I don't understand your question, and I have run out of answers. Perhaps other people can offer better explanation.

My quesiton again is HOW do I sell one to buy the other ? Do I need symbols, do I place the order online ? Do I call a broker ? What ? Why would they tell me they dont have it available for a brokerage account ?

timetosave said:Its a money market fund... so you can buy it/sell it just like a mutual fund. There are no transaction fees associated with this. The only fees involved with this is the expense ratio (but the rate you see alread has the expense ration factored in).

So you can
A) Keep money in your core account (there are multiple options for this). I like the Municipal Money Market Fund which is currently 2.59% fed tax free (3.45% to 3.98% tax equiv yield depending on your tax bracket).
B) Use the money from your core account to purchase a money market fund (There are many options for these... Select Money Market is currently yielding 4.16%).

And you can of course use the money from your core account to buy/sell stocks and mutual funds. Hopefully this clarifies how the core account works.

Yes, you can use the symbols to buy/sell. I think there are also just "mutual fund" accounts which are different than "brokerage accounts." That may be what you have? I was told a reason one might have a mutual fund account instead of a brokerage account is that they are related to the industry (analyst, CEO, etc). Although if you don't fall into this category you can probably just ask them to convert your account to a "brokerage account."

I think if you call Fidelity to do some transactions for stocks... there may be more fees involved. Hope this helps.

fw201 said:My quesiton again is HOW do I sell one to buy the other ? Do I need symbols, do I place the order online ? Do I call a broker ? What ? Why would they tell me they dont have it available for a brokerage account ?

Fidelity uses what they call a core account to settle stock, bond, check writing, mutual fund trades, etc. in their taxable accounts. While it is an interest bearing account, it is not the same as their money market offerings, so the rep was correct in telling you they don't offer a money market as your core account. If you want a money market fund you have to buy it.
Log on. Click on trade mutual funds. Click on buy a mutual fund. Type in the symbol and the amount you want to invest. As of today the highest yielding one is FSLXX. They offer others that are all listed on the site.

It can be confusing since with most brokerages, the settlement account IS a money market fund. At the same time, if you need this much hand-holding, maybe it would be better to stick with HSBC/Emigrant or just go buy a CD at the bank.

Download the Fidelity account application and look at the "core account" section. For regular account, the default core is FCash, but there are other options. For retirement account, the only core available is FDRXX.

This was fidelitys email response when I asked to be moved to the taxable with the higher rate. I have a large active traders account.

In the past I havent kept much excess cash in there but I thought i was earning 4.12% and now I see IM NOT.

I dont normally need hand-holding. But I dont buy mutual funds and never had heard of a broker not allowing a taxable money market in a non-retirement brokerage account. It make no sense.

"Fidelity does not offer a taxable money market as a core account option with a non-retirement brokerage account. Our taxable option is an interest-bearing account we refer to as FCash.

The current yield for FCash as of January 13 is listed below.

Balance Yield
$0-$9,999.99 2.6344%
$10,000-$24,999 2.7412%
$25,000+ 2.9904%

Please note, this information is not available online.

The 7-day annualized yield for Municipal Money Market was 2.59% as of January 13."

I am in AZ and the AZ muni bond seems to be rather steady overall with a decent ROR, at least equivalent to the 4.xx% savings accounts mentioned in various threads.

Tax Equivalent Yields(%) as of 01/17/2006
Tax Rate 25 28 33 35
Yield 4.73 4.94 5.31 5.48

link

Is there anything I am missing as it seems better to put my money here than in a taxable account paying less after tax. We've covered amount to get in($10k), short term trading fee(for less than 30 days in this case), and risk.

This may be a dumb question but I'm sure there are far more knowledgable denizens than I cruising the silent depths of the FWF ocean who could give a much better overall picture of this.


timetosave said:The bonds have more risk than the MM funds. For instance, a state may default on a Municipal bond. I think this is a rare occasion (it may have occurred in CA at one point?). I think some of their funds have short-term trading fees which usually applied if you buy a fund and then sell it within 30 days. Although if your looking for a bond fund closer to a MM fund you may want to look at some more bond funds that mature quicker as these are suppose to follow the interest rates more closely. This is just my take on how some of these work.

good point. However, wouldnt all records of buy/sell be listed in my Fidelity history?. Or you mean simply having to account for all this come April vs just getting a 1099-int from whoever?.

So its exempt from Federal/State taxes until I cash out of the bond fund?.


c3 said:With bond fund, you have to keep track of purchases and sales in order to file capital gains/losses for the sales.

Any capital gains/losses are the result of changes in the value of the funds holdings - not dividends from munis held by the fund. Often pretty trivial.

I'm not so much concerned about changing the Core account as whether or not the Muni Bond Funds(as opposed to Muni MM Funds) are a better investment vehicle for 0% BT money. For the AZ Muni Bond, seems as long as you hold the fund 30+ days to start, you're fine. Let it sit and accumulate interest/dividends tax free and account for any capital gains/losses when you sell, if any. Higher tax-adjusted ROR than the other high yield savings accounts on FWF.

Anyone?. Bueller?.