Backtest copying a member of Congress

Pick a politician and see what would have happened if you had bought and sold the same stocks a few days after each filing became public. The simulation only uses information that was public at that moment.

Politician Start Choosing a politician fills in the date of their first purchase filing. End Initial investment ($) Monthly deposit ($) Delay after filing (days) Copy sales too

Julia Letlow: 2026-01-01 to 2026-11-09

$10,000 invested became $11,062 by copying Julia Letlow, against $10,799 in the S&P 500: 2.6 percentage points ahead of the index.

+10.6%copy portfolio return

+8.0%S&P 500 return

-10.4%worst drop

24trades executed

On average 95% of the money was invested. On the 205 days stocks were held, the copied holdings returned +11.5% a year against +8.7% for the S&P 500 over the same days.

Portfolio value (teal) and the same deposits in SPY (red). Green dots are copied purchases and red dots copied sales (at most 300 are drawn). Returns are time-weighted, so deposits do not count as gains.

Gain or loss by month

Monthly return of the whole portfolio, cash included. Green months gained, red months lost; darker means a bigger move.

Copied trades by month

Buys and sells the simulation executed each month; darker means more.

Biggest winners and losers

Best positions	Profit
AMD	$718
AAPL	$330
AMGN	$212

Worst positions	Profit
AA	$-182
BA	$-150
ACI	$-111

What was left out

168 copy orders were not placed (no price history, no cash left, or the 20-position limit).
31 disclosed lines could not be copied: 17 bond or other debt, not an ordinary stock or ETF; 14 no usable ticker.

The latest disclosure is dated 2026-11-05. Trades filed after that date are not in the dataset yet.

AA: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AAPL: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

ABBV: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

ABT: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

ACI: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

ACN: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

ADBE: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AFG: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AIG: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AIZ: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AJG: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AMD: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AMGN: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AMZN: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AVGO: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

AZN: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

BA: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

BAH: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

BMY: no price bar on 1 trading day(s) while held; valued at the last close.

168 copy order(s) were rejected; see the transaction log for each reason.

31 disclosed trade(s) were excluded: 17 bond or other debt, not an ordinary stock or ETF; 14 no usable ticker.

Hypothetical result with a 3-day delay, 5 basis points slippage, no fees and no leverage. See the methodology. Not investment advice.