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articulated petitioners' burden as one of proving that Mr. Resser
executed the TDY stock option spread transactions "primarily for
the purpose of obtaining an economic profit independent of tax
savings". Resser v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1991-423.
Despite Mr. Resser's testimony to the contrary, we held that
Mr. Resser did not prove that he entered into the TDY
transactions at issue primarily for profit:
We are unpersuaded that * * * [Mr. Resser's]
primary purpose for engaging in stock option spreads
was to make a profit. In January 1982, * * * [Mr.
Resser] failed to transact any stock option trades in
the RSR account. In February, * * * [Mr. Resser]
closed out one box spread that he had opened in 1981.
From March until the end of September, * * * [Mr.
Resser] did not enter into any stock option trades in
the newly named QRF account. In a 2-week period, from
September 30 to October 14, * * * [Mr. Resser]
generated losses of $1,121,148. From October 15 to
December 16, * * * [Mr. Resser] did not trade in the
QRF account. On December 17, 1982, * * * [Mr. Resser]
established his last spread for the year. The December
17 three-way box spread resulted in a net gain of
$227,442. This reduced * * * [Mr. Resser's] overall
QRF trading losses to an amount which exceeded the
account RSR/QRF trading gains and his wages from
Rialcor. In addition, the TDY trading losses resulted
in petitioners' paying zero tax for taxable year 1982.
* * * [Mr. Resser] was an experienced,
sophisticated trader in option transactions, with the
knowledge and background to make his own trading
decisions. To execute the loss generating trades, * *
* [Mr. Resser] established and used an account other
than the one in which he conducted his primary trading
activities. * * * [Mr. Resser] was undoubtedly aware
of the favorable tax consequences arising from the
offset of losses reported on Schedule C, Form 1040,
against other income and deferring trading gains to
subsequent years. * * *
* * * [Mr. Resser's] overall trading pattern also
indicates that the transactions were primarily tax-
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