Check wash sales in your Fidelity account (including against your Fidelity IRA)
By Wash-Sale Guardian (who's behind it) · Published 2026-07-14 · Last updated 2026-10-02 · How the checker works
The most dangerous Fidelity wash sale is the one between your own Fidelity accounts. Sell at a loss in your taxable account while your Fidelity Roth IRA auto-invests into the same fund, and per Rev. Rul. 2008-5 the loss is permanently disallowed — yet Fidelity isn't required to report it on your 1099-B, because the wash-sale reporting brokers must do is per-account (a broker may report more, so check what yours shows). Drop your Fidelity CSVs into our free checker (tag the IRA as an IRA) and see it, in seconds for most files — in your browser, nothing uploaded.
How to export your Fidelity trade history (CSV)
- Log in → Accounts & Trade → Activity & Orders.
- Select the History tab. You can download one account or all of them: when a file lists several accounts, the checker asks which of your accounts each one's trades go into.
- Set the date range and click the Download (arrow) icon → CSV. Export is instant.
- Repeat per quarter: history pulls cover ~90 days each (about 5 years are available). Export the full period you've traded — an honest checker refuses to judge symbols with missing history.
- If you download one account at a time, repeat for each Fidelity account — taxable AND IRAs. Tag each account taxable or IRA in the checker (a file with several accounts asks once per account).
Files that start with a "History:" line and have Date, Description, ..., Account columns (an export from one of Fidelity's tools) are read too.
Fidelity CSV quirks (what our parser handles for you)
| Quirk | What it looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Verbose actions | "YOU BOUGHT OPENING TRANSACTION CALL (NVDA)…" | Encodes side AND open/close — short legs need different tax handling |
| Negative sell quantities | Quantity "-100" on sells | Naive parsers double-count or mis-sign lots |
| Option symbols, sometimes dashless | "-NVDA260918C500" or "NVDA260918C500" | Misreading one as a stock ticker makes every dollar figure wrong by 100x |
| 2-decimal prices | Price 123.46 (was 123.4567 pre-May-2024) | Cents of basis drift on big fills — reconcile against statements |
| Footer disclaimers | Prose lines after the data | Must be skipped without being confused for trades |
| Several accounts in one file | Account "Individual (X12345678)" beside "ROTH IRA (234567890)" | Each account's trades go into the account you choose for it; mixing an IRA into a taxable account would misreport a permanent disallowance as a deferral |
| Expired options count by sign | EXPIRED CALL ... Quantity "2" (written) or "-1" (read as bought) | A written call that expires is a gain; a bought one that expires is a loss, and its purchase may be older than your export |
What Fidelity's 1099-B covers
Wash-sale disallowances appear in box 1g for identical securities in the same account. TurboTax forum threads are full of confusion about Fidelity's realized gain/loss displays vs. wash-adjusted figures — the practical rule: your 1099-B is authoritative for same-account washes, and silent about everything across accounts, which is your job on Form 8949 (TurboTax how-to).
Check it free
Open the checker and drop CSVs from Fidelity plus Robinhood, Schwab, IBKR, or E*TRADE. The wash sales it finds, open danger windows with the first clean re-buy date for each loss, IRA-permanent flags, and a CPA-ready year-end summary — free, in your browser (methodology).
Frequently asked questions
Does Fidelity track wash sales across my Fidelity and non-Fidelity accounts?
Not required to. Like every broker, Fidelity must report wash sales only for identical securities within one account on the 1099-B, and brokers may report more. Two Fidelity accounts (say, taxable and a Roth IRA) are separate accounts for that requirement, so a purchase in one is not required to show against a sale in the other, and Fidelity can’t see your accounts at other brokers. Check what your 1099-B shows.
How do I download my Fidelity trade history as a CSV?
Accounts & Trade → Activity & Orders → History → set your date range → click the Download (arrow) icon, for one account or all of them. The export is instant. History pulls are limited to roughly 90 days at a time, so download quarter by quarter to build a full year.
Why is my Fidelity realized gain/loss different from what a wash sale checker computes?
Two common reasons: Fidelity CSV exports round prices to 2 decimals (a change since May 2024), which drifts cost basis by cents on large fills; and Fidelity applies wash-sale adjustments per account while a cross-account checker applies the IRS view across all your accounts.
Does the wash sale rule apply between my Fidelity taxable account and my Fidelity IRA?
Yes — and the loss is permanently disallowed per Rev. Rul. 2008-5, even though both accounts are at Fidelity. Brokers must report wash sales only within a single account, so your 1099-B isn’t required to show it. Check what yours shows, and report the disallowed loss yourself on Form 8949 (code W) if it leaves it out.
Get the year-end wash-sale reminders
Short emails at the moments that matter: before Nov 30 (the last day to sell at a loss and still re-buy within 2026); before Dec 31; when 1099-Bs arrive in February; and the day Guardian Pro goes on sale. The one-page year-end checklist PDF comes with it.
Sign up and a link to the PDF appears right here. Confirm the email we send and you're on the list: about four to six emails a year, and you can unsubscribe in one click from any of them. Your trades stay in your browser. The form sends Kit only your email address and the page you signed up from — nothing else (see Privacy).