THE LAW'S AFTER-HOURS BOARD - EDUCATE, ENLIGHTEN AND/OR ENTERTAIN

[GreedyAgorist]

Something like that happened to me last year when I got my 2019 report from my broker. Remembering it off the top of my head here, but pretty sure it was with BNGI (formerly COBI). I was averaging in and thought I had avoided any wash sale issues by never buying back into that or any other ticker within 30 days. With pinkies, that was usually not a problem, as the price was pretty much always lower a month later. But again, with BNGI, I was buying once in a while, lowering my average cost basis, so much so that when I sold, it was for a price more than that average, but it was not less than the cost of the most expensive shares in my first purchased lot. And the last buy-in, which of course was at the lowest price and therefore lower than my sale price, had happened less than 30 days BEFORE that sale where I took some shares off the table. Some, but not all, being a key point. If I had sold all of them and waited 30 days before playing the stock again, no problem, even if that sale was less than 30 days after my last buy, because the books would have been closed, no shares left to be considered wash sale “replacement shares.” Note: I only just recently sold those replacement shares and finally closed the wash. (Boy, I wish I had kept averaging in; it has taken off recently, but then, what hasn’t?)

So, even though you did all your buying first and then sold, if any of the purchases were within 30 days of that sale (and, of course, for less than your sale price), then it is still a wash. (Keeping in mind that if the sale had been for a gain, not a loss versus your initial lot of shares, then I think you would have been OK, no wash. In that case, you would have just had to wait the 30 days before buying-in for a price less than your sale price.)

My default set-up is FIFO (first in, first out), but you can specify a different more recently purchased lot, if you want to. (I think I did that with VIBI last month; I forget why.) FIFO applies to your orders as you put them in, so it can get confusing if I set up a limit order to sell some shares, and then later add another limit order to sell additional shares at a lower exit price. Obviously the order with the lower price will execute first, but the first order at the higher price has the earlier purchased shares (likely at a higher price) earmarked by the system as the ones for sale on that order. To keep it simple, it makes sense to change the first order and make that the one with the lower sale price, and then put in a second order at the higher price, if you want. I had 4 sell orders execute on the same day in SNDD, That wasn’t the plan when I put the orders in, but who knew it was going to have a +100% day? Fortunately that was in an IRA, so no worries.