<< glenn, that sounds like great advice, but I'm an unemployed full time student so I doubt that will benefit me right? Thanks for the offer though! >>
That's the thing though.... even if you have no income to set the loss against this year, you can carry the loss forward indefinitely. Let me put it to you this way.... you sell now, take the loss of $48/share. Let's just say that for sake of argument, you had 100 shares. That means you had a total capital loss of $4800. You have just lowered your year-end tax liability by $720. That means your refund check come next April 15th will be higher by over seven hundred dollars!
Look, you have to forget that you paid $66 for the stock. It doesn't matter what you paid for something once upon a time, all that matters is how you can best improve your situation now. Let me put it to you another way....
You look today and see that CSCO is at $18. You give me your 100 shares of CSCO today, and in return, i give you $1,800, and in addition, i hand you seven hundred twenty dollars, which is yours to keep. In all, i give you $2,520, no strings attached, and yours no matter what.
In addition, i tell you that if you come back in a month, you can have your shares back if you want them, and i'll accept whatever the market price at the time is for them. You don't HAVE to buy them back, but if you do, you have the right to buy them. If it's $15/share, you can buy them back for $1,500. If it's $10, i obligate myself to sell them to you for $1,000. Or, if you don't want to buy them back, you can keep the $2,520 i gave you.
Now, would you be willing to make that deal with me?
