Phil Egidi is part of a growing group of people who are looking to turn a loss into a benefit using a technique called a tax swap.

"You can turn mutual funds or stocks or bonds that you have big losses on and you can turn that into lemonade from lemons, " says Cheryl Squire is a financial planner with Edward Jones. She says selling those stocks and bonds while they're down will generate a realized loss, a loss you can write off on your taxes.

Squire says, "You can do it with things besides mutual funds too. You can also do that with an individual bond, with a stock."
Egidi is looking into the swap. "So depending on how much we lose I may have a write off." Squire says before you go and sell those losing stocks to consult your accountant.

CPA Marietta Martin says, "It needs to be outside a retirement account and it has to generate a 1099 for the sale of the stock."
Martin says a tax swap works best for those who realized large capitol gains early in the year or who earned a bonus or raise at work. The realized loss would help to balance out the gains resulting in fewer taxes.

With the market down you can take the money from the sale of your stock and buy a comparable one to keep that investment alive.