Which account should I use for actively trading stocks? Roth vs traditional vs brokerage
I'm 53 and have money spread between traditional and roth retirement accounts and a brokerage account. Until recently, it's just been in target date funds. It's all (hopefully) going to just sit in these accounts until after I retire. My income is likely to be a smaller in retirement than it is now, but not by a huge amount.
I started trading individual stocks with part of my brokerage account last year, but got hit with some surprises at tax time. Should I be doing this trading inside my IRA instead? It feels like using the roth would be good for this as potential big gains wouldn't be taxed and I wouldn't have to worry about how long I own things before selling. Am I missing something? I can't find much on this subject, everything seems focused on where you put new money and which funds to invest in.
This will be a small percentage of my total accounts, and it's all in Vanguard accounts I control.