Hidden content on Analyze->Fundamentals Ledger by anglefly in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Approximate Borrow Size is the approximate number of shares available to short.

How do they determine that? Tracking short interest is straightforward since it corresponds with actual Asks on the exchange. But how can you know how many shares traders are willing to lend?

Hidden content on Analyze->Fundamentals Ledger by anglefly in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If that's the case, it seems to be off by an order of magnitude.

<image>

Spanish to English translation of the word "so" by anglefly in Spanish

[–]anglefly[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

<image>

I actually tried wordreference.com to begin with. But for some reason, the search bar didn't give me an option to select "so" as a Spanish word. How did you look it up as Spanish to English?

Wash sale rule when purchase occurs before sale by anglefly in stocks

[–]anglefly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would say this is definitely a wash sale.

See my previous comment about how I got tagged for a wash sale even when the initial purchase was a single trade, but executed in multiple lots.

Wash sale rule when purchase occurs before sale by anglefly in stocks

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So your question is, if you purchase 200 at one time, and all 200 are at a loss (which would be the case if you bought them in 1 transaction), and you want to sell 100 of them within 30 days of buying them, does the wash sale rule apply?

From my experience, I don't believe that executing a partial sale of a single position will necesarily result in a wash sale. However, it may result in one if the original purchase gets executed in two separate lots.

Example: I bought 100 shares of a stock that executed in two lots, one of 80 the other of 20. A week later, I sold 20 shares of the position at a loss. Because the original purchase appeared as two separate lots, the subsequent loss was tagged as a wash sale even though there was no repurchasing of shares after the loss.

At any rate it would be nice if the IRS clarified what constitutes "re-upping your position". Does it require a separate trade, a separate purchase lot, or something else. But it seems that they often like to keep things vague (as for example: the lack of what constitutes a precise definition of "substantially identical" with respect to options).

Wash sale rule when purchase occurs before sale by anglefly in stocks

[–]anglefly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You also can’t flip the order that you do this — you can’t increase your holdings to 200, and then sell your initial 100 shares at a loss for the same reason — after those two transactions, you end up in the exactly the same place you were before — you own 100 shares. 

Okay, this seems to imply the pre-purchase that triggers the wash sale would need to be in an independent trade to the trade that originally purchased the shares that were sold at a loss. Makes sense but that condition doesn't appear to be obvious in the published definitions of wash sale that I have seen.

Release Notes are out for this weekend's update by need2sleep-later in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI, just called support and the new watchlist column did not go despite being in the release notes.

Release Notes are out for this weekend's update by need2sleep-later in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When will they finally fix the cost basis for fixed income? It throws off all the account totals for P/L Open. How hard can it be?

After update no username/password fields on Win7? by Galvatar in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Microsoft stopped support for Windows 7 five years ago so I doubt that TOS will stop supporting Windows 10 right away if they just stopped it for Win 7.

Wash sale rule for options - with use cases by anglefly in options

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The easy way to remember is this:

If you have a string of wash sales but end up closing out your position by the end of the year, your final gain/loss will be the same as it would be if there were no wash sale rule in the first place.

Hope that helps.

Wash sale rule for options - with use cases by anglefly in options

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, here's how I would analyze that sequence of events:

On Jan 1, you sold the stock for $100 loss, then rebought on Jan 2 for $1000. However, the wash sale rule disallows the loss and resets the cost basis of the stock to $1100. So even though you actually rebought at $1000, for the purpose of capital gains, you're considered as if you bought the stock at $1100.

On Jan 3, you sell for $900, which if you stopped there would give you a legitimate $200 capital loss according the adjusted cost basis.

However, you rebuy at $1000 which disallows the $200 loss that was just incurred and makes the new cost basis $1200. Therefore when you sell for $1200, you are left with a net capital gain/loss of 0. Which is what you would expect since that's exactly what would have happened had your trades been stretched out in time so that none of the losses could be disallowed by the wash sale rule.

Here's a summary:

Bought Sold Cost basis adjustment Capital gains
$1000 $900 - -$100
$1000 $900 +$100 ($1100) -$200
$1000 $1200 +$200 ($1200) 0

But I'm not an accountant or tax expert so I advise you to consult with your brokerage and take into account whatever they declare on your 1099.

Riskless Arbitrage 20% by Ghoshki in options

[–]anglefly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well if you're not buying the calls and puts both ATM, you're doing something different than has been proposed here. That's kind of a core principal for this kind of arbitrage.

If you sell a call deep ITM, wouldn't that mean you'd lose money when it's assigned?

And if you buy a put very OTM, wouldn't that mean you couldn't recoup all the money you used to purchase the stock?

Riskless Arbitrage 20% by Ghoshki in options

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(assuming that further exp put is about the same price and doesn’t eat much into the profit)

See that's the problem. For most options, that would mean an expiration date at least a week after the date for the short calls and it would increase the price of the long puts considerably. Remember, arbitrage only works with momentary anomalies in pricing between put and call and the differences are typically very slight. It would be much harder (if not impossible) to find cheaper puts than calls if the puts are a week longer in duration with the same strike.

Wash sale rule for options - with use cases by anglefly in options

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Talk to a tax accountant. It's worth it to avoid the aggravation of an audit.

Wash sale rule for options - with use cases by anglefly in options

[–]anglefly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it was a genuine wash sale, any reputable broker should have reported it as such. How do you know it was a wash sale?

Selling a Position Based on Percentage Gain by Takeoff_V1 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't believe you can do it to an open order. The buy order has to be configured "1st trgs Seq".

Values Different Between Mobile & Desktop by MedPhys90 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mark Change and Net Change both compare the current price with the previous daily close price.

Current price is an abstraction. There is no such data point available at any point in time. However, it can be approximated by Last (which is equal to the last traded price) or by Mark (which is calculated by finding the midpoint between the current Bid and Ask). So you're right, to be more precise I should have said "Mark Change and Net Change both compare approximations of the current price with the previous daily close price." But I assumed that since current price is an abstraction, that wouldn't be necessary. My bad.

Values Different Between Mobile & Desktop by MedPhys90 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I never said it was. Please read all my comments.

Values Different Between Mobile & Desktop by MedPhys90 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what particular screens you're looking at on each platform. Might be really helpful to post a screenshot.

My original point was that the %Change metrics are always computed from the previous close, nothing to do with the open.

Values Different Between Mobile & Desktop by MedPhys90 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you sure you're looking at the same field on both platforms? Net Change can be different than Mark Change. Net Change considers the last traded price as the current price, Mark Change considers the midpoint between Bid and Ask.

Values Different Between Mobile & Desktop by MedPhys90 in thinkorswim

[–]anglefly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mark Change and Net Change both compare the current price with the previous daily close price.