Free Sources for Insider, Congress and Fund Trades (and How to Use Them)
Every filing behind insider, Congress and fund-holdings data is public. Here are the primary sources, what each one covers, and how to work with them without paying for a terminal.
You do not need a paid terminal to see what insiders, members of Congress and big funds are doing. The raw data comes from a handful of free government sources. Knowing them helps you check any app, newsletter or headline against the original.
Insider trades: SEC EDGAR
EDGAR is the SEC's filing database. For insiders it has:
- Form 3, 4 and 5 filings
- Form 144 notices of proposed sales
- Every company's complete filing list, searchable by name or ticker
The SEC also publishes Insider Transactions Data Sets, structured quarterly files that save you from parsing individual filings. If you automate downloads, the SEC asks for a descriptive user agent and a modest request rate (the published limit is 10 requests per second).
New to the site? Start with the EDGAR beginner's guide.
Fund holdings: EDGAR again
Form 13F filings sit on EDGAR under each fund manager, and the SEC publishes structured 13F data sets. Ownership stakes above 5% appear in Schedule 13D and 13G filings.
Congress trades: two official databases
Members of Congress file with their own chamber, not with the SEC:
- House: the Clerk's financial disclosure database
- Senate: the Office of Public Records electronic filing system
Both publish Periodic Transaction Reports. The House search is easier to use; the Senate's can require you to accept a usage terms page. Filings are often PDFs, sometimes scanned, which is why most people use a service that has extracted them. Check the extraction against the PDF for anything important. See how to read a PTR.
Company news and financials: EDGAR
8-K current reports, 10-K and 10-Q periodic reports and proxy statements are all on the same site.
Short interest: FINRA
FINRA publishes short interest twice a month. See short interest explained.
A working method
- Start from the primary source for anything you plan to act on or share.
- Use an aggregator for discovery, not for verification.
- Record the filing date and the transaction date. The gap is part of the data.
- Keep the link to the filing you used.
- Know the limits: delays, ranges and what each form leaves out. Common mistakes in reading insider data is a good checklist.
Bourse reads these same sources and puts them in one place, but nothing here depends on it: every filing described above stays free to read directly.
Educational content only. Not investment advice.
See these filings as they land
Bourse collects Congress trades, SEC Form 4 insider filings and 13F fund holdings in one live feed, and flags insider buying clusters automatically. Free to start.
Bourse provides financial data and editorial information, parts of which are generated by AI. This page is for general education only. It is not personalised investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. Make your own decisions.