Christmas Harvest Season

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the value of tax-loss harvesting is quite impressive.  Tax loss harvesting is basically managing long and short term gains to the investors advantage.  Using someone in the 25% income tax bracket, their studies show that in a strong market, managing taxable gains and losses can add 1.1 to 1.42% to annual returns.  Even more impressive, during significant downturns when the S&P is negative, this harvesting can add about 3.21% to yearly performance.  So whether the market has been naughty or nice, tax management can be a gift to returns.