March 2026: The Quietest Month in Congressional Trading Happened During the Biggest Oil Spike Since 1988

Congress made 38 stock trades in March 2026. The previous monthly average runs above 200. Two members, Tim Moore (R-NC) and David Taylor (R-OH), accounted for 26 of those 38, and half fell in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. Combined dollar volume for the month landed between $600,000 and $800,000, with one senator responsible for more than half.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 4. Brent crude surged 63% for the month, its largest gain since 1988. The U.S. and Japan announced a $40 billion nuclear reactor deal on March 20. GE Vernova hit an all-time high. The Fed held rates at 3.5% to 3.75% and projected only one cut for the year. Did congressional insiders buy oil and defense stocks before the crisis escalated?

They did not.

Congress Sold Oil While Hormuz Burned

Three energy-sector trades appeared in March. All three were sales. Rep. David Taylor (R-OH) sold Chevron twice, on March 11 and March 12, both in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. He also sold Marathon Petroleum on March 11, same bracket. No member of Congress bought a single energy stock during the month oil prices rose from roughly $75 to $126 per barrel.

News coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, which began March 4 and escalated through U.S. military operations starting March 19, assumed the obvious concern: members with access to intelligence briefings front-running the energy rally. ExxonMobil posted its largest quarterly gain per FactSet. Brent crude's 63% monthly surge was the steepest since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The buying that would have confirmed that concern did not happen.

Late-filed trades complicate the picture. Rep. Gilbert Cisneros (D-CA), who sits on Armed Services, executed heavy energy buying in February: ExxonMobil at $50,001 to $100,000, plus positions in EOG Resources, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Coterra Energy, EQT, ONEOK, Williams Companies, Targa Resources, Kinder Morgan, and Occidental Petroleum. Those trades predated the Hormuz crisis by weeks. Whether Cisneros was prescient, routine, or lucky is a question the filing dates cannot answer.

Taylor's selling into the rally is easier to read at face value. He sold Chevron at $1,001 to $15,000 on March 11, three days after Brent passed $100. By March 31, Brent closed near $119.50; the timing suggests he left money on the table. On March 12, the same day as his second CVX sale, Taylor bought five other stocks (Home Depot, Installed Building Products, Lam Research, and Parker-Hannifin), suggesting a portfolio rebalance rather than a directional energy bet.

The $40 Billion Announcement Nobody Traded

On March 20, President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi announced up to $40 billion for GE Vernova and Hitachi to deploy BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama. The deal was part of Japan's $550 billion capital commitment, which also included $33 billion in natural gas generation for Pennsylvania and Texas. Five days later, GE Vernova reached an all-time high of $948.38.

Zero GEV trades carried March transaction dates. Across all twelve tickers in the US-Japan portfolio (GEV, CCJ, BN, BEP, CARR, KMI, SMR, HBM, AA, ALB, RIO, and MP), the count was identical: zero.

Late-filed February trades again complicate the picture. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who sits on Financial Services and Intelligence, bought GEV at $1,001 to $15,000 on February 5, disclosed March 16. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), on Armed Services and Intelligence, sold GEV in the same range on February 17, disclosed March 12. One Democrat bought; one Republican sold. Both had committee access to defense and intelligence briefings.

Why did no one trade the year's biggest energy deal during the month it was announced? Three possible explanations: members with advance knowledge avoided trading to comply with the STOCK Act; the deal was negotiated at the executive branch level and Congress had no foreknowledge; or members traded through vehicles not captured in real-time filings, such as trusts, spousal accounts, and options positions that appear on periodic transaction reports.

One adjacent finding: Kinder Morgan, a pipeline company central to the US-Japan energy corridor, hit an all-time high of $34.07 on March 26. Two members on relevant committees bought KMI in February: Cisneros (Armed Services) and Rep. Richard Allen (R-GA, Energy and Commerce). Both purchases were small ($1,001 to $15,000) and both disclosed in March. Congressional members have up to 45 days to disclose; March transactions related to the summit may not appear until late April or early May.

The Most Expensive March Trades Were Not What Headlines Said

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) made the two largest trades of the month. On March 3 and March 10, he purchased an instrument listed under the ticker MSTR, each in the $100,001 to $250,000 range. Those two purchases represent roughly 53% of all dollar volume in March. Several outlets, including Prism News, Benzinga, and Reddit's r/stocks, reported these as “Goldman Sachs” trades. The asset description in his disclosure reads: “GS Managed Structured Note Strategy MSCI EAFE Linked Note.” Not Goldman Sachs common stock. A structured note issued by Goldman Sachs that tracks the MSCI EAFE index, a benchmark for developed-market international equities. McCormick bought Goldman's product, not Goldman's equity.

The distinction matters, though the broader picture complicates it. McCormick sold $1 million to $5 million in actual Goldman Sachs stock on January 23, 2026, per Benzinga. His wife, Dina Powell McCormick, spent 16 years at the firm. He sits on Senate Banking, which has direct oversight of Goldman Sachs. CNN's February analysis named him among ten senators whose trades overlapped with committee work.

He sold Goldman equity in January and bought Goldman-managed international exposure in March: different instruments, different risk profiles. Whether a Banking Committee senator buying products from a bank he oversees raises questions is a fair debate; calling it “buying Goldman Sachs stock” is not accurate.

Politraders Exclusive

One Republican Made 16 Trades in March and Nobody Noticed

Rep. Tim Moore (R-NC) was the most active trader in Congress during March by a wide margin: 16 trades, more than four times the next most active member. Unusual Whales did not flag him. Capitol Trades generated no alerts. No finance creator on TikTok, YouTube, or X discussed his activity.

Eight of his 16 trades were purchases of LGI Homes (LGIH), a Texas-based homebuilder. The buying spanned nine days, from March 12 through March 20, with the largest single purchase at $50,001 to $100,000 on March 19. That date is one day after the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.5% to 3.75% with only one cut projected for 2026. Homebuilders are among the most rate-sensitive sectors in equities.

The rest of Moore's portfolio reads like a consumer discretionary basket: Simply Good Foods (two purchases), Harley-Davidson (two purchases up to $15,001 to $50,000), Cracker Barrel (two purchases on March 23), and Krispy Kreme (two sales on March 17, his only sells). These are small-cap and mid-cap names that generate minimal institutional attention. A sitting congressman buying the same homebuilder stock eight times in nine days, including a position above $50,000, went undetected by every congressional trading tracker: Unusual Whales, Capitol Trades, Quiver Quantitative, the Pelosi Tracker X account with over a million followers. The ecosystem tracks who generates clicks, not necessarily who generates the most concentrated bets. What does that say about what these tools are actually measuring?

Congress Left for Recess Without Voting on Its Own Trading Ban

GOP leaders promised a floor vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act (H.R. 7008) within Q1 2026. The first quarter ended March 31. No vote occurred. The discharge petition had collected 82 of the 218 signatures required, per Roll Call. On March 18, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced a Senate version. No markup was scheduled. Seven days earlier, Reps. Haley Stevens and Chris Pappas introduced the “No Getting Rich in Congress Act,” a stricter alternative that would prohibit the President, Vice President, members, candidates, spouses, and dependents from trading individual stocks, futures, commodities, and cryptocurrency. The weaker bill stalled; the stronger bill never had leadership support.

H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases but not ownership of existing positions. It allows continued trading by spouses and parents. Profits from pre-ban holdings can be rolled into bonds, commodities, crypto, or mutual funds. Public polling shows 86% of Americans across party lines support a ban, per 21Alive News. CREW called the bill “a joke.” The Project on Government Oversight labeled it “a paper tiger.”

Prediction markets have opened a second front. The DOJ announced in late March that it is exploring whether bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi trip insider trading laws, per CNN. The CFTC's new enforcement director, David Miller, stated publicly that “there is a myth in the mainstream media and social media that insider trading law doesn't apply in prediction markets. That is wrong.” Sens. Slotkin and Young introduced a bipartisan bill on March 26 to ban federal officials from trading prediction market contracts tied to government policy.

Congress has not resolved stock trading; now it faces the same problem in a new asset class.