Selling part of my position?

Question

I have made multiple purchases in the same company. I believe in the company, but need to liquidate some of the shares now.

Would the stocks I am selling come off the oldest shares or the highest priced shares (or vice verse in both instances).

Answer 1

Depends on the laws of where you live.  In Canada and most other places,  you should calculate the ACB (Adjusted Cost Base) which is the = the number of shares you purchased divided by the total cost of all your shares.  Basically it averages out the cost of you position.  When you sell you the Gain/Loss is calculated based on this ACB value.  It was set up this way to make record keeping much easier.  Think about how hard it would be if you were purchases shares on a monthly basis trying to keep track of the costs of each transaction.

Answer 2

It doesn't matter when you bought them.  You would just get whatever the market value of those shares would be.

Answer 3

In the United State you may specify which shares you are selling at the time of the sale. See

http://www.fairmark.com/capgain/ident.ht...

for details.

If you do not specify which shares you are selling you will sell the oldest shares first.

Answer 4

It doesn't matter really. Obviously for tax purposes it is FIFO (first in first out). Don't forget (UK) if you sell and then buy back within 30 days, the two trades are ignored for CGT purposes (i.e. NO Bed & Breakfast), although if you were considering this you could bed & spouse or Bed & ISA.

Further info contact me on http://www.shareworld.co.uk

Answer 5

You should sell the shares that will minimize your tax bill.  Depending on which broker your account is with, you can sometime specify which shares to sell on line.  Some brokers do not provide that feature.  In that case you have to call them up and specify which shares to sell.  And be sure that they state on the sales slip which shares were sold.