I failed to mention the option of using Credit Union Share Certificates for you CD money/investments that are maturing. They are "almost" identical to CDs regarding deposit protection coverage, varying terms, and interest rate offers. I have a local Credit Union, that is highly rated, and pays 4.5% for a one year Share Certificate (compared to 4% from my local bank), but its early withdrawal fee is 6 months of interest (compared to 3 months interest from my local bank). I currently have some CDs maturing from both my Schwab Brokerage accounts (some taxable some IRA), and my local Bank. I am considering moving some of my maturing CDs from Schwab to a local Credit Union. I am not a big fan of Brokerage CDs compared to local banks and credit unions, because of differences in early withdrawal penalties/fees.

@stillers, thanks.
That is from an article on "Portfolio Income & Withdrawals" that I published in a local e-paper this week (the full weekly issue isn't out yet, may be later today). It may also be of interest to others here.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1795/thread

Mini-Grayscale BTC (ER 15 bps) now has $3.7 billion AUM and trades an average of 2 million shares/day. That is good enough for retail investors.
BTC vs the elder GBTC (150 bps) is a liquidity game for Grayscale. So, GBTC has very high ER, but also higher liquidity (but some Bitcoin ETFs have even higher trading volumes - IBIT, FBTC). Surprisingly, BTC trading volume is catching up fast with that of GBTC. But that issue is for institutions that may move $millions.
Several etf sponsors are playing this liquidity angle by continuing to offer older high ER ETFs and also newer low ER ETFs. In some cases, these "newer" offerings have surpassed the older offerings as is logical.
IBIT is the new champion - by the AUM, average volume and ER. M*, Yahoo Finance and ETFdb are all showing 12 bps ER - I suppose taking into account waivers and graduated fee schedule - I haven't checked the details recently. So, FBTC to IBIT may be a better switch than to BTC. There may be some TLH involved too.

Of the 12 Bitcoin ETFs, both the cheapest ER (BTC - 0.15%) and the most expensive ER (GBTC -1.5%) are from Grayscale (0.25%).
When IBIT was introduced its ER was 0.12% until Jan 11, 2015 or until $5B in AUM, whichever comes first. Currently $50+B in AUM.
VanEck's HODL waived fees until Mar. 31, 2025 or first $1.5 billion in fund assets, whichever comes first. Even with the massive run up in Bitcoin price, HODL only has $1.3B in AUM.
Any reason I should not swap my FBTC (0.25% ER, same as IBIT ER) for BTC? Paying any fees on this asset is a bummer - it is like a negative interest rate, monthly administrative fees on bank accounts, or safe deposit box fees, depending on your disposition.

re: SALT
- again, some broad changes could make munis look relatively worse, but i was looking for speculation on trump+GOP specifically acting to damage the tax-free bond mkt.
re: immigration taxes
- well, trump wants to spend +10x of taxpayer money to deport, relative to incoming tax revenue.
so the obvious grift here is a bunch of unqualified private MAGA corporations getting in the deportation biz. along the lines of his talentless border wall builders, expect criminal actions and minimal throughput.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-mass-deportation-program-cost/story?id=115318034

For more than a year now, I took the other side, which has been one of the best risk/reward performance in bond land. Investing in lower-rated CLOs.
CLOZ made over 20% in 1.5 years, while TLT lost over 9%.
https://schrts.co/PcchSZaD
Currently, CLOZ pays about 8% per year based on its last distribution * 12 months + duration is short (I can't find it).
TLT pays about 4.8% with duration = 16.5
Why would I take a high risk/volatility trade based on unknown rates?
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4627176-cloz-bbb-bb-clo-etf-strong-10-7-percent-sec-yield-low-interest-rate-risk
The above isn't a recommendation, just an observation. Never in life have I bought directly a Treasury or a very high-rated bond fund. Too much risk/volatility per unknown rates/duration/correlation.

”A 10 year bond with 5% coupon has a duration under seven years.” - Wow. You learn something every day here.
BTW - I inputted “intermediate” at M* and pulled up the first fund it found. So, SNIDX wasn’t meant to be a recommendation and it may not be representative of other intermediate term bond funds.

Even intermediate duration bond funds (like SNIDX) normally keep average portfolio duration at 10 years or less.
It's easy to mix up duration and maturity. A 10 year bond with 5% coupon has a duration under seven years.
SNIDX "seeks to maintain an effective duration of three to seven years under normal market conditions." Summary Prospectus
The difference in yields between 10 year and 30 year bonds is usually not that large. So buying 30 year bonds is tantamount to placing a bet on interest rate movements. As Yogi noted, the impact of any rate change is magnified with the 30 year bond.
Currently (12/24/2024) the 30 year is yielding just 17 basis points more than the 10 year. Further, a bond maturing in 20 years is paying even more than the 30 year bond. So buying the lower yielding 30 year is not to get a higher yield but solely to get more exposure to interest rate changes.
Daily Treasury Par Yield Curve Rates - December 2024

A 30-yr zero will have a duration of 30 years, 30-yr T-Bonds less due to coupon payments.
If like to lock in some at current yield (4.76%) without reinvestment risk, look at 30-yr Treasury Zero-Coupon. It may cost about $25 for $100 par in 30 yrs.

I'm aware I would need to keep a focused eye in order to avoid a buzz cut!

For sure. You’d be safer I think laying a wager at DraftKings on something. And wouldn’t need to wait 30 years to find out if you were right or wrong. However, if the current yield looks good to you and you are willing to wait 30 years you will earn the current rate of interest and not lose a penny of principal.
Maybe buy a magic genie first and ask it what inflation will average between now and 2055? Then at least you’d know if the current payout is worth it. As Yogi suggested, at 30 years duration you’d be whipsawed up and down as rates fluctuated. Even intermediate duration bond funds (like SNIDX) normally keep average portfolio duration at 10 years or less.
I’d agree with Derf that a 30 year bond would make a great trading vehicle for someone trying to game the bond market. But they better know what they’re doing.

FYI the major holdings of PRCS (Parnassus Core Select ETF) line up fairly well vs its flagship PRBLX/PRILX. Sure, while .58 may be high for an ETF, it's better than .82 for PRBLX, at least you will get daily visibility into its holdings vs only monthly for the OEF.
It will be interesting to see how it tracks compared to CGDV which I'm kicking myself for not jumping into back when it was in the upper 20s.

Not sure the three basis point discount compared to the OEF is going to attract much attention.

The way I am reading the information is that the difference between the ETF and the regular fund is 25 basis points. That combined with intra-day liquidity seems to warrant a serious look if one was already interested in the regular fund.

IBIT is at #35 among the top 100 ETFs by AUM. It started just in 01/2024. Surprising that GBTC (with very high ER) is #100.
https://etfdb.com/compare/market-cap/

I accidentally snorted out whisky at reading half of these ... I was only trying to find the quote that no one has yet devised, concocted, imagined, or plausibly advocated a use case
https://www.cryptoaltruism.org/blog/15-quotes-about-the-potential-of-blockchain-and-crypto

Bitcoin was designed to be a currency that people could use for trustless transactions—transactions that could be carried out without need for a financial intermediary such as a bank. But transactions in which bitcoin is used to buy or sell goods and services make up only a tiny fraction of the currency’s total trading volume, most of which is made up of people buying or selling bitcoin itself.
...
[B]itcoin was designed to facilitate decentralized person-to-person transactions, but most bitcoin trading, at least in the West, now takes place on centralized exchanges. Again, in its liberatory promise, bitcoin was supposed to not just be independent of traditional financial institutions and government, but also enable alternatives to them. Yet the big engine of the price boom of the past two years has been bitcoin’s integration into the conventional investment industry (through such vehicles as exchange-traded funds, or ETFs), increased purchases by institutional investors and corporations, and now the prospect of legitimization by the government itself.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/how-bitcoin-became-boring/681141/

The SP500 is used much more because it's just a better wider index period. You can go with VTI which is wider than VOO, but they are pretty close.
There is a good reason why Bogle and Buffett said it many times too.

I made a lengthy post this morning regarding callable CDs. If anyone is interested in responding to that, I would appreciate it.

I've had a CD ladder for about 12-13 years. I am 100% against callable CDs. They just don't fit our strategy as callable CDs beg for constant maintenance due to their inherent duration uncertainties.
I have suggested the following strategy to you a few times over the past year or so but you always seem to reject it. I'll try it one more time:
Buy 5-yr, CP CDs at the highest rate you can get and be happy.
Currently you can BUY 5-yr, CP, Fido, Secondary Issue CDs with Effective Yields (after discount) of just under 4.3%.
Had you followed my suggestion over a year ago, you would now have a 4-5-yr, CP CD ladder making over 5%, you would NOT be dealing with constant maintenance of your fixed income portfolio, and you would very likely have more income over that 5-yr period than the option you chose. (You got maybe 5.5% for one year, but now you're likely to get, on average, under 4% for the next 4 years, while I'm getting over 5% for the entire, same 5-years period)
You may not of course. You may have a little less.
BUT, you would have saved all the time and angst that was effectively wasted on fixed income portfolio maintenance. And that time is critical to us for (1) enjoying life and (2) spending it more productively on the portion of our portfolio that really matters, our stock sleeve.

AAII Sentiment Survey, 12/25/24
BULLISH remained the top sentiment (37.8%, average) & neutral remained the bottom sentiment (28.0%, below average); bearish remained the middle sentiment (34.1%, above average); Bull-Bear Spread was +3.7% (below average). Investor concerns: Budget, debt, inflation, the Fed, dollar, geopolitical, Russia-Ukraine (148+ weeks), Israel-Hamas (63+ weeks). For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks up, bonds down, oil up, gold down, dollar up. NYSE %Above 50-dMA 32.72% (negative). DC budget fight(s) shift to 2025. SSA WEP & GPO repealed. #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1794/thread

Good idea... then charge Greenlanders any time they move from one part of the park to another. Or maybe even put up tall metal fences to keep them from moving around at all.

And we can make Greenland pay for the fence....just we did with Mexic...uh...wait a sec...
@Art, excellent idea, would you like to start the 2025 thread?
Maybe a little late in the cycle, but kicking off positions in SHYG and CLOZ.
Weighing INPFX vs. WBALX, will add to one or both.

How about a new thread for buy/sell for 2025?

msf said:

People may not have noticed that muni MMFs have been soaring of late, especially NY. Schwab's $1M min version, SNYXX, has a 7 day yield of 3.49% (APY 3.56%), its retail version, SWYXX has a 3.34% yield (APY 3.40%), and Fidelity's $25K min version FSNXX is at 3.28% (3.33% APY). That 3.3% is worth about 4.8% APY in a CD for someone in NYC in the 22% tax bracket. And its yield is rising.

I follow the SIFMA Municipal Swap Index Yield, which is calculated and published Wednesday afternoons. Because of the holiday, that did not occur today, but will tomorrow. The yield on muni money market funds follow this yield. Here is the past 5 weeks and as you can see, the yield is all over the place. For reasons that I do not understand, the line on the chart has been serpentine for as long as I have been watching it, which has been a few years.
11-20 3.18
11-27 2.86
12-4 2.15
12-11 2.91
12-18 3.60
Below are recent yields for VMSXX and SWOXX and again, they follow the weekly SIFMA Municipal Swap Index Yield. We will see what tomorrow brings.
11-19 3.38% 3.29%
11-20 3.41% 3.30%
11-21 3.33% 3.22%
11-22 3.14% 3.07%
11-25 3.09% 3.03%
11-26 3.03% 2.99%
11-27 3.00% 2.97%
11-29 2.90% 2.91%
12-2 2.85% 2.87%
12-3 2.79% 2.81%
12-4 2.70% 2.72%
12-5 2.55% 2.59%
12-6 2.17% 2.23%
12-9 2.07% 2.11%
12-10 1.99% 2.07%
12-11 1.99% 2.08%
12-12 2.13% 2.20%
12-13 2.58% 2.61%
12-16 2.72% 2.74%
12-17 2.83% 2.84%
12-18 2.95% 2.94%
12-19 3.05% 3.03%
12-20 3.32% 3.25%
12-21 3.42% 3.33%
12-24 3.59% 3.49%