Most small investors have money only in retirement accounts which don't pay taxes. Now you should mostly not play with that money (just put in good funds which rebalance for you) but taking 5% to play is fine. Just don't lose it all and then take another 5% until it is gone.
outside of that just rebalance only every other year is your best plan - but it means only buying things you can hold that long.
Either tax-deferred account or tax loss harvesting.
No and that's probably a big reason why a lot of folks are not selling. Why incur a 23.8% tax based on.. feelings?
No
Is there a way for a small individual investor to "exchange" shares in stock without doing a "sell A + buy B" for which the sale of A is subject to capital gains tax?
Some cursory googling points me to "exchange funds", but those seem to be designed for accredited investors.
The advice I see for someone like me who wants to "re-balance" is just to change allocations for any new investments, but I'm wondering if there's an effective way to shift existing allocations without incurring a tax penalty...