Taking advantage of tax time

Discussion in 'Strategy Building' started by eagle488, Dec 9, 2006.

  1. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/StrategyLab/Rnd14/P1/AllStarTeamJournal20061201.aspx

    "Every December, the stock market becomes increasingly affected by tax considerations.

    Stocks that did well during the year tend to get stronger because no one who is sitting on a big short-term gain is anxious to sell in December. By waiting until January to sell, the owners of this year's best performing stocks push their capital gains tax liability into next year. Barring significant news, the reduced level of selling gives the best performing stocks of the year some added strength -- until January.

    The exact opposite is happening to stocks that have gone down this year. In order to reduce their taxes, people who own these stocks want to sell them before the end of the year. Again, barring news, the increased selling pressure tends to make them weak until the end of the year."
     
  2. Not really. Individual investors should offset winners and losers from long and short positions in order to minimize tax liability and to stay above what I believe is the $3,000 maximum, write-off, loss-limit. Tax-exempt institutional funds don't have to be concerned with it at all.