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Congress Big Buys
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Congress Big Buys

Fixed rules, no AI Backtest Apr 2020 to Oct 2026 Live from soon

Holds the stocks members of Congress bought in the last 60 days, weighted by how much they reported spending, so the biggest purchases count the most. It was the strongest of about 60 congress strategies we tested, and most of its lead over the market came from a few stocks.

Alerts: AI Pro Push or email when it rebalances
Per year, backtest
+27.4%
Apr 2020 to Oct 2026, after costs
S&P 500 per year
+20.9%
Same period
Worst drop
−27%
S&P 500: −25%
Last 12 months
+17.5%
S&P 500: +16.9%

Read this before following it

  • Most of the lead came from a few stocks. The top 10 made 53% of all gains, led by BE, MSFT, NVDA. Without those three it made 23.0% a year against the market's 20.9%.
  • It was the best of about 60 designs we tested, and picking the best of many flatters it. Over the last 12 months of the backtest it made 17.5% against the market's 16.9%.
  • One stock can be up to half the portfolio, and its worst drop (27%) was deeper than the market's (25%).
  • The live record starts soon. Judge it on the live line as it builds, not the backtest.
AI Pro

The live record, holdings and every trade

Growth of $10,000 against the S&P 500, what it holds right now and the filing behind each stock, every weekly change, year by year results, and where the backtest's gains came from.

The rules

Fixed in advance and applied the same way every week. No AI and no one picking stocks by hand.

  1. Each week, take every stock purchase a member of the House or Senate made in the last 60 days, counting only filings that are already public.
  2. Leave out purchases filed more than 45 days late, mutual funds, and executive branch filers.
  3. Weight each stock by the dollars reported, using the middle of each range. Bigger purchases count more, and purchases of the same stock by different members add up.
  4. No stock can be more than 50% of the portfolio.
  5. Rebalance at the open on the first trading day of each week. A stock drops out once its latest purchase is more than 60 days old.

The backtest applies these rules to past filings, using only filings that were public at the time, with 0.05% taken out for every dollar traded. Executive branch filings are left out because their history is too short to test. Filings come from the same data as our Congress Trades tracker.