Rep. Thomas H. Kean filed six September trades. Four sales, two buys, all under $15,000.

The Spill

Rep. Thomas H. Kean (R-N.J.) listed all six trades as his own on a trade report (PTR), with no spouse, child or joint account named, and the form says he was notified of four on Oct. 1 and two on Oct. 7. Each row sits in the lowest dollar band the form uses, and the report arrived inside the 45-day STOCK Act deadline.

Lag Clock

The 43 days count from the earliest trade, the Sept. 17 pair. That is inside the 45-day STOCK Act deadline. The Clerk records dates only, so there is no clock time on either end.

Since the trade: JNJ closed at $264.74 on Sept. 30 and $270.56 on Nov. 2, up 2.2%. (Daily closes; not a live price.)

Signal Check

Four partial sales and two purchases, all in one dollar band; Congress reports carry no marker for a pre-set trading plan (10b5-1), so the label describes direction, not a reason.

What the filing shows

Six rows, each $1,001 to $15,000, all owned by Kean directly. Four are marked as partial sales, meaning he sold some but not all of his Abbott Laboratories, Mondelez, Johnson & Johnson and Stryker shares. The other two are buys of Texas Instruments and ESAB.

The form lists no share counts, no prices and no figure for what he still holds. The table lists all six rows.

The Other Side

Four sales against two buys reads like a portfolio turning over. The numbers are small for that story: every row sits in the $1,001 to $15,000 band, the form's lowest, and a partial sale can be a sliver of a stake or most of it. The ABT sale and the TXN buy landed on the same day, Sept. 17, which fits a routine rebalance as easily as anything else.

What the form can't establish is scale. Without share counts or a holdings figure, six rows in the smallest band don't show whether this touched a meaningful part of Kean's portfolio or a small slice of it.

What it can't tell you

• How much of each stake he sold. The form marks four rows as partial sales and gives a dollar range, not a share count or what remains.
• What he paid or received. Congress reports list ranges, not prices; the JNJ closes above are market context, not his fills.
• Why. The form does not say why he sold four names and bought two.

What to watch

• Any later trade report (PTR) under Kean's name on the House Clerk's site; this one is doc #20035591.
• Kean's next annual financial disclosure, which lists holdings by range and would show whether ABT, MDLZ, JNJ and SYK still appear.

Original sources

• House Clerk PTR #20035591 (PDF)