Quote:
Originally Posted by InvestorWithQuestions
I churn stocks / have a trigger finger that I'll get caught in a big drop and jump out. But 99.9% of the time I am wrong and jump back in.
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Might depend on the exact ins and outs of your trading as well? I recently had a situation where I bought a stock multiple times as it declined, then sold for a total gain as it went back up. You have to look at your lots/lot sizes too; in particular, each lot is a separate entity tax-wise. For example, if I had multiple buy entries, I could have a situation where 9 of the 10 lots had a gain, but the highest priced lot was at a loss, even though I didn't lose money on the total averaged amount.
I knew about the wash rule, but recently found out that
they adjust for the wash sale rule in real time 
. I bought and sold a stock within the 30 day wash rule period, and only one of my lot buys from a multi-purchase had a loss. What happened when I bought again the following week is that they adjusted for the wash sale on that single lot where I had lost money, so my unrealized gain on the new amount was adjusted in real time; they took the wash sale loss off the new cost.
I don't know if my situation is helpful to yours, but maybe breaking it down to every single lot sale/buy would help in looking at the math.
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