When does the two-year securities fraud discovery component expire?

A covered private securities fraud action must satisfy the earlier of two years after discovery of the violation facts and five years after the violation. This page calculates only the two-year discovery component. Merck includes the point when a reasonably diligent plaintiff would have discovered the relevant facts, including scienter.

Responsible actor. The plaintiff bringing a covered private securities fraud action.

Identify the covered securities-law private action.

Establish actual or reasonably diligent discovery of the facts constituting the violation.

Record the separate violation event and calculate its five-year component.

Use for the established discovery component of a qualifying private securities fraud claim. Independently determine the violation date and compare the separate repose component.

1. Established discovery of the facts constituting the violation
2. For the established federal civil court component, FRCP 6(a)(1) excludes the trigger day and includes intermediate weekends and holidays. A period in months or years uses its corresponding calendar date, rather than a fixed number of days. The final weekend or legal holiday moves forward under Rule 6(a). A target month or year without the corresponding day requires separate endpoint review; this calculator refuses that input.
3. Bring the qualifying civil action within both applicable components. Preserve the discovery evidence, violation evidence and completed court filing.

Retained 2024 annual U.S. Code, laws in effect January 6, 2025. The subsequent-law review covers the retained 119th Congress corpus through Public Law 119-118, approved September 30, 2026. Its scoped candidate findings do not establish every claim-specific exception or later judicial application. This page requires the stated covered cause and legally established event. Court computation uses the retained December 1, 2025 FRCP compilation; identified agency regulations use their separately stated 2026 API editions.

The calendar covers established events and results from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2033. OPM observations for 2025–2030 are independently checked. Dates in 2031–2033 are standing-rule projections under 5 U.S.C. § 6103, not published OPM schedules. Additional presidential, congressional or district-state holidays, amendments and actual clerk inaccessibility require separate review. Inauguration Day is not treated as a nationwide district-court holiday. The coverage boundary does not establish statutory applicability or lateness.

Fictitious example

Fictitious independently established facts. Use for the established discovery component of a qualifying private securities fraud claim. Independently determine the violation date and compare the separate repose component.

Fictitious independently established events and classifications. The displayed result is this one untolled component. Securities earlier-of comparisons and alternative wage classifications are separately identified. These examples do not determine accrual, discovery, statutory liability, the actual forum, an exception, a completed filing or an unrecorded closure. Use for the established discovery component of a qualifying private securities fraud claim. Independently determine the violation date and compare the separate repose component.

Earlier component controls

A later discovery result cannot postpone the separate five-year violation component.

Discovery is a legal finding

Suspicion or an investigation date alone does not establish discovery of every required violation fact.

Instrument and statutory scope

Establish that the alleged conduct and instrument are within the applicable securities law. The period does not classify an instrument or create a private cause of action.

Calendar and endpoint coverage

The calendar covers established events and results from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2033. OPM observations for 2025–2030 are independently checked. Dates in 2031–2033 are standing-rule projections under 5 U.S.C. § 6103, not published OPM schedules. Additional presidential, congressional or district-state holidays, amendments and actual clerk inaccessibility require separate review. Inauguration Day is not treated as a nationwide district-court holiday. The coverage boundary does not establish statutory applicability or lateness.

• Use for the established discovery component of a qualifying private securities fraud claim. Independently determine the violation date and compare the separate repose component.
• The calculation supplies the stated component on established facts. Unmodeled tolling, competing components and claim-specific exceptions require separate controlling review.

• Identify the covered securities-law private action.
• Establish actual or reasonably diligent discovery of the facts constituting the violation.
• Record the separate violation event and calculate its five-year component.
• A later discovery result cannot postpone the separate five-year violation component.
• Suspicion or an investigation date alone does not establish discovery of every required violation fact.
• Establish that the alleged conduct and instrument are within the applicable securities law. The period does not classify an instrument or create a private cause of action.
• For this federal civil court component, FRCP 3 uses filing the complaint to commence the action, subject to a specific statutory requirement such as claimant written consent. Under FRCP 6(a)(4), the last day ordinarily ends at midnight in the court’s time zone for electronic filing, or at scheduled clerk closing for other filing. A different statute, local rule or court order can set a different time. Establish the actual court and completed filing; an unsuccessful attempt is not automatically a completed filing. Rule 6(a)(3) concerns actual clerk inaccessibility. Rule 6(d) is not an automatic addition to statutory accrual, discovery, denial-mailing or notice-receipt components.