Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
A poster at M* noted that the free credit monitoring offered by Kroll/PBI/TIAA is for 1 credit bureau only. So, I just checked mine by logging into Kroll & under "Services", it says Experian only.
Kroll also offers 3-bureau credit monitoring fo…
@Devo, my guess is that discussion boards have a handful of posters (super-posters?) who tend to post/reply on everything. Sometimes, when they have no clue, they just ask for more details. So, after a while, discussions become repetitive. I keep an…
I believe that the OPs are entitled to present and hold their viewpoints in their OPs. So, after responding to specific questions and tags HERE, I am out of here.
My investing style is fundamentally different, but people know where to find that in…
It isn't "converting", but just "adding" mutual fund classes to existing ETFs.
Vanguard US patent, that has expired now, was on ETF classes of mutual funds. Vanguard limited itself to PASSIVE funds only.
In Europe, Vanguard didn't follow that mo…
I don't post $ or % amounts, sorry.
I provide information for others to use. Posters are free to use it or not. I am not into showboating.
My post(s) on FRN purchase details on THIS thread were in response to specific questions from posters.
BT…
@Jim0445, FWIW, I looked for some connection between your Prof Donald Tuttle and Jim Cramer or Tuttle Capital and I didn't find any. I think that was your worry.
I just checked Schwab Treasury Auction list. It includes:
Buy US Treasury VAR 07/31/2025 08/23/2023 07/31/2025 1 year, 11 months, 9 days from today
(Buy Order will be entered for next business day)
A click on Buy brings up the Order screen with CU…
@Derf, At Schwab online, look for 1 yr, 11 mo Notes and check the CUSIP 91282CHS3 (it's a reopening of the last month's new issue FRN). The "FRN" name is not used by Schwab.
You have to call Fido fixed-income desk for FRN Auctions.
Don't know abo…
Courts allow few months delays if there are issues with kids, pregnancy, health, sometimes pending appeal, etc.
In famous cases, there were delays in prison terms in the cases of (i) Elizabeth Holmes, (ii) Jesse Jr & Sandi Jackson, who were al…
@Jim0445, do you think that Donald Tuttle of CastlePoint is related to Matthew Tuttle of Tuttle Capital Management?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldltuttle
https://castlepoint-inv.com/castlepoint-profile/
https://tuttlecap.com/our-team/
Long LJIM is shutting down, but short SJIM will continue for now. Very high ERs (1.20%).
Is Cramer demanding (or paid) royalties for the use of his name?
They throw a lot of silly ETF stuff on the wall to see what sticks.
One may be missing something by not buying Treasuries (vs online savings, m-mkt funds/accounts, CDs). To say that "I never do ****" shows rigidity or inflexibility that isn't good in investing. Why not learn and try when something works better?
Els…
See 26-wk T-Bill Auction results for today, 8/21/23. Only the investment rate of 5.531% matters as that was the coupon-equivalent rate that EVERYBODY got. Other data just indicate how the institutional bids were spread out and what % got filled.
htt…
From M* VDIGX / People:
Peter C. Fisher Senior Managing Director, Partner, and Equity Portfolio Manager Peter is a portfolio manager on the Dividend Growth Team. He manages equity assets on behalf of our clients, drawing on research from Wellington…
ERISA/DOL no longer allow limiting company retirement plans to company stocks.
Companies may still use their stocks in special profit sharing and incentive plans, etc. They may also require high-level executives and board members to have sufficien…
I am familiar with MINT, Pimco's ACTIVE ultra-ST "black box". "Enhanced" means that it has little Treasuries, but lots of corporates and securitized stuff. Only 41.28% is AAA. Some maturities are 7-10 yrs, some have unknown maturities (?), so these …
Among the T-Bill ETFs with < 3m maturity, what is the attraction (besides a catchy name) of smallish TBIL with a higher ER and from a relatively new firm (with 10 ETFs, all 2022- ) ?
BIL AUM $28.43 billion, ER 14 bps, inception 5/25/07
SGOV A…
May be not the MFO monitors, but the site hosting (Vanilla) monitors? I didn't notice it before, but if it is only 2 immediate views, that isn't bad.
When I started posting on Facebook, I noticed that immediately there were about 15 views. At first…
Notary & Signature Guarantee
Notaries just require state registrations/licenses to operate. Some get it for earning extra income on the side. Many currency exchanges have notaries. Many legal offices have someone on staff as notary. All a notar…
BTW, the Treasury FRN ETFs are USFR, TFLO. All references to those have now rolled off to Page 1. I did execute ultra-ST ICSH to USFR switch last week.
So, I am doing both - using FRN Auctions (that will tie up money for 2 years) and FRN ETF USFR t…
Compare 2-yr T-Note (regular) to 2-yr FRN:
2-yr T-Note (regular) 4.92% (fixed; 8/18/23)
2-yr FRN 3-mo T-Bill yield (5.55%, 8/18/23, but will vary weekly) + spread (around +12.5 bps at 8/23/23 Auction).
So, you will start out with an edge of 63 …
Brokerage or fund firms are not fiduciary.
RIAs are fiduciaries.
Brokers, many advisors (non-RIAs), insurance agents, call center staff are not fiduciaries.
Fido & Schwab with local offices can be very help with complex situations. Most things are held in a single a/c.
With different mutual fund firms, one is still limited to phone or web. And dealing with multiple firms.
As for customer service,…
That is for individual stocks. Idea is that a portfolio of stocks should have 20+ holdings - otherwise, don't bother and just stick to funds. Stocks are volatile, and some crash, or even go bankrupt. So, the hit is limited to 5% per company.
It doe…
Actually, with both manual purchases and auto-roll, T-Bill purchases are coordinated with maturing T-Bills so that the money remains in T-Bills CONTINUOUSLY.
For example, 13-wk and 26-wk auctions are on Monday, and brokers may block the money neede…
There are now related FR threads - on Treasury FRNs, investment-grade FRs, regular FR/BL (really HY). Each will react differently to economic conditions. But rising or steady rates will be the most attractive environment for all of them.
My older c…
True, TIAA has SOME products for general public. But it keeps dropping many - LTCI, life insurance, etc. Some of its IRAs require TIAA-eligibility - some connection with TIAA due to current/prior job by self or close family members.
Likewise, there…
TIAA Brokerage is via Pershing/BK. So, things are clunky.
Nonretirement stuff at TIAA is only for those with retirement accounts that WANT to stick around for consolidation of accounts. TIAA hasn't made serious efforts to attract general investors.…
ETF.com duration numbers are NOT correct.
First, for securities that reset weekly, duration should be just 1 week.
Second, even if it calculated duration ignoring the weekly resets, a portfolio of 2-yr FRNs should have duration around 1 year. Ther…
In investments, not everything is long-term. Some opportunities are just transient. From tipsters, these can be scams. But the FRNs indeed present a good/genuine transient opportunity now - UNTIL the rates start to go down (late-2024? 2025?).
I wil…
Long-term performance of FRN ETFs is meaningless; during much of the ZIRP regime, they had negative spreads but spreads have been positive since mid-2022. FRNs have done well since 2022 because of the ZIRP regime being gone (first the expectations, …
Current rates:
Government M-mkt funds (7-day yield) VMFXX 5.26%, SPAXX 4.97%, SNVXX 5.04%
3-mo T-Bills 5.56%, 8/17/23
FRN yield = T-Bill yield + spread (2023 range 12-20 bps).
So, one has to decide if extra 40-75 bps over m-mkt funds with FRNs …
