Steve,
There is a rule regarding IRA trading. It's a simple rule- you can't use margin. None, zero, not even for 1 second. You're not allowed to have any more at risk than is in your account (probably because if you loose more than you've got in your account you've got to poney it up from somewhere else and that would require an excess contribution).
Shorting requires margin, not gonna happen in an IRA account.
The other SEC rule Thean was talking about says you can't exceed your margin buying power, clearing it up by the end of the day doesn't matter. Of course in an IRA account that doesn't matter cause there isn't any margin to exceed but, in a taxable account, if you gotta sell something to get enough buying power to buy something else, make sure your sell actually executes before you place the buy order. Otherwise you've got three days to make a deposit to cover that temporary margin deficit, even though doesn't exist any more. Newbies that think day trading means they can put $5k in an account and buy $50K worth of some stock as long as they sell it before the close get burned on that one, they loose their margin power and their 3 days to settle privileges. No cash in account then no can buy.
Oh, you can do that $50K day trade in your $5k account, but you've got to deposit $20K within three days to cover it, even though the position is already closed. Anything else is cheating.
You sold stock you had - no rules against that and NOT a short position, virtual or otherwise.
You bought it back - wash rule would only have applied if it was a taxable account AND you sold at a loss, (in which case you would have to defer your loss). You didn't have a loss so the wash rule would not apply, whatever kind of account. Even if you had a real loss, you wouldn't have had a tax loss (since it's in an IRA) so there's nothing to wash.
FWIW...Alski. |
