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Tax-Loss Harvesting December

2025's wild ride left plenty of red ink. Harvest those losses, offset gains, and reposition into structural winners for the new year.

December 2025
Into Winners
ROTATE
Deadline
DEC 31
Income Offset
$3,000
Peak Drawdowns
-15-40%

Why December Is Prime Season

Sell positions showing losses to realize capital losses, which offset gains elsewhere (or up to $3,000 of ordinary income). Do it by year-end, and you reset cost basis for future upside.

2025 served up perfect conditions — tariff shocks, sticky inflation scares, and intermittent risk-off waves created sharp dispersion.

2025's Best Harvest Candidates

  • Tariff casualties: Apple, Nike, Tesla, autos, retailers — down 15–40% from peaks
  • Rate-sensitive laggards: Long-duration names outside AI core
  • EM and China-exposed: Multinationals with heavy overseas revenue
  • Crypto proxies: MSTR and miners — spectacular losers for latecomers

Where We're Repositioning

Trimming minor laggards to realize losses. Those credits are immediately redeployed into our highest-conviction themes:

Adding even more to precious and industrial metals on any weakness — the ultimate real-world inflation hedge. Bolstering core AI infrastructure leaders that never stopped compounding.

Lower cost basis in the winners, tax efficiency, no change to structural outlook.

Bottom Line

December's volatility isn't a threat — it's a year-end gift for tax-efficient investors. Harvest the losers 2025 created, offset your gains, and reload into the names that will keep working in 2026.

Make the tax code work for you. The winners aren't changing.

Position Disclosure

Vector Ridge is realizing select tax losses to further increase exposure to precious/industrial metals — now deeper beyond maximum overweight. Core holdings in AI infrastructure leaders; short MicroStrategy; zero direct cryptocurrency. This article represents our views at the time of publication and should not be considered investment advice.

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Frequently Asked Questions
What is tax-loss harvesting and why is December the prime season?

Tax-loss harvesting means selling positions showing losses to realise capital losses, which offset gains elsewhere or up to $3,000 of ordinary income. December is prime season because the trade has to be completed by the 31 December year-end deadline, and 2025's tariff shocks and risk-off waves created sharp dispersion to harvest from.

Which names were 2025's best harvest candidates?

The article flags tariff casualties such as Apple, Nike, Tesla, autos and retailers down 15-40% from their peaks, rate-sensitive laggards outside the AI core, EM and China-exposed multinationals, and crypto proxies like MSTR and the miners. These are the red-ink positions where realising a loss makes the most tax sense.

Where is Vector Ridge repositioning the harvested credits?

Loss credits are redeployed immediately into the highest-conviction themes: adding to precious and industrial metals on any weakness as a real-world inflation hedge, and bolstering core AI infrastructure leaders. The result is a lower cost basis in the winners with no change to the structural outlook for 2026.

How does Vector Ridge track these repositioning ideas across timeframes?

Vector Ridge runs four models — Day Trade, Multi-Hour, Swing Trade and Investing — with conviction grades from A (highest) to D (lowest), so a year-end reposition into metals or AI infrastructure can be followed at the timeframe you trade. Access is $20/mo for a single model or $50/mo for all four, with a 7-day trial.

Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.