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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 …
While Fido website doesn't recognize D&C funds or tickers, through an open web search, I found Fido links to several D&C I class funds (TF). It could be that Fido and D&C are negotiating new terms for Fido platform listings (NTF, TF). Sc…
Not a bad idea to get off the FR/BL train soon. When rates stop going up, these act just as short-term HY from low-rated companies that cannot access the normal bond market. There is a recession risk too, but the is consensus that it has been cancel…
PBI tracks down people & verifies if they are dead or alive without being obvious about it. So, it isn't a matter of - why they didn't just call me?
You may have heard of stories about people defrauding insurance & annuity co & retireme…
That is a common problem with bonds.
Most bonds don't trade often and funds are forced to use matrix-pricing, i.e. the prices of something else with similar quality and duration that traded. It is more pronounced for lower-rated bonds.
Only Treasu…
Thanks for clarification that FidSafe wasn't hacked. I am aware of similar digital-lock-boxes for important personal documents/data but I haven't use any. Looks like glorified Dropbox or OneDrive - I use both.
But Fido retirement plans were hit by …
And Howard Marks & a group left TCW before that (1995; founded Oaktree)). In fact, Howard Marks helped Jeffrey Gundlach a LOT (2009) by providing most of the the initial costs to set up DoubleLine (new fund registrations, new office, some basic …
USPS Informed Delivery is usually the same day, or the next day, or after 7-10 days (if mail misdelivered & hopefully returned to Post Office/mail-person).
Complaint is useless. I have complained about delated deliveries of Certified mail (not…
To the list I should add media owned/run by billionaires. Several look like vanity plays.
Benioff - Time (US)
Bloomberg - Bloomberg (already mentioned)
Bezos - Washington Post
Laurene Jobs - Atlantic
Musk - Twitter (social-media, nonprint)
Masa Son…
Major media is owned by big corporations.
Comcast/CMCSA - NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Sky News (UK)
Disney/DIS - ABC
Fox Corp/FOX - Fox News; Fox Corp is run by Murdoch clan that runs News Corp/NWS
News Corp/NWS - WSJ, Barron's, Sun (UK), Times (UK)
Paramoun…
From 2003-08, Neuberger & Berman was owned by Lehman. Luckily, it was one of the bright stars in otherwise sinking Lehman portfolio and came out OK in 2009 post-Lehman spinoff.
A program isn't a fiduciary. The RIAs (Registered Investment Advisors) are fiduciaries.
So, a RIA handling PAS (or other financial stuff) will be a fiduciary. The RIAs need Series 65, or Series 7 + 66, exam(s).
A call center employee (needing onl…
Many may not be following these details. But using the formula in Treasury LINK provided by @msf, I was able to verify the data for the recent 52-wk Auction.
In the recent 52-week Auction example in the OP, TR = 5.392% (calculated) and i = 5.351%, …
@CLAY62, brokers have higher fee incentives to pitch SMAs or advisory accounts. But ask them for multiyear, after-fee performance records. The posted data elsewhere for advisory programs don't indicate superior performance than good retail funds ava…
Unfortunately, bond ladders also have a duration. A 10-yr bond ladder may have a duration around 4-5 years.
So, the ETF PLW has duration 10.80 (M* Portfolio tab below) and SD 9.07 (M* Risk tab) - plenty volatile!
https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/xn…
@msf, thanks for Treasury and CFR links. I will go over them.
Interesting that calculations are different for < 6 months (an approximation) and 6-12 months (exact calculations).
There are 4 examples presented in the Treasury link. The first tw…
An actionable take from OJ was that funds within the T-IRA and 401k/403b cannot be touched, period, except by their owners. Even OJ's lawyer who were stiffed for their fees at some point (well, OJ was in jail) couldn't access OJ's retirement funds -…
For check writing, one should use only government m-mkt funds. Checks can remain outstanding and valid up to 6 months and some bounced checks can quickly run up NSF fees and related headaches.
Note that Fido and Vanguard use only government m-mkt …
Just be aware of the differences between government m-mkt funds and higher yielding prime-retail m-mkt funds. May be use both, the former for critical needs and check writing, and the latter for less critical needs.
Short-term rates are peaking, but it would still be hard to call the absolute top. It is now? Or, 1-2 +25 bps hikes? But that should be it.
Long-term rates are now a puzzle. When people were expecting a recession, they were calling for long-rates t…
Ally was in the 3rd category - outlook changed to negative.
Category 1 - Downgraded now
Category 2 - Under review, for potential downgrade soon
Category 3 - Outlook negative, meaning that those may be downgraded at some point in the future (or not)…
The Fed is stressing capital requirements. But that hasn't been the real problem.
The problem of unstable deposits in this smartphone & Internet-rumors era is not really quantifiable. Bank runs now develop in hours/days, not months.
One can g…
While Moody's rates credit unions, I haven't seen reports of similar downgrades.
Credit unions have simpler models - take deposits, offer CDs, provide auto and home leans, park excess in Treasuries. They don't have CRE exposures. Their membership m…
Moody's downgraded 10 banks (M&T, etc), placed 6 under review (Northern Trust, BoNY/Mellon, etc), and changed the outlook to negative for 11 banks (Capital One is in this category; others are PNC, Ally, etc).
Moody's concerns are real estate/CR…
NVDA shorts have been killed. But Wall Street made money either way because there are both long NVDL and short NVDS ETFs.
Reverse-splits are BAD news. They are attempts to bury mistakes; some ETFs may eventually be shut.
Single stock ETFs are also …
I have a relative in bank compliance business.
Only reason to use off-bank platform, and use encrypted WhatsApp/Signal, etc, is to hide something. It's a well known NO-NO, but even the employees from big banks are caught doing this.
Weekly 13-wk and 26-wk Auction was on Monday/YESTERDAY.
Once a month 52-wk Auction is TODAY. I have an order in.
Save/bookmark Auction schedule, https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/221/Tentative-Auction-Schedule.pdf
Regional bank KRE is showing some damage in the pre-market (-2.7%). It has been rebounding from the May lows.
https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=KRE&p=D&yr=1&mn=0&dy=0&id=p21145977994
Rest of the Story
M*, Yahoo Finance and Nasdaq are still showing Schnitzer Steel/SCHN.
Change to Radius Recycling/RDUS is supposed to be official in September 2023; RDUS ticker isn't yet recognized. Some sites may be jumping the gun on the name ch…
M* has put VWEHX / VWEAX on review due to sudden manager change. The new manager has been an analyst for years, been a manager of an analyst group, but has no prior experience with fund management except for a short overlap with the departing manage…
The m-mkt fund yields have lagged as the rates moved up.
They have almost caught up, especially, the low ER VMFXX (core/settlement) and VMRXX, as the rate growth has slowed. Other m-mkt funds have lower yields due to their higher ERs. Schwab pushe…
A fund's % of Treasury obligations can be used for state/local tax exemption, especially in high tax states. But this doesn't apply to Treasury repos. So, the higher yield of SCOXX (12 bps) over SUTXX comes with this catch; similar for Investor shar…
Historically, VWINX has been 38-62, VWELX 62-38.
FWIW, at Fido, I also like multisector FMSDX.
Vanguard just killed its version of multisector - that was VPGDX for a short while, but VG decided to fold it into unexciting VSMGX.
1-yr T-Bill was at 5.37% yesterday. Auction is on Tuesday, settles on Thursday.
https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_yield_curve&field_tdr_date_value_month=202308
This Fitch insights page provides more details. https://www.fitchratings.com/topics/us-debt-ceiling#insights
US Rating DOWNGRADED to AA+
US GSEs DOWNGRADED to AA+
US Farm Credit System DOWNGRADED to AA+
US Corporations Unaffected (so, JNJ & MS…
