SWVXX

GumballCowboy

I wasn't paying attention to MU this year, so I missed the opportunity. Now I'm hoping it drops further so I can build a position—then, of course, I'd like to see it recover. I'm not rooting for anyone to lose money. Over the past five weeks I've sold a lot of positions using stop limits to protect my gains. You can't time the market, but at this stage I'd rather lock in profits than risk giving them back. Ironically, everything I sold (META, MSFT, GOOG—all in my IRA) has continued higher. You can't complain about gains... but I still do. 😂 I now have more cash than ever parked in SWVXX, and I'm trying to figure out when to deploy it. I don't want to miss a major rally, but I also don't want to buy before a bigger pullback. I get that If everyone knew the answer, we'd all be rich, so I'm doing as much research as I can. I even considered buying 1,000 shares of MU, but that's a big allocation and gives me pause. How much lower do you think MU could realistically go? Congrats to everyone who bought at lower prices. My biggest investing win was BAC—I bought around $5, sold at $41 after about 12 years, reinvested the dividends along the way, and turned a $100K investment into roughly an $800K gain.

No-Improvement3164

SWVXX allows you to collect interest and sell CSP til you get assigned at a price you like. A little extra bang for the buck.

Autobahn97

HYSA like Ally bank. If you want the money accessible and also add to it easily (like direct deposit some of your pay check to add to it). If you are more focused on investing and can wait a couple of days to access it then brokerage accounts will have some lower cost ETF to buy into treasury bills. Something like [SWVXX](https://client.schwab.com/SymbolRouting.aspx?symbol=SWVXX) for Schwab. To access money in [SWVXX](https://client.schwab.com/SymbolRouting.aspx?symbol=SWVXX) (or similar) you first need to sell out of it the xfer the money out to a linked bank account. A solid investment to put money into long term is typically an SP500 index fund like VOO or SPY to buy into the SP500 - leave it there for decades.

EmbarrassedPart1256

Whew that was a quick one; I tracked it for a bit, tried to scalp it one good time & instantly regretted my buy, luckily got out with tiny gains after having a pending $SWVXX order so I kinda needed the cash (lesson learned about that one, maybe putting funds in $SGOV in the future by the round $100s). Also $RMSG no I didn’t catch it! I was busy this morning & letting things cool as I took a big loss yesterday. No more touching the main account, only working on growing the $2.2K tax-free account from here on out. But I knew $RMSG had some explosive vibes. $LGPS also popped off more today after I sold yesterday (for gains). Im intrigued by that one…

EmbarrassedPart1256

My first successful AH in a while! Having the cash liquid ($SGOV, not $SWVXX, in case I needed to sell some to cover losses) helped me keep a level head. I lost a bit first on $LASE but then got my head right (no revenge trading) & made it back & then some. As much as I wanna keep going I also wanna remember how it feels to lose in AH & it’s not worth it after such a good day. And I didn’t even make the gains some of y’all did. I just wanna make enough to live another day at this point, let the portfolio do the rest; congrats to everyone!

Autobahn97

Park the money somewhere safe that makes some interest for you - a high yield savings account (HYSA) linked to your brokerage account. You can also part it in several T-Bill funds that will provide interest but that are still relatively liquid like SWVXX but there are others. Invest it slowly over a year or 2 every week or month into a low cost fund like VOO/SPY (for SP500) or if you can tolerate more risk QQQ or QQQM for NASDAQ100 (though it could be volatile with several huge tech IPO hitting). Or some split between the 2. You can be fancy and buy VOO/SPY that tends to be more stable as a default but if its a down day in the market buy QQQ since NASDAQ tents to fluctuate more and some feel that QQQ gives them a little more swing upward when the markets are inevitably up when you retire in several decades. Best to setup an automated investment system. In general the key is automation with several smaller contributions over time to spread the risk and low cost funds to get the historical long term annual return of 10% the market provides over decades. Have faith in the long term market returns and don't sell on any short term fears or market concerns. Often the most difficult part is to remove emotion from your investing (easier said than done).

Dekuthegreat

SWVXX and chill

InvWithRed

In 2025 I lost \~2M. Now, I only keep about 5000 avail for trading, and I buy 1 option at a time, sell at a profit and do this every day. When I have over 5k, I put the difference in SWVXX so I don’t trade it.

No-Improvement3164

I’m sitting on SWVXX. Guaranteed 3.5% I can’t keep up with the tweets and rotation

Captain-Popcorn

I’m retired and do the opposite. I sell appreciated assets in brokerage acct and buy SWVXX (or SGOV) in brokerage accounts several times a year - when market is up. (I’ll do from Roth IRAs if capital gains are at target and I want to hold off increasing that tax burden.) And sell some SWVXX / SGOV in brokerage and move cash into checking when I pay bills to generously cover for at least a few months. Having all the accts at Schwab makes it super easy to perform these transactions. So far so good! But I’m only retired couple years. So far my gross invested assets have grown - growth outpacing spending. I know that’s not going to continue indefinitely, but I’ll be happy for it to continue a while longer. When the time comes and I’m digging deeper into assets, I’ll remember these years when the market was rocking. I figure it’ll all even out and I’m prepared for that.

themuleskinner

Schwab here as well, and any incoming cash lands in SWVXX until I'm ready to deploy my dollar cost averaging strategy across my (overly complicated) portfolio

Captain-Popcorn

I use this but also SWVXX - a Schwab specific money market that you buy like a security. Shares are always $1. But you get extra shares over time.

SerMumble

Sounds good. If you have a schwab account, you can dump your savings into a money market fund like SWVXX and setup weekly sells of SWVXX and weekly buys of SWPPX and SWISX or whatever combination of mutual funds. Set and forget with automated investing. In the long run, just keep enough savings in SWVXX for emergencies. Time in market beats timing the market.

Seed_Is_Strong

SWVXX as collateral to sell CSPs

Ziegelmarkt

We used to use Marcus, then we started buying SWVXX, but both take to long IMO to move cash to our bank. So now we keep between $10-35,000 in our joint and individual checking accounts at any given time which covers most "emergencies". We've got another $45,000 in available credit and we generally use those because of the cash back, airline miles, hotel points, etc., etc., and then we just pay off with our monthly withdraw from our brokerage account. The plumber, electrician and HVAC guys I use for my properties offer a 5-10% discount for cash to both avoid their own processing fees and get paid under the table. If push really comes to shove we would use the margin account.

patsay

I am not aware of any mutual funds that are FDIC insured, but SWVXX is about as safe as you can get.

GoldenGardenn

SWVXX is not FDIC insured.

patsay

This is how I’m doing it with a $1M portfolio. I put cash into an interest-bearing instrument (for me, SWVXX, but there are others). Now I’m buying in slowly to 4 diversified ETFs using cash secured puts to lower my cost basis and to add to my share count. SPY, VIG, GLD and QQQ. I’m making a video series and showing the live trades if you want to look on my profile to find them. The video series is inspired by one of my coaching clients who is consolidating all of her 401(k) accounts, equity from her house, and some insurance money as she transitions to retirement life.

SoulStripHer

Bah. Just put it all in SWVXX and be done with it.

Ra_a_

You’re not the only one Cash? Or like SWVXX

InvestingNerd2020

You can just put the cash into a money market fund. It is super easy and just takes 1 day. Great if you are not a day trader or Option swing trader. \- SWVXX for the 9 states without state income tax. \- SNSXX for states with high state income taxes. Examples: California, New York state, New Jersey state, and Hawaii.

InvestingNerd2020

Schwab has SWVXX (a prime money market fund). Great for the 9 USA states without state income taxes.

mx5plus2cones

I use schwab because like fidelity if you have a linked checkibg account, its unlimited free ATMs worldwide. You pay for atm fees up front and they reimburse you back the fees at the end of the both. Super easy check scanning mobile app for mobile deposits and also has zelle so my tenants can pay me easily...and at least for where i live, there's more schwab branches than fidelity. What i dont like about Schwab is their cash sweep function sucks. Cash that you have left in your brokerage account automatically gets "sweeped up" and auto invested. The choices of how it gets invested is pretty lame. Basically very interest 1% or lower. It used to be you can specify their money market funf SWVXX as the default cash sweep, and that pays an almost 4% interest... But you cant anymore. Fidelity and Vanguard allows you to specify the default cash sweep to be their version of the money market fund... Unfortunately, I dont like fidelity (and finally got rid of them)...and vanguard is very very old and clunky... If i didnt have very old Voyager class index funds and didnt have my kods 529k college account in the Vanguard/Nevada plan , I would close that account in a heartbeat too. The remaining 38 accounts are all at Schwab. My parents gave me a small custodial account at Schwab a long time ago to learn how to invest when I was 15-16, so I grew up with Schwab. My kid has a custodal schwab account since they were 10. And now second year in college has a Roth IRA at schwab (I match the money my kid earns working at part time jobs that doesnt get spent with a dollar for dollar contribution to their Roth IRA up to the annual roth IRA contribution... It gets auto invested in VTI and VXUS.)

Allspread

Have everything invested in bonds, T bills, ETFs, closed end funds, individual equities, keep around 10% total portfolio value jn SWVXX. Trade against portfolio margin keeping notional exposure under 25% of total account value.

_galaga_

SWVXX is the money market I used to use before I switched to SGOV to avoid state income tax (which you don't need to worry about). It yields roughly 3.5%.

One-Army-1668

I wish I found this discussion much earlier. I could have earn much more interest for the cash allocated for my CSP at schwab earning next to nothing. I have finally ask them to change my SWVXX into a type II (Schwab Accounting Term) account which can be used for collateral for my CSP) thus freeing up my cash account to earn higher interest. My question now is SWVXX vs SGOV. The 30 day yield is about the same but I don't have to pay state and city tax which is like another 10%. The 2 gotcha seems to be the buying power of 99% for SWVXX vs 70% for SGOV and the Wash sale rule. The wash sale rule sounds more complicated to manage as I will only sell SGOV if I need to cover the put or buy when I have incoming cash from selling the puts. Hoping some can share their wisdom on the pros and cons from their experience.

kirlandwater

Is this savings in addition to your retirement accounts? Or is this all you’ve got? If you’re just looking to add more with your savings instead of letting it sit, you can toss it into SWVXX which is a money market fund paying ~3.8% (last I checked) and should always be at $1. Much better than your savings account paying 0.1% If this is your only investment and you want to start saving for retirement and to create long term wealth, stick it into VTI and continue to add money into it every paycheck, even if it’s just a little bit, and then don’t worry about the global recession tomorrow, or next year, or anything for the next 30 years. There has been no 20 year long period where the overall US market has not gone up. You’ll be alright.

SerMumble

Roth IRA is a tax free account and that's very good to max out yearly when you are young. Start with opening a schwab, fidelity, vanguard or similar account, creating a roth IRA, and buying a money market fund like SWVXX for schwab for example so your money is doing work while you plan your portfolio. I recommend the S&P500 index like SPYM, VOO, SWPPX, etc. Or a total world index like VT for example. These are general starters to research around. More aggressive growth funds are like QQQM, SPMO, SCHG for example are the best for your age. Small strategic satellites might be individual stocks, dividends, international, small cap. Don't get carried away with these and some people are fine not buying them. Don't waste your money on bonds, reits, crypto, and weird stuff. Dollar cost average consistently for success.

kodaksdad2020

Keep unused funds is SWVXX and trade with margin. If you sell it clears the next day to cover

rentpossiblytoohigh

1 year S&P 500 is up 16.73% as of end of today... I been dumping money this entire rise. You be I'm dumping in the fall. I have separate house savings that I put into a SWVXX because I don't want house savings to be volatile. Peace of mind is attainable with a plan.

No-Improvement3164

In a Bull Market I sell puts to Ber and collect monies in a Bear Market I sell calls to Bull and collect monies all while my cash is in SWVXX collecting monies. What a great time to be alive!

Dstein99

The private equity issues aren’t even illiquidities. My understanding is investors agreed to put their money in illiquid investments, private equity funds can provide the liquidity but contractually aren’t required to, I believe they have been providing more withdraws than they’re legally required to and are well funded to cover those requests, but it’s not that they can’t redeem requests, they just aren’t required to. All Blackrock funds are in separate accounts and Blackrock can not legally commingle their SGOV funds with any other funds. If their private equity funds lose value they’re more likely to dissolve the fund than to use SGOV funds in anyway. I use SGOV and Schwab’s Money Market (SWVXX) but this isn’t a T Bill fund. The difference between SGOV and VUSXX to me is more Mutual Fund vs ETF. The yield difference is .09% 3.54% vs 3.63% which is $9 for every $10,000 per year. Frankly it doesn’t matter, just pick one I would go with if you prefer to have an etf or mutual funds, but I wouldn’t take into account a .09% difference in yield when this number changes.

Legitimate_Treat_762

I'm not pulling cash out, but if I were, it'd go right into a high yield money market account. I use Schwab so it's SWVXX for me. I'd let it chill there until my confidence returned.

insoul8

Honestly, if this is for a down payment and you will need liquidity with pretty short notice, I probably wouldn’t even put it in an index fund. Those still have short term risk, especially right now with everything that’s going on. Unless you’re ok with potentially being down a bit the month you end up needing to take it out. I would probably just put it in a HYSA or maybe in SWVXX as you’d still have liquidity within a day and much less risk.

ABCifyoulikeRoblox

I think he's just saying those stocks already got hammered and the market isn't down by that much. If the market actually enters correction/bear market territory, you'll be hurting. But if your plan is to continue to DCA, you'll always be good. Personally, I'm holding pat for now. I'm in a similar spot to you, lots of SWVXX just waiting to be deployed. I deployed a lot around the tariff fiasco. Just waiting for Trump's next disaster...which I'm assuming will be Iran. It already is, but I think it gets worse. He's playing 1D checkers as usual while the rest of the world is playing 4D chess. Absolute brain dead moron at the helm...this has to get worse.

No-Improvement3164

SWVXX

torokunai

I put my future $3000 property tax payment in SWVXX or some shit since I know I could easily gamble and lose it instead. I'll take the $20 on 4% pa instead.

diver5050

Yeah the amount wasn't much, but neither is the amount of interest being alternatively earned in SGOV or SWVXX. So by not getting the timing right, you end up losing more than would have been made keeping in those funds. In other words, I should have sold those funds to cover as soon as the extrinsic was gone on the options.

Target2019-20

Not SWVXX, but SNSXX for state tax exempt.

External_Pattern9950

for a true emergency fund the priority is liquidity and zero risk, not yield. a high yield savings account at 4.5%+ is the right answer for most people. Wealthfront, Marcus by Goldman, and Ally are all solid options with no minimums and easy transfers. if you want to squeeze a little more yield, a treasury-only money market fund like SPAXX (Fidelity) or SWVXX (Schwab) will give you slightly better rates and the interest is state tax exempt. do not put your emergency fund in bonds, CDs with early withdrawal penalties, or anything that can lose value. the whole point is that when your car breaks down at 2am you can transfer the money immediately without worrying about selling at a loss.

netpirate2010

I'm currently trying to get a waiver for SNAXX. It typically requires a minimum investment of 1 million. I'm hoping they will let me use it since my account is over 1 million but I won't be keeping a million in that fund so they may not. It doesn't pay a whole lot more than SWVXX though, so not a huge deal with it doesn't work out.

defgufman

Put it in SWVXX

_galaga_

Ya on Schwab you manually push your cash into SWVXX, SGOV, or whatever. I’m used to it so it’s not a big deal but Fidelity handles that better. Rumor was fractional share purchases were coming to Schwab from their subreddit but who knows. Reinvestments are fractional, tho, it’s just initial purchases that aren’t fractional from what I understand.

Erotik-Venom

If you’re trying to keep things simple long term, moving most of it into a money market fund inside Schwab or Fidelity makes sense. I’d look at options like SWVXX or SPAXX since they’re liquid and easy to park cash in. I usually double check setups on BankTruth before moving anything just to compare what fits best.

1bourbon1scotch1bier

I’m not saying the market, rather in a money market like SWVXX. You earn interest instead of paying the credit card company early where they don’t pay you any. Either way, unless. You have budgeting issues there’s no reason to pay you credit card before the statement due date.

u_spawnTrapd

If this is truly long term money, I would pause before defaulting to a money market fund. They are great for liquidity and short term parking, but they are not really designed to outperform over long stretches. The yield just floats with short term rates. At Schwab a lot of people use something like SWVXX, and at Fidelity SPAXX is the default core position. Both are fine for cash management. Just keep in mind they will drop if rates drop. If this is money you will not touch for years, have you thought about splitting it? Keep an emergency fund in a money market and invest the rest in broad index funds. Curious what your actual time horizon is.

Retired-Programmer

At Schwab I do not have the margin permission level to sell naked calls (I have *Limit margin access added* permissions level). But I am allowed in a PMCC to sell a short call below the strike of my long call. But it eats into my Option Requirement. In my IRA for example I can put cash into SWVXX that is earning interest. But if I do a short call for example at $110 strike and my LEAPS long call is a $120 strike, I have to have $1,000 straight cash to cover that spread of $10 ($120 - $110). And my Option Requirement will say $1,000.

No-Improvement3164

I’m sitting in SWVXX collecting 3.5% risk free sell CPS collecting premiums at the same time.

kirlandwater

The value isn’t supposed to change so you should always have an unrealized gain of $0. The unrealized gain tracks the change in price from when you bought to that point in time. SWVXX is intended to always be $1. The gains you get are the monthly deposits, but those don’t show in the unrealized gains

Gladiz1972

The SWVXX pays around on the last day of every month for a slightly higher yield Vanguards 2 money market funds VUSXX or VMFXX probably closer to 3.70

Drwannabeme

It's called dividends. SWVXX is pegged at $1

grimrigger

It won't show up as a return. The interest you get is paid out as a dividend...if you don't have it set to re-invest, then your principal will stay the same and you should be seeing dividend payments that are going into your cash account. Just go to history in your brokerage webpage/app, and you should see the monthly dividend payments. I hold SWVXX too, there is nothing fishy about it.

smashnmashbruh

I have 3 months in BOXX, 3 months in SWVXX as a base lower limit. End of the month anything over that 1.5 months worth of operations expenses gets distributed evenly, 1/4 additional savings for fun, 1/4 to spend on fun hobbies, 1/4 goes to VXUS, 1/4 goes to SWVXX. This continues to grow the stash of cash for funding projects, upgraded equipment, retirement, trips, hobbies with out disrupting my retirement and safety net. Each week I transfer more money than necessary as a base savings for retirement funding, taxes, long term operational expenses, 1/3 of known expenses over 3 years, like new hardware and software. It work it like this fill SWVXX until funding is secured for next years taxes/retirement/operations. Then fund BOXX for 10k or hit next savings level. Then VXUS, long ass term non retirement investment. Again, I have already maxed my contributions for 2026. My hot take, grow your system to work for you, grow your savings to hit a place where you no longer worry, if you have 10k and worry then add, if you hit 9 months of average expenses, and still worry then keep savings. There is no magic number. I have not needed my emergency fund, or back up for 10 years, I am blessed I do everything I can to not touch it, I know I can make moves in 3 - 6 months average expenses.

Retired-Programmer

*> Also it* ***does not work on short Vertical spreads****.* Ah yes, that is a very important point worth mentioning again because **that** will catch you by surprise (or at least it did for me). I ran a few CSPs and saw how I could keep the securing cash in SWVXX and earn extra interest, and then I think I can do the same with a vertical put spread and then after you make the trade you look at your balances page and it say *$x.xx amount due* real big in red. Glad you brought that up and is worth mentioning again which is why I wrote this reply in hopes it might others from also getting an unwelcome surprise like I did.

sport912x

I think you got it but here is the Schwab deal. IRA / Cash Account, you can secure the Put with SWVXX and earn interest. Downside, it is a CSP, so a 150 strike requires 15k. Also it does not work on short Vertical spreads. Margin with Option Selling Approved. It is BUYING POWER NOT MARGIN. That 150 strike usually only requires 2k in BP. It will show in the Analyze Page if you put the trade together there, or during Confirm and Send, later on the Position page. Roughly under 20%, it can double in Market Sell off or as your strike is approached. I like this vid by the Founder of Tos and Tasty. [https://www.tastylive.com/shows/best-practices/episodes/buying-power-reduction-01-26-2015](https://www.tastylive.com/shows/best-practices/episodes/buying-power-reduction-01-26-2015)

Aware-Lantern141

ngl, that 20% difference in margin between SWVXX and SGOV would make me stick with SWVXX even with the slightly lower yield.

Retired-Programmer

I was so thrilled when I was converted from TDAmeritrade to Schwab and saw SWVXX and no longer had to go thru the process and moving money to/from my Bank Savings account/etc and could now just use SWVXX I just immediately started doing that and never bothered to look at anything else. *> (plus the extra .40 interest*  Hmmm, it may not be much different but I think I may start using SGOV because of that 0.40**%** difference. It may not make much difference total dollar wise, but for whatever reason stuff like that seems to make me feel better. And that difference of 70% vs 90% diff in marginable value has pretty much 0 consequence for me (I'm in TX so I won't have a state tax benefit). Thanks for the input.

ilchymis

Yeah, SWVXX is great for that, because you get like 90% of the value in margin to buy csp/ccs with. I only get 70% from SGOV, but it helps me not get as far over my head (plus the extra .40 interest and state tax break). Either way, if you get assigned, sell the shares and cover the costs, and you wont have to pay the 11% margin charge.

Retired-Programmer

And that is why I said it was *sort of on margin*. Which when I was at TDAmeritrade I could not even do that in my IRA account. The Cash securing the short put had to be in straight cash earning near 0% interest. Probably should have added this part to my original comment, but just now remembered this. And also would still somewhat consider it on Margin also because I can only use SWVXX funds to cover short puts on equities that have a Maintenance Requirement of *Standard: 30%*. For example RDDT has a Maintenance Requirement of *Special Maintenance: 40%* and in my IRA I sell a $100 strike short put on RDDT I then have to have $10,000 in straight cash o cover and can't put that cash in SWVXX and gain the additional interest. So certain margin rules are being applied here and also a margin account is required to do this (at least at TDAmeritrade it did, I assume Schwab also requires it to be a margin account as well).

quuxquxbazbarfoo

If you're putting the cash to secure the put into SWVXX, then you're selling cash-secured puts and not securing them with margin.

Retired-Programmer

I am retired (67 years old) so for me pretty much doing anything on margin for me would be unwise/insane. But what I will do is sell short puts sort of on margin and then take the cash needed to secure the short put and put in Schwabs SWVXX fund getting currently 3.51% interest. Which at Schwab they allow the SWVXX funds to actually back the short puts in my IRA account which is absolutely awesome. Previously I was with TDAmeritrade and they didn't have anyway to do that (at least to my knowledge) and so when I was with TDAmeritrade I always did the short puts in my taxable account so the cash could also gain some interest somewhere. Now that I am at Schwab I try to do most of my short puts in my IRA (so that I don't have as much short term cap gains and interest gained that I would have to pay ordinary income tax rates on). I do have a margin account (to be able to do some option spreads) but have never truly bought anything on true margin (always have the cash somewhere, sometimes the cash might be in a High Yield savings account with a bank).

_galaga_

I’ve been with Schwab forever so I’m used to sweeping cash into something with interest manually. I’m not saying that’s the way it should be, btw, Fidelity is more convenient for sure. But it’s not a huge impediment to a buy and hold type of investing where getting in/out of cash isn’t a daily thing. SWVXX is their money market fund but I use SGOV to dodge state taxes although SNSXX is roughly equivalent from what I understand. Schwab will do fractional shares on reinvestments fwiw just not the initial. They had a “stock slices” product to try and get around the lack of fractional purchases but I never dealt with that, it sounded kinda odd to me.

Retired-Programmer

Yeah, these past few weeks I have really been worried about my transfer back to Schwab, but it seemed to work out fine (but not going back, I am done with RH). One thing that is nice about RH over Schwab is uninvested money gets 3%+ interest at RH whereas at Schwab (and I think fidelity is the same) I have to actually trade/buy SWVXX to get 3%+ interest. Not a big deal, but Vanguard and RH makes it a little easier by their automatic sweep feature. Absolutely nothing wrong with boring investing like you plan on doing. Just what to add that I think your post was very well written, but just want to correct one thing (probably just a mis-thought word by looking at the rest of your post) that Roth IRA accounts aren't tax deferred, but are actually **tax free**. And man, I wish I would have done what you are doing now. You really seem to be on the right path.

No-Improvement3164

SWVXX waiting patiently for opportunities

Retired-Programmer

*> Like what limitations, just curious?* 1. You cannot see what your current Realized Short Term and Long Term gains are. I am retired and can have over $48K of Long Term Capital Gains paying 0% tax on them. At the end of the year I will sell some stocks (and immediately buy them back) to get these gains and pay $0 taxes on them. It's called Tax Harvesting. But with Robinhood I have to put every single trade into an excel sheet and go thru each trade to figure out what my current Realized Short and Long Term Capital Gains are (and this gets more complicated when doing covered calls and CSPs for example). It takes me weeks to go thru it with Robinhood to make sure I have it correct. With Schwab I just go to the Realized Gains page and there it is and takes less than a minute. 2. You can't setup a Covered Call in a single trade. If the stock and options have wide bid/ask spreads you can end up paying way more for it than you intended. Or could just be stuck with just shares and end up just selling the shares for a loss because you couldn't get what you wanted for the short calls to be worth it. With Schwab you can set it up in a single trade and if you can't get it for what you want you don't get stuck with shares (or a loss). There are a lot of other multi-leg trades you can't do at Robinhood either, but Covered Calls and Poor Man's Covered Calls (where you own a long call instead of shares) are the only 2 I typically do. 3. On the Web site you can't specify to sell a specific lot of shares. I need this to be able to do Tax Harvesting at the end of the year. Fortunately you can do this on the Robinhood Phone App, which I will do that on the Phone App when I need to, but I hate using the phone for trading. I think they added this recently for the phone app because I know in 2024 I had to submit a support request to get that done. 4. You can't buy Treasuries or Brokered CDs and I think some preferred Stocks on Robinhood. 5. The trade history page is really limited. It only shows all your trades and you can't filter on a specific stock or dates. You can only see every single trade including the cancelled trades. To see trades a few months ago you have to scroll and scroll and scroll until you get to the trade you are looking for. At Schwab I can specify MSFT and get all my Microsoft trades which includes any options traded on Microsoft (or you can exclude options contracts or you can specify option contracts only). And at Schwab I can specify the current year, previous year or any custom date range. Fortunately at Robinhood you can download the history/reports to an excel file and that sometimes is very helpful (I have an excel spreadsheet with all my trades that I will go back and use it instead of the Robinhood history page). 6. On the Robinhood website when submitting an option trade at a limit price (like when selling a short call in a covered call) and then later changing the limit price is a real pain. When I do that on the Robinhood website when I select to Replace the order I have to select the strike again (and many times I also have re-select the expiration) and then can finally set a new price. And many times after so going thru so many steps I forgot what my last limit price was and either have to guess what the next lower price is (or cancel it and go back and see what my last price was and start all over). At Schwab you can just bring up the current order status do a replace and all the data is already there and can just click minus to lower the price a penny. With Robinhood Legend this does work like Schwab's trading most of the time but not always. About 30% of the time for some reason all I can do is Cancel the trade (clicking Replace does nothing) and then have to go back to the web page to redo the order at a lower price and then Robinhood Legend's platform Replace works again (no idea why this happens, but it happens a lot). Schwab also has a Walk Limit order type where I can specify a start price, end price, price change and time between each price change so that this can be done basically automatically. 7. Schwab's ThinkOrSwim also has the ability to see the option prices that were traded during the day (as well as what the current stock price was for that option when the trade went thru) which helps determine how much you can really get for an option when it has a wide bid/ask price. ThinkOrSwim also has a ton of other stuff as well which I actually am not that familiar with. But I do use ThinkOrSwim pretty much exclusively for all my trades (there are some things I will have to do on the website like picking a specific lot, or when buying/selling SWVXX but it's rare that I don't use ThinkOrSwim). That is what comes to mind at the moment with Robinhood limitations.

Retired-Programmer

*>\*\*\* A side question, if I sell the put using margin as collateral when does the broker charge me interest..on the collateral period right when the option is sold or only if assigned?* At Schwab I have never gotten charged just when using margin as collateral, only when shares are actually purchased and there is not the cash needed to buy the shares (IOW, you are actually borrowing money). Pretty sure Fidelity is the same. At Schwab in my IRA account I buy the SWVXX shares (which is some kind of money market fund getting 3%+ interest) which is then used to cover the short puts in a CSP. But it's not automatic. I have to manually trade/buy SWVXX shares and then if the short put is assigned I have to sell the SWVXX shares to get the cash for the stock purchase. Not a big deal, but it definitely would be nice if it was automatic (which I assume Fidelity is).

BillCarr451

My buying power has been maintained 100% minute to minute. No idea what you're talking about. I place a SWVXX buy order and sell csp the same day before anything moves or settles. I sell SWVXX and buy stock, leaps, etc the same session before anything moves or settles. You're doing something wrong

Ashkandhi

Thoughts on this strategy: I’m in the same boat, long term, not looking for crazy immediate returns. My idea is $5K in VOO, $3K in QQQ, and $2K in a Money Market Fund (SWVXX with Schwab)

CHL9

Your uninvested cash should be parked in SGOV (ETF) or your bank's MMF (money market fund) for example at schwab its SWVXX, and you'll get about the current fed rate, about 4%, which is called the "risk free rate", ie the rate at which you can get interest without a serious risk of losing your investment. Banks #1 source of income is interest on their lending out or investing uninvested cash, it's what allows the US to have mostly solvent banks and for you to have no-fee banking, instead of how it is in many other countries where you must pay a monthly fee to hold your money at the bank and fees every time you do something . But yes in short that's what you will get on uninvested cash unless you use Fidelity where they keep your uninvested cash in a money market fund which yields a few points under the risk free rate, and they do the "automatic sweep" which means your money will accrue that interest and be bought and sold automatically. Most other banks you have to manually buy SGOV (or another very short term bond ETF) or the money market fund and sell it a day befor eyou need it

engineerfoodie

Just make sure you sell SWVXX to cover the assignment costs and it settles at the end of day. Like others have stated, I keep my money in SWVXX

BillCarr451

No biggie and I was on a no margin IRA extensively for these trades. Got early assigned once so was very negative balance overnight. I happen to trade daily so I caught it the next day or two max. Liquidated SWVXX to cover. And no one at cs gave a hoot. I've done this long enough I'm certain I had some assignments on a Friday that I didn't cover until Monday and they also didn't care about that. So even in my no margin account I went into deep margin territory briefly but multiple times. In short I never took more than 1-2 sessions to cover just because I'm active/daily enough to notice. Talk to cs and double check how to set alerts and emails as a backup so it doesn't go unnoticed too long.

TinyMavin

So what happens if a CSP gets assigned and your money is in SWVXX? I guess the assignment happens on Margin?

HVVHdotAGENCY

Yes for Schwab. The APY for the cash isn’t great, but you can put it into other cash money market funds like SWVXX for a better APY and it will still be available as collateral for options and is marginable.

Retired-Programmer

Yep, same here. I buy/sell SWVXX several times a month and like you said it's no biggie. And while I am posting, I saw your other comment about you do need to sell the SWVXX shares if the short put gets assigned so you have the cash to buy the shares. Very important point and just wanted to add that to this since I missed that important point in my first reply,

BillCarr451

Correct. And it's the only thing I've run across so far that can't be traded on ToS. I had to go to CS web to transact SWVXX. Once I learned about SWVXX I never had more than lunch money in actual cash. Interest paid on SWVXX is averaged over monthly balance so it doesn’t matter how much or often you add or subtract SWVXX you're earning better interest there than cash. *non margin IRA so I had additions and subtractions many times a month. Takes a few seconds so no biggie

BillCarr451

Put your cash in SWVXX

BillCarr451

Schwab has SWVXX which is essentially a money market. I had all my CSP collateral in SWVXX and freely wrote puts against it. IT WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY SELL TO COVER ASSIGNMENT. You have to manually sell SWVXX to cover put assignments which is no big deal if you're attentive or at least set alerts at the strike. Made 4% last I looked. If you just leave cash laying around at CS it basically earns nothing to trivial interest

Retired-Programmer

At Schwab with the options level I have (which I guess is *Margin Access Added)*. With the cash needed to cover the short put you can buy SWVXX shares which will cover the short put and you can do this in an IRA as well.

imaginex20

You’re not missing anything. I am with Schwab and doing exactly what you’re doing with SWVXX.

_galaga_

Not your point but SWVXX is exposed to state income tax, btw, while SNSXX/SGOV generally aren’t. Might not apply to your situation but thought I’d mention it in case it did.

Retired-Programmer

At Schwab I put my cash in SWVXX which is some sort of cash mutual fund that gets 3%+ interest. But since it's a mutual fund when I sell the shares the cash only show up late that night. Let's say I have $0 actual cash in my account. If I buy some shares of XYZ costing $10,000 my account balance at that time shows -$10,000 (negative). But as long as I enter a sell order of $10,000 of SWVXX before the market closes (and therefore subsequently that night the SWVXX shares are sold and $10,000 cash is added to my account) I am have never been charge margin interest. Not sure exactly what the rules are to get charged margin interest, but that is how it works at Schwab.

Chemical-Fun3692

This is super helpful! I will read up on these links! I didn’t notice any Bonds or mutual funds in your brokerage account and curious why that was, in specific no bonds? I believe this is what you mentioned, which I think i’ll plan on doing the same unless there’s a better way to strategize or optimize/diversify: SWTSX (MF, Total Market)/ SWISX (INTL MF) / SWAGX (MF Bond) - In ROTH IRA SCHB (US ETF) / IXUS (INTL ETF) - In Brokerage SWVXX (MMF) / USFR (FL TREAS ETF)

Chemical-Fun3692

Ok so this is what I am going to do today: SWTSX/SWISX/SWAGX - Roth IRA SCHB/IXUS - Brokerage (taxable) SWVXX/USFR - uninvested in brokerage. What percentages should be the breakdown?

Chemical-Fun3692

Ohh I see! I thought the SWAGX was in your Roth IRA. Since I am not elligible for a Traditional IRA, would I just forgo the SWAGX entirely and just stick with SWTSX and SWISX in my Roth IRA, or is it good to add the SWAGX to my Roth IRA? I would like to use the Boglehead 3 pillars to investment - which is having diversified accounts in each brokerage and IRA. This is what I am thinking: SWTSX/SWISX/SWAGX: in Roth IRA account SCHB/IXUS: in brokerage (taxable account). SWVXX and USFR for uninvested cash (for liquid money). Anything I can change to make it stronger? And regarding investing in 401k in index funds, can I invest in these same above at Fidelity since my 401k is with fidelity?

Retired-Programmer

*> We have produced the same income as a CSP with less capital and a lower delta.* *> This is like having our cake and eating it too.* Maybe, assuming that is what the OP has been doing with options, Not sure what he has been doing with options. My concern is he has been seeing the massive gains people are getting doing the 0DTE stuff I see all over reddit and has he been doing that and has been successful (which is way easier in this constant up stock market) and now wants to really take advantage. And your statement of same income as CSP and therefore having your cake and eat it too, that comes with additional risk when using stock as collateral. If the entire market tanks your collateral becomes less valuable and if you end up with your short puts getting assigned you have to sell that covering stock/ETF for less that what he originally started when starting to get more serious with the options stuff. When I first started doing options people said to always stagger your short put expiration dates so that doesn't become a problem. But what they don't tell you is when the entire stock market crashes, they all eventually get assigned. I remember one guy (I think in the 2008 crash) having that issue and ended up in a margin call situation and it turned out the cheapest way out was to close one of his short puts that was still out of the money, but doing that changed his margin requirement enough to get out of his margin call situation (and cheaper than closing the ITM short puts to get out of the margin requirement problem). But I would agree it is having cake and eat it too if you put the cash into Schwab's SWVXX which is a interest bearing cash fund (doesn't change in value but gains 3%+ interest) and use that to back your short puts. Which you can also do in an IRA account which is really nice.

er824

Regarding International…. It diversifies you away from just the US. The US market has outperformed the global market for a while but no idea if that will continue. Plenty of smart people say US only is fine because the biggest US companies are international businesses. Other people say that ignores large swaths of the global economy. I have no idea what the future holds. Personally I the I’m about 30% of my stocks allocated to International. Last year was the first time in a long time International outperformed the US. SWISX is fine in either in a taxable or tax sheltered account. It will tend to pay a bit more dividend then SWTSX but still pretty tax efficient. If you are holding in taxable accounts I’d favor the ETF versions. SCHB is the ETF equivalent to SWTSX, SCHF is the ETF equivalent to SWISX. SWVXX is fine, TBILL ETFs like SGOV or FRN ETFs like USFR, or TBills are all fine places for cash. Personally I found directly buying TBills to be inconvenient so stopped and just use the ETFs and Money Markets now.

Chemical-Fun3692

Awesome; yes sorry was a typo and was SWTSX. The SWISX, is it a good idea to get international? And would this be in a taxable account? That’s a great idea on the sweep! Someone on my new post said that SWVXX is an unrated bond and to get something like a treasury bill instead, is this a good idea? Great point on SCHD as well in an IRA, but if there’s no need, I can skip it!

Chemical-Fun3692

Oh nice! So would having SWVXX suffice?

er824

It’s SWTSX, assuming you mean Schwab’s Total Market fund. If you want International exposure their International fund is SWISX. You don’t need a separate account at Fidelity unless you want it for some other purpose. Their sweep options are better than what you get at Schwab for uninvested cash but that’s only an issue if you leave the cash sitting in your Schwab account. Investing, like you would be doing by buying SWVXX, SGOV or USFR, solves that problem. The downside to Schwab is having to do it manually whereas Fidelity automates (sweeps) the cash to and from their SPAXX money market for you. The manual options actually yield a bit more so are better as long as you are ok with the manual step. Personally, I don’t see a reason to overweight dividend stocks, all the stocks in SCHD are already in SWTSX and SCHB. If you do decide to hold SCHD consider holding it in your IRA to minimize the tax drag.

Chemical-Fun3692

I am completely new to investing and I’ve been trying to read as much as possible and ask questions. Please let me know your thoughts on this game plan and if there is anything you would change, take out or add? This is just me going based off notes. I am 100% open to suggestions. Step 1: Contribute 4% employer match to 401k on Fidelity. Step 2: Backdoor Roth IRA - contribute $7,500 and invest in SWTSK (any other mutual fund or ETF I should invest in IRA?) Step 3: Invest in SCHB or SCHX in Taxable account Step 4: Invest in SGOV, USFR, and SWVXX in Taxable account - All for liquid funds Step 5: (Consider investing in SCHD in taxable account?) - Dividend focused ETF. Step 6: (Consider a Sweep account at Fidelity which offers a higher % return in a MMA, not sure why?) Step 7: Is SWPPX and/or SWTSX necessary, and if so, which account and why? Step 8: What about international ETFs and/or Bonds, should I add any to my taxable account and if so which ones? Step 9: Consider QQQ in a taxable account (but would this be redundant if I already will have SCHX or SCHB?)

Chemical-Fun3692

Also, is the QQQ necessary if I choose to invest in SCHX or SCHB which are both broader? I am not sure. Here is my game plan: Please let me know your thoughts and if there is anything you would change, take out or add? This is just me going based off notes from here. I am 100% to suggestions. Step 1: Contribute 4% employer match to 401k on Fidelity. Step 2: Backdoor Roth IRA - contribute $7,500 and invest in SWTSK (any other mutual fund or ETF I should invest in IRA?) Step 3: Invest in SCHB or SCHX in Taxable account Step 4: Invest in SGOV, USFR, and SWVXX in Taxable account - All for liquid funds Step 5: (Consider investing in SCHD in taxable account?) - Dividend focused ETF. Step 6: (Consider a Sweep account at Fidelity which offers a higher % return in a MMA, not sure why?) Step 7: Is SWPPX and/or SWTSX necessary, and if so, which account and why? Step 8: What about international ETFs and/or Bonds, should I add any to my taxable account and if so which ones?

Chemical-Fun3692

Ok gotcha! To clarify, you want a short duration basically?! Ok this is my plan so far. Please let me know your thoughts and if there is anything you would change, take out or add? This is just me going based off notes from here. I am 100% to suggestions. Step 1: Contribute 4% employer match to 401k on Fidelity. Step 2: Backdoor Roth IRA - contribute $7,500 and invest in SWTSK (any other mutual fund or ETF I should invest in IRA?) Step 3: Invest in SCHB or SCHX in Taxable account Step 4: Invest in SGOV, USFR, and SWVXX in Taxable account - All for liquid funds Step 5: (Consider investing in SCHD in taxable account?) - Dividend focused ETF. Step 6: (Consider a Sweep account at Fidelity which offers a higher % return in a MMA, not sure why?)

No-Improvement3164

SWVXX and chill

Chemical-Fun3692

Ah thank you! When we say effective duration of 0.1 or 0.2 years what does that mean exactly, what is an effective duration? Thank you for linking me to this boggle heads write up, that is super useful! I started reading though it and it sound like a floating rate treasury is super useful and he recommends getting one for sure, I’m still learning about this. Yea the reason I ask about short term ETF’s is to see if there are others comparable with varying returns. Like for instance there are diffeent 7 days MMF with varying returns and I wasn’t sure if it would be the case with short term ETFs like SGOV. Basically I wanted to know which list SGOV came from. But if they are all similar, I can certainly get SGOV and one of the floating treasuries like USFR and even include SWVXX as the MMF. I need to write all this down! It’s starting to sound like alphabet soup. If you don’t mind me messaging you to keep in touch that be great!

er824

> Super helpful info! MMFs yielding less than SWVXX, isn’t SWVXX already a MMF? Yes SWVXX is a MMF. Different MMF's have different yields. > It’s specifically a 7 day yield fund. I don't know what you mean by this. '7 day yield' is how the yield is reported on MMFs. Its what annualized return of the fund over the previous 7 days. You don't get that yield every 7 days. >When you say 0-3 month, does that mean it matures in 3 months or expires in 3 months? When I looked up SGOV, it had no maturity from my understanding, but I could totally be wrong! SGOV doesn't mature. That Treasuries it holds matures and the proceeds are then invested in new Treasuries. Its essentially a bond ladder with an effective duration of 0.1 years. >What the difference between Floating Rate Treasuries and Government bonds? A floating rate treasury is a type of Government Bond. Its a longer term bond but the interest rate floats so it doesn't have the same interest rate risk as longer term treasuries. USFR's effective duration is 0.2 years. >I also, tried looking up where to find a list of short term government bonds on Shwab but couldn’t find a list? Their customer service didn’t know either so i’m wondering how do we find the different options out there other than SGOV that does something similar to keep funds liquid with a return. Not sure I follow, are you looking for other short term bond ETFs? How many variations of Vanilla ice cream do you need? Here are some I'm aware of: SGOV, BIL, VBIL, TBIL, JPST, ICSH, VUSB, USFR, TFLO. The only ones I have any first hand experience with is SGOV, USFR and TFLO Here is an oldie but goodie: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/11prp0b/hysa\_mmf\_cds\_tbills\_searching\_for\_the\_best\_return/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/11prp0b/hysa_mmf_cds_tbills_searching_for_the_best_return/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

Chemical-Fun3692

Super helpful info! MMFs yielding less than SWVXX, isn’t SWVXX already a MMF? It’s specifically a 7 day yield fund. When you say 0-3 month, does that mean it matures in 3 months or expires in 3 months? When I looked up SGOV, it had no maturity from my understanding, but I could totally be wrong! What the difference between Floating Rate Treasuries and Government bonds? I also, tried looking up where to find a list of short term government bonds on Shwab but couldn’t find a list? Their customer service didn’t know either so i’m wondering how do we find the different options out there other than SGOV that does something similar to keep funds liquid with a return. For sure looking for convenience too!

Chemical-Fun3692

Super helpful info! MMFs yielding less than SWVXX, isn’t SWVXX already a MMF? It’s specifically a 7 day yield fund. When you say 0-3 month, does that mean it matures in 3 months or expires in 3 months? When I looked up SGOV, it had no maturity from my understanding, but I could totally be wrong! What the difference between Floating Rate Treasuries and Government bonds? I also, tried looking up where to find a list of short term government bonds on Shwab but couldn’t find a list? Their customer service didn’t know either so i’m wondering how do we find the different options out there other than SGOV that does something similar to keep funds liquid with a return. For sure looking for convenience too!

Retired-Programmer

At Schwab you can put your cash into SWVXX and currently get 3.61%. The SWVXX doesn't work as cleanly as Robinhood cash because you have to trade to put money into the fund (and trade to get money out) and it doesn't trade until market closes, but it's still adequate for me. I don't understand why everyone likes the Robinhood UI so much. I hate it. I can see all my positions at Schwab including the options on one single page and see (depending on what I select to be viewed) things like the Ex-Div Date, the Div Pay date, Div Yld, Margin Req, Delta, Gamma, ITM. None of which you can see on a single page at Robinhood (and not being able to see the individual options on that page is really a problem). On the Robinhood website there is no way to see what your cost is for each individual lot nor can you specify to trade a specific lot. Thank goodness you can do this on the Phone, I hate using my phone to trade, but when I need to specify a specific lot to trade I will use my phone. There is no way on Robinhood to see what your current Realized Short or Long Term gains are. I have a spreadsheet I have to use and it takes me weeks to figure out what my Realized Long Term and Short Term gains are at Robinhood which I use for Tax Loss Harvesting near the end of the year. At Schwab I go to the Realized Gain / Loss page and select the current year and there is it, Short Term and Long Term (and Total) Realized Gains. Takes me 15 seconds. With Robinhood it takes me weeks in a spreadsheet to figure out this info. If I want to see all my Trades with NVDA at Robinhood I have to to the History page and can select to see just trades (which helps slightly) and I have to scroll down, down, down, down and go thru all the trades (not just NVDA, but every single stock I trade). Or I can download all my trades to a spreadsheet and go thru it the same way which isn't much better, At Schwab I go to Transaction History, select a Date of All (or I could select a Date Range or Current Year etc), put in NVDA for Symbol click Search and I see all my trades with NVDA, Takes less than 30 seconds. Why everyone is saying the Robinhood UI is so good is so strange to me. And then last but certainly not least visit this subreddit. r/ClassActionRobinHood . Tons of people having their account locked out when they try and take money out of Robinhood. A couple of years ago I transferred money to Robinhood for a 1% bonus and have regretted it ever since. It was not worth it. In a couple of months the hold period for my bonus will end and will be glad to get my money out of Robinhood (assuming they don't lock my account when I do that which I have a bad feeling about).

ra__account

There's realms of information about the three fund strategy that have already been written. *I was also thinking of getting a money market fund that is the 7 day yield like SWVXX or getting a ultra short term bond like Us treasury - SGOV or both to park my funds before they are invested. What are your thoughts on this?* How much money are you investing that this kind of micro optimization matters? *Or what about maxing the Roth IRA before investing in funds?* You're confusing tax treatment with investment strategy here. Invest in index funds in your IRA.

Chemical-Fun3692

I like this strategy! Is there one ETF that is encompassing of both US and international? What is the more common US and International ones on Schwab? When you say bonds do you refer to money market funds or another type? What kind of bonds or which ones in particular and why? I was also thinking of getting a money market fund that is the 7 day yield like SWVXX or getting a ultra short term bond like Us treasury - SGOV or both to park my funds before they are invested. What are your thoughts on this? Or what about maxing the Roth IRA before investing in funds?