Your broker will very likely allow you to export your trade list into one or more of many formats, including GainsKeeper or TradeLog.
GainsKeeper: http://www.gainskeeper.com/ TradeLog: http://www.armencomp.com/gtt-tradelog.html Interactive Brokers exports both of the above formats, and more. IB also has a very primitive equity chart that really is not very useful. However, IB will generate full reports for any date range you select, including a Mark to Market report that you could hand off to an accountant. Assuming that you are in the U.S., both GainsKeeper and TradeLog can generate custom reports (text based), track "wash sales" and generate your Schedule D tax form for you. If you have a professional accountant, some will accept the raw data file and do all your taxes from that source. I have used GainsKeeper in the past and was very pleased with them. Nice clean presentation, flexible custom reporting, responsive web site, easy uploading of files (that were exported from your broker) and excellent customer service. My accountant accepts TradeLog raw data from which to produce a tax return, rather than me having to use GainsKeeper or my broker to generate reports. For that reason alone, I have switched over to TradeLog (the easier I can make my life, the better). I have not yet spent enough time with TradeLog to give a review. Once you hit this level of trading, the thing that becomes an issue is wash sales (if trading in the U.S.). Both of the above products will handle wash sale reporting for you. More importantly, if you trade at this frequency, and with sufficient volume, you may qualify for "Trader Tax Status" in the eyes of the IRS (even if you are not a full time trader) which will allow you to elect "Mark To Market accounting". Similarly, you may opt to form an entity (i.e. a business) for your trading. An accountant specializing in trading can help here. I use Green & Company as my accountants. They specialize in taxes for traders and have CPA's located around the U.S. All interaction is handled via the web, email, phone, fax and courier. They can also help you to form an entity for your business. They are not cheap, but did a good job. Green Trader Tax: http://www.greencompany.com/ Robert Green published a very informative book on U.S. tax considerations for traders, including information on wash sales, mark to market accounting, and the formation of entities. Whether or not you go with Green & Co., the book is a wise investment: http://www.greencompany.com/Traders/Guides.shtml Hope that helps. Mike --- In [email protected], "Ken Close" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Google searches produce nothing useful, so I would like to ask this question > of frequent swing and day traders: what software do you use to track trade > results (closed trades especially but also open trades)? Does it include > calculation and display of a total resulting equity curve? Does it help in > any way for collecting and exporting reports for use at tax time? Does it > integrate with Amibroker or is standalone? Please note that I am not asking > about the backtesting and resulting listing of trades and their statistics > in Amibroker, but rather the recording of real trades made and closed over > time. > > As background to the questions, as I consider a more frequent trading system > compared to mutual funds and positions held for many weeks if not multiple > months, one that might make trades lasting weeks at most and perhaps only > days, my mind boggles at the recordkeeping involved. With potential trade > volumes in the 10 to 30 per week, the data entry starts to seem formidible. > Surely some (many?) on this list do this all the time, and I would > appreciate knowing something about your recordkeeping system(s), not your > timing systems (:-o). > > Now before TJ jumps in here, I just reviewed the AB Account Manager Help > page. This seems like it is what I am asking for, but I wonder if anyone > uses it for their real work, and if its "limitations" (one level of undo, > chronological entry order, not clear whether reports can be exported or not) > inhibit it for the purpose I am asking about. If you use something else, it > must offer benefits pveer the built-in Account Manager---what are they? > > Is this enough information for you to respond? Thanks for sharing. > > Ken >
