I really don't know how it works within an IRA, but I would suspect since it's a retirement account, you wouldn't/couldn't benifit from it until you are eligible to withdraw funds from it. I would guess at that time, you would be able to declare it as a loss on your taxes.....personally, I would call your brokerage and have a list of written questions to ask them. Much easier to go from a list because one tends to get a bit off track when talking to those people about money....at least thats my experience with TDAmeritrade.