if you sell for a loss, you can write it off, as long as you do not buy back for 30 days, think if done correctly, will be a way to lower your capitol gains that you pay taxes on, for example , sold half of mine, was down 2k, selling half gives me 1k to write off, but must move the money to a different stock, like bcap, or others, just wont buy back mine for 31 days,