The reason you are seeing a different average price is because DAS is loading a daily average received from your clearing broker who identified your last cover as a wash sale. As shares were sold at a loss and were repurchased within 30 days, this becomes wash sales with the realized loss added to the cost basis of the newly purchased shares. This type of trading is not allowed in the U.S. Taxation on trading stock as the losses from a security sold 30 days prior to the subsequent purchase. To read more about wash sales, please refer to IRS Publication 550 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550#en_US_2019_publink100010601).
For example:
You sold MSFT at a loss then subsequently bought it back prior to the 30 day period. Assume that the loss was $200, and you just bought 20 shares of MSFT with a total cost of $5,000. Then,
- If including the wash sale, it will be $5,200($5000 + $200 loss) divided by 20 shares, so the average cost will be $260 per share.
- If excluding the wash sale, it will just be $5,000 divided by 20 shares, so the average cost will be $250 per share.
***For TD users, the cost basis per share value can be found in the ToS platform or TD Ameritrade website by clicking on “Trade Price” and it will be listed in the “Cost” column. Please be aware that each trade can settle differently at TD as it’s based on what the TD user designates as the Tax Lot method (FIFO, LIFO, High Cost, Low Cost or Minimum Tax) in the TD account profile. DAS is not able to retrieve all the methods due to a limitation with the TD API and therefore average may differs in those situation.
***For IB users, the wash sales details can be found in your account statement.
