@scotttiger - while I didn't go through all your numbers, if you are sitting with both ST and LT gains at this time of year and you are trying to minimize the tax bite, AND you have a choice to sell ST losers or LT losers, selling the ST losers can be more valuable.
That further assumes your ordinary marginal tax rate is more than the LT Capital gains tax rate (which for most people is 15%).
But this may not be as easy as it sounds and I'd be mindful that the proverbial 'tail isn't wagging the dog'.
remember there are wash sale rules to contend with. if you sell something at a ST loss, just to harvest the loss, you can't buy back a similar asset for another 30 days otherwise the loss is disallowed. So if you believe in XYZ stock but you sell it for the tax harvesting loss, pray it doesn't begin zooming back up in the next 30 days - because if it does, the reason to sell was for naught....
