The file should contain one entry per line and have a comma between each of the fields. To accomplish this, the Excel entries should be saved as a ‘comma delimited file’ otherwise known as a ‘csv’ file.
There should be no imbedded commas, double quotes, single quotes or decimal points in any of the fields.
All dates are in a month/day/year format: mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy. example: 02/04/04 or 02/04/2004 NOT 2/2/04
1. Security (stock) name – up to 50 characters long with no imbedded commas;
2. Unique Lot Id (Optional) – unique user defined identifier up to 15 characters in length. This field is not used in the calculation but is included in the output file;
3. Merger Date – mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy or blank;
4. Option or Stock – "Call", "Put", or blank for stock;
5. Option expiration month – 2 numeric positions, 01 through 12 – or blank for stock;
6. Option strike price – Do not use decimal points; eg., 42 1/2 not 42.5 – or blank for stock;
7. Date Acquired – in the format mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy;
8. Date Sold – in the format mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy; but, if the lot is still open, then leave this field blank (spaces);
9. Number of shares/lots – maximum of 10 digits with no commas;
10. Cost – whole dollars only, maximum of 10 digits with no commas;
11. Proceeds – whole dollars only, maximum of 10 digits with no commas – or blank if the lot is still open;
12. Gain or Loss – whole dollars only, maximum of 12 digits without decimals and commas – or blank if the lot is still open.
Fields 9 and 12 may be negative and contain a '–'.
1. Input File – name and directory (full path) where the input file can be found;
2. Output File – name and directory (full path) to be used for created output file;
3. Report Detail Level –
(b) ‘Scope’ gives you a choice as to which wash sales to show - if the total wash sales for a security are less than the entered scope amount, the security is bypassed and does not appear in the report. A Scope = 1 is thus the same as selecting the ‘All’ option. If, for example, 500 is entered in the Scope field, any security having less than $500 in wash sales will be bypassed and not appear in either the report or its totals;
4. Same Date = Same Lot? – Select how the program should treat separate lots that were purchased on the same day.
(b) ‘No’ = don’t combine the lots automatically but compare their prices and, if they’re within a certain percentage of one another, combine them. The 2 digit percentage field next to the ‘No’ button is used to hold the variance percentage. For example, an entry of 5 for 5%, tells the program to compare the purchase prices of the 2 lots to see if they are within 5% of one another. If they are, then the 2 lots are combined and considered as one. If their purchase prices differ by more than 5%, the 2 lots retain their uniqueness and are treated as separate transactions.
5. Calculation Type – How the program is to offset Short sales of stock:
(b) Short vs Short & Long = can only offset short stocks with long stocks, long calls and short stocks (no puts or short calls).
6. Summary Report Breaks – Controls the summary totals to be included in the output file;
7. Using Lot Ids? – Tells the program if the input file contains the optional Unique Lot Id field.
8. Option Conversion – Used to determine if the value in the quantity field for options should be
9. Calculation Type – Provides for future calculations. Currently, ‘Wash Sales Only’ is the default.