Hi sir MSF...BOA credit probably one if best credit card around, give 5_10% off on certain places frequently use (this quater starbuck dumkin donuts and LaMadelin)...also 3% cash bsck gas restaurants and 2% everything else. We like our merrilllynch advisor know him for many yrs charges 1% annually and only minimal in managed acct

For us we have Vanguard 13 years, schwab 11 years, and merrilledge 7 years. All are easy to talk to representatives, low cost trading, good bonddesks, schwab offers excellence research for stocks/mutual funds. All maintenance fees extremely low (for instance merrilledge charge you 0.7% annually fees but you need only 100ks And 1%if less 100k in acct [rest can be self managed without financial advisor])
Mama has Fidelity and we use it to buy etf and bonds, its reasonable but I heard they have best cd/ visa cards 2% cash back
Which firms do you folks prefer

A decade ago I looked fairly closely into different brokerages' bond services. What I found at the time was that while offerings were of course different, they tended to rely on third party services for inventory. So their offerings at any given time, while different, were similar. Fidelity would offer the same bonds at a lower price than Schwab.
Things may have changed, but a very small spot check (1 bond) suggests that this pricing differential remains. Calif (Sacramento) muni, callable starting in two years, maturing in five, CUSIP 786073BG0. Schwab price: 118.636 (2.394% YTW), Fidelity price: 118.536 [sic] (2.407% YTW). Both charge a $1/bond commission. I've bought bonds at Fidelity. Because of the higher cost, I haven't at Schwab.
If you're looking at keeping $100K at Merrill, BofA credit cards can come out better. Their cash rewards cards (with the $100K balance) pay 5.25% on the category of your choice (e.g. online purchases), 3.5% on grocery and warehouse purchases, and 1.75% on everything else. (The higher rebates are limited to $2500 in purchases/quarter). Of it you travel a bit (which can include mass transit, zoos(!) and other oddities), there's a cash back card that pays 2.625% on everything. The catch there is that the rebate must be used to cover travel costs.
With respect to mutual funds, Merrill Edge is limited in its offerings. Essentially, just NTF share classes are available. So you can't buy lower cost institutional shares even if the total cost of ownership would be less for you. Fidelity and Schwab are better in this regard. Fidelity also enable you to buy additional shares of a TF fund for $5 while at Schwab it's still $50. Vanguard's advantage is that it offers some institutional shares with lower mins than at Fidelity or Schwab. My impression is that T. Rowe Price's third party fund offerings are slim, but TRP hasn't posted its "catalogue" for years.
ETF and stock trading are free at Merrill, Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard. At TRP they can cost $20, unless the ETF is on their NTF list.
IMHO where TRP shines is in it broad offering of fine mutual funds. Essentially what @rforno said. In addition, it offers a free individual 401(k) plan with Roth option, as does Vanguard. Schwab doesn't allow Roths, nor does Fidelity. Merrill doesn't offer a free individual 401k.
I've found TRP's service to be on par with Fidelity and Schwab. I have found service at Merrill and Vanguard wanting.

Here’s A. Gary Shilling advocating bonds.
In an interview just up on YouTube. He also thinks stocks will fall from here (+/- here) into 2021. I don’t see where bond yields can go much lower.

Cash Is Trash; Choose Bond Funds Instead
https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4357202-cash-is-trash-choose-bond-funds-instead
Jul. 06, 2020 5:08 PM , PRRIX, PTTRX...8
The average money market fund is now offering dividends of about 0.09%.
Bond fund/ETFs dividends are quite low too but much higher as compared to money market funds.
Since the Fed has as much as promised not to raise rates through 2022, there appears little chance of higher dividends for money market funds.
But investors worried about stocks have poured cash into bond funds/ETFs raising NAVs; thus, especially on a total return basis, bonds appear to be a much better choice.

This past Sunday, 5 July, all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through June 2020.
You can read more about the update here.

Biden is leading from his basement home/headquarters and powerful online virtue rallies 52-39% in polls last months according to cnbc msnbc abc
Many folks maybe overhyped thrilled enthused raved up regarding potential 8 more yrs of Obama*s wonderful policies.
Right based Rasmussen has trump approvals at 47%
I do think trump could be in troubles and biden may win it very close
If economy takes off many folks returning to work, All bets are off and could be very cloudy predictions Nov 2020

Getting Closer to cashless:
“We have a world in which there is less contact,” he said. “People’s habits are changing as we speak.”

Those dynamics are creating a golden moment for credit card companies, banks and digital platforms, which are capitalizing on the crisis to advance the cashless revolution by encouraging consumers and retailers to use cards and smartphone apps that yield lucrative fees. In Britain alone, retailers paid 1.3 billion pounds (about $1.7 billion) in third-party fees in 2018, up £70 million from the year before, according to the British Retail Consortium.
Payment and processing companies such as PayPal (whose stock is up about 55 percent this year) and Adyen, based in the Netherlands (up 72 percent), also stand to gain. So do data analytics and fraud prevention companies, and businesses that enable merchants to accept card payments.

https://nytimes.com/2020/07/06/business/cashless-transactions.html
Instead of handing out spare change you can now hand out Acorns:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-spot-on-predictor-of-who-will-win-the-2020-presidential-election-is-not-the-stock-market-or-even-opinion-polls-2020-07-07?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
This spot-on predictor of who will win the 2020 presidential election is not the stock market or even opinion polls
Published: July 7, 2020 at 6:55 a.m. ET
By Mark Hulbert
/Does the stock market predict the winner of U.S. presidential elections? Many argue that it does, pointing to the historical correlation between the incumbent party retaining the White House and the stock market’s strength in the months leading up to Election Day in November./

One of the commenters suggests we look at SPX V Gold so I did. It would imply that the SPX peaked in late 2018.
https://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=$SPX:$GOLD&p=D&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&i=t8724814200c&r=1594128517294

These articles have been published when the market were lower by 5,10 and 15%. I have heard in the last 10 years that rates can only go up, that the stock market is overvalued for years, that inverted yield signals top, that PE + PE10 are too high.
One day it will be right, I just like to know exactly when

Thanks for your opinion.
I would also like to read your thoughts on the Morningstar forums. I was told that you were put on suspended status. Has M* lifted the suspension?

Hi @FD1000:
Thanks for making comment.
While my system might seem complicated ... but, when looking at the three main feeds of the barometer and understaning them ... it really is not complicated at all. The barometer spins off of a blended earnings feed which is comprised of both TTM earnings and forward estimates. This gives credit for what stocks have done and what they are anticipated to do. This feed is used to compute a blended P/E Ratio and from there an earnings yield. The second feed is a breadth feed which looks at the percent number of stocks that are trading above their 50 & 200 day moving averages. Following this feed gives me some insight as to how much upside might be left or are we topping out? Perhaps, starting to head downward? And, the third major feed is money flow feed. I find it important to know which way money is flowing (in or out) and by how much. All of the three feeds are scaled and when combined produce a barometer reading which is also scaled with readings ranging from extremely overbought to extremely oversold with fair value being in the middle.
With this, it is really quite simple when one gets down to understanding the nuts and bolts of the barometer of how it works ... and, the information that it generates has been quite useful to me. This information is then used to aid me in making calls that adjust my baseline asset allocation of 20% cash, 40% income and 40% equity with about 10% of the cash which can be moved around to overweight when felt warranted. Currently, as I write, I am overweight the income and equity areas of my portfolio by +5% each. I'm thinking, that this will soon change as I'm looking to trim equities back by 5% to their normal asset allocation of 40%. This is due to my belief that equity valuations are now streached relative to their current and nearterm earning's projection although money flow coming into the Index is presently good; but, short volumes are high.
Thanks again for the comment ... and, coming from you ... (for me) it speaks volumes.
Cordially,
Old_Skeet

These articles have been published when the market were lower by 5,10 and 15%. I have heard in the last 10 years that rates can only go up, that the stock market is overvalued for years, that inverted yield signals top, that PE + PE10 are too high.
One day it will be right, I just like to know exactly when

Old_Skeet, your method is good but has lots of moving parts. Just an observation, not criticism :-)
A typical rebalance achieves similar results when stock prices go down and you keep switching from bonds to stocks to keep the same asset allocation. That is a good way until a black swan shows up and every time you buy more stocks on the way down you keep losing more.
The question of timing occupied my brain for many years.
I always want to be fully invested as long as I can. In the last 10-11 years, I was in cash for about 12 weeks, which means I was fully invested 98% of the time.
Until 2008-9, when I was younger with a much smaller portfolio. I just stayed the course because my fund managers (SGENX,OAKBX,FAIRX) played it right. After I lost 25% in 2008 I decided that the only way not to lose is to set up a simple selling %.
From 2009 and for the next several years, I would sell any stock fund I owned if it lost more than 6% and bought a bond fund. I would sell any bond fund that lost over 3% and searched for another more conservative fund. If I could not find any bond fund then I would go to cash.
When stocks bottomed and rebounded, I only increased stocks using a pyramid up. That means that every time I buy more stock mutual fund the price must be higher than the previous one,
In 2018 at retirement, I made my selling criteria stricter. I only trade stocks short term (hours to days) using charts. I used bond funds most times. Any bond fund I own that loses more than 1% I sell and then I look for a better bond fund, if I can't find any I go to cash.
BTW, the above is probably too complicated. Stay fully invested and buy and hold is a good way for most investors :-)

The first comment is insightful:
Adam Wright says: 11 January 2016 at 09:52
I would add that quantitative analysis in fund research goes well beyond the specific track record of the fund(s). It should also dive into the underlying portfolio holdings which requires a significant amount of securities analysis as well. If you didn’t perform this task how else would you know if you are adding to a well-priced portfolio?
Additionally, if you didn’t perform this task how can you be sure the manager is actually doing what they are saying? In other words, you have to look behind the numbers as they do not tell the entire story nor do they indicate forward looking return potential.
My belief is that a strictly quantitative analysis would create an investment process that is not markedly different than performance chasing.
I’ve all but given up on fund managers, at least on the equity side, in my mind they have all disappointed. I still hold a couple of balanced funds which seem to compete well but I also hold IVIQX which continues to be even more cautious than me.

Sitting on Bond Profits? Sell, Switch or Wait?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sitting-on-bond-profits-sell-switch-or-wait-11593894892
Profits are a good thing, but that doesn’t mean it always makes sense to take them.
If you’ve held bonds or bond funds over the past
Incognito
https://www.google.com/search?q=Sitting+on+Bond+Profits?+Sell,+Switch+or+Wait?&oq=Sitting+on+Bond+Profits?+Sell,+Switch+or+Wait?
&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.1471j0j7&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Do nothing...good hedge long terms

Fund F = Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.
As expected it did its job as ballast to stocks.
What is going to be its performance in the next 5 years? maybe 2-2.5% annually.
I don't expect inflation to rise beyond Fed expectations. I have seen many predictions by experts to be off in over 10 years.

I'm a federal retiree with a TSP account. The F fund is an index fund based on the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index. IIRC, the duration is around 4.5. The 8.65 1 year return reflects capital gains from falling interest rates, similar to the gains recorded by core bond funds/intermediate bond funds.

+1
FedSmith is an advertising-based publication directed at Federal employees and retirees from what I can make out. It reminds me a bit of the publications sent free of charge to me from organizations like AARP and NEA / MEA (related due to prior employment). I’d be loath to criticize the content of any of these. They mean well. But neither do they provide the depth of financial insight / information you’d find on this board generally, or at any mainstream financial information service like WSJ, Bloomberg, Barron’s, etc. That may be because FedSmith (and the ones I cited above) are aimed at a broader, less financially astute population.
Excellent point about the declining interest rate trend we’ve grown accustomed to. If you’re under 50 you may not even remember previous decades of generally rising interest rates (assuming you can only remember such things back to when you were 20). Some of us who lived through and were investing during the 70s and 80s can assure you that what you’ve lived through is somewhat of an aberration as interest rates go. Rates can and do go in either direction - rising or falling. Someone here recently mentioned paying a 12 or 14% rate on a mortgage for a first time home.
The fund referenced in the article sounds a lot like the T Rowe Price U S Bond Enhanced Index Fund (PBDIX) which I happen to own. As bond funds go, its fairly “safe” holding all / mostly investment grade bonds having short-intermediate maturities. But in a serious ramp-up of interest rates it would certainly lose money,

I'm a federal retiree with a TSP account. The F fund is an index fund based on the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index. IIRC, the duration is around 4.5. The 8.65 1 year return reflects capital gains from falling interest rates, similar to the gains recorded by core bond funds/intermediate bond funds.

American Funds’ Quiet Rise to Bond Dominance
https://www.barrons.com/articles/american-funds-quiet-rise-to-bond-dominance-51593714454
Incognito
https://www.google.com/search?q=American+Funds’+Quiet+Rise+to+Bond+Dominance&oq=American+Funds’+Quiet+Rise+to+Bond+Dominance&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l2.1043j0j7&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
While most investors have been laser-focused on stocks this year, the relative steadiness of the bond market has gone largely ignored. American Funds’ bond portfolios, however, have produced a remarkable amount of good news. Managed by Capital Group, they turned in top-notch performance during the coronavirus rout, and have steadily climbed to the pinnacle of their categories over longer periods.
The gains reflect a quiet overhaul that has transformed Capital Group, founded in 1931, into a bond giant.

Using Portfolio Visualizer I noticed that VTI had negative rolling averages in 1,3,5,& 10 time frames dating back to 1993. That might be a little too volatile for a retiree and could pose a sequence of return risk if one had to pull money from VTI during one of these lows.