Many brokerages provide cash management services as if they were real banks. For example, Fidelity accounts offer checking ant debit card services. But those services are provided by UMB Bank (routing number 101205681is associated with UMB Bank, KS). Fidelity says that its "accounts are considered a checking account for direct debit purposes."
A few institutions will link only to real banks, not to these pseudo "bank" accounts. I don't have any problems linking Treasury Direct to such accounts. So it doesn't look like Treasury Direct is one of those few picky institutions.
On the other end of the spectrum are real brick and mortar banks with lots of branches. Such as Chase, or TD Bank that is "one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S" and "a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada". They are FDIC insured, unlike brokerage accounts masquerading as checking accounts.
https://www.tdbank.com/aboutus/investor_relations.html
When it comes to Schwab, Schwab Bank is a real, FDIC-insured bank, separate from but affiliated with the broker-dealer Charles Schwab & Co. "Affiliated" here means that they are both owned by the same parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.
https://www.schwab.com/savings
But the Schwab One brokerage account (as opposed to the HY checking account) appears to operate as a pseudo "bank" account. The account disclosure says that "Checking account and Debit Card services provided by the Bank". And it defines "Bank" to be "BNY Mellon Investment Servicing Trust (IST) Company and/or its affiliates, the entity responsible for administering the Bank Services."
https://www.schwab.com/legal/schwab-one-account-agreement
Then there are internet-only banks (e.g. Ally Bank). In theory that shouldn't make any difference in the context of electronic transfers as opposed to walk-in services. One doesn't walk into a bank to set up a domestic EFT link.

Are you catching up with March/April 2021?
Anyway, GABVX is a focused MC-blend, but has high exposure to SC; it also has exposure to M&A deals. So, SP500 isn't a good benchmark for it. As it has only 25 stocks, you will have to dig into those for the week of March 22-26, 2021 (you may have to check SEC/Edgar filings for its portfolio around then). But it looks like that week there was a selloff Mon-Wed that hit SC vary hard, and GABVX went down hard. But when things rebounded Th-FRI, GABVX kept falling - that can happen with concentrated positions.

On Monday March 22, 2021 it was $16.46, and by Friday March 26, 2021 (same week) it was $14.92 for a loss of 9.4%.
Vanguard Index 500 (VFIAX) was up 0.5% in the same week, and that's not even including a distribution that was paid. There were no GABVX distributions paid in that week.
If you own or track GABVX do you know what happened that week that caused such a sudden correction? I'm just curious.
thanks!

I was very leery of VWINX and other "allocation" funds. Everyone knew the stock market was close to peak PE, but when interest rates were so low last year, the protection bonds offered in the past disappeared, especially as VWINX duration is still 5 to 7 years.
I don't understand why they didn't move rapidly into short term bonds and cash. The bonds they held were almost guaranteed to lose 5 to 10%
I can only assume this is a case of being stuck as their mandate did not allow 70% cash

There’s certainly a lot of negative commentary / sentiment out there. And I’m not buying any more garbage than I already own! Yet - I think it’s worth noting that for every seller on any given day there has to also be a buyer.
Point being: Sentiment cuts both ways. Not entirely one sided.
Speaking of garbage. The antithesis of garbage would seem to be blue chip. No? So I checked TRBCX (T Rowe Price Blue Chip Stock Fund). It is down 39.5% YTD. That’s a garbage-like number. So kinda muddles the distinction ISTM. / Shakespeare - “What’s in a name?”

Credit card business is a very profitable business with little downside risk. That is why Visa and Mastercard stocks are commonly held in growth mutual funds.
Think the transaction fees have gone up from 3% (Visa and Mastercard). Now the credit card companies offer $ reward annually based the amount the customers spent.
The customers can pay cash by several ways:
1. A bank check (merchants often need driver license plate number and another piece of ID). Last time I did that was over 20 years ago.
2. a debit card. Often the gas station charges $0.35 per purchase.
The downside of debit card is that there is no credit protection for the customers in case of fraudulent charges, and it is tied directly to your checking account. With a credit card you can dispute the charges with credit card companies and they will investigate. If proven in favor of the customers, no payment is required.
With high gas prices everywhere, one can minimize the debit card risk by paying inside the gas station, say $100, any amount unused will not taken out from the checking account. This would avoid “skimmer” that thieves often install outside by the gas pumps.

...for a charge that BUSINESSES had been paying to Visa, M/C. Maybe AMEX, too.
I think it's common now all over the place, especially at gas stations, to see a separate "cash" price and "credit" price. NOTE: merchants cannot do this in Quebec, because they still have some sense in that Province. There are consumer protections against it there.
Mother-suck-pus:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/credit-card-surcharge-faq-1.6610356

Audit???????

Crazy good documentary. 3+ hours long. I’m 30 minutes in. So, if I heard correctly, buying shares in a company is related to sexual fulfillment! Wonder what it means when the shares lose 25% of their value in about 6 months?

He recommends Texas Instruments these days, at the end of that 2nd conversation. TXN. (PRWCX is my largest holding.)
Not much of a discount now, according to Morningstar, but Morningstar always offers a low-ball fair value number. Healthy dividend. Net Margin 43.59. TXN.

@Observant1, thank you for the great summary on Giroux’s interview.
His timing coming into 2022 is impeccable with his positioning of the portfolio.
He repeated “recession” several times even though he does not believe it. However, moving 10% of fixed income to 5-yr treasury indicated he is seeking something more than merely the higher yield (4.2% as of 12/14/22). Still he has a healthy % in bank loan and a few investment bonds.
He reduced the overweighting of utility to fund the cyclical stocks including the semiconductors and other quality growth stocks (3-5 years horizon).
Discussion on GE stock helped to clarify why he still holding 3% of it.
Clearly he knows his holdings (40 stocks) well and move in and out based on their valuation.
Still he don’t like energy stocks.
For full disclosure, PRWCX is one of our largest holdings. I will get his book for Christmas.

No doubt short term bonds are paying well. But further out on the curve “plain vanilla” bond funds don’t appear to have fared much better than a diversified mix of equities or many mixed allocation funds. PRGMX, which I’d characterize as holding very high quality bonds of intermediate duration (5-7 years), is down 14.6% YTD. Global bond fund DODLX, which I own, keeps around 50% or more in the U.S. and leans towards higher quality bonds (with some sub-investment grade). It is down 14.45% YTD.
As for allocation funds, a couple 60/40 (bonds/stocks) from TRP sport the following YTD numbers:
PRSIX -17.6% / TRRIX -17%. Even highly esteemed VWINX is off 15% YTD. If you check equity heavier conservative funds like PRWCX and DODBX you’ll find both have held up somewhat better than those bond and allocation funds I cited.
Of course managers can use derivatives to make their bond funds perform a lot better or even buck the trend, as I’ve sure some have done. But for the “plain vanilla” category further out on the curve there’s not a lot to recommend them over equities up to this point. None of this will cut your losses or make you feel better. Just a humble attempt to look at a few categories that longer term oriented investors tend to rely on.
Re Rieder’s suggestion - Note there is an air of market timing in what he says. He’s talking about a temporary shift to fixed income to take advantage of the spike in short term rates. I’d expect Rick to “ring a bell” to announce when the day arrives when we should move out of that defensive position into “growthier” holdings. :)
Most recent YTD numbers from Bloomberg I’ve glanced: Dow -18% / S&P - 25% / NASDAQ - 35%.
While it’s dangerous to try to equate this with another period (No two are the same.) - if you were to overlay this bear decline on top of the ‘07-‘09 bear market, I suspect in both magnitude of losses and duration we’re somewhere around the mid-way point.

So the talk now is a Fed terminal rate > 5%. That should kick up the recession odds.

"Mistakes were made."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/15/there-were-mistakes-uk-new-finance-minister-on-tax-cut-plan

Ominous other years in the quadrant in that chart where we are now; the other two began long downturns. 1931 we all pretty much know about; 1969 was the first down year ushering in a decline that didn't break until 1982.

The change of PM from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss is getting worse. She reminds me of the 80’s trickle-down economics that never work for the majority of American. The Atlantic has a good article on Truss.
https://msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-liz-truss-travesty-becomes-britain-s-humiliation/ar-AA12Y9tl?cvid=1581ae93702d430a8d17d06f22b90d4f
Should I be worry about my British stock holding in my international funds?