Zsebok v. The Queen, 2012 DTC 1127 [at at 3145], 2012 TCC 99 -- summary under Capital Loss v. Loss

Sheridan J. found that, on balance, the taxpayer's characterization of his share trading as an adventure in the nature of trade was correct and his losses were on income account. The frequency of trades suggested that the transactions were capital in nature - trades were done in only 5%-10% of the days in a given year, with shares held for an average of 60+ days. However, the taxpayer sometimes would hold shares for a matter of days or even hours, and he tended to trade mainly in three stocks. The taxpayer was also heavily over-leveraged. The taxpayer's full-time employment did not substantially interfere with his ability to devote his attention to managing his trades because his job entailed monitoring the markets with professional tools.