Taxation of 1256 contracts - Can a short term trader end up with only long term capital gains?
I am wondering if a trader who traded 1256 contracts can theoretically end up with only long term capital gains, despite doing short term trading. Consider the following:
Hypothetical Scenario
A trader trades two products during 2024. ES, the futures contract traded on the CME, and SPY stock.
Suppose this trader made 1,000,000 dollars trading ES contracts, but lost 400,000 dollars trading SPY.
ES is a 1256 contract, and is taxed as 60% long term gains and 40% short term gains as a result.
SPY is a stock, and so the 400,000 loss is a short term capital loss.
Question:
Does this mean that this trader will have:
- $600,000 in Long Term Capital Gains
- $400,000 in Short Term Capital Gains
- $400,000 in Short Term Capital Losses
- Net Result: $600,000 in Long Term Capital Gains
Is this right? In other words, does this hypothetical trader pay only the long term capital gains tax?