Looking back at my past trades, it seems that I always hesitate to take losses because of the nagging thought of wash sale rules. I don't know if this is masking the psychological resistance to take a loss, or if it's just purely due to w.s. concerns. Do other traders worry about this at all, when trading in and out of the same equity? Or do you just stop trading that equity in november? It's also a pain to ferret out which ones are wash sales at dreaded year end reconciliation time. What I'm getting at is... for those who scalp multiple trades, does this ever even cross your mind as an issue?
as long as you don't have any standing bids at the price at which you're selling... then it'll be hard to do any wash selling... no matter how often you trade.
That's pretty funny! I needed a good laugh. You have no clue what a wash sale is if you're serious. Elect Mark-to-Market if you want to avoid the wash sale. "In general you have a wash sale if you sell stock at a loss, and buy substantially identical securities within 30 days before or after the sale." http://www.fairmark.com/capgain/wash/ws101.htm
I don't understand the fuss about wash sales--why is this such a big problem? My understanding is it all works out in the end because all of the purchases are added to your cost basis and the sales are added to your proceeds, so it all works out. It's not like you are losing out on a deduction (subject to the $3k limit). Am I naive?