If your IRA is just chugging along building a solid but unspectacular return, you might want to consider using it as a trading tool.
The Washington Post's Albert Crenshaw says a successful trader can have winnings available to reinvest at any time, since no taxes are due on a traditional IRA until withdrawals begin in retirement.
With a Roth IRA, no taxes are due when you start withdrawing the cash. Crenshaw quotes one broker as saying that with capital gains meaningless, "you can churn literally every day," and he says he's had clients "make a ton of money."
There are cautions, however. You can't deduct losses, for example, and when you withdraw money from a traditional IRA, your ultimate winnings are taxed at ordinary income tax rates -- up to 39.6 percent -- rather than at the long-term capital gains rate, which has a 20 percent cap.
