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The one feature that I'm really missing from Robinhood is selling based on Spec-ID instead of just FIFO. FIFO means I won't be able to tax-loss harvest making Robinhood effectively much more expensive than the alternatives (as the additional taxes are much higher than what I would save in trading fees).

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Why isn't Spec-ID/FIFO completely automatic by default? The fact such an immaterial determination can have such a financial impact is absurd, but isn't the obvious solution for brokers to automatically do FIFO or Spec-ID based on which is more profitable for their clients? As far as I can tell the greedy algorithm would be pretty straightforward and effective.

Can you explain what this means?

If you’ve been holding stock for more than a year and then sell, it will be taxed at a lower capital gains rate. If you sell sooner, it will be taxed at an ordinary rate.

If you have stock at a brokerage and you want to sell it, FIFO is first in first out. The brokerage will sell the oldest shares you own. It sometimes makes more sense to sell a specific set of shares you bought later depending on purchase price and current price. For example a FIFO sell could generate taxes while a specific lot sell could generate no taxes (you sold at a loss).

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