Floater

Next time, flush twice.

A floater is a security whose interest rate changes along with the short-term market. A floater often refers to bonds and variable coupon rates.

Floaters go with the flow of benchmark rates like LIBOR, EURIBOR, and the U.S. Treasury rates (some of the biggies). Having a floater when the market is doing well is likely more beneficial than having a fixed-rate note in the same economic climate. Yet having a fixed-rate note is preferable when the markets are tumbling downhill.

Fixed-rate notes are more stable and less risky since they’re...well, stable, while floaters depend on the state of the current economy. For investors who want to hedge their bets and reduce risk, there are also inverse floaters, which are inversely tied to benchmark interest rates.

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Finance: What is the difference between ...6 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what's the difference between a fixed and

00:05

a floating rate All right well we'll just start this

00:09

one out with your favorite time Donald and melania need

00:17

to borrow money to buy a building here's the history

00:20

of ten year t bill costs for the last few

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decades Well rates were almost ten percent in the nineteen

00:26

seventies and then they fell all the way to being

00:29

almost free in two thousand eighteen Well if donald had

00:34

borrowed money nineteen eighty to buy a building with us

00:37

fixed rate he'd have had to pay about ten percent

00:40

interest for all this time That raid in nineteen eighty

00:44

was fixed and you know i'd be paying ten percent

00:47

for thirty five years very expensive rent on that money

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It's not like a dog who can't you know have

00:52

pups different kind of fixed you know it's fixes in

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he won't move Position is just a set number fixed

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in place All right well donald would have overpaid massively

01:02

in his loans by paying ten percent interest when he

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could have been paying seven percent here and four percent

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here And maybe like two percent change here if the

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loan he'd taken out in nineteen eighty was floating well

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it would have floated downward along the way like that

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Well most for floating loans have a preset set of

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terms which move along with the rates of the fed

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charges to loan money to banks who then mark up

01:27

the loans a bit and resell the money to really

01:29

borrowers like donald and kill you and me That is

01:32

the floating rate might be set at quote the average

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federal funds rate plus ah hundred faces points over the

01:40

trailing six month period to be reset every month Unquote

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Yeah something like that So in this case his rate

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would have floated downward And obviously things can go the

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other way as well Joe six pack it's a mortgage

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for a home he can barely afford today Eight hundred

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grand mortgage at four percent Well it cost him thirty

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two grand a year to rent that money just the

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interest and he has to make principal payments as well

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So is total payments or something like forty grand a

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year in year one of thirty Well if rates go

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back up and they easily could and become say seven

02:13

Percent instead of that four percent a few years later

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three four five years later Well then all of a

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sudden his cost of renting that money goes from thirty

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two grand a year in interest costs too something like

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fifty or sixty grand a year in interest costs And

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joe six pack because he didn't fix his raid at

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that four percent figure when he borrowed it let things

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float and well he ended up you know living in

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his car when he couldn't afford paying The mortgage owns

02:40

home anymore and had to sell it And so yeah

02:42

he's living in his suv down by the river But 00:02:45.5 --> [endTime] luckily for him that suv floats

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