Do not use tradelog for your taxes

I'm a first time user of Tradelog (printing my 2008 Sched D as I type) and I think the program is great. I posted my experience with it on another BB:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2295678&highlight=tradelog#post2295678

The only complaints I have are:

1) I needed some assistance with symbol changes and mergers and they insisted that I send my data file to them. Tradelog wrote here that:

Many active traders would disagree - they comment to us frequently that they do not like the idea of having their confidential trade history maintained on a 3rd party web site."
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Not only would I object to that but I also would not want it in a 3rd party's hands, no matter how safe they claim it to be. Fortunately, I was able to figure out an input price to get the program to produce the same P&L result on the Sched D as in reality.

2) I wish the program would print more info per page so I don't need a hernia belt to lift my return :)
I'm a noob at this so it may exist. If so, my only complaint is the privacy issue. Apart from that, I'm glad to rid of this tax preparation nightmare and I feel comfortable knowing that if I screw up again next year and incur some wash sale violations, it's no big deal.
 
I have a simple question - does TradeLog and other similar software is using floating point or decimal arithmetic calculations. Because it is a huge difference.
 
I see TradeLog and GainsKeeper representatives on the forum - could you please tell me how you prorm your calculations - a floating point or decimal arithmetic?
 
Gainskeeper is nice, but you CANNOT EXPORT your trades. Good luck if you ever want to leave them. So if you have multi-year trades and want to switch to another product, forget it. They own you, or you have to keep a whole set of duplicate records outside Gainskeeper. Then you ask you self, what are they thinking?
 
Absolutely LOVE tradelog, but is there anyway to enter optionshouse data into it? I purchased but didn't realize some brokerage house data could not be entered...
 
john12 said:
to the above note. i trade around 300k times a year and use one if not the best trader accountant in america and to use anything like tradelog or gainskeeper is stupid and unneeded. the wash run sales is bs if one closes all positons at year end. 1 line accounting is all thats needed for a full time heavy trader. most brokers like tos or ameritrade provide free gainskeeper if you need to download your trades.don't let these software vendors scare you into buying there wares
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can you give u sa roadmap ,i like the idea of closing all positions at yearend
 
Tradelog remains the best solution on the market for securities traders. It's the only solution that handles taxpayer compliance fully and properly. See http://www.greentradertax.com/trader-tax-center/accounting-solutions/

Excerpt: Many traders and their tax preparers cut corners on trade accounting for securities. They seek to download broker-issued 1099-Bs directly into tax preparation software or to simply attach broker-issued profit and loss reports to tax returns. In the majority of cases, that shortcut solution will not work since taxpayers must calculate wash sales based on substantially identical positions across all brokerage accounts including IRAs, and the IRS only requires brokers to calculate wash sales based on identical positions per one account.
 
Tradelog has a little "SURPRISE!" for us... if you have holdings for several years that pay dividends and those dividends are "re-invested" Tradelog now counts each one of these as a transaction. So for the first several years I could use the 200 transactions per year subscription. But when I upgraded to 2017 Tradelog, I now have so many transactions (without even making ONE Trade!) that I am now mandated to buy the 600 transaction version! I have probably only made 20 or 30 trades this year, all the other "transactions" were DRIPS from previous years! Eventually, if I stay with TradeLog, I will have to buy the 1500 transaction subscription whether I trade or not. I don't think they used to do this when they were with Armen Computing. I didn't have this issue in the past. It was only THIS YEAR that as soon as I created my "New Tax Year 2017" that immediately a pop up told me that I had too many transactions. So be aware, perhaps they can fix this, I hope they will, but this change seems intentional so I doubt they will.
 
I forgot to add, TradeLog is a great program usually, and I really love using it, however now I am forced to buy the 600 transaction subscription even when I don't trade at all. This does not seem fair to me. any thoughts?
 
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