HoldingsIntel vs. Capitol Trades
HoldingsIntel
Recommended for holdings research
Capitol Trades
Alternative
The trades are free to see. The question is what they mean.
HoldingsIntel turns every congressional trade into stock research: the member's record against the market and what funds, insiders and activists did.
Reviewed November 8, 2026 · HoldingsIntel Research
Why HoldingsIntel wins
Choose HoldingsIntel when a member's trade is the start of the research: benchmark it, cross-check institutions, insiders, and activists, then continue through REST API or MCP.
Try the better research workflow
Turn public filings into a ranked research answer
Open HoldingsIntel's congressional dashboard to inspect member records and continue into cross-source stock research. Current through 2026-11-06.
Free to browse. No account required.
Feature-by-feature
Where HoldingsIntel gives you more
HoldingsIntel starts where a congressional trade feed stops. When a member buys a stock, it checks whether the largest institutional managers, company insiders and activist holders are moving the same direction, then benchmarks the member's record against the market. A feed ends at the trade; HoldingsIntel turns it into investment research.
Congressional trade feed
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: House and Senate STOCK Act disclosures
- Capitol Trades
- Preferred for this criterion: politician-first feed with three years of history
Member record vs the market
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: every buy benchmarked against an index position opened on the member's purchase date and marked to the same year-end
- Capitol Trades
- trades, issuers and volume per member, with stock-level price performance
Price of the Congress feed
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: free, with the full suite from $19/mo
- Capitol Trades
- Preferred for this criterion: free, no account required
Member profiles
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: per-member pages with trade histories and a market-matched record
- Capitol Trades
- Preferred for this criterion: profiles filterable by party, committee and state
What institutions did with the same stock
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: holdings and quarter-over-quarter moves from the largest managers, next to each trade
- Capitol Trades
- not covered — congressional trades only
Insider and activist activity on the name
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: Form 4 purchases and 13D/13G stakes, shown on the same stock page
- Capitol Trades
- different filings, different site
One combined read per stock
- HoldingsIntel
- Preferred for this criterion: Smart Money Verdict: four disclosure types weighed into a single score
- Capitol Trades
- outside its scope, by design
Pricing comparison
What you pay, and what the workflow replaces
$19–49 monthly
Holdings-led research, API and MCP workflows in one product.
Capitol Trades
Free
Capitol Trades provides public access to its recent trade history.
A buy without context
Say a senator on the armed-services committee buys a defense name. On its own, that is a data point — interesting, screenshotable, unactionable. The question that turns it into research is whether anyone else with a disclosure obligation agrees: did focused funds add the same stock last quarter, is the CFO buying, has an activist filed a stake? Capitol Trades stops at the congressional record. HoldingsIntel continues into the institutional, insider, and activist filings on the same name.
Switching from Capitol Trades
Keep what you use. Gain the answer.
Coming from Capitol Trades, the congressional feed stays free here, and every trade gains context: the member's record against SPY over the same dates, and what funds, insiders and activists did with the same stock.
Bottom line
For serious holdings research, choose HoldingsIntel
Choose HoldingsIntel when a member's trade is the start of the research: benchmark it, cross-check institutions, insiders, and activists, then continue through REST API or MCP.
See the advantage in the product
Continue from the comparison to current data
Open HoldingsIntel's congressional dashboard to inspect member records and continue into cross-source stock research. Current through 2026-11-06.
Free to browse. Paid plans add 13F watchlist alerts when filings change.
Questions investors ask
Should I use Capitol Trades or HoldingsIntel to follow Congress?
Use HoldingsIntel when the trade is the start of your research: every tracked trade benchmarked against the market and cross-checked against what institutions, insiders and activists filed on the same stock, with the congressional feed free.
What does HoldingsIntel show about a congressional trade that Capitol Trades doesn't?
Two things. Whether the member's buys have beaten a matched index (SPY held from each trade date to the same year-end), and what the rest of the disclosed money did with the same name: positions from the largest managers, insider purchases and activist stakes, resolved into one score per stock.
Is Capitol Trades really free, and is HoldingsIntel's congressional data free too?
Capitol Trades is fully free with no account. HoldingsIntel's congressional feed is on the free tier as well; the paid tiers ($19–49/mo) buy the layer around it: rolling member returns, multi-quarter institutional history, and unlimited per-stock Verdicts.
How this comparison was checked
HoldingsIntel Research checked material competitor facts against official first-party pages on November 8, 2026. Product claims use current HoldingsIntel disclosure data, and undocumented competitor facts are qualified. This comparison is not investment advice.
Evidence map
- Comparison overview
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- HoldingsIntel recommendation
- HoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel API documentationHoldingsIntel MCP server
- Research need: Congressional trade feed
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: Member record vs the market
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: Price of the Congress feed
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: Member profiles
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: What institutions did with the same stock
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: Insider and activist activity on the name
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Research need: One combined read per stock
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Switching from Capitol Trades
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- A buy without context
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Should I use Capitol Trades or HoldingsIntel to follow Congress?
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- What does HoldingsIntel show about a congressional trade that Capitol Trades doesn't?
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting
- Is Capitol Trades really free, and is HoldingsIntel's congressional data free too?
- Capitol Trades aboutCapitol Trades disclaimerHoldingsIntel congressional researchHoldingsIntel pricingHoldingsIntel backtesting