Think that brokerage money market fund is golden?
At the risk of sounding alarmist, might I remind everyone of the risks inherent in presumed risk free investments. Money market funds which are typically tied to brokerage accounts (and can be ‘sweep’ or ‘purchased’) now have a legal stipulation as a result of the earlier 2008 crisis. In other words regulators anticipated this ‘unforeseen’ environment . Most of these funds are classified as ‘retail money market funds.’ While that sounds nice, what it means is that the fund is allowed to put up a gate (restrict redemption) or impose ‘liquidity fees’ on any redemption. These clauses have not yet been triggered, but they were put in place for events like what we are now witnessing. They are intended to deal with the ‘breaking the buck’ scenario. As these funds yield will very shortly approach 0% one should at least ask if the risk is worth it if an alternative is available. The alternatives would be a sweep bank account (typically FDIC covered up to $250k) or to invest in a pure government money market fund. In both cases the yield will be lower, and may eventually go negative if fund companies can’t maintain a zero yield, but theoretically they cannot impose the gates/fees of retail funds.