Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[cintrix]

Well, as someone mentioned trading out of an IRA account gets you out of paying capital gains, but it also stops you from using losses - you would lose that 3k loss deduction. Then there is MTM - mark to market. Instead of reporting only what you bought and sold for the year, MTM bases your gains on end of year - whatever your balances are for eoy. What it does is it allows you to report more losses - there is no 3k limit. Your end of year positions are based on the price of whatever you own at the last day of trading. So you are reporting realized and unrealized gains and losses. Instead of these gains/losses being considered capital they are considered ordinary.

I have been trading for 20 years and am an active trader and have never used the MTM way of reporting. That doesn't mean it isn't worth doing but I only know the basics of it. Here is some info:
https://greentradertax.com/trader-tax-center/trader-tax-status/section-475-mtm-accounting/