Although market indicies currently are near record highs, MarketWatch notes that “about half of the [Russell 3000]’s constituents are still down year to date.” Coupled with significant market volatility during 2026, this landscape foreshadows the potential for a greater volume of tax-loss harvesting as year-end approaches.

Jamie Chisholm, History Shows This Year’s Stock-Market Losers Are Actually Likely to Be November’s Winners, MarketWatch (Oct. 27, 2025):

[T]he high proportion of stocks underwater for the year likely makes the mutual fund tax loss season carry greater heft going into the October 31 fiscal year end [for many mutual funds].

Recall, tax-loss harvesting is a tax strategy in which stocks are sold at a loss to offset capital gains, thereby reducing tax liability. Note: the second tax-loss harvest, for retail investors, occurs mainly in December.

Now, this harvesting can clearly put additional downward pressure on already poorly performing stocks. . . .