Brad Ashford’s disclosed stock trades — and what copying them returned

Brad Ashford (House) has disclosed 27 stock trades under the STOCK Act, from Mar 24, 2015 to Dec 20, 20167 buys and 20 sells, read straight from the official filings. The median gap between a trade and the public finding out was 14 days — which is why every number below starts at the disclosure date, the earliest day anyone could actually have copied a trade.

What copying every disclosed buy would have returned

Our engine bought at the first opening price after each of Brad Ashford’s disclosed purchases became public, held until the matching sale was disclosed, and marked the book against simply holding the S&P 500 over the same window (Mar 25, 2015Aug 11, 2026). Fees on, position sizes equal — a filing never discloses the real amount, only a band.

Copy-return, total+357.3%
S&P 500 over the same window+351.8%
Difference+5.6%
Annualized over 11.4 years+14.3% vs +14.2% +0.1% a year against the index
Deepest fall along the way-33.7%
Positions that closed ahead80%
Disclosed buys / actually copied7 / 5

Read the fill count before the return: a figure built on a handful of copied positions is an anecdote, whatever it says. And a copy-return is not Brad Ashford’s own return — the disclosure lag means a copier never got their entry price.

Most-traded tickers

APA (7) · BRK.B (6) · MMM (2) · UNP (2) · DRYS (1) · MSB (1) · MDT (1) · PFE (1) · MDLZ (1) · DIS (1)

Recent filings

The latest 27 disclosed trades, newest filing first. Both dates are shown because the gap between them is the whole story.

TickerTypeTradedDisclosedLagAmount band
APASellNov 28, 2016Dec 20, 201622d$1,001 - $15,000
DRYSBuyDec 6, 2016Dec 20, 201614d$1,001 - $15,000
MSBBuyNov 22, 2016Dec 5, 201613d$1,001 - $15,000
MDTSellNov 28, 2016Dec 5, 20167d$1,001 - $15,000
PFESellNov 28, 2016Dec 5, 20167d$1,001 - $15,000
APASellMar 28, 2016Apr 12, 201615d$1,001 - $15,000
MMMSellMar 29, 2016Apr 12, 201614d$15,001 - $50,000
APASellMar 29, 2016Apr 12, 201614d$15,001 - $50,000
APASellJan 15, 2016Feb 1, 201617d$1,001 - $15,000
BRK.BSellJan 15, 2016Feb 1, 201617d$15,001 - $50,000
MDLZSellDec 28, 2015Jan 15, 201618d$1,001 - $15,000
DISSellJan 4, 2016Jan 15, 201611d$15,001 - $50,000
MMMSellOct 13, 2015Oct 27, 201514d$15,001 - $50,000
APASellOct 13, 2015Oct 27, 201514d$15,001 - $50,000
BRK.BSellSep 1, 2015Sep 2, 20151d$1,001 - $15,000
AMZNBuySep 1, 2015Sep 2, 20151d$15,001 - $50,000
FBBuyJul 21, 2015Aug 4, 201514d$15,001 - $50,000
BRK.BSellJul 21, 2015Aug 4, 201514d$15,001 - $50,000
BRK.BBuyFeb 27, 2015Aug 3, 2015157d$15,001 - $50,000
BRK.BSellJul 2, 2015Jul 8, 20156d$15,001 - $50,000
COSTBuyJul 2, 2015Jul 8, 20156d$1,001 - $15,000
UNPSellMay 5, 2015May 29, 201524d$15,001 - $50,000
APASellApr 14, 2015Apr 30, 201516d$1,001 - $15,000
LIISellApr 13, 2015Apr 30, 201517d$15,001 - $50,000
APASellApr 12, 2015Apr 30, 201518d$15,001 - $50,000
BRK.BBuyFeb 27, 2015Mar 24, 201525d$25,000,001 - $50,000,000
UNPSellMar 12, 2015Mar 24, 201512d$15,001 - $50,000

Full history, sorting and the CSV export live in Pulse. Open Congress in Pulse.

Hear about the next filing the day it lands

A filing is only useful in the days after it appears — exactly when nobody is watching the disclosure sites. Follow Brad Ashford in Pulse and you get an email as soon as their next report is parsed: the trades in it, both dates, and how long they sat on it.

See plans All members and how the ranking works

Entries are at the first open AFTER the disclosure date — the earliest any copier could act. The member's own entry was up to 45 days earlier. Disclosed amounts are bands, not sizes; every position is sized at your chosen % of portfolio, which is not how the member sized it. Option purchases are copied as the underlying shares. A filing discloses no strike and no expiry, so an option cannot be mirrored — buying the stock is the closest a reader could get. It is 1.6% of all disclosed buys, but for some members it is a quarter to a half of everything they file, so their figure describes copying the filing rather than what the position itself did. Dividends are treated as reinvested (adjusted closes). Fees and taxes are not modeled. Positions are sized from equity at the time of each entry, so gains compound into later position sizes and most of the account sits in cash between filings. Read the drawdown next to the exposure figures: a portfolio that is mostly cash shows a small whole-portfolio drawdown even when its holdings fell hard. Absolute returns are model outputs, not achievable returns. Past disclosures are no promise of future filings — members stop trading, leave office, or file late in batches.