Assuming the stock doesn't decline, the capital gains are not avoidable, only the timing of them is. One could buy a put option as a hedge, but these tend to be very expensive and have to be continually rolled over. Another possibility is to short sell another bank as a hedge. This adds some risks, and some costs, but is generally cheaper than put options. One could also sell very long long dated call options against the position. This would bring in income (taxed as capital gains) and at least defer the tax hit. But, generally, we find that trying to save taxes typically results in less-than-ideal portfolio moves. Capital gains taxes could go up next year. Position sizes need to be personal. Some investors do not mind giant positions. But our move would be to take some nice profits and take the position down to a level that one is comfortable with, take the tax hit and improve overall portfolio dynamics.
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