4DS Chart for Long Term Holders, page-346

I was reminiscing this morning about when I was doing a lot of spec stock trading/investing back in the mid 1990's and how I was always puzzled as to the possible tax treatment of my closed trades. I can remember having to pay pretty high additional tax payments back then as well. The tax implication assumption being made on this thread seems to be that if you hold a stock for over 12 months then you and the TO will treat the profit/loss as a capital gain/loss. My experience indicates that It isn't that simple. I was naive enough to think that I could give the TO a call and they would provide me with the advice I needed. I tried this, and after being transferred three or more times and hearing tape recorders being clicked on and off in the background, I explained my situation to a TO Official and was advised that the TO makes a decision regarding the Trader or Investor tax question on a case by case basis. I consulted an Accountant about this and they advised me to write to the TO and declare each stock in my portfolio as being a member of a Trade Portfolio or an Investment Portfolio and ask for a ruling. The TO agreed and provided a written ruling, and from then on as I purchased new stock the portfolio lists were updated and maintained with advice to the TO. The risk for many will be when the TO see a large or huge profit on a spec stock they will look at the other trading/investing activities of the person making a capital gain reduction claim/assessment, and decide to do their own Trader/Investor assessment of that person's overall Trading/Investing activities.

This isn't tax advice, just my past experience with the TO.