The Fed goes quiet for two weeks. Your cash keeps earning whatever rate it left behind.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 
BOOMERS TRADE
Andrew James reporting. 64, and counting.
Your money gets two weeks of silence.
The Fed goes quiet on July 18. It does not speak again until the vote on July 29.
$7.95 trillion
Sitting in money market funds this week, the highest total ever recorded.
My brother-in-law called me last week. He wanted to know if he should lock a CD before something changes. I told him something already has.
On June 17 the Federal Reserve held its rate for a fourth straight meeting. Three and a half to three and three quarters percent. Fed officials keep talking through the middle of July. Then they stop.
The blackout starts July 18. No speeches. No hints. Nothing from any Fed official until the committee votes again on July 29.
Two weeks of silence. One number on the other side of it.
A word from this week’s partner · FinanceBuzz
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19 Things to Cut When Money Gets Tight
Money does not go quiet during the wait. Households have parked $7.95 trillion in money market funds, an interest earning cash account most banks and brokers offer. It is the highest total on record.
$7.95T
Parked in money market funds, an all-time high
3.5%
Typical yield on that cash right now
0
Fed speeches scheduled before the July 29 vote
 
Two years ago that cash earned over five percent. It earns about three and a half now, and the direction from here is the whole argument.
Nine of nineteen Fed officials say they expect at least one more hike this year. Traders pricing the futures mostly lean the other way, toward a cut before December. The silence is the deadline, whichever way it breaks.
A rate locked today, through a CD or a short Treasury, holds. The committee cannot touch it once the paperwork is signed. Cash left sitting in a money market account moves whichever way July 29 goes.
Who is already standing there
The one already positioned is not the trader guessing the vote. It is the bank or brokerage selling the CD ladder, a staggered set of certificates locked at different dates. It does not need to call the meeting right. It only needs a saver anxious enough to lock something before the silence ends.
The catch is timing, and nobody solves it cleanly. Lock too early and a saver misses a hike. Lock too late and today’s yield is already gone. The people pricing the odds in the futures market do not agree with each other either.
Watch July 29. Whichever way the committee moves, the fourteen days before it are the last quiet window this cash gets.
The arithmetic
The June 17 hold at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, the fourth straight meeting, and the blackout period ahead of the July 28 to 29 meeting are from the Federal Reserve. The nine of nineteen officials projecting a 2026 hike and the median dot are from the Fed’s own Summary of Economic Projections. The $7.95 trillion total money market fund assets and the retail share, for the week ended July 8, are from the Investment Company Institute. The move from over five percent to about 3.5 percent on that cash is Boomers Trade’s own read of Federal Reserve flow of funds data.
 
My brother-in-law locked half his cash into a twelve month CD on Friday. He does not know if that was the right call. Neither does anyone else right now.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.

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