What really counts is how you want to sell the lots and how the broker actually sold them. You can sell them any way you want - FIFO, LIFO, average cost, lowest cost, highest cost. That choice can change depending on your tax situation. Once you decide which you want, you communicate that to your broker who hopefully follows your wishes. Then you review the broker statement each month to verify the correct lots were sold. This is often difficult. Some brokers a helpful and tell you. Some don't even tell you the cost basis of the sold shares, which makes it impossible to review. This can be complicated if multiple lots were sold and the statement lumps them together. In both those cases, you contact the broker to get a special report with the missing details.

Once you know the actual cost basis and which lots were sold, you are ready to enter the sale in Navigator. If you use BrokerLink to download transactions, it is very easy because BrokerLink will display a list of the lots sorted in the order you specify. You specify the order (FIFO, LIFO, average cost, lowest cost, highest cost) on the BrokerLink Transactions Options screen.

If you don't have BrokerLink, select the correct lot from the list of accounts. This can be challenging if your account names do not clearly identify the lots. If you use FIFO, you probably should name your accounts with the date acquired, like IBM_20070615. Then it is easy to choose the oldest one. (Note: BrokerLink can automatically name your accounts like this if you ask it to.)

I hope this helps. If I misunderstood your question, or you would like more information, please select "Post Reply" above to reply to this post.