"In and out" vs. going long

JAP said: "Hi guys, Long time reader, first time poster here. I've spent about 1 year learning about the stock market and investing, but I'm uncertain about some things and I'd like clarification from the gurus here. I seems to me that buying, selling, buying, selling, buying and selling could get kind of expensive, especially if you pay $20 per trade. Also keeping track of your cost basis could get pretty confusing. Stupid questions: 1. How much does the IRS take if you've owned a stock under a year? 2. How much do they take if you've owned it over a year? 3. How do you keep track of your cost basis by constantly buying and selling stocks? Does the brokerage do this for you? 4. I'm thinking about signing up with Scottrade because of the low $7 commissions. Does anyone here have any experience with Scottrade? If you do please give me your feedback. Thanks! JAP"

mar31977 said: "People that buy in LARGE amounts, earn large amount, day trading is not for the investor who does not have the capital to not look twice as the trading costs. This will explain the Capital Gains better [url]http://www.smartmoney.com/tax/capital/index.cfm?story=taxrates[/url] Your broker can do your cost basis, AND, at the end of the year Etrade sends me my tax info, what I have found out (they send good amount of info, but then you have to do the BUY price and SELL price to see if you lost or made) There is a list ONLINE that does this for you.....why they dont SEND it.. I will never know....but it is there for printing....I could of saved my tax man a little time if I had know about if before hand. I only know of Etrade, Its been good to me so far, IPO offerings suck ass..."

Grifter said: "I dont know how to answer the other questions because Im fairly new to this but scottrade is a great brokerage, I havent experienced one down time, not even a few minutes from them and Ive been with them for almost a year. Their IPO offerings are non-existent but they offer everything that you could possibly wish for in a discount brokerage, my reason for going with scottrade was simply that they had a branch near my house, I like knowing that theres a physical place I can go close by if I ever need anything. Good luck trading and welcome to the forum"

asylumboy said: "[QUOTE=JAP] 4. I'm thinking about signing up with Scottrade because of the low $7 commissions. Does anyone here have any experience with Scottrade? If you do please give me your feedback. JAP[/QUOTE] Scottrade does not offer ACH (To move funds in or out) Scottrade does not offer Good Interest on Free Cash Scottrade does not offer good options strategy excution In order to recommend a broker (or set of brokers) would need to consider 1) Trading Frequency 2) Types of Trades (Stocks, Penny Stocks, Options, Options Strategies, Bonds, Junk Bonds, Mutual Funds) 3) Investing or Trading? 4) Free Ca$h (Having 20K Sitting around at .2% vs 4.8% can add up) 5) After Hours Trading? 6) Amount Available to Invest (0-5K, 5K-25K, 25K-100K, ....) 7) I am sure there are others"

LanceJ said: "[QUOTE=JAP] 1. How much does the IRS take if you've owned a stock under a year? 2. How much do they take if you've owned it over a year? 3. How do you keep track of your cost basis by constantly buying and selling stocks? Does the brokerage do this for you? 4. I'm thinking about signing up with Scottrade because of the low $7 commissions. Does anyone here have any experience with Scottrade? If you do please give me your feedback. [/QUOTE] 1 = Whatever tax bracket your total income puts you in. The IRS take is recorded on line item Capital Gains/Losses box 13 (Income) on 1040 which as such, is added to your total income that is to be taxed. My tax bracket is 15%, so the IRS take in my case is about 15%. 2 = They don't take anything until you sell it. You would report it as held long term under long term capital gains/losses. Don't know the difference in how much they take versus short and long term. Go to the IRS website and do a search, it should tell you there. Finally, don't ask for tax information over a public forum. Many people talk a good game and sound like they know what they are talking about, but they don't, and you're going to suffer if you take their advice. Always consult a tax agent or the IRS. 3 = Yes. My brokerage house TDWaterhouse does this for me. 4 = ScottTrade is good for day trading/short term trading. Lots of charts generated on the fly, streaming real time quotes. Terrible for research. TDWaterhouse is not good for day trading/short term trading, no streaming real time quotes. You must enter in single ticker, then update to get real time quote. TDWaterhouse is great for research. $300 per year Outlook free with your account, most reports Yahoo Finance sells for $20 and $25 a pop are all free with TDWaterhouse, excellent EPS research capabilities and interactive Java actual and estimated EPS projections, computer A.I. analysis of financial books, Market Edge with buy and sell trading signals (normally $20 per month) free, Goldman Sachs reports if covering, free, etc. If you're a technical trader, go with ScottTrade, if you are a fundamental, deep research investor, go with TDWaterhouse."

JAP said: "Thank you for all the excellent advice! I sincerely appreciate it."

Bobby7756 said: "hey jap, if you want cheap trading, check out lowtrades.com"