Check wash sales from your E*TRADE account (post-Morgan-Stanley-merger edition)
By the Wash-Sale Guardian team · Published 2026-07-14 · Last updated 2026-07-14 · How we check our facts
E*TRADE is currently the trickiest broker to export from — the February 2026 system merger with Morgan Stanley introduced a new transaction-export format with community-reported quantity bugs. That makes independent verification MORE valuable, not less: your 1099-B still only nets wash sales inside this one account, while the IRS counts every account you own (the cross-account trap). Drop your export into our free checker — and if the post-merger file doesn't parse, the built-in column mapper handles any CSV once, then remembers the format.
How to export your E*TRADE trade history (CSV)
- Log in → Accounts → Activity.
- Select the account and set the transaction filter to All Transactions.
- Choose the duration and click Download → CSV (XLSX also offered — use CSV; edited XLSX files are a known source of import failures).
- Cross-check the totals against your statement — post-merger exports have documented data-quality issues, and a wash-sale answer built on wrong quantities is worse than none.
- Older pre-merger history may be PDF-only. Export what CSV exists; symbols with incomplete history should be flagged by your checker, not guessed at (ours suppresses verdicts — methodology).
E*TRADE CSV quirks (what our parser handles for you)
| Quirk | What it looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Preamble line | "For Account:,####1234" before the header | Row-1 parsers break; must scan for the real header |
| Two-digit years | 06/10/26 | Century pivot must be handled or dates land in 1926 |
| Verbose transaction types | "Bought To Open", "Sold Short", "Bought To Cover" | Substring order matters ("Bought To Cover" ≠ plain buy); short legs need separate handling |
| Option display symbols | "NVDA Sep 18 '26 $500 Call" | Prose-style contracts must normalize to real identities |
| Post-merger format drift | New Morgan Stanley layout since Feb 2026 | Where auto-detection fails, our column mapper learns the file once and remembers it |
1099-B behavior
Same story as every broker, with a merger asterisk: same-account disallowances in box 1g; cross-account adjustments are yours on Form 8949 code W (TurboTax steps). Post-merger 1099s consolidate differently than the old E*TRADE forms — reconcile carefully in February.
Check it free
Open the checker, drop your E*TRADE export plus Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity, or IBKR files, and get the cross-account picture no single broker can show — free, in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Did the E*TRADE / Morgan Stanley merger change my trade exports?
Yes. The platforms merged systems in February 2026 and the transaction export format changed, with community reports of quantity discrepancies in the new files. Cross-check export totals against your statements, and prefer post-merger exports over mixing old and new formats.
How do I download E*TRADE trade history as CSV?
Accounts → Activity → select the account → set the filter to All Transactions → choose your duration → Download → CSV. Older history may only be available as PDF statements; export whatever CSV range exists and expect a good checker to flag symbols whose history is incomplete.
Does E*TRADE track wash sales across my other brokers?
No broker does. E*TRADE reports same-account wash-sale adjustments in box 1g of the 1099-B; your accounts at Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity, and any IRAs elsewhere are invisible to it. The IRS still counts them all (IRC §1091).