How one dairy stock became a cash cow, page-13

Yeah, if you base your trades around tax you are really missing the point. Unless you are within a few days of the 1 year cutoff (and even then..) and you do or don't trade just based on the tax outcome, you are probably making a very sub-optimal decision.

I bought at $1.10 (and a few times on the way up the first time), sold at $2.08.
Bought at around $1.80, sold at $1.99
Bought at $1.635, holding. All in a few months.
In the first 'year' from when I first purchased I'll probably have done it 2 more times. And there is no guarantee the price then will be above $2.08 (minus the applicable tax adjustment that would be the equivalent price).
If I just bought and held I'd be up 60% or so now, instead I've made 90+% and 10%+


Example figures:
$11000 > $20800 (9800 profit - 35% = 6370)
$11000 > 17000 (assume $1.70 today) (6000 paper profit - 17.5% = $4950)

I'm better off from *just my first trade alone*, because there is no guarantee the price will be any higher than today in December this year (and if there is I'll probably be in it to capture that leg).


I know it depends on getting the trades right, but the only time I would say long term is better is when it's following a more predictable long term trend like BAL was until it got above the $14 mark.