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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chester lee who wrote (14562)	10/11/1998 4:20:00 AM
From: put2rich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18691

Chester and all, Does any have a problem of reading SI recently? Regularly posted that host is down or some. I think it is time to short Go2net, which I have never followed. Oh your technique in circumvent the wash rule and at the same time making more money is good. The problem is some are underwater this year and can not aford to do that. Another question is if someone is so much in red I guess the wash rule is not strictly applied, isn't it? If stocks A-Y caused 20K loss and stock Z made 5K gain, the tax loss deduction is basically the same if you count 5K gain this year or next year, right? I guess the wash rule is more strictly observed for those who still have some gains or the "combined" loss is less than 3K. Regards,

To: chester lee who wrote (14562)	10/11/1998 11:51:00 AM
From: Mama Bear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

"Two good tax strategy tax loss selling is to 1. sell your dogs and walk away. 2. Buy solid companies that you already own, that have gone down substantially, and then sell the original position (gauranteing the loss) before the year ends." I suppose if you consider #1 selling to take a tax loss then I do engage in tax loss selling. I consider it good money management, and it is just coincidental that it results in a tax offset. #2 has a risk added component. First, it ties up capital that could potentially be used for other profitable trades. I have been known to double down on a stock, but again, it's not for tax loss purposes. Second point ties in to the first, what if it continues to go down? You've doubled the risk to save at best 1/4 of the capital, at worst 10%. There were a lot of folks who thought CIEN had bottomed at 10 when it jumped to 15. Anyone who added at that point in time has suffered a nearly 50% loss on their "tax lot" as it has fallen to 8 9/16 in less than 2 weeks. CIEN might not seem a good example in hindsight, but it was a darling 'core holding' when it was in the 60s and above. Another consideration is that I'm just plain not good at holding things long term. I have some index funds in my retirement account and I've decided to go ahead and hold what I have left even if the SPX falls to 800. I do still have over 20 years to retirement. I suppose one of the curses of being a short seller is seeing what can happen to one's account value overnight if one is in the wrong stock. So the fact that I have nothing but cash at the moment in my taxable accounts will definitely preclude me from being tempted to use any tax loss selling strategies this year. So, whatever you're comfortable with doing within your portfolio. I'm not comfortable with the added considerations that tax loss selling adds. I figure that it will end up evening itself out over the years. "Toss out some ideas before the year ends. " CIEN and PSFT are already on my list. Barb