Wash Sales

If you sold any stock, bonds, or stock options at a loss and then purchased substantially identical securities within 30 days before or after the sale, the loss on the sale will not be deductible. Essentially, it will be ignored because your sale was a "wash."

However, you can add the disallowed loss to the basis of your new investment, so that you are not in a worse position than you were before the sale. Moreover, you can add your holding period for the old stock to that of the new stock, for purposes of determining the holding period when you eventually sell the new investment.