Accommodation Trading

  

Categories: Investing, Stocks, Bonds

Foul! We cry it. Accommodation Trading is illegal. Two traders agree to transact in non-fair-market-values, as one sells a stock below market just before Santa takes his spin...and then, a month later, the accommodating trader sells back that stock well below market prices just to be a nice guy, so that the first guy can recognize a tax loss.

You go to jail for this stuff, and licensed traders get asked about it all the time. The accommodation notably is always such that the trade takes a month to hit the return valve, thus not triggering the wash sale rule and nullifying the tax loss. So like...do you really want the IRS coming after you? Yeah, good luck with that. For more gory details, see Painting The Tape.

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