Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

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unmesh
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Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

I hope I have the terminology right but I'd like to hold some assets in 4 treasuries starting with maturities a quarter apart and rolling each one on maturity into a 12-month T-Bill, hence the rolling ladder. Ideally, the rolling would be done using T-Bills sold at auction.

Are there brokerages that will do this on a set-and-forget basis?

Thanks
SnowBog
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by SnowBog »

Several... I use Fidelity, but most of my accounts are already there.

I'd look first at where you already have a relationship, and see if this is something they already offer you.

Sorry, one caveat... If you are trying to buy quarterly at auction, then you'll need to make all of the first purchases manually, and have each of those enrolled in the "auto roll" (or similar) election to maintain those quarterly purchases joining forward.

Alternatively, if you are open to the secondary market, you could purchase different time lengths up front, and then reinvest in your quarterly schedule as they mature.
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

I was thinking of making the initial T-Bill purchases in the open market 3/6/9/12 months out but wasn't sure if I could ask for each of them to be auto-renewed into 12-month T-Bills at auction

Maybe I'm overthinking this and should run this by my "relationship" guys at Fidelity and Schwab. I've not done it yet because every time I reach out, they treat it as an opening to sell me stuff I'm not interested in :(
mighty72
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by mighty72 »

It is pretty straight forward to do on fidelity. It gave me an option when I bought the Treasury
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

Good to know.

If you bought at auction, are you out of the market for a few days when it matures till the next auction closes?
SnowBog
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by SnowBog »

unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:05 pm I was thinking of making the initial T-Bill purchases in the open market 3/6/9/12 months out but wasn't sure if I could ask for each of them to be auto-renewed into 12-month T-Bills at auction

Maybe I'm overthinking this and should run this by my "relationship" guys at Fidelity and Schwab. I've not done it yet because every time I reach out, they treat it as an opening to sell me stuff I'm not interested in :(
I'm most familiar with Fidelity... When you buy the initial 12 month T-Bill, you simply elect to enroll it in their "auto roll" program - which will automatically continue to buy 12-month T-Bills as the initial one reaches maturity. So, you'll need to make 4 initial 12-month purchases, and you'll be done.

If you are asking about trying to buy 3-, 6-, and 9-month T-Bills and having them convert into 12-month versions, I don't believe anyone offers this... You could make the initial purchases without "auto roll", and then use the amount (after maturity) to purchase the 12-month ones you want, but you'll still need to eventually purchase 4x 12-month T-Bills, enrolling each (as part of purchase) in the "auto roll" program.

https://www.fidelity.com/fixed-income-b ... ll-program
SnowBog
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by SnowBog »

unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:22 pm Good to know.

If you bought at auction, are you out of the market for a few days when it matures till the next auction closes?
Potentially, but it can occasionally work the other way around...

But in more simplistic terms, Fidelity's auto roll will "keep you invested" in the nearest available treasury auction. Since the dates may not line up exactly, they deal with those issues, you don't need to worry about them...
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

That is certainly convenient. The last time I looked, though, they were paying only a few basis points on uninvested cash.
Last edited by unmesh on Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MnD
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by MnD »

Autoroll at Schwab is flawed. They only submit the purchase order for a new bond after the old bond matures so you will be out of the market for numerous days on every autoroll. Schwab pays next to nothing on cash balances so they benefit from the gap between maturity of the old bill and the purchase and settlement of the replacement.

For a given duration of bill, the treasury lines up maturity dates for old bills and and settlement dates for new bill purchases so you are never out of the market but Schwab doesn't take advantage of that.

I'm a big Schwab fan, but the various measures they use to try and boost idle cash balances need to be paid attention to.
It's how they make most of their profits and pay for all the customer goodies.

The three things I'm aware of are:
Robo-advisor service keeps an amonolous amount in FDIC Schwab Bank cash earning a fraction of what t-bills or a money market fund earns.
Moving cash into their money-market funds always has to be done manually.
Auto-roll on Treasury issues is flawed.
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FactualFran
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by FactualFran »

unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:05 pm I was thinking of making the initial T-Bill purchases in the open market 3/6/9/12 months out but wasn't sure if I could ask for each of them to be auto-renewed into 12-month T-Bills at auction
At Fidelity, buys done at auction have autoroll as an option. Buys done in the secondary market are not eligible for autroll. If money for the buys at auction that you will want to autoroll will come from the maturity value of earlier buys in the secondary market, then arrange the maturity dates of the secondary market buys to be by the date on which you plan to submit a buy at auction.

At Fidelity, with autroll you are not out of the market for a few days. The settlement date of the autoroll buy is the same as the maturity date of the Treasury security being autorolled.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by anon_investor »

unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:50 pm That is certainly convenient. The last time I looked, though, they were paying only a few basis points on uninvested cash.
You must have not looked in a year. The Fido core settlement fund pays over 4% now.
Topic Author
unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

Definitely not looked at it recently!
Topic Author
unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

MnD wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:29 pm Autoroll at Schwab is flawed. They only submit the purchase order for a new bond after the old bond matures so you will be out of the market for numerous days on every autoroll. Schwab pays next to nothing on cash balances so they benefit from the gap between maturity of the old bill and the purchase and settlement of the replacement.
...
This is great feedback since they are my primary trading account.

Here's another data point. I tried setting up a ladder at schwab.com and it wouldn't let me make it a rolling one because "Secondary Treasury ladders are not eligible". What?

If this is par for the course across brokerages, I may have to do it manually as @FactualFran has suggested
Last edited by unmesh on Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Topic Author
unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

FactualFran wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:35 pm
unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:05 pm I was thinking of making the initial T-Bill purchases in the open market 3/6/9/12 months out but wasn't sure if I could ask for each of them to be auto-renewed into 12-month T-Bills at auction
At Fidelity, buys done at auction have autoroll as an option. Buys done in the secondary market are not eligible for autroll. If money for the buys at auction that you will want to autoroll will come from the maturity value of earlier buys in the secondary market, then arrange the maturity dates of the secondary market buys to be by the date on which you plan to submit a buy at auction.

At Fidelity, with autroll you are not out of the market for a few days. The settlement date of the autoroll buy is the same as the maturity date of the Treasury security being autorolled.
This is great; they are the custodian of my employers' 401K.

Will they buy as many Treasuries at renewal as the maturity generated funds allows or will they only buy the same number as before? In other words, does the interest get "redeposited"?

Regarding starting out with secondary purchases, is there a best practice for the number of days before the auction date that maturity should be targeted?

Thanks
MnD
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by MnD »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:43 am
MnD wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:29 pm Autoroll at Schwab is flawed. They only submit the purchase order for a new bond after the old bond matures so you will be out of the market for numerous days on every autoroll. Schwab pays next to nothing on cash balances so they benefit from the gap between maturity of the old bill and the purchase and settlement of the replacement.
...
This is great feedback since they are my primary trading account.

Here's another data point. I tried setting up a ladder at schwab.com and it wouldn't let me make it a rolling one because "Secondary Treasury ladders are not eligible". What?

If this is par for the course across brokerages, I may have to do it manually.
No you can't purchase a bond on the secondary market at Schwab and have it set to autoroll.
Nor would you want to, because of the gap that Schwab autoroll causes between maturity and the purchase of the replacement.

I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by MnD »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:57 am
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
I don't know as I've always had margin enabled.
While it does show a negative cash balance from Monday till Thursday, no interest is ever charges since the settlement date on the purchase isn't until Thursday.
70/30 AA for life, Global market cap equity. Rebalance if fixed income <25% or >35%. Weighted ER< .10%. 5% of annual portfolio balance SWR, Proportional (to AA) withdrawals.
SnowBog
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by SnowBog »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:52 am
FactualFran wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:35 pm
unmesh wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:05 pm I was thinking of making the initial T-Bill purchases in the open market 3/6/9/12 months out but wasn't sure if I could ask for each of them to be auto-renewed into 12-month T-Bills at auction
At Fidelity, buys done at auction have autoroll as an option. Buys done in the secondary market are not eligible for autroll. If money for the buys at auction that you will want to autoroll will come from the maturity value of earlier buys in the secondary market, then arrange the maturity dates of the secondary market buys to be by the date on which you plan to submit a buy at auction.

At Fidelity, with autroll you are not out of the market for a few days. The settlement date of the autoroll buy is the same as the maturity date of the Treasury security being autorolled.
This is great; they are the custodian of my employers' 401K.

Will they buy as many Treasuries at renewal as the maturity generated funds allows or will they only buy the same number as before? In other words, does the interest get "redeposited"?

Regarding starting out with secondary purchases, is there a best practice for the number of days before the auction date that maturity should be targeted?

Thanks
Most short-term treasuries are sold below face value. More specifically, and at Fidelity at least, they are sold in $1k increments, with the "price" you pay being the "before interest" price. For example, the "auction" might set the price at $900. The "interest" you receive at maturity is the difference between purchase price and maturity price (always $1k per if held to maturity).

So if you bought 5 T-Bills, you'd likely pay < $5k (exact amount depends on auction price). They'd be worth $5k ($1k each) at maturity. Auto Roll would buy another 5 T-Bills of similar maturity, for typically less than $5k (likely leaving some "unused" interest in the account).
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by SnowBog »

MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:08 am
unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:57 am
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
I don't know as I've always had margin enabled.
While it does show a negative cash balance from Monday till Thursday, no interest is ever charges since the settlement date on the purchase isn't until Thursday.
Fidelity's Auto Roll does this automatically for you.
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

SnowBog wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:10 am Most short-term treasuries are sold below face value. More specifically, and at Fidelity at least, they are sold in $1k increments, with the "price" you pay being the "before interest" price. For example, the "auction" might set the price at $900. The "interest" you receive at maturity is the difference between purchase price and maturity price (always $1k per if held to maturity).

So if you bought 5 T-Bills, you'd likely pay < $5k (exact amount depends on auction price). They'd be worth $5k ($1k each) at maturity. Auto Roll would buy another 5 T-Bills of similar maturity, for typically less than $5k (likely leaving some "unused" interest in the account).
The hope was that, if the interest amount compared to the auction price was enough to buy more T-Bills, would they do that? One stumbling block would be not knowing what the auction price would be; there might be others.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by increment »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:01 am The hope was that, if the interest amount compared to the auction price was enough to buy more T-Bills, would they do that?
I doubt it. The purchase for your next Treasurys appears in the account around the day that the auction is announced, in advance of the actual auction date.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by FactualFran »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:52 am Will they buy as many Treasuries at renewal as the maturity generated funds allows or will they only buy the same number as before? In other words, does the interest get "redeposited"?

Regarding starting out with secondary purchases, is there a best practice for the number of days before the auction date that maturity should be targeted?
An autoroll buys the same number of $1,000 units of Treasury securities to be auctioned as the number of $1,000 units maturing. With a T-Bill on autoroll, when the newly auction T-Bill settles, the brokerage account will have an additional amount in cash corresponding to the auction discount.

With T-Bills, one week prior to the issue date of the future auction should be sufficient (for those who do not have a margin account or an arrangement with the brokerage that the account will have sufficient cash on the auction settlement date). For example, someone planning to buy 52-week T-Bills to be issued on 2023-08-10 (with the auction on 08-08) would likely buy on the secondary market T-Bills to mature on 2023-08-03. Those T-Bill will have matured by the time the buy at action is submitted.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by loghound »

MnD wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:29 pm .

The three things I'm aware of are:
Robo-advisor service keeps an amonolous amount in FDIC Schwab Bank cash earning a fraction of what t-bills or a money market fund earns.
Moving cash into their money-market funds always has to be done manually.
Auto-roll on Treasury issues is flawed.

For the robo advisor they now pay interest on cash is now set monthly on the 7 day average of SWGXX, for Feb 2023 it's 3.84% which isn't as high as other money markets they offer but is a lot better than it used to be. It's probably the best sweep rate you can get a Schwab!
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

FactualFran wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:57 am
An autoroll buys the same number of $1,000 units of Treasury securities to be auctioned as the number of $1,000 units maturing. With a T-Bill on autoroll, when the newly auction T-Bill settles, the brokerage account will have an additional amount in cash corresponding to the auction discount.

With T-Bills, one week prior to the issue date of the future auction should be sufficient (for those who do not have a margin account or an arrangement with the brokerage that the account will have sufficient cash on the auction settlement date). For example, someone planning to buy 52-week T-Bills to be issued on 2023-08-10 (with the auction on 08-08) would likely buy on the secondary market T-Bills to mature on 2023-08-03. Those T-Bill will have matured by the time the buy at action is submitted.
Thanks for the clear explanation.

For previous T-Bills held at Schwab, I believe settled funds were available on the day of maturity which adds color to MnD's remark about Schwab not being a great place to do this.

Also, the Schwab disclosure says they only support rollovers of 4-, 8-, 13-, and 26-week T-bills. Fidelity's disclosure doesn't say and I will be able check on Feb 16 when the auction opens whether they support autoroll of 52-week T-Bills.

Does someone here know?

And Merrill Edge appears to support autoroll but the initial orders have to be placed over the phone.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by FactualFran »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:48 pm Also, the Schwab disclosure says they only support rollovers of 4-, 8-, 13-, and 26-week T-bills. Fidelity's disclosure doesn't say and I will check on Feb 16 whether they support autoroll of 52-week T-Bills unless someone knows the answer.
In an account at Fidelity, I have a 52-week T-Bill that has autorolled.

Brokerages that do not allow autorolling where the maturity date of the maturity security is the same as the settlement date of the new security might not support autoroll of 52-week T-Bills because the new T-Bill would settle four weeks after the previous one matured. 52-week T-Bills are auctioned every four weeks, while other T-Bills are auctioned every week.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by JD101 »

What would be a reason for doing a rolling adder. Because you dont know what the interest rate is going to be and you want to take an advantage in rising interest rate scenario?
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

JD101 wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 3:32 pm What would be a reason for doing a rolling adder. Because you dont know what the interest rate is going to be and you want to take an advantage in rising interest rate scenario?
That, and to have periodic liquidity events in case one needs the cash and doesn't want to sell at below par in a down market.
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

FactualFran wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 3:17 pm
unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:48 pm Also, the Schwab disclosure says they only support rollovers of 4-, 8-, 13-, and 26-week T-bills. Fidelity's disclosure doesn't say and I will check on Feb 16 whether they support autoroll of 52-week T-Bills unless someone knows the answer.
In an account at Fidelity, I have a 52-week T-Bill that has autorolled.

Brokerages that do not allow autorolling where the maturity date of the maturity security is the same as the settlement date of the new security might not support autoroll of 52-week T-Bills because the new T-Bill would settle four weeks after the previous one matured. 52-week T-Bills are auctioned every four weeks, while other T-Bills are auctioned every week.
Good to have confirmation that it works at Fidelity.

For every 52-week T-Bill I see in the Treasury schedule, there is a 26-week T-Bill that auctions a day earlier but settles on the same day as the 52-week. So Monday-Thursday vs Tuesday-Thursday. Is that enough of a difference to have the maturity and settlement dates coincide?

(This has led to more learning than I had imagined when I wrote the OP, so thanks everyone)
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by Hector »

MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:08 am
unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:57 am
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
I don't know as I've always had margin enabled.
While it does show a negative cash balance from Monday till Thursday, no interest is ever charges since the settlement date on the purchase isn't until Thursday.
Interesting. I talked to Schwab representative last week asking the same question. I was told that margin interest would be changed for the duration which account is in negative for both Treasurys and CDs.
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unmesh
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

I suppose what the Schwab rep said could be true and MnD is also correct that he had the funds available by settlement date, therefore not incurring margin interest.

I'm curious if anyone has done it without a margin account.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by MnD »

Hector wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:18 pm
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:08 am
unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:57 am
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
I don't know as I've always had margin enabled.
While it does show a negative cash balance from Monday till Thursday, no interest is ever charges since the settlement date on the purchase isn't until Thursday.
Interesting. I talked to Schwab representative last week asking the same question. I was told that margin interest would be changed for the duration which account is in negative for both Treasurys and CDs.
I'd guess the Schwab rep was incorrect.
I never have any other cash available in between the 4-day lag between auction date of the replacement T-bill and the settlement date of old bill.
I've been doing this ladder for about a year now and have never been charged one penny of interest.
Schwab is very good about disclosing a margin loan/balance. In addition to it showing up on the balance pages along with accruing interest they send an email when a margin loan is established. None of that happens in my case.
Persons have reported the same at Fidelity and at Treasury Direct which automatically match auction dates with maturity dates for auto rollover.
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MnD
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by MnD »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:53 pm I suppose what the Schwab rep said could be true and MnD is also correct that he had the funds available by settlement date, therefore not incurring margin interest.
Definitely have the funds on settlement date because the maturing T-bill date always matches the settlement date of the new bill.
I have a bit left over too since the issue price of the new bill is at a discount to the maturity value of the old bill.
Which I immeditely move to SWVXX.
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Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by Hector »

MnD wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 9:25 am
Hector wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:18 pm
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:08 am
unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:57 am
MnD wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:53 am ...
I have a 6-bill 26-week T-bill ladder without autoroll. Once a month I place an order for a replacement bill which takes about 15 seconds.
The auction occurs on a Monday, but the settlement date isn't until Thursday which matches the maturity date of the old bill.

I have a calendar entry to remind me to place the monthly order, but Schwab also sends an email alerting that a bond is getting close to maturity.
Do you need to have a margin account to be able to place the order without settled funds or does Schwab know that the funds will be credited from the bond maturing?
I don't know as I've always had margin enabled.
While it does show a negative cash balance from Monday till Thursday, no interest is ever charges since the settlement date on the purchase isn't until Thursday.
Interesting. I talked to Schwab representative last week asking the same question. I was told that margin interest would be changed for the duration which account is in negative for both Treasurys and CDs.
I'd guess the Schwab rep was incorrect.
I never have any other cash available in between the 4-day lag between auction date of the replacement T-bill and the settlement date of old bill.
I've been doing this ladder for about a year now and have never been charged one penny of interest.
Schwab is very good about disclosing a margin loan/balance. In addition to it showing up on the balance pages along with accruing interest they send an email when a margin loan is established. None of that happens in my case.
Persons have reported the same at Fidelity and at Treasury Direct which automatically match auction dates with maturity dates for auto rollover.
What you said, makes sense. I talked a representative again today, and got to same answer! I am going to place an order and will fine out how it goes.

Regarding Treasury Direct, I have done it successfully too.
FactualFran
Posts: 2776
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 1:29 pm

Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by FactualFran »

unmesh wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 5:53 pm For every 52-week T-Bill I see in the Treasury schedule, there is a 26-week T-Bill that auctions a day earlier but settles on the same day as the 52-week. So Monday-Thursday vs Tuesday-Thursday. Is that enough of a difference to have the maturity and settlement dates coincide?
I'm not sure how to answer the question. Auctions of 13-week, 26-week, and 52-week T-Bills settle on a Thursday and the T-Bill matures on a Thursday 13, 26, or 52 weeks later. The day of the week that an auction occurs, Monday or Tuesday, matters in the sense that when a buy at auction is submitted, before the deadline time on the auction date, the brokerage account needs to have enough cash available to meet the conditions the brokerage has on accepting a buy at auction.

At Fidelity, the maturity value of a security on autoroll is included in determining whether a brokerage account has enough cash available for the buy at auction that is automatically submitted by autoroll.
Topic Author
unmesh
Posts: 101
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:28 pm

Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

@MnD

Not having to worry about manually moving the money representing the discount from par value to an account with a more reasonable return than the sweep/core account makes the Fidelity offering better than Schwab, it would appear.

@FactualFran

Not that it really matters but I was trying to figure out why Schwab does not autoroll 52-week T-Bills.

More broadly, ETrade is offering the biggest one time bonus for bringing new money but I'm not completely clear on their offering.
Topic Author
unmesh
Posts: 101
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:28 pm

Re: Best brokerage for automatic rolling treasury ladder

Post by unmesh »

Summary:

ETrade won't do autoroll and Schwab won't autoroll 12-month T-Bills, so Fidelity is it for me.
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