Morning, coach,

Good points re the puts. I, too, am much more active in my retirement account, as well as my wife's, for the same reasons as you. Hard to avoid that tax bite in regular accounts.

Another problem confronting us here in the US is the wash sale rule, which I understand may be pursued by the IRS a little more aggressively this year. If you sell stock or options at a loss, you cannot buy back into the same security or anything similar (there's the rub) for 31 days. Though I haven't checked, I assume this does not affect retirement accounts. Better not.

Those of us using first-in, first-out accounting for IRS purposes in regular accounts can get caught, if not careful.

I'm stuck now wanting to sell a miner at a loss in a regular account but do not want to wait 31 days to reinvest in another miner. May have to look at some energy stocks, which I assume the IRS considers different from mining.

Arguing that you're using other funds to buy a miner within the 31 days and not the funds from a miner you just sold won't fly, as far as I know. One huge pain in the butt.