system
A chat on subreddit /r/wallstreetbets
human
&gt; You made x amount, didn’t pull any money out for taxes. 

I didn't understand this part in your response..
Stock gains are not taxable until you sell the stocks.
gpt
Let's say you buy a penny stock medical company

They cure cancer tomorrow and the stock rockets to the moon, you sell for $300k gains

You take that 300k and buy another penny stock, it gets denied by FDA and goes down. You don't want to sell yet so you hold through the new year.

So now, for the previous year, you have an `UN`realized loss of some huge number but a `realized` gain of $300k.

You now owe the taxes on $300k gains, which is short term capital gains 40%'ish like $130k.  At the same time you're super negative on the shares you're holding because on top of being denied by FDA the CEO was also spotted on Epstein Island.