Investing | GubMints

(Note: This is part of a multi-part-series covering the benefits and risks of Structured CD’s. Part One is here, which discusses the risks of Structured CDs. Part Three is here, which discusses the Where and How Structured CDs may be appropriate. At the time of this writing, I own a Structured Index CD in a retirement account).

Structured CD’s, Structured Notes, and Structured Products have received some really bad press- some deserved. But here are:

5 Reasons that Structured CD’s Rule

1) You’re Guaranteed not to lose money.

If you’re investing in CDs equal or less than $250,000 per institution/bank, your principal (initial investment) is guaranteed by FDIC insurance.

2) You don’t need to be an institutional investor to buy super-long-term options.

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(Gubmints Note: This is part of a multi-part post, which will also extoll the virtues of Structued CDs and Structured Notes, and provide strategies on how to use them. At the time of this writing I hold an S&P Index-linked Structured CD in a Retirement Account).

With bond and bank CD rates near zero, investors have been scrounging everywhere they can to find respectable yields (Note, if you’re a Govvie the best place to park cash is the TSP’s G Fund– It gives you returns of long-term bonds with the liquidity of a Money Market Fund. You can’t find a product like this anywhere). Folks without a G Fund generating their current income may resort to chasing yields in complex products like Structured CDs.

A Structured CD allows you to purchase participation in an index (like S&P 500 or DJIA, but it could be any index) up to a participation ‘cap’. Your initial investment value is guaranteed by FDIC insurance (which, per Dodd-Frank, is up to $250,000 per bank/instutution). No downside with huge potential upside? Sounds too good to be true!

Here’s Ten Reasons Structured CDs and Structured Notes Suck:

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Review - Theory of Financial Relativity by Daniel R Moore

I discovered the observations of Daniel R. Moore when I stumbled across his blog while I was researching royalty trusts. His website had the most cogent analysis of royalty trust valuation I could find anywhere, so I added his page to my RSS feed.

Daniel is who I like to call The Most Interesting Man in the Financial World. Not because he earned his MBA from from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, but because of his experience.

You see, Daniel has had ringside seats for the biggest financial freakshows of the past 3 decades:
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I recently received suspicious daily emails from Lending Club indicating I had just placed orders for notes, or that notes have been successfully purchased in my Lending Club account. The emails were frequent enough that I feared my Lending Club account had been hijacked.

I had not logged in to Lending Club for a few days, so I logged in and looked at my account. Continue reading →

GubMints

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Category Archives: Investing

5 Reasons Structured CDs Rule

5 Reasons that Structured CD’s Rule

1) You’re Guaranteed not to lose money.

2) You don’t need to be an institutional investor to buy super-long-term options.

Continue reading →

10 Reasons Structured CDs Suck

Book Review- Theory of Financial Relativity by Daniel Moore

Lending Club PRIME has Cleaned up its Act