Tax-loss harvesting alternatives for COST

Among the 11 Broadline Retail peers screened, WMT (Walmart Inc.) has tracked COST most closely over the past year, with a return correlation of 0.59. The strongest fund stand-in is RTH (VanEck Retail ETF) at 0.49 over the past year. Correlations are computed from daily closing-price returns aligned by trading day.

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STOCKS

Single-name peers

Ticker	Name	Sub-industry	1Y	3Y	5Y	10Y
WMT	Walmart Inc.	Broadline Retail	0.59	0.58	0.57	0.58
TGT	Target Corp.	Broadline Retail	0.31	0.21	0.39	0.42
DG	Dollar General	Broadline Retail	0.20	0.09	0.24	0.34
DLTR	Dollar Tree	Broadline Retail	0.14	0.12	0.25	0.28
OLLI	Ollie's Bargain Outlet	Broadline Retail	0.13	0.24	0.28	0.28
M	Macy's	Broadline Retail	0.09	0.12	0.25	0.21
KSS	Kohl's Corp.	Broadline Retail	0.08	0.05	0.16	0.16
EBAY	eBay Inc.	Broadline Retail	0.07	0.16	0.32	0.32
ETSY	Etsy	Broadline Retail	0.02	0.12	0.28	0.27
BABA	Alibaba Group	Broadline Retail	0.00	0.06	0.12	0.16
AMZN	Amazon.com Inc.	Broadline Retail	-0.00	0.23	0.38	0.40

ETFS

Fund stand-ins

An ETF is generally not 'substantially identical' to a single stock, which is why funds are the standard wash-sale-aware replacement.

Ticker	Name	Focus	Match	1Y	3Y	5Y	10Y
RTH	VanEck Retail ETF	Retail	INDUSTRY	0.49	0.57	0.67	0.68
XRT	SPDR S&P Retail ETF	Retail	INDUSTRY	0.21	0.29	0.43	0.42
ITB	iShares US Home Construction	Homebuilders	SUB-IND	0.09	0.18	0.34	0.35
PEJ	Invesco Leisure & Entertainment	Leisure & Entertainment	INDUSTRY	0.06	0.31	0.38	0.34
XHB	SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF	Homebuilders	SUB-IND	0.03	0.18	0.36	0.39
BETZ	Roundhill Sports Betting iGaming	Sports Betting	SUB-IND	0.03	0.25	0.35	0.32
ONLN	ProShares Online Retail ETF	Online Retail	INDUSTRY	0.02	0.22	0.38	0.42
XLY	Consumer Discretionary SPDR	Cons Discretionary Sector	SECTOR	0.02	0.34	0.50	0.52
VCR	Vanguard Consumer Discretionary	Cons Discretionary Sector	SECTOR	0.02	0.33	0.49	0.51
IBUY	Amplify Online Retail ETF	Online Retail	INDUSTRY	0.02	0.26	0.38	0.40
DRIV	Global X Autonomous & EV ETF	Autonomous & EV	INDUSTRY	-0.17	0.14	0.33	0.38
CARZ	First Trust S-Network EV & FV	Autos & EVs	INDUSTRY	-0.20	0.15	0.32	0.32

NEXT STEPS

Harvesting a loss in COST?

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Replacement research for COST's peers

WMT TGT DG DLTR OLLI M KSS EBAY ETSY BABA AMZN

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Method: Pearson correlation of daily closing-price returns, Yahoo Finance data, series aligned by trading day, refreshed weekly. A cell is blank when overlapping history covers less than 60% of its window. Correlation is descriptive, not predictive. Wash-sale treatment depends on facts and circumstances — confirm with a tax professional. Not investment advice.