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Bloomberg has great article on chaos at IRS but behind their paywall.
The Washington Post has a great op-ed along with pictures about how archaic the IRS system is (dating back to the 1970s, though they do have a computer running Windows XP). I b…
Some of the MMFs settle same day, some next day. This is likely not unique to Merrill. Further, each fund has its own trading cutoff time, well before 4PM. If you place an order after that cutoff time, you'll get an order acknowledgement readi…
@Sven, thanks for pointing that out You used an important phrase: "out-performing their respective index". The WSJ didn't compare all 1,257 "qualified" (over $50M AUM, 3 year record) actively managed domestic equity funds to their respective ind…
Consider thinking outside the box, or in this case, outside of Schwab and brokerages in general.
Hyperion Bank CDs (new money, available online, taxable accounts only):
- 19 mo CD, 5.35% rate, 5.50% APY
- 13 mo CD, 5.12% rate, 5.25% APY
https://w…
Fido Brokerage Bill Pay went down a few minutes ago. Just came back, but lost work I had entered shortly before it went down.
I didn't capture the first error message. The last error message was:
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
Agreeing with @Observant1's comments: Thomas Coutts has been the lead manager on the pure Baillie Gifford international fund, BGETX, since inception. Until 2021, that fund tracked VWIGX extremely closely (see Portfolio Visualizer graph).
The r…
@hank, only the precious metal funds may own physical commodities.
Thanks. Guessing it’s a SEC limitation?
My impression is that this is more of a pragmatic limitation than a legal one. There are certainly additional legal constraints on owning…
It looks like the instructions are the same, aside from Yogi's edit warning to check a box (either savings or checking) rather than leave it blank.
Reiterating my prior warning - it looks like refund money that is sent electronically will be applie…
I don't get fascination in yield for its own sake. Why would one pay (in the form of negative total return) just to get some of one's own money back as divs?
Lifetime total return of TSLY (using Yahoo's adjusted NAV figures) -1.6%
Nov 23 - Apr 3,…
The price cap is no longer a real cap if the 2nd richest economy needs an exception.
GDP as a whole is a meaningless number. GDP per capita is the meaningful number.
Is that Liechtenstein (World Bank 2020 data) or Ireland (Visual Capitalist, 2023),…
Japan's Sakhalin exception was done LAST YEAR while formulating the oil price-cap policy, https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/11/b7ea9d8ec6d2-us-excludes-oil-for-japan-from-russias-sakhalin-2-from-price-cap.html
The NEW price-cap exception for…
The price cap is no longer a real cap if the 2nd richest economy needs an exception.
Here’s a look at every country’s share of the world’s $101.6 trillion economy:
Rank Country GDP (Billions, USD)
#1 United States $25,035.2
#2 China $18,321.2
#3 …
Also helping Europe is an accelerated shift to renewables as well as an offsetting return to coal.
European Union leaders said the war has had a silver lining in terms of moving the bloc forward on targets for renewable energy. Countries that were p…
TD has told me (on the phone) that one can buy I-bonds electronically with refunds. I have no doubt one is able to purchase bonds electronically this way. But I remain skeptical about this procedure enabling one to purchase additional $5K in savin…
Thrivent Partner Small Cap Value Fund, TPSIX merged into Thrivent Small Cap Stock TSCSX in 2015.
Thrivent Partner International Stock Fund AAITX merged into Thrivent Partner Worldwide Allocation TWAAX in 2011, which was renamed Thrivent Internation…
Just as Vanguard Flagship customers ($1M+ invested in VG funds directly at Vanguard) may open new Primecap-managed fund (VHCOX, VPMCX, VPCCX) accounts, T. Rowe Price Summit Select customers ($250K+ invested in TRP funds directly at Price) may open n…
That would correspond with the two emails I got from Fidelity 11:45PM Friday evening:
(1) FCONX has closed to new investors
(2) FCRDX has closed to new investors
FCRDX shares were likely moved to FMNDX.
Fidelity's web page(s) may be a little slow …
The existing money probably also gets a floating rate. It's just that the floor is 4%.
Earlier this year I liquidated a cash acccount (taxable) I had with an insurance company that was providing me a variable rate guaranteed not to be lower than …
I thought I knew what stable value funds in a 401k were. I used them for years, but what you show looks to me more like an annuity.
Stable value fund is available in my 401(K) plan. It is an insurance product that invest in short term treasurys but…
I might have pointed to Larry Summers as the Democratic poster boy for deregulation. Between 1992 and 2001, Summers held various positions in the US Treasury Department, including that of Treasury Secretary from 1999 to 2001. Summers has described…
You can also hold the paper bonds yourself, perhaps in a safe deposit box.
The mail in process isn't hard, though a tad more tedious than one would like. And you only have to create that second account once.
As I've posted before, the USPS lost …
Lewis is right, I"ve done this. The conversion is easy but a nuisance.
The TreasuryDirect instructions are here:
https://treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/manage-bonds/convert-paper-to-electronic/#id-how-do-i-convert-my-ee-or-i-bonds--508815
Ba…
If there is any place where the vulnerabilities of the system to runs and fire sales have been clear-cut, it is money market funds.
...
Even without a fixed NAV, liquidity mismatch in other kinds of funds can still make them vulnerable to runs and …
Everything lost money last year, as you noted. VWINX was in the top decile in 2022.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/vwinx/performance
Not so great YTD. At least part of that is due to its mandate - generate income. On the equity side, i…
Be careful what you ask about. You might get more than you bargained for :-)
There were a couple of exceptions to the "usual" step up rule in the past, there's one current exception (in timing), and potentially one in the future. Perhaps othe…
It's a variant of TBTF bailouts. If the bank's insolvency doesn't rock the boat, it goes under. But if it is large enough to affect the financial structure .... A variant of the aphorism:
If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you o…
Half of the deposits that remained post seizure have already flown the coup:
$119B in Silicon Valley Bridge Bank deposits on March 10th.
$56B in deposits transferred (sold) to First CItizens
-----
$63B in deposits pulled out of the bridge bank.
htt…
A little common sense here would go a long way. If one could use current day prices for some of the costs (improvements), then why not also use current price for the base cost as well? Voilà, no capital gain, nada. Problem solved :-)
OF course…
ssue not easily dismissed by red herring arguments. Of course other instances of injustice have existed throughout history. Doesn’t in any way explain or justify this instance.
I think you missed my point. Depositors who get "only" $250K of insur…
it was clear to the "market" (but not to regulators?) that IF the HTM Treasuries were marked-to-market, the equity (the book values) of the failed banks would have been wiped out.
What does "clear to the 'market'" mean? Are we talking about the m…
Some uninsured depositors lucked out by getting coverage. We can complain all we want about how they shouldn't have gotten covered, verily how they exacerbated the problem. Still, depositors at other institutions aren't being shortchanged a nick…
At least at Fidelity, QCD is not as seamless as a DAF. There is no online method to transfer the funds.
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/retirement/qcds-the-basics
Click on "Make a QCD". The pop-up that appears reads:
H…
a bet on a long-term CD at a high interest rate has it's own risks for the issuing credit union or bank, and that risk is sort of the opposite from what took down Silicon Valley Bank recently. If the Fed's interest rates come down in a year or two t…
I just checked and Fidelity charges $75 for Vanguard and Dodge and Cox funds. A $50 fee would have been a real investor improvement for Fidelity but I guess Abigail Johnson needs to keep her net worth over $20 billion !
Don't forget Schwab funds. F…
With respect to directly- (bank-) sold CDs, Ken Tumin at depositaccounts.com has a cautionary note:
Some banks and credit unions have language in their CD disclosures that allows them to refuse an early withdrawal request. Although CD early withdraw…
"Sweep account" is essentially a marketing term that is used differently by T. Rowe Price and by Fidelity.
A "settlement account" (what Fidelity calls a "core" account) is where the cash comes from to settle all your brokerage transactions (includi…
I transferred the securities in my TD account to Schwab in 2020 w/o any problems whatsoever, and got a decent transfer bonus. Maybe that's because I did it long before they actually began moving accounts? *shrug* (I moved early b/c I didn't want t…
A dividend from USAA would have been the right thing to have done for its members so I don't fault Schwab
The right thing to have done, as with any sale, was to have compensated the owners for the sale. USAA's members were customers receiving se…
Generally speaking, one cannot buy institutional class shares at Merrill - just the higher ER retail shares. Its online system still has some archaic quirks.
On the plus side, ACAT transfers (in-kind) to and from Merrill are handled very quickl…
