Trade DBA or DBC and recieve a K-1 in the mail?

DB Commodity Services LLC Letter
K-1 Form

During the 2008 trading year I traded the DBA ETF (PowerShares DB Agriculture Exchange Traded Fund), and as a result I received a K-1 form in the mail from the DB Commodity Services LLC. I thought this was just some more stock junk mail, but it turns out, it was real and applies to my taxes.

Doug Fabian posted a nice article detailing the matter last spring called "Avoid The Tax Trap of Commodity ETFs"
Here's the good information from the article-

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) taxes futures investments differently than equity investments. In contrast to equities that remain unsold, holdings in futures contracts and T-bills are marked-to-market at the end of each year. As a result, there is a tax consequence on commodity ETF investments even if they have not been sold yet. This leads to the cost basis of these investments being adjusted at the end of each year, Rich explained.

One way to avoid these tax issues is to use IRA or other tax-deferred accounts for commodity ETFs, rather than putting them into taxable accounts, Rich said.

Deutsche Bank had more than 380,000 different investors who owned its commodity ETFs in 2007, and each of them received a K-1 to complete their tax returns, Rich said. To assist those investors, Deutsche Bank provides a toll-free phone number, 1-800-578-8755, for them to call with any questions. The investment firm also tries to send out all of the K-1 forms it needs to distribute no later than the second half of February to help its investors ready their tax returns in time.

For investors who want to diversify into commodities, beware of the tax trap with funds that use futures contracts. If you want to steer clear of the year-end tax uncertainty, those who seek commodity exposure may want to consider using tax-deferred accounts for such ETFs or just buying ETNs.

Fortunately for me, my trade in DBA was a day trade, so I had no interest income and my Net short term capital gain(loss) was also reported as ZERO on the form.

Trade DBA or DBC and recieve a K-1 in the mail?

DB Commodity Services LLC Letter
K-1 Form

During the 2008 trading year I traded the DBA ETF (PowerShares DB Agriculture Exchange Traded Fund), and as a result I received a K-1 form in the mail from the DB Commodity Services LLC. I thought this was just some more stock junk mail, but it turns out, it was real and applies to my taxes.

Doug Fabian posted a nice article detailing the matter last spring called "Avoid The Tax Trap of Commodity ETFs"
Here's the good information from the article-

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) taxes futures investments differently than equity investments. In contrast to equities that remain unsold, holdings in futures contracts and T-bills are marked-to-market at the end of each year. As a result, there is a tax consequence on commodity ETF investments even if they have not been sold yet. This leads to the cost basis of these investments being adjusted at the end of each year, Rich explained.

One way to avoid these tax issues is to use IRA or other tax-deferred accounts for commodity ETFs, rather than putting them into taxable accounts, Rich said.

Deutsche Bank had more than 380,000 different investors who owned its commodity ETFs in 2007, and each of them received a K-1 to complete their tax returns, Rich said. To assist those investors, Deutsche Bank provides a toll-free phone number, 1-800-578-8755, for them to call with any questions. The investment firm also tries to send out all of the K-1 forms it needs to distribute no later than the second half of February to help its investors ready their tax returns in time.

For investors who want to diversify into commodities, beware of the tax trap with funds that use futures contracts. If you want to steer clear of the year-end tax uncertainty, those who seek commodity exposure may want to consider using tax-deferred accounts for such ETFs or just buying ETNs.

Fortunately for me, my trade in DBA was a day trade, so I had no interest income and my Net short term capital gain(loss) was also reported as ZERO on the form.

Even when your down you still want to fight

Even when your down you still want to fight

Madoff Victim

Where did all the money go?

Madoff Victim

Where did all the money go?

HR 1068 amendment

Traders may be taxed even more, "to recoup the net cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program" if the HR 1068 bill passes.

HR 1068 amendment

Traders may be taxed even more, "to recoup the net cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program" if the HR 1068 bill passes.

CNBC's Michele Caruso-Cabrera Bikini Picture

HOT!
Yes or No?

CNBC's Michele Caruso-Cabrera Bikini Picture

HOT!
Yes or No?

The Missionary Position is more effective for procreation

This video is hilarious. Some people won't understand this video.

The Missionary Position is more effective for procreation

This video is hilarious. Some people won't understand this video.

CNBC Commercials

CNBC Commercials have got to be the lamest. How are the news anchors even payed when the main sponsors are Goldbond, Vermont Teddy bears, and Pajama Grams?








You gotta love those Pajama Gram Commercials-












Who wants to buy a $90 Teddy bear?
Check out the red neck teddy bear....


The $100 Obama bear is sold out. Go figure. Who hasn't jumped on the Obama merchandising bandwagon.


If you ever stayed up late and watched CNBC you have probably seen the SHAMWOW commercial,,,, This guy does a great impression.

CNBC Commercials

CNBC Commercials have got to be the lamest. How are the news anchors even payed when the main sponsors are Goldbond, Vermont Teddy bears, and Pajama Grams?








You gotta love those Pajama Gram Commercials-












Who wants to buy a $90 Teddy bear?
Check out the red neck teddy bear....


The $100 Obama bear is sold out. Go figure. Who hasn't jumped on the Obama merchandising bandwagon.


If you ever stayed up late and watched CNBC you have probably seen the SHAMWOW commercial,,,, This guy does a great impression.

Trading Blogs- How to trade using Stock Chart Setups

I've Compiled a list of Trader Blogs that share there chart setups and include how they trade. If you would like to be included in the list leave me a comment and I'll checkout your website.

1.Dr. Steenbarger's Chart Setup for Trading- "Most of my research (identifying market themes, relevant trading ranges, daily pivot points) has been done prior to the market open. During market hours I'm simply following ES futures and NYSE TICK on a one-minute basis, toggling occasionally to 5- and 60-minute charts, and keeping my eye on sectors, Treasury rates, and commodities. My short-term trade ideas involve updating odds of hitting particular near-term price levels (trading range extremes, R1 or S1 pivot points, prior day's high or low price). My longer-term ideas involve updating odds of hitting similar price levels from daily/weekly periods. Almost all my trades attempt to follow trends in NYSE TICK and Market Delta that are not fully evident in price movement."

Platforms used- NeoTicker for contrustuction of modified TICK chart, and MarketDelta for reference (volume traded at bid/offer for stock index futures), and eSignal for real time quotes.

Neoticker

Markete Delta
2.Trader BZB Chart Setup for Trading- "The TICK, shown here on 2 minute bars, although I toggle to 1 minute bars for the open.I overlay the pivots on the TICK and also use an 8 & 16 MA to gauge sentiment changes.The three vertical columns under the TICK are a nice little feature of the platform that provide a tick by tick rolling scroll of new intraday high and low counts. I use this feature 3 times . . one each for the NAZ, NYSE and the indices. so I catch the full flavor of the market trend in real time. When the market's weak, all the scrollers will be running all red and rolling fast. When the markets are about to reverse up, the scrollers will roll very slowly and will be punctuated with periodic green tells of buying. In flat markets the scrollers will be a hodgepodge of red and green and typically scroll by slowly. Coupled with the NYAD chart, these 3 scrollers are invaluable in keeping me on the right side of momentum, even as the market makers are trying to head fake me in another direction.
Below the 3 scrollers, I watch charts of the NYAD and the IWM in 2 minute bars.
Both charts are overlaid with the pivots, 8/16 MAs and the 3/14/3 signal line, which is the moving average component of the MACD.
To the sides, I have 2 charts of the day, typically the Qs and XLF or XLE or IWM if I'm looking for a closer look at the technicals and fibs than the lower middle chart provides. Each chart displays the fibs, parabolics, pivots and 8/16 MAs as well as my technical suite of RSI, %D and StochRSI. Each chart has its own trading window to help old guys like me from getting confused when placing orders and I can instantly toggle from stocks to option string to level 2 options.
I have another SSPro screen that I watch with similar features, but that screen also includes, news, messages, account details, multiple watch lists and a programmable stock scanner, but the trading screen shown is really the core workhorse of the program for me."

Platforms used- Schwab StreetSmart Pro.

Schwab StreetSmart Pro
3.Market Rewind Chart setup for Trading-

1. Light Horizontal Lines/ Day Trader Pivots - Pivots take the prior day's absolute range and divide it into sections. The gold line is the Pivot, lines below it are 'Support', lines above are 'Resistance'.
   


2. Solid Bold Green & Red Line/ Volume Weighted Average - The daily average price weighted by the volume of shares transacted at each price bar.
   


3. Dashed Light Blue Line/ Five-Day Moving Average - Speaks for itself. Lots of computer program trades track this line. In general, the expectation is that the market will behave relatively bullishly above the line, bearishly below. Where price lies relative to longer-term moving averages, such as the 20, 50 and 200-day, also tells alot about the current environment. In addition, they often represent key-levels in their own right.
   


4. General Behavior/ Higher-Highs & Higher-Lows -or- Lower-Lows & Lower-Highs - The behavior of price action tells you if accumulation or distribution is occurring within a trend.
   

There is no magic to these levels, but many traders have these same indicators up on their screens and they often act like magnets for day traders and buy/sell programs alike. Cumulative Tick, the Advance-Decline Line and Arms Index/TRIN also provide important clues as to what's happening "under the hood."

Platforms used- Tradestation

TradeStation
4.Valuemanagementpartner Chart Trade Setup-

Platforms used- Tradestation

I use three screens in Tradestation for my trading. I trade stocks, options and index futures, mainly ES, the S&P 500 e-mini contract. Screen #1 is my main screen for no matter what I’m trading. It has 4 charts: 5min, 15min, 60min and daily. It also holds my Matrix window which provides bid and ask prices and market depth. I can also place my orders from the Matrix window.

Desktop #1

On Screen #2 I have a 2min, 5min, and 15min charts with RSI, Stochastics and MACD indicators. I also use Bollinger bands and Pivot Points.

Desktop#2

Screen #3 has a view of the overall market using an Advancing/Declining Issues histogram, and A/D Volume histogram, TRIN and TICK values. There are also 2 charts that I use strictly for Index Futures, 512 Tick and 1 minute charts. In Tradestation it is very easy to change the time value for the charts, so I can quickly change the time scale to 1024 ticks and 3 minute charts.

Desktop#3

How do I use them? Well, since I’ve been trading a lot of ES futures contracts, here’s what I’m looking for in an entry: I want RSI3 rising from an oversold condition on the 5min. In the MACD (12,26,9), the fast ma must be above the slow ma, and, the fast ma should be above the zero line. Stochastic should be rising and I like to see the 3ema crossing up through the 13ema. I place the order with a stop loss 4 points below my entry. When price gets 3 points above my entry, my stop loss comes up to breakeven and I trail the price 3 points behind from there on.

Trading Blogs- How to trade using Stock Chart Setups

I've Compiled a list of Trader Blogs that share there chart setups and include how they trade. If you would like to be included in the list leave me a comment and I'll checkout your website.

1.Dr. Steenbarger's Chart Setup for Trading- "Most of my research (identifying market themes, relevant trading ranges, daily pivot points) has been done prior to the market open. During market hours I'm simply following ES futures and NYSE TICK on a one-minute basis, toggling occasionally to 5- and 60-minute charts, and keeping my eye on sectors, Treasury rates, and commodities. My short-term trade ideas involve updating odds of hitting particular near-term price levels (trading range extremes, R1 or S1 pivot points, prior day's high or low price). My longer-term ideas involve updating odds of hitting similar price levels from daily/weekly periods. Almost all my trades attempt to follow trends in NYSE TICK and Market Delta that are not fully evident in price movement."

Platforms used- NeoTicker for contrustuction of modified TICK chart, and MarketDelta for reference (volume traded at bid/offer for stock index futures), and eSignal for real time quotes.

Neoticker

Markete Delta
2.Trader BZB Chart Setup for Trading- "The TICK, shown here on 2 minute bars, although I toggle to 1 minute bars for the open.I overlay the pivots on the TICK and also use an 8 & 16 MA to gauge sentiment changes.The three vertical columns under the TICK are a nice little feature of the platform that provide a tick by tick rolling scroll of new intraday high and low counts. I use this feature 3 times . . one each for the NAZ, NYSE and the indices. so I catch the full flavor of the market trend in real time. When the market's weak, all the scrollers will be running all red and rolling fast. When the markets are about to reverse up, the scrollers will roll very slowly and will be punctuated with periodic green tells of buying. In flat markets the scrollers will be a hodgepodge of red and green and typically scroll by slowly. Coupled with the NYAD chart, these 3 scrollers are invaluable in keeping me on the right side of momentum, even as the market makers are trying to head fake me in another direction.
Below the 3 scrollers, I watch charts of the NYAD and the IWM in 2 minute bars.
Both charts are overlaid with the pivots, 8/16 MAs and the 3/14/3 signal line, which is the moving average component of the MACD.
To the sides, I have 2 charts of the day, typically the Qs and XLF or XLE or IWM if I'm looking for a closer look at the technicals and fibs than the lower middle chart provides. Each chart displays the fibs, parabolics, pivots and 8/16 MAs as well as my technical suite of RSI, %D and StochRSI. Each chart has its own trading window to help old guys like me from getting confused when placing orders and I can instantly toggle from stocks to option string to level 2 options.
I have another SSPro screen that I watch with similar features, but that screen also includes, news, messages, account details, multiple watch lists and a programmable stock scanner, but the trading screen shown is really the core workhorse of the program for me."

Platforms used- Schwab StreetSmart Pro.

Schwab StreetSmart Pro
3.Market Rewind Chart setup for Trading-

1. Light Horizontal Lines/ Day Trader Pivots - Pivots take the prior day's absolute range and divide it into sections. The gold line is the Pivot, lines below it are 'Support', lines above are 'Resistance'.
   


2. Solid Bold Green & Red Line/ Volume Weighted Average - The daily average price weighted by the volume of shares transacted at each price bar.
   


3. Dashed Light Blue Line/ Five-Day Moving Average - Speaks for itself. Lots of computer program trades track this line. In general, the expectation is that the market will behave relatively bullishly above the line, bearishly below. Where price lies relative to longer-term moving averages, such as the 20, 50 and 200-day, also tells alot about the current environment. In addition, they often represent key-levels in their own right.
   


4. General Behavior/ Higher-Highs & Higher-Lows -or- Lower-Lows & Lower-Highs - The behavior of price action tells you if accumulation or distribution is occurring within a trend.
   

There is no magic to these levels, but many traders have these same indicators up on their screens and they often act like magnets for day traders and buy/sell programs alike. Cumulative Tick, the Advance-Decline Line and Arms Index/TRIN also provide important clues as to what's happening "under the hood."

Platforms used- Tradestation

TradeStation
4.Valuemanagementpartner Chart Trade Setup-

Platforms used- Tradestation

I use three screens in Tradestation for my trading. I trade stocks, options and index futures, mainly ES, the S&P 500 e-mini contract. Screen #1 is my main screen for no matter what I’m trading. It has 4 charts: 5min, 15min, 60min and daily. It also holds my Matrix window which provides bid and ask prices and market depth. I can also place my orders from the Matrix window.

Desktop #1

On Screen #2 I have a 2min, 5min, and 15min charts with RSI, Stochastics and MACD indicators. I also use Bollinger bands and Pivot Points.

Desktop#2

Screen #3 has a view of the overall market using an Advancing/Declining Issues histogram, and A/D Volume histogram, TRIN and TICK values. There are also 2 charts that I use strictly for Index Futures, 512 Tick and 1 minute charts. In Tradestation it is very easy to change the time value for the charts, so I can quickly change the time scale to 1024 ticks and 3 minute charts.

Desktop#3

How do I use them? Well, since I’ve been trading a lot of ES futures contracts, here’s what I’m looking for in an entry: I want RSI3 rising from an oversold condition on the 5min. In the MACD (12,26,9), the fast ma must be above the slow ma, and, the fast ma should be above the zero line. Stochastic should be rising and I like to see the 3ema crossing up through the 13ema. I place the order with a stop loss 4 points below my entry. When price gets 3 points above my entry, my stop loss comes up to breakeven and I trail the price 3 points behind from there on.

ETrade SuperBowl Baby Commercial

You have to admit, this commercial is pretty funny.

ETrade SuperBowl Baby Commercial

You have to admit, this commercial is pretty funny.