I lost my job in May 2010 and started to trade. I made more than 1000 trades. Can I choose trader status and claim unemployment benefit at the same time?? Thanks,
Since you're not making money and do not have a job, I think it is safe to say that you are unemployed.
Finally, I got an answer from Green & Company CPAs http://greencompany.s3.amazonaws.com/ConfCall/GreenTraderTaxPodcastJan202011.mp3 (75:00 length) 1:02:20 - 1:04:49: Can a person collect unemployment benefits and trade at the same time? - Green explains how trading does not conflict with unemployment but it can if you take a fee from a trading entity. Be very careful with trading, you can lose money and unemployed people are usually on a strict budget.
at 1 hour and 02 min and 30 seconds into the above link podcast Robert Green discusses the topic as an answer to a question........but he is talking about being able to draw unemployment while you have TRADER status. What about if you've taken your trader status one step further after having lost your conventional job and have established mark-to-market accounting status with the IRS for your "trader status" ,where your trading is actually business income or ordinary income instead of capital gains???? This is what most active and sucessful begining traders do when getting into the trading profession. Can you keep drawing the extended unemployment benefits if you've declared mark-to-market status?.....or would that decision be based upon whether you are actually making or losing money at any point during the year? Of course the question assumes you are actually following the rules of unemployment insurance where you are regularly looking for work in your old career.
I know this is a 9 yr old thread, but do you guys think traders can qualify for PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance)? I see Self-employed listed. Thx. https://labor.ny.gov/ui/pdfs/pandemic-unemployment-assistance.pdf