Frequently Asked Questions


This section provides answers to questions frequently asked by those considering a TradeLog™ software purchase.  Please note that product support questions are answered in the Support section of our web site.

Product Differences

What is the difference between TradeLog™ and GTT TradeLog™?

  • GTT TradeLog™ was designed for traders who currently use or are planning to elect the Mark to Market tax accounting method.  For more details, please see the Mark to Market accounting topic in our users guide.

  • GTT TradeLog™ has all of the features of TradeLog™, plus additional tax features and support from GreenTraderTax.com (GTT).

If you have not elected Mark to Market and do not plan to in the near future, then TradeLog™ is the right choice for your trade accounting needs.

What is the difference between TradeLog 200 / 600 / 1500 and TradeLog™?

TradeLog™ 200, 600 and 1500 have all of the same features as the full version of TradeLog™, with the exception that each data file is limited to a maximum of 200, 600 or 1500 total records.  These limited versions are offered at a lower cost to allow semi-active traders to get a handle on their trading gains and losses just like the professionals.

Please note that one record refers to one individual buy or sell transaction as reported on your online broker trade history report. Each partial fill is therefore counted as one record.

The total record limitation is per tax year, so with a TradeLog 200 subscription you can have 200 total trade records for 2005, 200 for 2006, 200 for 2007, and so on.

To upgrade from one version or record level to another please go to the Purchase page and enter your reg code. Your upgrade and/or renewal options will be displayed along with the pricing.

PLEASE NOTE: Upgrades from one version or record level to another are priced at the cost difference between the the two versions. Upgrading from one version to another does NOT extend your one year subscription.

Product Updates & Support

What is included in a TradeLog™ one-year subscription?

A one-year subscription to any TradeLog software product level entitles you to exclusive use of all of the trade accounting and tax functions as described on this web site for a period of one full year from the original date of purchase.

You are not limited to any one tax year.  You may use your TradeLog software for any tax year that you can get data for and your record level is for each year.

To extend your subscription for another year, you may purchase a one-year subscription renewal at a 20% discount for a period up to one month after your subscription expires, after which time you may purchase a subscription renewal at full list price. 

Unlimited Email and Phone Support

A TradeLog annual subscription also entitles you to unlimited email and phone support.  The recommended method of support is by email.  Supplying us with a complete description of the problem, what led up to it, and any supporting data (trade history files, etc.) will greatly speed up the issue resolution process.  Most technical support issues are resolved in a matter of days, provided we receive all necessary details from the user.  

Free Updates

You are also entitled to download software updates from our web site at no extra charge during the one-year subscription period.  We strongly recommend that users update their software regularly, as brokers often change the formats of their online trade history reports (necessitating the release of software updates) and as we are quite active in enhancing our software with customer suggestions for new features, supported brokers, etc.

Please Note:  We do not maintain an archive of set-up files for older versions. Therefore, if your PC hard drive crashes you must download the latest update from our web site.  If your subscription has expired then you will have to purchase a renewal subscription for another year.

Will my TradeLog™ software continue to operate after one year?

Only the viewing and reporting functions will continue to operate after your annual subscription expires. After that you will no longer be able to create new files, or add to or edit your current trade data files.  One month prior to the expiration of a user's annual subscription TradeLog will begin to show how many days are left in the subscription in the status bar at the bottom of the TradeLog window. You will also be notified via email at the email address supplied at the original time of purchase that your subscription is about to expire. 

How do I update my software?

Software updates are a simple process. Connect to the internet and, from within your TradeLog™ application, click on the Help, Update main menu item.  Your web browser will run and direct you to the Update/Download page on our web site.  This page is for registered users only.

Once at our Update/Download page, you must enter your name, email address and registration code (with dashes) in the fields provided and click the Download Full Registered Version button.  You will then be directed to our Download TradeLog™ page where you can initiate a download of the latest set-up file to your computer.  Once the download has completed, simply run the new set-up file to install the latest version right over the top of your previous version. Your data files will not be affected.  Now click the TradeLog™ desktop icon to load the program.  You will be prompted to enter your registration code to 'unlock' the new version.  

Please note that if you click the Download Trial button on the Update/Download page and run the trial set-up file in error, you will overwrite your full version of TradeLog™ with the demo version which limits you to 20 records in a data file.  To correct this, simply re-visit the Update/Download page, enter the required data and click the Download Full Registered Version button (as outlined above).

Please be sure to check out the Update History posted on our Update/Download page for a detailed description of the latest enhancements and bug fixes.

Policies:




 

Filing your Taxes

For Mark-to-Market questions, please see our Mark to Market Tax Topic.

How do I get a Schedule D for filing with my tax return?

TradeLog™ produces an IRS ready Schedule D-1 "Continuation Sheet for Schedule D" for both short-term as well as long-term capital gains.

View a sample TradeLog Schedule D-1

The totals from this continuation sheet  flow onto your schedule d.  Simply enter the totals from columns (d) and (f) to your Schedule D, Part I for short-term and Part II for Long-Term.  Put a note in column (a) (Description of Property) as follows: "See detailed report attached".

The report should then be printed and attached to your IRS Schedule D to file your taxes.

How do I export my Gains and Losses to Tax software such as TurboTax™ and Tax Cut™?

TradeLog™ offers a TXF Export report type from the Gains and Losses panel (ver 7 and up). This enables you to export your gains and losses in a TXF File format, complete with wash sale calculations, and then import the TXF File into any tax software that will import a TXF file format.  Please see the TradeLog User Guide for more details.

  • TXF File imports are NOT supported by the ONLINE versions of most tax software programs.  Please check with your tax software provider to verify that your version of the tax software can import from a TXF File.
  • There is NO provision to import your trades into Form 4797 if you have elected Mark to Market.

TradeLog™ software is specifically designed for active traders who execute thousands to tens of thousands of trades during the specific tax year.  In contrast, most popular tax preparation software packages have been designed for the masses and therefore aren't meant to support a large volume of trading data or handle particular IRS laws that are specific to the active trader.  As a result, limitations regarding the import of  TradeLog™ data into these programs arise. 

For example, a number of users have reported that these programs "freeze" during the import process from a TradeLog™ TXF file containing many thousands of transactions, or that the tax software has reached some limitation as to the total sales amounts.

Therefore, we make no guarantee that your particular TradeLog™ Gains & Losses TXF File will import into either TurboTax™ or TaxCut™ or any other made for the masses tax software program.

However, all is not lost, because in such cases you can print the TradeLog™ Schedule d-1 report, enter the totals from this report into your tax software schedule d,  print everything out, and then attach the TradeLog d-1 report to your tax software schedule d, and file by mail.

How does TradeLog™ and GTT TradeLog™ handle wash sales?

TradeLog™ features a simple procedure that automatically calculates wash sales and wash sale deferrals to the next tax year, and closes your data file for the current tax year.  In order for TradeLog™ to properly calculate wash sales, trades from January of the following tax year must be imported into the data file prior to running the End Tax Year procedure.

All wash sales generated throughout the tax year will be calculated and added to your TradeLog™ data file. Any wash sales that need to be deferred will be automatically moved to your next year data file, along with any open positions and your January of next year trades. This next year data file will be created automatically by the procedure.

Your current year data file is now ready to run the Gains and Losses report to be filed with your tax return. You have the option to include or exclude wash sales from the report.  If you also want to exclude wash sale deferrals from the TradeLog™ grid display or any reports you wish to run, you can turn off the Options, Display Wash Sale Deferrals function.

For more information regarding the IRS Wash Sale Rule, please see Tax Topic on Wash Sales.

How do I adjust my Gains & Losses report (Schedule D) for wash sales?

When you run the Gains and Losses report in TradeLog™, you have the option to include wash sales or exclude them.   To include wash sales in the report, be sure to select the Adjust for Wash Sales checkbox prior to running the report.   

If you want to exclude wash sale deferrals from the TradeLog™ grid display or any reports you wish to run, you can turn off the Options, Display Wash Sale Deferrals function.

How do I reconcile with my brokerage 1099?

To ease the reconciliation of your TradeLog™ results with your broker Form 1099s, we have designed the software so that a separate data file is created for each tax year and each brokerage account.  

Complete details can be found in our TradeLog User Guide: The Gains and Losses Report doesn't match my brokerage 1099.

What is Mark-to-Market tax accounting?

Mark-to-market (MTM) accounting is the wise choice for the educated trader in securities for the following major reasons:

  • With MTM, trading "capital losses" are converted to "ordinary losses" and they become exempt from the IRS wash sale rule.
  • MTM traders can deduct their "ordinary" trading losses against all other types of taxable income without limitation.
  • If a MTM trader has negative taxable income (net operating losses), they can carry them back two tax years to get immediate tax relief (hence the term "tax loss insurance").
  • MTM traders in securities are exempt from self-employment taxation and they may "segregate" investment positions to still get long-term capital gains rate benefits. 

Click here for more info on Mark-to-Market accounting from GreenCompany.com

Please see our Trader Tax Topic: Mark to Market accounting.

How do I get a Form 4797 for filing my tax return?

TradeLog™ produces a Gains and Losses report with a similar format as the IRS Form 4797. 

See TradeLog Form 4797 Attachment report in *.PDF format.

MTM traders are required to price all open positions to year end market prices, therefore all positions are held for one year or less and are considered "short-term".  Gains or losses from marking to market securities and commodities held at the end of the tax year are considered "ordinary", so these are reported on Part II (Ordinary Gains or Losses) of the Form 4797.  

Simply enter the Gains and Losses report totals to Part II, Line 10, columns (d), (f) and (g) on the Form 4797.  Put a note in column (a) (Description of Property) as follows:  "Trader - see attached".

The report should be printed and attached to the official IRS Form 4797 for tax filing.

Please see How to report gains & losses marked to market for more information.


Competition

How does TradeLog™ differ from the competition?

TradeLog™ was designed primarily for active traders. Active traders typically generate large volumes of trade transactions and absolutely require some sort of automated import capability.

TradeLog currently supports direct imports from over 30 different online brokers, with new brokers being added on a regular basis.  There is NO limit on the number of records imported at any one time except for the limited records versions. The savings in import time alone can literally pay for the program many times over!

In addition, GTT TradeLog™ is the only software package on the market that fully addresses the unique tax accounting needs of MTM traders.

Other tax accounting products on the market have been designed for the masses and offer some capability to manage investments.  Unfortunately, they are only capable of handling a limited number of transactions and do not match odd lots and short sales correctly for tax filing purposes.

Please take a few minutes to compare the features offered in TradeLog™  with those offered by other software packages you have been considering.  We are confident you will quickly realize that there really isn't very much competition at all.


PC Requirements

Minimum Recommended Software:

  • Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP (all versions), and Vista (all versions).
    (Apple MacIntosh is not supported - However, you may download the free trial and if this runs on your Mac, then the full version will run as well.)
  • Web Browser: MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and up.
    Other web browsers such as Netscape and Firefox have been found to be inconsistent in data format from one version to another when copying data from the web browser window which may cause problems with our web import function. We have tried our best to overcome these, but if all else fails, you may have to fall back on using MS Internet Explorer for web imports.
  • Email Software: MS Outlook or Outlook Express
    - Free web based email services such as Yahoo or gmail are NOT supported.

    Note: This requirement is for sending and receiving files via email when asking for support. If you use free web based email services, then it is up to you to figure out how to attach and send or receive files and file attachments. We cannot possibly be familiar with every free email service available, and is beyond the scope of our product support. In addition, we spend lots of additional time sending and resending files only to have the file attachments stripped out by the high level of spam and anti-virus filtering common on free web based email services.

Minimum Recommended Hardware:

  • Intel Pentium 800 Mhz with 256 MB Ram
    (Apple MacIntosh is not supported)
  • Large data files (over 10,000 records) will require more RAM memory - 256 MB or more is recommended.

TradeLog Product Guarantee

Armen Computing Ltd. guarantees that TradeLog™ will do everything that is advertised on this web site.

If after receiving assistance to resolve any operation or performance issues within the first 30 days of purchase, these issues are not resolved to your satisfaction, the complete purchase price will be promptly refunded. You must, however, give us a reasonable chance to resolve these issues.

As online brokers change their report formats frequently, the need for fixes and updates to our software is inevitable. Many problems are resolved in just a matter of a few minutes, and our customers generally appreciate our quick response.

Please note that this is an operation and performance guarantee, not a 30-day evaluation. If you need to evaluate TradeLog you may download our free trial version from our main web page.

How do I get a refund?

Our refund policy is clearly outlined in our Product Guarantee above.

Please note that when TradeLog™ software is purchased, it does NOT entitle a user to a 30-day trial of the software!  In order to qualify for a refund, a registered user must give us the opportunity to resolve any technical support issues they might be experiencing.  If these issues cannot be resolved to your satisfaction within the first 30 days of purchase, we will promptly refund the full purchase amount.

If you are contemplating a TradeLog™ purchase but are unsure of whether or not it will meet your needs, please take the Quick Tour and download our Free Trial Version from our main web page.  Use the trial version to enter a few trade records, try a test import from your online broker and view the reporting and portfolio management features in the software.  These tools will help you to make an informed decision to purchase TradeLog™.


Your Security

Armen Computing Ltd. Security

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The SSL (secure sockets layer) protocol is the Web standard for encrypting communications between users and SSL e-commerce sites. Data sent via an SSL connection is protected by encryption, a mechanism that prevents eavesdropping and tampering with any transmitted data. 

SSL provides consumers with the confidence that private data sent to this Web site, such as credit card numbers and personal information, are kept confidential.

Customers know when they have an SSL session with a website when their browser displays the little gold padlock and the address bar begins with a https rather than http.


Your Privacy

Armen Computing Ltd. Privacy

At Armen Computing Ltd., we are committed to protecting your privacy. The information you provide us is used to process orders and to provide a more personalized shopping experience. Please read on for more details about our privacy policy.

What information do we need to processan order and how do we use it?
When you order, we need to know your name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card number and expiration date. This allows us to quickly process and fulfill your orders and to notify you of your order status, as well as provide any necessary customer service.

Armen Computing Ltd. DOES NOT keep a any records of your credit card information.
Once an amount has been approved by your credit card company, the only personal information that we keep on file is your name, e-mail address, mailing address, and phone number.

How does Armen Computing Ltd. protect customer information?
When you place orders, we offer the use of a secure server. The secure server software (SSL) encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us, SSL is the most widely accepted form of encryption for online transactions. Furthermore, all of the customer data we collect is protected against unauthorized access.

Will Armen Computing Ltd. disclose the information it collects to outside parties?
Armen Computing does not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others. Armen Computing may also provide these details when required to do so by law enforcement agencies.

In Summary
We are committed to protecting your privacy. We use the information you provide us, to make buying/registering at Armen Computing Ltd. possible and to enhance your overall shopping experience.

Your Consent
By using our website, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Armen Computing Ltd. If our privacy policy changes we will post those changes on this page to keep you informed on what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.