Summary
One way to make lemonade from lemons in a broad stock-market pullback is to weed out the losers from an investment portfolio, harvesting tax-loss carryforwards along the way. These losses can be used to offset future capital gains that may be generated when the stock market once again is in an uptrend. It takes discipline to sell stocks, however. Many times, investors are reluctant to sell stocks that are down in the dumps due to hopes that a turnaround is coming. In this case, an alternative strategy can be to sell losers and buy a similar stock or related industry ETF in an attempt to capture upside down the road. But beware of the tax rules. The so-called wash-sale rule from the IRS prohibits selling an investment for a
