tax loss selling Tax loss selling somewhat ambiguous for U.S. taxpayers. Higher income people subject to higher taxes in 2013 than 2012 on capital gains (exact details uncertain, but there are most likely some serious tax increases on the way and high income people will have a 3.8% Medicare tax tacked on to all capital gains next year). Therefore, tax loss selling does not make sense for 2012. Higher income people should wait until January to harvest losses since they willbe worth much more next year. Selling this year means the government gives back 15% of your loss. Selling in January could have the government absorb closer to 25% of the loss (assuming 20% cap gain rate+3.8% medicare tax).
So there should be a lot more capital gain selling in December( basically selling now rather than selling early next year if have a gain)
With the poor performance of COS in recent years, it should have more downward pressure in January than now. Of course, fundamentals are likely to override this since accounts not taxable in the U.S. will snap up if fundamentals justify a higher price. IMHO, short term, there is a glut of oil in Alberta with little transportation capacity to move it and a world oil market with risk of downside exceeding upside over the next year (absent a very strong economic recovery). So, I have sold down my long term position to harvest tax gains. I like the yield, but will wait to see when midwest bottlenecks clear up and how world oil demand fares for the next few months