trading Monitor is completely free and open-source under the MIT license. The live dashboard at congress.kadoa.com is accessible to anyone without payment, and the source code is available on GitHub for self-hosting.
Who should use this tool?
The tool is designed for investors looking for investment signals, researchers studying government ethics, journalists investigating potential conflicts of interest, policymakers monitoring compliance, and constituents wanting transparency into their elected officials' financial activities.
What types of assets are tracked?
The database tracks stocks, bonds, ETFs, crypto, and other assets with over $5B in estimated notional volume. Transaction-level detail includes ticker symbols, asset names, and buy/sell classifications.
Can I see which politicians are the best traders?
Yes, the overview dashboard includes leaderboards and the filers page ranks politicians by activity, volume, late-filing rate, and buy/sell split. Per-filer pages show personal timelines with return computations against price data.
What is the STOCK Act?
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act enacted in 2012 requires members of Congress and senior officials to disclose their stock trades within 30-45 days, making these transactions public to prevent insider trading.
How can I get the full dataset?
The data is served as static JSON in the public folder and loaded client-side. For the full historical dataset with continuous updates, you can contact the developers directly through kadoa.com. The source code is also available on GitHub for self-hosting.
Are there any limitations to the data?
Yes, Senate pre-2015 paper-filing PDFs are currently skipped, approximately 80% of OGE filings are request-only entries not fully covered, and there is a median 28-day lag from trade to disclosure with 19% of filings missing the 45-day deadline.