10/29   I made a mistake on my day trade and I'm wondering how that affects
        my tax. Let's say I bought 1 share of X for $10 (call it X1) and
        another share of X for $14 (call it X2). When X went up to $12, I
        decided to sell X1 for a profit of 12-10=$2. However, Etrade
        executed my X2, meaning I have a real loss of 12-14=$-2. Let's say,
        hypothetically, that X goes to $16 and I sell X2 for a profit of
        16-10=$6. Is there a different tax scenario given the two scenarios?
        Sum of (12-14) + (16-10) = $4 (what actually happened)
        Sum of (12-10) + (16-14) = $4 (what I intended it to happen)
        \_ The IRS views transactions as first-in, first-out.  So they
           will take the second view.  If you've closed out both positions,
           it doesn't make a difference; if you still held one position,
           they would look at $12-$10.  -tom
           \_ So I can't write off the first one as capital loss of $2?
              Darn I was hoping I could do something clever. Oh well.
              Thanks tom that's pretty helpful.
           \_ Actually, you can designate which shares you sell but this
              needs to be done in writing and in advance of the sale. This
              is the "specific shares" method. There is also the
              double-category method where you have "long-term" shares and
              "short-term" shares. The "average cost" method is when the
              IRS decides long/short-term based on FIFO, but that is for
              mutual fund shares only AFAIK. Consult your tax advisor.
        \_ See how dumb this is?  Support the FairTax.