i strongly suggest using tradelog. assuming your broker will provide all data and not make any mistakes is pushing it. check out the tradelog website - they talk about how you should NOT rely on your broker. trust me - paying a couple hundred usd is worth it to dramatically reduce your chances of being visited by uncle sam.
Aren't S&P500 options different than regular options...some special tax considerations or something...some is long term, some short or something like that? I remember reading something like that here, that there was a tax benefit to trading S&P500 options. (I've been wrong before...no, really...)
1256 contracts, eg. futures, options on futures, broad-based index options, etc., are treated for tax purposes as 40% short-term gain and 60% long-term gain.
You are not wrong..... All of my Spreads are in either RUT. NDX or SPX... all broadly based indexes which do qualify for favorable tax treatment. Special Tax Rules Apply to Broad-Based Equity Options To reduce the tax hit on short-swing stock market gains, consider trading in broad-based equity index options. These options allow investors to bet on the moves of a broad-based stock index. For example, SPX options track the S&P 500. So broad-based equity index options basically look and feel a lot like options to buy and sell ETFs. Here's the good part: Tax law treats broad-based equity options as Section 1256 contracts. This is beneficial to you because gains and losses that are realized from trading in Section 1256 contracts are automatically considered to be 60% long-term and 40% short-term. In other words, your actual holding period for a broad-based index option doesn t matter. Of course, there's a price to be paid for the favorable 60/40 tax rule. Investors must adhere to a mark-to-market tax rule at the end of the year for any open broad-based equity index option positions. This means you pretend to sell your options at their year end market prices and report whatever the resulting gains and losses are on your Schedule D for that year. However, keep in mind that the mark-to-market rule only comes into play for those with open positions at year end. Otherwise, it doesn't apply. Hope this helps
Great to know, thank you. I'm pretty much a one trick pony, doing nothing but short term (< one week) credit spreads on the S&P500...had a good 2012...mostly luck, but I'll take it. Thanks again. Arnie
Very similar to my approach... Monthly's and Weekly's Credit Spreads on SPX, RUT and NDX Also was very happy with 2012...... Exceeded target of 2% a month
I use Netbasis cost basis calculator. It is easy to use tool and helps me keep track of all my investments.