What is a periodic transaction report?
A periodic transaction report (PTR) is the form a member of Congress files to disclose a stock trade. It is how the public learns what lawmakers buy and sell.
Where it comes from
The STOCK Act, passed in 2012, requires members of Congress to disclose their securities trades. A PTR reports transactions in stocks, bonds and similar assets, including those of a spouse and dependent children, above a small threshold. House members file with the Clerk of the House, who publishes the reports online.
When it is due
A member must report a trade within 30 days of being notified of it, and no later than 45 days after it happened. That is why a filing can show trades that are weeks old. A PTR is a record of past activity, not a live feed and not a current position.
What a PTR contains
- OwnerWhose trade it was. Blank means the member. SP is a spouse, JT is a joint account, and DC is a dependent child.
- AssetThe company or fund, usually with its ticker symbol in brackets.
- Transaction typeP is a purchase, S is a sale, S (partial) is a partial sale, and E is an exchange.
- Transaction dateThe day the trade happened.
- Notification dateThe day the member was told about it, which starts the reporting clock.
- AmountA range, such as $1,001 - $15,000. The form does not report the exact amount.
What a PTR does not tell you
- The exact size of a trade, only a range.
- Whether the member still holds the asset, since a PTR lists transactions, not holdings.
- Why the trade was made, or whether the member knew anything others did not.
- How a trade ended up, since a purchase and a later sale appear in separate filings.
PTRs and annual disclosures are different forms
A PTR covers individual trades during the year. The annual financial disclosure is a separate filing that lists a member's assets, income and liabilities in broad ranges. Senators file with the Senate rather than the House. Penblock covers House PTRs.
How Penblock reads them
We pull each House PTR as it is published, read the trade rows automatically and show them in the congressional stock trades tracker, with the latest filings and monthly reports. Every filing links to the original. The reading is done by software, so a row can occasionally be missed, and the original filing is the full record. You can also download the data or embed it. Trades are public information, not advice or a signal.