# Congress-Bets — Complete Reference

> Track US politician stock trades in real-time with free email alerts

## Overview

Congress-Bets (https://congress-bets.com) is a free web application that monitors and alerts users about stock trades made by members of the United States Congress. The STOCK Act of 2012 requires all members of Congress to publicly disclose their stock transactions within 45 days of the trade date. Congress-Bets aggregates these disclosures and makes them accessible through email alerts and a web interface.

## Features

### Trade Alerts
- Email notifications when tracked politicians file new stock trade disclosures
- Aggregated alerts: one email per check cycle with all new trades from your tracked politicians
- Trade details include: politician name, ticker symbol, asset name, buy/sell, trade size range, trade date, disclosure date, and trade owner (self, spouse, joint, child)

### Politician Selection
- 160+ active and former US Congress members available to track
- Searchable grid with photos, party affiliation, chamber (House/Senate), and state
- Comma-separated search for filtering multiple politicians at once
- Pre-selection via URL parameter: `?selected=P000197,T000488,...`

### Yearly Performance Statistics
- Estimated annual returns for each politician (volume-weighted)
- Two return metrics:
  - **Politician return (est_return_pct)**: Based on trade-date close prices — what the politician actually earned
  - **Copycat return (copycat_return_pct)**: Based on next-day open after disclosure — what a retail investor copying their trades would earn, accounting for the disclosure delay
- Trade counts: buys, sells, total trades per year
- Volume: buy and sell dollar volumes per year
- Unique tickers traded per year

### Open Positions / Holdings
- Net open stock positions computed from all historical buy and sell trades
- Displayed as ticker, asset name, and net size
- Available via API: `GET /api/politicians/{id}/holdings`
- Shown on the homepage when arriving from email links with `?selected=` parameter

### Portfolio Aggregation
- Combined performance statistics across multiple selected politicians
- Weighted average returns by buy volume

## Data Sources and Methodology

### Trade Data Sources
1. **Capitol Trades**: Recent trade disclosures parsed from RSC payload (custom regex parser)
2. **House Financial Disclosures**: Historical trades from official House clerk PDFs (2008+), parsed with PyMuPDF OCR
3. **Senate Electronic Financial Disclosures**: Historical Senate trades (2012+)

### Price Data
- Yahoo Finance daily prices (open and close) fetched in a single call per ticker
- Politician returns use trade-date close prices
- Copycat returns use next-day open after disclosure date

### Return Calculation
- Volume-weighted average return: `sum(return_pct * position_value) / total_value`
- Per-position return: `((end_price - buy_price) / buy_price) * 100`
- Positions carry across years: year-end close becomes next year's entry price
- Phantom positions: when sells exceed matched buys, a phantom buy is injected at the politician's Congress start date (politician returns only, never copycat)

## Trade Disclosure Rules

- **STOCK Act (2012)**: Requires Congress members to disclose stock transactions within 45 days
- **Trade sizes**: Reported in ranges, not exact amounts. Congress-Bets uses midpoints:
  - $1,001–$15,000 → $8,000
  - $15,001–$50,000 → $32,500
  - $50,001–$100,000 → $75,000
  - $100,001–$250,000 → $175,000
  - etc.
- **Owner types**: Self, Spouse, Joint, Child, Not Disclosed

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is Congress-Bets?
Congress-Bets tracks stock trades made by members of the United States Congress. Under the STOCK Act, members are required to disclose their stock transactions within 45 days. We monitor these filings and send free email alerts when new trades are disclosed.

### Is Congress-Bets free?
Yes, completely free. No paid tier, no ads, no hidden costs. Subscribe and unsubscribe at any time.

### How often are trades checked?
Every 4 hours via automated scheduler.

### What is the difference between politician return and copycat return?
Politician return estimates what the politician earned based on actual trade dates. Copycat return ("You" in the UI) estimates what you'd earn if you copied their trades on the disclosure date — accounting for the up-to-45-day delay in public disclosure.

### Why do some politicians show N/A for returns?
Returns require stock price data. If a politician only trades options, private investments, or tickers without Yahoo Finance data, returns cannot be calculated.

### How accurate is the data?
Trade data comes from official public disclosures but may be incomplete, delayed, or contain parsing errors. Trade sizes are ranges, not exact amounts. Always verify with official sources. This is NOT financial advice.

### What politicians are available?
160+ active and former members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, Tommy Tuberville, Dan Crenshaw, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and many others from both parties.

### Can I track former members of Congress?
Yes, former members are available and marked with a "Former" badge. Their historical trades and returns are still visible.

## Technical Details

- **Frontend**: React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS, hosted on Firebase Hosting
- **Backend**: Python FastAPI on Google Cloud Run
- **Data storage**: Google Cloud Storage
- **Email**: Gmail SMTP with verification tokens (JWT)
- **Bot protection**: Cloudflare Turnstile on subscription form

## Disclaimer

Congress-Bets is not financial advice. All data is for informational purposes only. Trade data may be incomplete, delayed, or inaccurate. Always verify information with official sources before making any financial decisions. Congress-Bets is not affiliated with the US Congress or any government entity.

## Links

- Website: https://congress-bets.com
- About: https://congress-bets.com/about
- Privacy Policy: https://congress-bets.com/privacy