MarketRadar™ Methodology
How we collect, process, and present federal market intelligence.
Data Source
All federal contract and award data is sourced from USASpending.gov, the official public database of U.S. federal spending maintained by the Department of the Treasury. Data is retrieved via the USASpending API v2 endpoints: spending_by_category, spending_over_time, and spending_by_award.
Award Types
Reports filter to prime contracts with award type codes A (BPA Call), B (Purchase Order), C (Delivery Order), and D (Definitive Contract). Subcontracts and grants are excluded.
Time Period
Each report covers the trailing 5 fiscal years (October 1 through September 30). The current fiscal year is included through the most recent completed quarter at time of refresh.
Refresh Cadence
Reports are refreshed quarterly — on the first day of January, April, July, and October — via automated background workers. The quarterly edition badge on each report indicates the data vintage.
Set-Aside Codes
Set-aside designations follow FAR Part 19 terminology as reported by agencies in FPDS-NG data. “Unrestricted” denotes full-and-open competition with no set-aside.
Obligations vs. Expenditures
Dollar amounts represent obligated amounts (funds committed to contracts), not actual expenditures. Obligations may be modified or de-obligated over time.
Limitations
Market intelligence reflects publicly reported data and may not capture classified contracts, certain IDIQ ceiling amounts, or contracts reported with incomplete NAICS codes. This data is not a substitute for independent market research or legal advice.
AI Narratives
Where present, AI-generated narrative summaries are produced by Claude (Anthropic) from aggregated USASpending data. They are descriptive — not predictive — and do not constitute investment, legal, or procurement advice. Narratives are refreshed quarterly alongside underlying data.