Posted by on Mar 12, 2018 in Articles & Advice, Blog, Columns, Featured |

Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet

 

By Jason Zweig | March 9, 2018 11:46 am ET

Interest rates are on the rise, but customers of brokerage firms aren’t going along for the ride.

The Federal Reserve has driven short-term interest rates up a full percentage point since late 2016; one-month Treasury bills were yielding 1.6% this week. But you’d never know any of that from looking at the returns on the cash in your brokerage account.

Consider the rates major brokers are paying on so-called sweep accounts, the main reservoir where they hold clients’ cash. As of March 2, according to Crane Data, a firm that monitors money-market funds and other cash investments, yields on sweep accounts ranged from as low as 0.01% at eTrade and 0.05% at TD Ameritrade up to — if “up” is the right word — 0.25% at UBS and 0.27% at Fidelity Investments.

 

To read the rest of the column: 

The Wall Street Journal, http://on.wsj.com/2FGrac7

 

 

 

For further reading:

Books:

Jason Zweig, The Little Book of Safe Money

Jason Zweig, Your Money and Your Brain

Jason Zweig, The Devil’s Financial Dictionary

Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

 

Articles:

A Few Good Reasons to Hoard Some Cash Now

Take a Hint from Goldman: Squeeze More Out of Your Cash

Cash Is Now a Sin