TradeLog uses strict "First In, First Out" (FIFO) trade matching, per IRS guidelines. The Match function enables the user to abandon FIFO trade matching and match specific trade transactions together into one tax lot.
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If you use this function, be sure that the tax lots in your data file match the trade history data on your broker statements and Form 1099, as the latter is sent to the IRS each year.
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Be very careful when using this function as you can match transactions that could possibly unbalance other transactions for the same stock causing a "negative shares" error.
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You must also select all of the transactions that you want to match at once. Matching a group of 4 transactions and then selecting one or two of these plus another different transaction will cause unpredictable results. If there are multiple trade matching mistakes made, then from the Records menu, click Select All, and then from the Adjustments menu click UnMatch. TradeLog will then ReMatch your trades and put everything back in order using First In, First Out trade matching.
To match specific trade records into a tax lot:
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From the Adjustments menu, click Match or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M.
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A Warning popup window will appear, asking "Match selected records?". Click YES to match, NO to cancel.
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If you selected YES, TradeLog will force every selected record together into a tax lot, and assign a new trade number to the lot.
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A Confirm popup window will appear, asking "Save your changes?". Click YES to save, NO to cancel.
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If you need to reverse the matching function, click the Undo button.
Example:
On January 5th Steve buys 1000 shares of MSFT and wants to hold them long-term.
On February 12th, Steve decides to day trade MSFT. He buys 200 shares and, later in the day, sells the 200 shares at a profit.
As TradeLog uses strict FIFO trade matching, the sale of the 200 shares would be matched with the first purchase of 1000 shares on January 5th when the trades are imported. However, this trade matching doesn't accurately reflect how Steve executed his trades and won't be consistent with the trade history report from his online broker.
So, Steve selects the buy and sell transactions for the 200 shares of MSFT and uses the Match function to match them into a new tax lot with a new trade number. This effectively leaves the initial purchase of 1000 shares on January 5th still opened and available for trade matching when Steve eventually sells these shares in the future.
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