Replies to post #4558 on Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[Imagineer66]

In a Roth IRA ...
for current income. I will defer to others.

[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/

[PhoenixwingzZ]

That question varies depending on your broker. If I were to day trade, i would have to invest enough where even small ticker movements make me the necessary money to pay for my 9.99 buy order and 9.99 sell order, plus giving me that profit of whatever size. (I take what i can get really, even a day trade that only makes 5 dollars is a rough sense of the word profit but still better than losing.) Essentially, the most efficient way to day trade is to REALLY put your fingers on the cutting board and invest a lot at once per trade, but I warn you meek stranger/investor; investing a lot into day-tradable stocks can have serious consequences if it starts ticking in the wrong direction, and considering penny stocks aren't remotely trustworthy its hard to profit when your eye-balls and heart is glued to the performance of stocks with unknown variables manipulating its' share price; you could find your buy order easy to commit, but your sell order could be but one order in the giant line of orders awaiting execution, especially a stock with high volume. Efficiency is key for making a profit and you're right for wondering that. I just hope that a bad day trade only makes you eager to buy stocks with high value that climb slow over time, because I almost stopped investing forever after some SEC run-ins with stocks that I defined as "day-tradable". Long-term value company investing is the real sense of the word investing to me (but if you do some digging and really believe a start-up company listed on the OTC Pink board can make it in this world, all to you!). Day trading is like playing scratch tickets. yeah, you could get a greal deal after some company buy-off or quarterly revenue report when you go to sell, but a lot of those day-trading penny stocks get investigated by the SEC if your deal was way too sweet on a trade. Then they hold your money and it demoralizes the mindset of playing the market to make it out a millionaire at the end of the tunnel. I never have problems with market-trending stocks the way i have problems with penny-stocks; i rest on my laurels better with value company stocks. Day trading can make you feel like your efforts to become rich are futile. Statistically, 9 out of 10 start-up companies fail. You see, a realization will come you, to invest in a stock that has equivalent value and relevant branding to match (.I.E. Coca Cola, WD-40 INC COM, Hershey, Monster Beverage Corp. Comcast Inc.) They're hella expensive but when it comes down to it, the stocks that are moving wild like the stock picks named over high volume will impress those with peering eyes staring at your screen. Did you have a nice read?