This is very similar to my approach on the Sched. D. In the Details field I put in "details upon request"......and they can request it, and you should have every trade purchase/sale and gain/loss available for them....if they want it. This is an accepted method. I USE TRADELOG AND IB.......It's correct down to the last penny against the 1099. They work perfectly together. I believe that IB has one of the BEST back offices I've ever experienced. Generally 1-2 glitches per 40,000 executions (most are dividend related). TRADELOG is worth it ....at any price!
Tradelog is an accounting program that downloads all your trades from many brokers (including IB)...and computes gains/losses, commissions, performance, YTD/weekly/daily. It also creates the schedule D line item listing of ea. trade that the IRS requires (especially if asked to provide it). It also labels short sales and sorts trades by varies categories. It also charts many things in a basic form. It's a basic program but it's rock solid in how it does it. If you do more trades than you can enter into a accounting program/excel by hand.....then it is worth its weight in gold (at least for stock trades). If your using turbotax/ ms money/ quicken .....or anything worthless like that, then this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I hesitated at the price at first but now I'd pay almost anything to have it!
I don't agree it's an accounting program. As it's name correctly states it is Trade Log program. It imports and automatically matches trades, including short ones. Money or Quicken are not capable to do that automatically without manual editing. But TradeLog doesn't import cash transactions, debit/credit interest transactions, dividends. It doesn't track account balance. Analysis and charting capabilities are very primary. But it is quite reliable with IB and data from TL can be exported using clipboard to other analysis or taxes SW. Taking into account it's functionality - is very expensive.
I think that a trader is still subject to the $3,000 capital loss limitation unless he or she makes a timely mark to market election. MSS
It's certainly an accounting program, but a general one....but I agree with all else you stated. If you trade sizeable volume, it's a godsend. If you trade little, it might be expensive (so get the lite version.) Tradelog can be found at Armen computing or thru greentrader tax accounting. It runs $95-345...depending on what you get. I have no idea if it works for futures or options.
Mr. N: I use TradeLog for options and equities. It essentially treats them the same...a security is a security is a security from a short-term capital gains/loss perspective. While the software doesn't do much beyond capital gains reporting, it does do that quite well and I would recommend spending the extra cash rather than trying to do it by hand in Excel (or, heaven forbid, having your CPA do it by hand in Excel). Yours in making the market more efficient, TF
I use www.gainskeeper.com, it works great. I also tried TradeLog but I was surprised that the software which costs this much is written so unprofessionally. I requested refund after a few days.