I live in Chicago and work full time as an internet developer for a local company. I also work independently as a sub for a local development firm (as a developer) and typically I write off my software, computers etc against this income.
In August I began trading for the first time. I started out small, with a $2500 account. I made some small profits and added to that account to bring it over the $25k limit approximately two weeks ago.
I trade primarily because I enjoy it. There is a tremendous amount of work involved, particularly as I began at absolute ground zero in terms of knowledge, but it is truly fun. I do not, however, want to turn this into my primary occupation. My goal for 2005 was simply to not lose money and pay for all overhead (ie commissions, data etc). For 2006 I want to accomplish the same, but get a return on my money higher then my ING account.
I realize these goals will seem modest to most of you, but I feel it will take at least a year or two before I have any real knowledge.
Daily activity varies, some days I trade nothing and let my positions ride. Or simply get out completely and wait. As an example of a busy day, yesterday I had $8,238 in net trades, a few thousand shares, $102.76 in commissions a net P/L after commissions of $400 and change. Today I am doing very little as I am busy with other things, plus the market is not behaving the way I expected.
In the last week or so I've become very concerned about the tax implications. I had assumed at worst it would be a net P/L and I would have to treat it as income. I've done some basic research and have a handle on some of the issues, but in particular I am worried about the $3k limit on losses and how that is calculated. Over the last two months I have made several thousand dollars, and I lost a few thousand as well. Is the $3k loss considered a sum of all losses for the year, or a maximum of -$3k P/L for the year?
Over the last two weeks I have taken days of heavy activity (such as yesterday) and dropped those into an Excel ss to analyze my behavior. I tend to shoot from the hip, and not stick to my stops. While I am profitable overall, I have lost large amounts when I could have done better. A subject for another thread and another day.
But with regard to taxes, should I do this for every day of the month?
My wife is a corporate attorney at a firm in Chicago and specializes in private equity, jv's and is now getting into m&a work. If I need to set up some type of business entity in order to position myself better, she would be able to do this and save us some money.
I would like to end this by saying that these forums have been a great source of information as well as insight into different types of behavior. It certainly has helped me and I am grateful. Some of the posts are hilarious.
Best wishes and good luck to all.
In August I began trading for the first time. I started out small, with a $2500 account. I made some small profits and added to that account to bring it over the $25k limit approximately two weeks ago.
I trade primarily because I enjoy it. There is a tremendous amount of work involved, particularly as I began at absolute ground zero in terms of knowledge, but it is truly fun. I do not, however, want to turn this into my primary occupation. My goal for 2005 was simply to not lose money and pay for all overhead (ie commissions, data etc). For 2006 I want to accomplish the same, but get a return on my money higher then my ING account.
I realize these goals will seem modest to most of you, but I feel it will take at least a year or two before I have any real knowledge.
Daily activity varies, some days I trade nothing and let my positions ride. Or simply get out completely and wait. As an example of a busy day, yesterday I had $8,238 in net trades, a few thousand shares, $102.76 in commissions a net P/L after commissions of $400 and change. Today I am doing very little as I am busy with other things, plus the market is not behaving the way I expected.
In the last week or so I've become very concerned about the tax implications. I had assumed at worst it would be a net P/L and I would have to treat it as income. I've done some basic research and have a handle on some of the issues, but in particular I am worried about the $3k limit on losses and how that is calculated. Over the last two months I have made several thousand dollars, and I lost a few thousand as well. Is the $3k loss considered a sum of all losses for the year, or a maximum of -$3k P/L for the year?
Over the last two weeks I have taken days of heavy activity (such as yesterday) and dropped those into an Excel ss to analyze my behavior. I tend to shoot from the hip, and not stick to my stops. While I am profitable overall, I have lost large amounts when I could have done better. A subject for another thread and another day.
But with regard to taxes, should I do this for every day of the month?
My wife is a corporate attorney at a firm in Chicago and specializes in private equity, jv's and is now getting into m&a work. If I need to set up some type of business entity in order to position myself better, she would be able to do this and save us some money.
I would like to end this by saying that these forums have been a great source of information as well as insight into different types of behavior. It certainly has helped me and I am grateful. Some of the posts are hilarious.
Best wishes and good luck to all.