Newsletters - Past Issues

Rates on investments are rising to acceptable levels. Update August 21 2022

 

Many investments with FDIC backing offer acceptable rates

 

 

Yields are not so paltry anymore...

With the market continuing to jerk investors to and fro, even with the recent increase in market up days compared to the first half of the year, many are looking for safe havens until the market becomes more stable.

U.S. Government “I-Bonds” from Treasurydirect.gov are paying an annual yield of close to ten percent right now and was covered in a previous Money Matters article so I won’t cover them again here.

Regular treasuries and CD’s can be bought at your local bank, credit union or brokerage house, although the interest rates are still anemic even with the Federal Reserve on an interest rate increase binge of late.

In searching for higher yielding yet safe investment vehicles from our brokerage house where we handle our accounts, the fixed income department gives direct access to CD and U.S. treasury screeners where I can view current rates and different quantity solicitations directly from such dealers.

For instance, when I go to my U.S. Treasury screener, I can see a variety of dealers offering up their treasury quantities and rates. Each dealers offering can be slightly different than the next.

Surprisingly, three, six and nine month Treasuries were offering yields north of 2%. The longer out one went, the higher the yield.  The Cd’s offered on this dealer screener were equally surprising in their yields.

I, like many investors, have become used to the near zero rates banks will pay on short term savings accounts, U.S. debt like Treasury bills, bonds or notes, and money market funds. We may just assume the returns on such short term monetary commitment vehicles are paying next to nothing, and for years we may have been right.

Surprisingly, and refreshingly, by accessing direct into my brokerage firm’s dealer screen, those perceived “non-existent” or paltry rates from banking institutions are becoming somewhat of a mirage. They aren’t so paltry anymore.

Rates are actually becoming palatable, at least to this analyst, and even on short term financial instruments like Treasuries and Cds, and on instant access accounts like savings or checking, rates are rising.

Will miracles never cease…

In checking www.bankrate.com, one of my favorite comparative websites for bank rates on all sorts of financial products like Cds, Treasuries, savings and checking accounts, at first glance, the rates appear to be lower than what I can access through my dealer screener at my advisory broker.

Although financial service companies like advisors and brokers are usually sought out for stocks and bonds, I was pleasantly surprised to see not only could I buy these “bank” type products mentioned above, the rates I was seeing were comparatively very attractive.

Thank goodness I looked right?

The whole point of today’s musing is to illustrate interest rates have likely risen at your local bank and credit union, like they have at most all financial institutions. This is because of the Feds recent war on inflation. To help combat it, they are increasing interest rates.

These ongoing rate increases by the Fed have also helped increase bank product rates. That means savings and checking accounts, along with a whole slew of other typical bank offerings are likely paying higher rates then we remember.

Making a good thing even better, inquiring at your local financial advisor office about such investments that are typically bought at a bank might mean even higher rates are available there.

I was surprised to see the dealer markets our brokerage firm had access to might be offering what appeared to be even higher rates than I found elsewhere.

Only goes to show that, in these crazy times, continually circling back to what was thought to be once stale financial fishing grounds might surprise to the upside if we take the time to inquire.

Revisiting what we once thought was the mundane may not be so boring after all.

And Lord knows our pocket books could all use a little more stuffing in them.

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

(end)

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)   

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, SDSU, and California Insurance License #0L34249. His website is moneymanagementradio.com, and was recently voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County. 530-559-1214

 

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Money Matters update August 8 2022

 

 Is the US dollar headed for 18 zeros ?

 

Hello Money Matters fans,

 

With the market continuing to jerk investors to and fro, even with the recent increase in market up days compared to the first half of the year, many are looking for safe havens until the market becomes more stable.

U.S. Government “I-Bonds” from Treasurydirect.gov are paying an annual yield of close to ten percent right now and was covered in a previous Money Matters article so I won’t cover them again here.

Regular treasuries and CD’s can be bought at your local bank, credit union or brokerage house, although the interest rates are still anemic even with the Federal Reserve on an interest rate increase binge of late.

In searching for higher yielding yet safe investment vehicles from our brokerage house where we handle our accounts, the fixed income department gives direct access to CD and U.S. treasury screeners where I can view current rates and different quantity solicitations directly from such dealers.

For instance, when I go to my U.S. Treasury screener, I can see a variety of dealers offering up their treasury quantities and rates. Each dealers offering can be slightly different than the next.

Surprisingly, three, six and nine month Treasuries were offering yields north of 2%. The longer out one went, the higher the yield.  The Cd’s offered on this dealer screener were equally surprising in their yields.

I, like many investors, have become used to the near zero rates banks will pay on short term savings accounts, U.S. debt like Treasury bills, bonds or notes, and money market funds. We may just assume the returns on such short term monetary commitment vehicles are paying next to nothing, and for years we may have been right.

Surprisingly, and refreshingly, by accessing direct into my brokerage firm’s dealer screen, those perceived “non-existent” or paltry rates from banking institutions are becoming somewhat of a mirage. They aren’t so paltry anymore.

Rates are actually becoming palatable, at least to this analyst, and even on short term financial instruments like Treasuries and Cds, and on instant access accounts like savings or checking, rates are rising.

Will miracles never cease…

In checking www.bankrate.com, one of my favorite comparative websites for bank rates on all sorts of financial products like Cds, Treasuries, savings and checking accounts, at first glance, the rates appear to be lower than what I can access through my dealer screener at my advisory broker.

Although financial service companies like advisors and brokers are usually sought out for stocks and bonds, I was pleasantly surprised to see not only could I buy these “bank” type products mentioned above, the rates I was seeing were comparatively very attractive.

Thank goodness I looked right?

The whole point of today’s musing is to illustrate interest rates have likely risen at your local bank and credit union, like they have at most all financial institutions. This is because of the Feds recent war on inflation. To help combat it, they are increasing interest rates.

These ongoing rate increases by the Fed have also helped increase bank product rates. That means savings and checking accounts, along with a whole slew of other typical bank offerings are likely paying higher rates then we remember.

Making a good thing even better, inquiring at your local financial advisor office about such investments that are typically bought at a bank might mean even higher rates are available there.

I was surprised to see the dealer markets our brokerage firm had access to might be offering what appeared to be even higher rates than I found elsewhere.

Only goes to show that, in these crazy times, continually circling back to what was thought to be once stale financial fishing grounds might surprise to the upside if we take the time to inquire.

Revisiting what we once thought was the mundane may not be so boring after all.

And Lord knows our pocket books could all use a little more stuffing in them.

 

Marc was recently voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County. 530-559-1214

Turning 65?         Call me!

 

(530)559-1214

 


 

Bitcoin bust and trust UPDATE July 2 2022

 

Vapor....

 

The latest news in the market resembles the 1950’s radio disc jockey that shouted between songs “and the hits just keep on coming”.

Previous Wall Street darling stocks manage to get off the mat after being hammered down 70, 80, 90 percent or more, only to be carpet slammed again by another brutal sell off on any given day. Relentless is the word that comes to mind.

Crypto fans who dabble in the Bitcoin universe and thought they were safe are finding out they too are not immune from the markets financial beat downs.

More than a handful of cyber coin dealers and marketers have had liquidity problems in the past few weeks with some halting or limiting redemptions. The so called “stable” coin, Terra USD, which was supposed to remain in lockstep with the US dollar, lost its mojo as it not only failed to maintain its peg to the dollar, but almost completely collapsed. Now the news wires contain almost daily headlines that major players in the crypto universe are having some very serious financial issues.

Warning multiple times Cyber coins were “vapor”, I reiterate a direr warning again today that the whole cyber universe reeks of an out of control mania that will end badly. In fact, the cyber coin phenomenon is the worst mania ever when compared to previous price explosions in any other asset mania recorded in human history.

Unfortunately, these types of liquidity headlines have a tendency to become only more frequent, until the “one” headline that announces a total collapse of the asset in question or that of a major player hits the wires and causes an all-out panic wipe out.

Not saying it will happen of course, as no one can forecast the workings of financial markets, but the whole thing has a very familiar ring to it.

Since Bitcoin came to my attention about 7 years ago, I didn’t trust it and written such in more than a handful of news articles and covered it on my radio show multiple times over the years.

The coins themselves, called tokens, are not guaranteed by any government, and the market has grown into the trillions. It is estimated over 100 billion worth of bitcoin accounts have been lost in cyber space due to password loss or theft. The actual numbers may never be known. Never knew anyone who lost a bank or stock account.

This brings another issue to light that bothers the heck out of me. Truthfully I don’t fully understand the whole cyber coin thing, how it works, who runs it, and all the ins and outs of this relatively new version of electronic currency, and frankly I believe few do.

With trillions in cyberspace, not doubt there are many, many hands in the mix, of which we have no idea of their moral makeup and honesty versus their self-interests.  We also know that there are tens of thousands of very computer savvy thieves running amongst them.

With no one you can call or ask for assistance from, an investor is at the mercy of this vast and complicated electronic universe. Making matters worse, it has no checks or balances that apparently work right and there is little to no regulatory oversight at this time, although some is pending by concerned governments.

The whole things is downright frightening to this analyst.

And finally, I am surprised one of the reasons proponents of Bitcoin tell me they want to invest in it is that governments can’t mess with it and cyber coins autonomous qualities. Excuse me, but Bitcoin and other cyber currencies are anything but autonomous. A dollar bill or gold coin has no memory, which is to say what it was spent on is forever unknown to the next holder. Look at a dollar and tell me what is has bought. Ditto with gold and silver coins. Cyber coins however, being in cyber space, forever maintain a record of where and when it moved. This is the ultimate in a tracking history should governments wish to install themselves more into the universe of Cyber. That the anti-government and conspiracy crowd flocks to this anti-cash asset where its record keeping is airtight and written in stone forever, is to me, more than baffling.

“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

(end)

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)   

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, SDSU, and California Insurance License #0L34249. His website is moneymanagementradio.com, and was recently voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County. 530-559-1214

 


 

The stable coin- bitcoin blow up Update June 8, 2022

 

Is the crash in Cyber tokens over?

 

After nine straight weeks of a bitcoin decline, now the experiment that combined math and software to get a digital currency to behave like a U.S.dollar crashed in dramatic fashion, posing the biggest threat yet to develop a decentralized cyber currency.

 

TerraUSD, or “UST”, is another in a long line of attempted cyber currencies, called “cyber coins”, the most celebrated of which is Bitcoin.

 

TerraUSD, was called a stable coin, which, unlike its thousands of counter parts which include bitcoin, was developed to provide a “stable” valued vehicle in the cyber coin universe. Investors in cyber tokens know of the wild swings that cyber coins can have. Terra was an attempt to provide a coin that would retain its value at par, which is to say, remain worth one U.S. dollar at all times.

 

TerraUSD, an “algorithmic stable coin”, uses a variety of methodologies and incentives in an attempt to maintain its peg of one-to-one to the dollar. It strives to accomplish this by working with a crypto token in the same ecosystem. That token, called Luna, can be swapped for Terra and vice versa.

 

This back and forth swapping by traders supposedly keeps the price of a Terra where it should be, which is walking in lockstep with the U.S. dollar.

 

The thinking around developing a stable vehicle was to enable crypto traders to make transactions in differing cyber coins easily and quickly without needing to leave the digital asset universe. It also was thought to alleviate intermediaries and the concerns the value of various coins would fluctuate when trades or swaps were executed.

 

If it all sounds a little gobblydegookish, it’s not you. I have found unless one is a full on member of the computer geek squad, the world of cyber coin will be more than a bit confusing.

 

Even for experienced Wall Street alumni like myself, although millions of people trade and write about the world of cyber coin, there is much we plain folks don’t understand about exactly what is going on in the cyber coin universe.

 

A month ago, the future looked bright for TerraUSD. Until last Monday, when all of the mechanisms that were supposed to keep TerraUSD stable, were anything but stable.

 

TerraUSD fell to a low of 60 cents on that day, and reached a further low of around 20 cents in another crash on Wednesday. At the time of this writing, it sits a two cents.

(June 29, 2022-https://www.coindesk.com/price/terrausd/  )

 

Pretty rocky stuff for a coin called “stable”.

 

The event took down the market cap of TerraUSD from $18.4 billion to essentially zero. The Luna “backbone token” also avalanched.

 

Nikita Fadeev, head of crypto fund Fasanara Digital, which de-risked its position in advance of the crash, said: “Everything broke. It is full capitulation.”

 

Exactly why all of the so called “stable” UST mechanisms failed remains unclear. Conspiracy theories abound as to what happened, but in this analyst opinion, when vast amounts of monies are floating around in cyberspace, this whole fiasco comes as no surprise. Once again, many lost everything while others walked away very rich. Nothing new in the world of cyber coin.


I know there are a lot smarter people than me when it comes to the net and the cyber coin playground. As a result, it’s no place I want to put my hard earned money, and I doubt the average Joe Shmoe should be doing it either.

 

The move is on to provide more backing to TerraUSD to once again stabilize its value, with figures around the 1.5 billion being tossed about. But since none of this is government backed, I view the entire cyber coin universe and its multiple trading platforms to access it, one big Wild West show. There are landmines everywhere, it rife with amateurs and novice traders, and its run by techno wizards of unknown repute.

 

The whole thing, at least to me, reminds me of a three ring circus, complete with the “3 Card Monty” con game, where everybody that plays never seems to win, at least for long.

 

With the latest collapse of the cyber token called “stable coin”, I can say it comes as no surprise. What is ironic is that what was supposed to be the epitome of why people flock to the bitcoin game, which is autonomous stability and safety, failed miserably in both respects.

Concluding, if some people still elect to play in the cyber coin universe after this collapse, it will be one of most baffling investor decisions I have ever seen.

 “Watching the markets so you don’t have to”

(end)

(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS   (Regulations)   

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, SDSU, and California Insurance License #0L34249. His website is moneymanagementradio.com, and was recently voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County. 530-559-1214

 

 

Voted Best Financial Advisor

Need help?
Call me (530) 559-1214


 

Warning Crash Ahead Update June 24 2022

 

The markets stopped their seemingly weeks long freefall last Friday, May 13th, with green numbers across the board. Not all stocks went up. I can’t actually recall a day when every stock did go up, but certainly Friday was a welcome sea of green in an otherwise month or three of mostly red.

Although no one can forecast market direction at any time with certainty, Mr. Market does speak to those analysts that are listening and know its language.

It’s a difficult thing to interpret, Mr. Markets language, but serious students of the equity marketplace and those having the experience to have lived through many a correction and rally can at least get a grip on the mood of Wall Street if they take the time to listen.

When markets start to fall, certain things can occur that, when watched, lead the analyst to draw at least a few conclusions. When Wall Street’s mood turns negative and stocks pull back, it is common to see certain sectors rise in a contrarian move to those stocks that are falling. Consumer staples (things like soap and things that people have to buy) can rise. Food stocks can also move opposite to a falling market. So can bonds and utility stocks.

If a sell off continues, the contagious mood of stock selling can begin to lead these same stocks to flatten out and then fall in concert. Basically, even though an initial selloff can move some stocks up at first, the longer the selloff, the more things tend to get sucked down the same black hole of a falling market.

Think of it like a series of lights that is often seen at automobile drag races. The “Christmas tree”, as it is called, is two rows of colored light mounted vertically, that illuminate in series, going from red to green, where green means both dragsters floor it.

In stocks, invert the colors, and you have a warning `system` that goes from green to red. Green means all is well, then as a crash progresses, more and more orange lights illuminate until the red ones finally do.

Green means go and stocks are rising, then the first orange light gets lit, meaning markets are pulling back. Imagine another orange light illuminating that may mean more money is moving to bonds, utilities and staples. A continuing crash illuminates another orange light, gold might start to rise while utilities, staples and other contrarian stocks many stop their ascent. Another orange light and these stock now start to pull back as well, following the general market down. Moving further along the warning lights, market leaders (like an Apple or Microsoft), which may have held up relatively well (being favorites of many an investor) finally break down as well. The final orange lights might light up when markets further accelerate downward with seemingly little support. The final red light on our financial Christmas tree of warning lights might occur when all out panic selling obliterates every stock in its path. Also known as a “Capitulation” event, the market is now yelling loud and clear “We are in a full fledge crash people!”

As if anyone wouldn’t know it by then right?

Although there is no financial Christmas tree in real life, I do picture this tool when I review markets both on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

I ask myself, how many lights are lit? How many signs are flashing? Is it getting worse or better? What stocks are moving up during the crash, and what sectors are they in? How fast are they moving and is it accelerating?

Barring an unexpected and out of the blue event known as a “Black Swan” like 9/11, tsunami or major political event, the markets lingo may indeed be very difficult to understand.

But considering education is the cornerstone of progress, the more you know about the markets, the better listener you will be, and hopefully a bit more tuned in to what the market it is trying to tell you.

This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, SDSU, and California Insurance License #0L34249. His website is moneymanagementradio.com, and was recently voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County. (530) 559-1214

 

 

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