Forex taxes

I'm doing research into how to properly file currency trades under the U.S. tax code. So far I have found that my transactions through Oanda are not contracts and therefore would not be under section 1256. However, I keep getting pointed to section 988 but am having a hard time understanding it all. If any of you have had experience in this I would greatly appreciate if you could please give me the research material that helped you best in the comments.

Trades for 12-30-11

I did really crappy today. I'm just mentally slow right now and I don't know why.

Forex: 3 trades, all losses for a total of -14.51 pips

Trades for 12-29-11 round 2

I decided to make another trade. I also had a daily trade in XAU/USD (gold) that I exited today but I won't publish the results of that for a couple weeks.

Forex: 1 gain for a total of +11.6 pips

Trades for 12-29-11

I jumped the gun on my last 2 trades. Should have waited for it to actually hit the resistance level before shorting.

Forex: 3 trades, all losses for a total of -19.5 pips

Trades for 12-28-11

I surprisingly did pretty good today. It was a little tricky since I started my day after the downward move we had this morning.

Forex: 6 trades, 3 losses, 1 flat, and 2 gains for a total of +15.51 pips

Trades for 12-27-11

Today I only had one trade. It was flat (as expected) on all the pairs, but I managed to squeeze out a trade in USD/CAD.

Forex: 1 trade for a gain of +5.2 pips

Trades for 12-23-11

Today was as flat as I expected it to be. I did manage to limit my losses though. Have a merry christmas everyone!

Forex: 2 trades, 1 loss, and 1 flat for a total of -7.73 pips

I could kick myself

I can't believe it took me this long to remember how to trade range markets. Now all I have to do is remember how to trade trending markets the next time they come and I'm all set.

The following trades were me experimenting with 1M charts. I did not record the pip results, but as you can see I did very well. After searching "how to trade choppy markets" and reading a few links I realized that a lot of what I was calling "choppy" wasn't really choppy. It was actually "ranging" so I was able to adjust and the results of that adjustment are what you see below.

Good refresher

This is a good read for anyone who needs a good refresher, or anyone who is new to the forex game: http://forextradingpower.hubpages.com/hub/forextradingpower

Trades for 12-22-11

Not even 20 minutes and I'm already stopped out today. Oh well, I'm going to paper-trade to get some practice in and do some experimenting.

Forex: 2 trades, both losses for a total of -13.4 pips

Trades for 12-21-11

I didn't do so good today. Also had a phone conversation with my dad which exposed how distracted from trading I've been lately. I'm glad we caught it relatively soon. Time to get refocused!

Forex: 8 trades, 6 losses, and 2 gains for a total of -14.5 pips

Trades for 12-20-11

I decided too call it an early day because of the choppiness and the delay I was getting in my order placement.

Forex: 2 trades, both losses for a total of -9.4 pips

Trades for 12-19-11

I got "chopped out" today.

Forex: 3 trades, all losses for a total of -15.3 pips

Trades for 12-16-11

Today went very well, I felt like I was in my trading "zone."

Forex: 5 trades, 1 loss, and 4 gains for a total of +16.8 pips

Trades for 12-15-11

I got stopped out today, and there isn't anything really of note.

Forex: 5 trades, 4 losses, and 1 gain for a total of -12.5 pips

Trades for 12-14-11

After taking yesterday off I did pretty well today. I think distracting myself with java programming helped me a lot by keeping me from trading the choppy stuff.

Forex: 4 trades, 1 loss, and 3 gains for a total of +12.6 pips

Trades for 12-12-11

Wound up with a decent profit due to trading EUR/GBP and accidentally allowing my last trade to run.

Forex: 7 trades, 4 losses, and 3 gains for a total of +7.2 pips

Trades for 12-9-11

I traded much better today, too bad it was paper-trading. I've decided to paper-trade the rest of this month due to expected choppiness and volatility. I'm also going to pick up at least a part time job because I need to get some income flowing while this trading thing works out.

Forex: 6 trades, 3 losses, and 3 gains for a total of +7.6 pips

Volatility is as bad as choppy sometimes (trades for 12-8-11)

The volatility threw me off and I wound up with a bigger loss than normal.

Forex: 10 trades, 6 losses, and 4 gains for a total of -20.2 pips