Personal Finance and Investing

By that definition of wash sales, one could never take a loss on a security if it's sold within 30 days. I think it pertains to identical shares in some sense, not just an initial position sold at a loss.

Trader status is a nightmare. I looked into it a couple years back. The benefit to me would be to declare profits as regular taxable income, but the hoops you have to jump through, the worst of which is all trading must be done through the business entity. You can't be a professional trader and also manage anything in your own name. I took it to mean it's like you don't exist financially as a perrson anymore. Not even sure you can have an outside job, even if it's moonlighting. And one source said you really have to have $125K in trading profits annually to make the incorrporation worthwhile. I'm guessing most ordinary people are just better off trading within a Roth IRA. You keep records, but it's untaxable unless you violate the wash sale rule inside, outside, or both - the IRA.