T+1 Has Started
See how one-day settlements improve financial transactions
Ric Edelman: It's Thursday, May 30th. On today's show, T+1. Trade settlement for securities transactions has begun. This is called T+1, meaning you do the transaction and the trade settles in one day. Before Tuesday, trades settled T+2. It took two days to settle trades.
This new T+1 covers just about every type of security transaction. Stocks, bonds, munis, mutual funds, ETFs, brokered CDs, UITs, publicly traded REITs. There's no impact to treasuries, options, or futures because they already settle T+1. If you use margin to trade, your margin account will need to have the funds available one day sooner to avoid being charged margin interest.
If you're using a money market fund, you'll need to sell those shares by 4pm on the day of your purchase. Now, although pretty much all securities are going to go settlements on T+1, you probably won't notice. Still, it's worth talking about. For one thing, the shorter settlement period reduces risk. Risk you might not have even realized you had.
To understand this, let's recognize what settlement is. Settlement is when the buyer and the seller close on a transaction. The faster the close, the safer it is for everybody. You go to the grocery store, you buy a loaf of bread. You hand the checkout clerk your money. They hand you the bread. Settlement is instantaneous. Neither you nor the store has any risk. They don't get your money until you get your bread, and you don't get your bread until they get your money. Instant settlement lowers the risk of the transaction.
But think about the other extreme, buying a house. You and the seller sign a contract agreeing on the price, but settlement doesn't occur for maybe three months. You know, you call it closing on the house. You don't know it, but you're closing the transaction. Closing the transaction is simply another phrase for settling the transaction. Think about all the things that can go wrong during those three months. The lender might not approve the loan, the home inspection might not pass, the title search might fail, the seller might die, or get sued, or the house might get burned down. There are a thousand things that can go wrong. And in three months, there's plenty of time for those things to happen. That's why, as we all know, buying and selling a house is a nail-biting experience.
So, you ought to be celebrating the fact that securities transactions are now moving to T+1. When I got started in this business back in the 80s, our settlement trades were T+3, if you can believe that. When you sold a stock, it took three more days before you got your money. That was three business days, by the way. If those three days ran across a weekend or a holiday, it could take a week before you got your money. Now you know why banks always used to close at 2pm every day. They needed those extra three hours, from two to five, to perform all the accounting to settle up the day's transactions. But now, banks are open 24/7, and Wall Street's now doing T+1.
All of this new speed, it's thanks to technology. Computers process data so quickly nowadays, we don't need three days anymore or two days anymore to settle transactions. We can now do it in just one day. But wait a minute. You're telling me that with today's whiz bang technology, Wall Street still needs an entire day, 24 hours, to process my trade? Come on, I can Venmo or PayPal or Zelle money to anyone, anywhere in the world, 24/7, 365, instantly, for free. Why does Wall Street still need a whole day? So why is it bragging that it just went from T+2 to T+1? Have no fear. T+0 is coming soon. In fact, in a couple of small examples, it's already here. Thanks to blockchain technology.
Thanks to blockchain we can do instantaneous settlements. Bitcoin just settled its 1 billionth transaction. All of those transactions flawlessly over the past 15 years. No delays and no errors. And Wall Street's now starting to get it. They realize that blockchain technology is indeed faster, safer, and cheaper than the old school technology they've been using.
So JP Morgan Chase now uses its Onyx blockchain to settle a billion dollars worth of cross border securities transactions every day. And Franklin Templeton launched Benji, the first on-chain money market fund, that's cheaper to operate. And this gives investors a higher yield, also processes trades faster for greater safety. It won't be long before we get to T+0 and it'll all be thanks to blockchain technology. T+1? Give me a break.
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Ric Edelman: Are you new to crypto? Come to my 4-hour workshop on Sunday, June 2nd, right at the start of our 6th annual VISION conference in Austin. It’s the biggest crypto event exclusively for financial professionals and accredited investors. The Pre-Con Workshop is just $49 – plus, you get 4 CE credits with continental breakfast, lunch, and a cocktail reception included. And stay for the entire VISION conference and get the latest info on crypto from the industry’s top experts and thought leaders. Register at DACFP.com. The link is in the show notes.
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Ric Edelman: On tomorrow’s show, guess who’s really rich? Gen Z. Plus, the future of healthcare with David Moss, CEO and co-founder of Care Daily.
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