Top Performing Politicians Methodology

The Top Performing Politicians chart ranks members of Congress by an Estimated Return on Disclosed Trades. It is an estimate, not a report of an actual portfolio return — and that distinction matters.

How the estimate is built

1. Amount midpoints. Congressional disclosures report trades in value ranges (e.g. $15K–$50K). We use the midpoint of each range as the assumed size of the trade.
2. Matched buys and sells. For each member, we match disclosed buys to later disclosed sells in the same ticker (FIFO). Open positions are marked-to-market at the most recent close price.
3. Entry and exit prices. Executed-price data is not published, so we use the adjusted close price on the transaction date (not the filing date) to approximate entry and exit.
4. Aggregation. The per-trade results are aggregated per politician over the chosen time window to produce the estimated return.

Why you should treat this as an estimate

• The midpoint of a range can be off by a lot — a trade reported as "$15K–$50K" is anywhere in that band.
• Congressional reports don't capture cost basis, holding costs, taxes, or account-level sizing.
• Late filings are common; trades can surface weeks or months after they occurred. The STOCK Act's 45-day reporting window is a floor, not a ceiling.
• There is no public ground-truth portfolio to compare against for any member of Congress.

Use this ranking as a signal about disclosed activity, not as a precise track record.