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Thank you Dennis, just shrinking the paperwork is a
pretty good reason to switch. 8 - )
BTW, would you happen to
know about trading futures in an IRA? Can it be done? Can
one somehow use futures to go short in an IRA? Thanks again!
Steve
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 5:57
PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Semi-OT:
Portfolio Manager for frequent Swing Trading
Steve,
With stocks and options, you have to reconcile and show every
transaction in your account during the year on Schedule-D. For an active
trader, this can amount to a lot of work matching trades and figuring out
special situations like mergers. With futures (commodities in IRS
speak), the broker just gives you a statement that says you made x dollars in
the year on Y commodity (like the S&P 500 or Silver)... end of story.
You fill out a different one page schedule --not Schedule-D.
Stocks are considered individual investments. Futures are
considered a hedge for real stuff as a business need for producers.
Futures speculators help keep the commodities prices liquid and at a
fair price which helps the economy run smoothly.
BR,
Dennis
On Oct 21, 2008, at 5:18 PM, Steve Dugas wrote:
Hi Dennis - I have been thinking about trying
futures lately, I know they get the beneficial 60/40 tax treatment but I
never knew the paperwork was so much easier...could you briefly explain what
the IRS requires for futures?
Thanks!
Steve
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 3:19
PM
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Semi-OT:
Portfolio Manager for frequent Swing Trading
Hello Ken,
I am a frequent trader. I use thinkorswim as a broker. I
use their built-in tools for all actual trade accounting, including tax
prep. Actually tax accounting is such a pain, that I prefer to trade
futures because it eliminates 99.9% of the tax paperwork in the US.
To get an equity curve, I input my account basis and liquidation
value in a spreadsheet each night. It only takes about 5 minutes.
I also keep a trade log of my trades each day for my own learning
purposes.
There is no connection between TOS and AmiBroker programs.
Best regards,
Dennis
On Oct 21, 2008, at 3:47 AM, Ken Close wrote:
Google searches
produce nothing useful, so I would like to ask this question of frequent
swing and day traders: what software do you use to track trade
results (closed trades especially but also open trades)? Does it
include calculation and display of a total resulting equity curve?
Does it help in any way for collecting and exporting reports for use at
tax time? Does it integrate with Amibroker or is standalone?
Please note that I am not asking about the backtesting and resulting
listing of trades and their statistics in Amibroker, but rather the
recording of real trades made and closed over time.
As background to
the questions, as I consider a more frequent trading system compared to
mutual funds and positions held for many weeks if not multiple months,
one that might make trades lasting weeks at most and perhaps only days,
my mind boggles at the recordkeeping involved. With potential
trade volumes in the 10 to 30 per week, the data entry starts to seem
formidible. Surely some (many?) on this list do this all the time,
and I would appreciate knowing something about your recordkeeping
system(s), not your timing systems (:-o).
Now before TJ jumps
in here, I just reviewed the AB Account Manager Help page. This
seems like it is what I am asking for, but I wonder if anyone uses it
for their real work, and if its "limitations" (one level of undo,
chronological entry order, not clear whether reports can be exported or
not) inhibit it for the purpose I am asking about. If you use
something else, it must offer benefits pveer the built-in Account
Manager---what are they?
Is this enough
information for you to respond? Thanks for
sharing.
Ken
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