As the others mentioned, in addition to writing off the $3K per year and continuing on until the total loss is wiped, if you happen to have any capital gains in a particular year, you can accelerate the write off, up to the total. I too am working off the 2000 crash that will probably last until I die, but this helped a great deal in some gains in a later business sale. I learned this the hard way too.
The point is, now is the perfect time to lock in the losses. Provided there's no substantial change expected in the stock price over the next 30 days, by sitting on it, you missed what could be a good opportunity.
For instance, if you are sitting on 1,000 shares purchased at $45K, if you sell it now at say $12K, you can book a $33K loss that can be written off over the next 11 years at $3k/yr, and/or accellerated if you stumble on other capital gains. If you're at the 30% tax bracket, that's $23K of real in your pocket money you would be missing if you just sat on it during the same 30 days.
Obviously, the risk is that the stock goes up from the sell point, but it would have to go up to nearly $35 before it's a wash. I would bet my kids that ain't happening.
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Topic: HD Stock Dropped Off the Chart! (Read 1996 times)