Notice for MTM users: If you are using mark to market accounting for this account please click here to see our separate directions about new MTM accounts.
Determining baseline positions
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Retrieve your December Statement from the previous tax year, for this brokerage account.(ex.: If creating a 2024 data file, you need your December 2023 Statement)
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From this statement look at the section reporting 'Holdings as of December 31.' Here your broker reports what was open and settled at year end which carries forward to the next year. Before entering these holdings as baseline positions carefully read all of the following points.
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Next find the section 'Trades Pending Settlement.' TradeLog records transactions based on trade date as required by the IRS. If there are trades in the prior tax year that are pending settlement, you must account for these in your baseline positions.
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Now that you have identified your baseline positions, you will need the original purchase date and price paid in order to enter them into TradeLog.
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Notice that the price and date that is provided on the December statement is typically the fair market value of these shares as of December 31. The IRS requires that the true cost basis data be recorded. Therefore, you need to back track through your monthly statements to find when you purchased the shares and how much you paid for them.
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Once you have determined your baseline positions you can proceed with entering the positions into TradeLog.Note: If you have wash sales that were deferred in the previous tax year you will want to account for these with your baseline positions as well. See our topic on Manually Entering a Wash Sale Deferral for more information.
Entering Baseline Positions into TradeLog
- Select the brokerage account you will be entering baseline positions for by selecting the appropriate Account Tab. All trade editing must be done in the individual account tabs.
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From the Account menu, click the Baselines button
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The Baseline Positions Wizard box will appear. Click the button Enter Baseline Manually to continue to manual entry.Notice TradeLog has created a blank record for manual entry. This is where you type the baseline information that you have looked up in your statement.
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Type a DateTwo digit month and day, and a four digit year (ex. 12/31/2023).Separators must be forward slashes ("/") and are automatically generated as the complete date is typed.. Alpha-numeric date formats are not acceptable (ex. December 31, 2023).
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Select OO/C stands for Open/Close. Since you are putting in open positions, you will use only O.
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Select L or SL/S stands for Long/Short. Here you will specify whether you bought to open or sold to open. If you bought to open shares/contracts then you will use L for Long. If you shorted shares/contracts, sold to open, then you will use S for Short.
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Type the Ticker symbolThis is the NYSE symbol of the company being traded. Make sure when entering multiple records for the same security that the ticker symbols are identical. TradeLog cannot match two records with different tickers - even if they vary due to one special character (ex. %, &, -, /) or a space.Mutual Funds - are generally entered as a five character alpha symbol, (ex. AAPIX)Options - need to be in the following format: Ticker symbol, expiration day, three character expiration month, expiration year, strike price, & whether it is a CALL or PUT.(ex.: "AAPL 31DEC24 280 CALL")Futures - can be entered using future symbols (ex.: "ESM6" or "ESM06") or TradeLog standardized option symbol format (ex.: "ES DEC24")Futures Options - can only be entered using TradeLog standardized futures option symbol format (ex.: "ES DEC24 1030 CALL")
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Type the amount of shares or contractsThis is how many shares or contracts were open that carried through to the next year.
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Type the price per share or contractThe price per share/contract when they were originally purchased.
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Select the type of securityHere you need to specify what type of security you are entering.If entering a stock, or bond position select STK-1If entering a mutual fund position select MUT-1If entering an option position select OPT-100If entering an ETF/ETN position select ETF-1If entering a future or broad-based index option position select FUT-. You need to enter the multiplier.If entering a currency select CUR-1.If entering cryptocurrency (digital currency) select DCY-1.
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Type the commissionThis is the commission paid on the shares or contracts when they were originally purchased.
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Leave the amount column blankTradeLog will automatically calculate this column.Amount = Shares x Price +/- Commissions & Fees
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Leave the profit and loss column blank
Below are a few examples of properly entered Baseline Positions:
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After you enter one complete record, press the ENTER key twice. TradeLog will prompt you to save the entry.Click YES
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You will be prompted to Enter another transaction? Click YES and continue entering open positions until you have accounted for all of them - repeating steps above.
- Once finished click NO when prompted to Enter another transaction?
Please proceed to Import your Trade History.
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