As someone who recently started exclusively trading spreads on equities (often opening and closing same day), I'm worried about issues from the tax man specifically "phantom gains" from trading in december.
Lets say I trade these spreads on 20 tickers throughout the year. My plan is to divide them in to two groups - Group A (10 tickers) & Group B (10 tickers) - does this ticker rotation strategy laid out below work? ( The point of this strategy is to be able to continue trading in December, without any Wash sale/ phantom gains consequences.)
January - October - Freely trade Group A & B all year. Completely close out of all positions in Group A by the end of October.
November - Only trade tickers in Group B. Close out of All positions in Group B by the end of Novemeber.
December- Only trade tickers in Group A.
January (next tax year) - Freely Trade both Group A & B
Dates are rough, to be completely safe you would want to pause a Group for at least 30 days before resuming trading again.
Also, Now that im typing it out, im not sure if I would have to pause Group A in January...
Does anyone have experience doing a ticker rotation like this?