Hey folks,
I made a lot of money in capital gains last year and sold everything in December, and those realized gains are easily seen using TD Ameritrade’s cost basis feature. Well, you know what happened next – I tried to catch falling knives from January through March and lost it all, plus some. Now my goal is to just break even (the taxes I paid will be separate – maybe an expensive lesson). However, when I check my realized and unrealized gains and losses for this year, I’m seeing a lot of ‘wash sale adjustments’. I’m not worried about taking profits at the moment since I lost so much money at the beginning of the year, and again, I’m just trying to break even (which I’m getting close to doing), so I often trade with stops that hit. My question – can I trust those realized and unrealized numbers in the cost basis screen of TD Ameritrade? When that capital loss number from this year hits the same number as my capital gains number from last year, I’ve effectively broken even (again, not figuring in capital gains taxes?)
Thanks for helping this silly fool out.
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