Financial Topics Archives | Page 612 of 808

Jun

2023

What Is Interest Rate Risk?

By Kelly Boyer Sagert | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

Interest rate risk is the possibility that instead of going up in value, an investment asset can go down in value due to fluctuations in interest rates. It’s a type of opportunity risk: When someone pursues one type of investment opportunity, they may be giving up the opportunity to invest in another asset.

This term is usually made in connection with bond purchases. When market interest rates go up, the prices of fixed-rate bonds go down. Conversely, lower market interest rates equal higher fixed-rate bond prices. This is an inverse relationship that goes in both directions.

How Does a Bond Work?

Bonds are a type of loan, with funds going from the investor to the issuer. The issuer could be the federal government, a state or local government, or a company. In return for the bond purchase loan, the investor is promised that they will be repaid the full amount of the bond—plus a predetermined amount of interest—on a specific date.

Traditionally, bonds have paid a fixed rate, although there are some with a variable or “floating” interest rate.

The predetermined rate is called the coupon rate, with interest paid on coupon dates. Bonds come with an expiration or “maturity” date, when the value of the bond must be paid back in full.

An investor can sell a bond before it reaches its full maturity. If the bond issuer is doing well and the bond is in high demand, the investor could see a capital gain. If not, the sale might be made at a loss.

While there’s no such thing as a safe investment, investors typically consider bonds to be lower-risk than stocks and some other investments.

💡 Quick Tip: Before opening any investment account, consider what level of risk you are comfortable with. If you’re not sure, start with more conservative investments, and then adjust your portfolio as you learn more.

Interest Rate Risk and Timing

When investors buy fixed rate bonds, they’re taking the risk that the interest rate may go up after they’ve already made their purchase.

If interest rates do increase, then new bonds are issued with higher return rates, which means that the existing bonds with lower returns are in lower demand.

In general, long-term bonds come with more interest rate risk than ones with shorter terms. The more that interest rates rise after the bond was purchased, the more of an impact that has on the investor’s return on investment.

The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) offers a helpful resource on this subject. In it, they provide two contrasting examples to illustrate the concept.

In the first example, they assume that a Treasury bond has a 3% interest rate. A year later, market interest rates drop to 2%. But investors who bought their bonds at 3% continue to receive that interest rate, making it a more valuable investment than new bonds paying just 2%.

If that bond is sold before it reaches its maturity date, the price would likely be higher than it was in the previous year. The bond’s yield to maturity, though, will be down for investors purchasing it at the higher price.

In the second example, instead of rates going down from the original 3%, rates go up to 4%. In that scenario, investors looking to sell their bonds would be competing with new bonds that offer a 4% rate. So the price of the bond that pays 3% may well fall, with the maturity yield going up.

Interest Rate Risk Management

One way to handle investment risk is with diversification. This means building an diversified portfolio that includes a variety of different asset classes, such as stocks, mutual funds, and real estate or other alternative investments, along with different types of bonds, some with staggered maturity dates. Diversified investment portfolios may offer some risk insulation so that if one area takes a financial hit, possible growth in another area could balance out that risk.

Another form of interest rate risk management is participation in hedge funds. With a hedge fund, money from multiple investors is collectively invested, with the goal of receiving a positive return on investment.

That said, because there are relatively higher fees involved with hedge funds, this is a strategy that the SEC calls “limited to wealthier investors” as well as “institutional investors, including pension funds.”

Interest Rate Risk and High-Yield Bonds

There are pros and cons to high-yield bonds. These types of bonds—corporate bonds that were issued by companies looking to raise capital, or by “fallen angel” companies whose credit rating has dropped—might sound attractive to investors because the notion of receiving a relatively high rate of interest is appealing. But along with the high yield is the potential for a higher degree of risk.

Bonds receive ratings on their creditworthiness, with S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s serving as the two main credit-rating agencies. Bonds with quality ratings are less likely to go into default. When a bond goes into default, interest is less likely to be paid on time, if at all, and investors may also lose their initial investment. Bonds with high ratings include Treasury bonds issued by the federal government and those issued by large companies considered to be stable.

Bonds with lower ratings tend to need to offer higher coupon rates to entice investors. In other words, they often need to offer high-yield bonds.

When deciding whether to include high-yield bonds in their portfolio, investors may want to consider the pros and cons of doing so.

Pros of High-Yield Bonds

•  Consistent yields. Bonds typically come with an agreed-upon and consistent yield, which makes the amount owed to the investor predictable as long as the company doesn’t go into default (and many don’t). Stocks, on the other hand, don’t need to pay dividends at all and they don’t come with a guaranteed return on investment.
•  Priority payment if the company fails. If assets of a failed company will be liquidated, bondholders would be first in line for payouts, ahead of stockholders.
•  Possible price appreciation. If the credit rating score of the company issuing the bond improves, it’s possible that the bond’s price will go up. This isn’t possible for AAA bonds from companies with good credit ratings.
•  Potentially less sensitive to interest rate changes. When this is the case, it may be because high-yield bonds tend to have shorter terms than investment-grade bonds, which may be why they often have less sensitivity to fluctuations in interest rates.

Cons of High-Yield Bonds

•  Higher default rates. Because of the higher risk involved, more of these bonds default. When this happens, the investor can lose all funds, including the original principal they invested.
•  Harder to sell. There can be lower demand for this type of bonds, which can make it harder to sell them at a desired price (or at all).
•  Possible price depreciation. If a company’s credit rating drops further, then the price can further depreciate.
•  Sensitivity to interest rate changes. All bonds, including high-yield ones, are subject to interest rate risk.

The Takeaway

Bonds are a popular investment choice because they are less volatile than stocks, but they are not without risks. Interest rate risk is the potential for a bond value to drop as market interest rate rises (the opposite is also true). High-yield bonds are just as susceptible to interest rate risk as corporate or municipal bonds.

Investors can work to mitigate that risk through portfolio diversification, and some may choose to look into hedge fund investing.

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Jun

2023

Understanding The Stock Market Index

By Ashley Kilroy | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

A stock market index measures the performance of a particular “basket” of stocks, representing a specific industry or region. Investors use these market indexes in many ways—to analyze current market conditions, identify industry trends, and invest in index funds.

To help you better understand how market indexes work and how investors use them to their advantage, here’s a deep dive into the inner workings of stock market indexes.

What is a Market Index?

A stock market index tracks a specific group of stocks in a market segment, like a specific industry or region. Indexes can tell investors and financial institutions a lot about specific investments, the sector as a whole, even the overall economy. Here are a few insights investors look to indexes for:

•  To understand how the economy is performing
•  To help with trend forecasting
•  To create benchmarks to evaluate a particular investments’ profitability

Take, for example, the S&P 500, which tracks the 500 largest publicly-traded U.S. companies in the stocks market. Each company is carefully selected to embody every primary industry, thus creating a replication of the market as a whole. Conceptually, an investor might look at the past performance of the S&P 500 to assess whether the stock market is emerging or receding.

How Stock Market Indexes Work

Indexes are made up of hundreds and sometimes thousands of stocks. However, the index doesn’t evenly assess each stock. Depending on what stocks have higher weight in an index, their performance may have more or less influence on how the index performs overall.

There are a few ways indexes are typically weighted:

•  Price weighted: In price-weighted indexes, the stocks with the higher price will have a greater influence on overall performance than those with lower prices.
•  Capitalization weighted: These indexes look at the total value (or market capitalization) of each stock’s outstanding share to determine its weighted value, giving smaller market caps a lower percentage weighting, and higher market caps a larger one.
•  Value weighted: A light math formula is employed in this type of index, where the price of the stock is multiplied by the number of outstanding shares.
•  Equal weighted: In this index type, all stocks are given equal weight, regardless of market cap, value, or price.

Types of Stock Market Indexes

While there are many indexes investors and financial professionals can follow, here are a few examples of stock market indexes.

•  S&P 500. The S&P 500 measures the largest publicly-traded U.S. stocks. Financial professionals use the performance of the S&P 500 as a basis to compare other investment options.
•  NASDAQ Composite Index. The NASDAQ Composite Index measures over 3,000 global and U.S. stocks registered on the NASDAQ stock market. Because it covers so many stocks, it is one of the most followed and quoted indexes. Some of the types of stocks include common stock and real estate trusts (REITs).
•  Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, commonly known as the DJIA, measures 30 US-based blue-chip stocks that are often referred to as the foundation of the U.S. economy. These stocks usually include companies in market segments of the economy, with the exception of transportation and utilities (the Dow Jones has separate indexes for those two sectors).
•  Russell 2000 Index. In contrast to the S&P 500, which follows large-cap stocks, the Russell 2000 follows 2000 of the smallest companies in the U.S. market (or small-cap stocks), making it a good benchmark for small, publicly-traded companies.

How to Invest in a Stock Market Index

Although it’s possible to purchase all stocks within a particular index, this method might be too time-consuming, complicated, and potentially expensive. Another option is to invest in ETFs or index funds or that attempt to replicate indexes’ performance, known as an index fund. This investment strategy is often referred to as index investing.

With index investing, investors can effortlessly access index funds. By investing in index funds, they can also follow some common investing pillars, such as diversification. For example, investing in an index fund helps investors exercise a diversification strategy instead of a strategy centered around stock-picking and market timing.

Advantages of Investing in a Stock Market Index

As an investment strategy, index investing has certain benefits that may attract investors. These are the big ones.

Index Advantage: Simple Investment Management

By investing in a stock market index, investors may earn better returns with minimal effort, making index investing an easier way to manage their investments.

Investing in a stock market index is typically considered a passive investing strategy, where investors buy and hold securities to hopefully capitalize on long-term gains. Conversely, active investors buy and sell securities with the intent to beat the market or some form of index returns.

Because active investors are more hands-on, it’s easy to assume that they may reap higher returns than what the average index investor would see. But that’s not necessarily so. In fact, according to the SPIVA Report , over the past five years, 77.97% of actively managed large-cap funds underperformed the S& P 500.

In addition to most actively managed funds underperforming their passive investing counterparts, active investing requires a lot of time, analysis and is often very challenging.

Index Advantage: Diversification

Diversification is considered by some to be one of the vital building blocks of a thorough investment strategy. With diversification, investors spread their investment across various assets instead of putting all of their money into a single security.

Since investments may perform differently in dissimilar economic environments, diversification may help investors minimize their risk exposure. In other words, if one investment drops in value, investors still have other investments to potentially make up for the loss.

A stock market index fund packages many different stocks in an individual investment, providing nearly instant diversification, vs. investing in just one stock.

Index Advantage: Minimal Barriers to Entry

For investors on a strict budget, it might be challenging to invest in more than just a few companies. However, by investing in a stock market index, they have exposure to a large assortment of stocks using the same amount of cash.

What’s more, investors don’t need the assistance of a money manager or financial advisor to invest in an index. That said, it’s still essential to review any related fees and costs. While indexes tend to have lower taxes and fees, it’s generally a good idea to review all costs involved in any investment before moving forward.

Disadvantages of Investing in Stock Market Indexes

Few things in life are perfect, and that includes investments. Here are some common disadvantages of investing in stock market indexes.

Index Disadvantage: Not a Short-Term Investment Strategy

Because indexes follow the market, their value increases incrementally, making them a better long-term investment strategy than short-term. Investors may also see fluctuations in returns, since they’ll go through various business cycles—Which means that at times, investors may see very small, if any, increases to their portfolios.

Index Disadvantage: They Don’t Fully Follow a Certain Index

Stock market indexes may closely chart the index they track, but they may not perform exactly how the entire index performs. This is because indexes typically don’t include all of the stocks within a particular index; they only include a snapshot of the index as a whole. Thus, the index fund can’t wholly mimic the performance of the entire index.

However, while the index doesn’t directly mimic a stock market’s performance, it tends to have similar price fluctuations. So, if the market increases, typically the index will as well.

The Takeaway

The stock market index is a useful way for investors and analysts to get a sense of how a certain segment of the market is performing—whether that’s the top 500 publicly-traded large-cap US companies or the bottom 2000 small-cap ones. It’s also a way for investors to diversify their portfolios in one move, by investing in an index fund or ETF.

For investors who are interested, the government recommends reviewing all of the information available on a particular index, including the fund’s prospectus and most recent shareholder report. You may also want to identify the fees, your investment goals, and the investment risk of investing in a particular index.

Using the SoFi Invest® online investing platform can help you easily monitor your investments, and invest in low-cost ETFs with no SoFi management fees. ETFs give you exposure to a wide variety of stocks for a fraction of the cost of investing in each stock individually.

Find out how SoFi Invest can help you reach your investment goals.

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Jun

2023

What Is a Gamma Squeeze?

By Samuel Becker | Financial Independence, Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

The finance world is chock full of strange terminology. “Gamma squeeze” is a perfect example.

In general, when there’s a “squeeze” in the market, that usually describes an event when investors feel pressure to make a move that they otherwise would not have made. For instance, in “short squeezes,” investors who made bearish bets on a stock–known as short sellers–are forced to buy shares of the stock they’ve actually bet against.

This piece will dig into what a gamma squeeze is, what it has to do with options trading, and what it means for investors.

Overview of Options Trading

It’ll be helpful if we quickly recap how options trading works. Options can be bought and sold, just like stocks. In short, they’re contracts that give purchasers the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell an asset—i.e., the option to transact.

Options can be used to speculate on price changes. For example, if an investor thinks the price of a stock is going to increase, they can purchase an options contract to put themselves in a position to profit if their prediction were to come true.

There are call and put options to take into account. A call gives purchasers the right to buy an asset at a certain time or price, whereas a put gives them the right to sell it. Buying these types of options allows them to effectively bet on a stock, without outright owning it. Purchasers typically pay a small “premium,” or the price of the contract.

Generally, if an investor thinks a stock’s price will increase, they buy calls. If they think it will decrease, they buy puts.

Recommended: Options Trading Terminology

Gamma Squeeze Definition

A gamma squeeze has to do with buying call options. Remember, purchasers buy calls when they think the price of a stock is going to increase. And as the price of that stock increases, so does the value of the call option. Now, when a stock’s price starts to increase, that can lead to more investors buying calls contracts. There’s a whole lot of call-buying going on.

But on the other side of those calls are the traders or institutions that sold them—remember that options are a contract between two parties, so for an investor betting on a stock price’s increase, there’s another that’s betting that it’ll fall. They’re taking a “short” position, in other words.

“Market makers”–the trading firms that are selling the call options–are typically the party on the other side of the trade. They’re essentially “short” those call options that investors in the market are buying. These market makers face a good amount of risk if the price of the underlying stock rises, so they will buy some shares of the stock to hedge some of that risk.

Buying the shares also helps to ensure that they will be able to deliver the stock if they become “due,” or the investor exercises their call options.

However, if investors keep buying more and more calls, and the stock’s price increases, market makers need to buy more and more stock—increasing its price even further, and thus, creating a “squeeze.” The gains in share value cause the market makers to be more exposed, hence they need to hedge even more.

Part of this is also because the stock’s gains brings the options closer to the prices at which calls can be exercised.

Basically, the short positions held by some investors allows a gamma squeeze to happen. And if a stock’s price rises instead of falls, the shorters’ need to start buying the stock, further increasing its price, creating the feedback loop mentioned earlier.

Recommended: Shorting a Stock Explained

What’s Gamma in Options?

Okay, so you may have a grasp on how a gamma squeeze can occur. But we still need to talk about what gamma is, and how it fits into the picture.

Gamma is actually just one of a handful of Greek letters (gamma, delta, theta, and vega) that options traders use to refer to their positions. In a nutshell, “the Greeks” help traders determine if they’re in a good position or not.

For now, we’ll just focus on delta and gamma. Gamma is actually determined by delta. Delta measures the change of an option’s price relative to the change in the underlying stock’s price. For instance, a delta of 0.3 would mean that the option’s price would go up $0.30 for every $1 increase in the underlying stock’s price.

Gamma measures how delta changes based on a stock price’s change. It’s sort of a delta of deltas. In other words, gamma can tell you how much an option’s delta will change when the underlying stock’s price changes. Another way to think of it: If an option is a car, its delta is its speed. Its gamma, then, is its rate of acceleration.

When a gamma squeeze occurs, delta and gamma on options are in a state of flux, creating stock volatility and ultimately, squeezing some market players.

The Takeaway

When investors are making bullish bets on a stock, sometimes they use call options–contracts that allow them to buy a stock at a certain date in the future.

When brokers or market makers sell those call options to the investors, they buy shares of the underlying stock itself in order to try to offset the risk they’re exposing themselves to. This also helps them ensure they can deliver the shares if the options get exercised by the investor holding the call options.

Gamma squeezes occur when there’s rapid buying by the market makers of the stock, causing a dramatic surge in the share price. The sudden increase, in turn, causes greater exposure for the market makers, causing them to hedge themselves more by purchasing additional shares.

Options trading is complex and may not be for everyone. But if you want a simpler investing experience, then an online investing account with SoFi may be a good choice. SoFi Invest allows investors to buy and sell stocks, ETFs and fractional shares without commissions. Users can also start building a portfolio with as little as $5 on the Active Investing platform.

Check out SoFi Invest today.

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INVESTMENTS ARE NOT FDIC INSURED • ARE NOT BANK GUARANTEED • MAY LOSE VALUE

Jun

2023

What Is a Market Maker?

By Inyoung Hwang | Financial Topics, Growing Wealth, invest, Investing, Terminology | Comments Off

Market makers are trading firms that continuously provide prices at which they will buy or sell assets.

Market makers are typically banks, brokerage firms or proprietary trading firms. Unlike traditional investors, they’re not in the business of betting whether the price of an asset will go up or down. They also don’t tend to hang on to securities for very long. Instead, market makers profit off the tiny price spreads that come from buying and selling securities rapidly.

Because they stand ready to do both sides of a trade, market makers are considered to be liquidity providers. Liquidity is the ease with which an asset can be bought or sold without affecting its price.

How Market Makers Work

In both stock and equity options trading, there are at least a dozen different exchanges. In order to provide prices across multiple exchanges, market makers rely on algorithms and ultra-fast computer systems to make sure their price quotes reflect the supply and demand for a security in the market.

Because of their use of such technology, market makers are sometimes called high-frequency traders. Here’s a closer look at the role market makers play in financial markets today.

💡 Quick Tip: All investments come with some degree of risk — and some are riskier than others. Before investing online, decide on your investment goals and how much risk you want to take.

How Market Makers Earn Money

Market makers seek to profit off the difference in the bid-ask spread, or the difference between the price at which an asset can be bought and the price at which it can be sold.

Overview of Bid-Ask Spreads

Here’s a hypothetical example of how market making works. Let’s say a firm provides a quote for $10-$10.05, 100×200. That means they’re willing to buy 100 shares for $10, while simultaneously offering to sell 200 shares at the price of $10.05. The first part of the offer is known as the bid, while the latter is known as the ask. The prices that market makers set are determined by supply and demand in the market.

This means an investor or broker executing on behalf of a client can buy shares from the market maker at $10.05. And another investor looking to sell shares, can do so at $10 to this market maker. The difference of 5 cents is how the market maker locks in a profit. While making pennies on each trade sounds miniscule, it can be massively profitable at huge volumes.

Bid-ask stock spreads tend to narrow when markets are more liquid and widen when markets are less liquid. This is because during periods of volatility, sellers are more inclined to sell while buyers are more likely to stay put, anticipating lower prices in the near future. Because bid-ask spreads tend to widen during periods of stock volatility, it also means market makers are able to capture bigger profits when markets are turbulent.

Because of the risk of holding onto securities while making markets on them, market makers often hedge their bets by getting exposure to other assets or shorting securities in separate trades.

Overview of Payment for Order Flow

Another way some market makers earn revenue is through a practice known as payment for order flow. This is when retail brokerage firms send retail client orders to market makers who then execute the orders.

So let’s say for example, a mom-and-pop investor at home puts in a buy or sell trade via their brokerage account. The broker then bundles that order with other client orders and sends them to an electronic market making firm, which then fulfills the orders.

Recommended: Brokerage Accounts Explained

Market makers pay fees to brokerage firms for sending those orders, and this is how brokerage firms have been able to offer zero-commission trading to retail clients in recent years.

Payment for order is common and legal, but it’s come under controversy over the years with some critics saying the practice incentivizes brokers to boost revenue, rather than find the best prices for their customers. Market makers are required by regulatory rules to execute client orders with “best execution, “ but execution quality can be defined by price, speed or liquidity.

Defenders of PFOF argue that retail investors get “price improvement,” when customers get a better price than they would on a public stock exchange. A Bloomberg Intelligence report estimated that retail investors in 2020 benefited from price improvement by $3.7 billion. Separately, brokers are required by Securities and Exchange Commission regulation to make available statistics on execution quality, in what’s known as 605 and 606 disclosures.

What Are Designated Market Makers (DMMs)?

Designated market makers are trading firms on the New York Stock Exchange who are in charge of ensuring orderly trading of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Each company that chooses to list on the Big Board picks a DMM for its shares.

DMMs are supposed to add a human touch to stock exchange trading in today’s electronic markets. In contrast, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, the second-biggest venue for U.S. equities, doesn’t have DMMs for its listed companies and trading is instead completely electronic.

Famous for wearing distinctive blue-colored jackets on the floor of the NYSE, DMMs used to be known as “specialists” back in the day. There used to be dozens of specialist firms in the 1980s, but these days there are just a handful of DMMs active on the NYSE floor.

The Takeaway

Market makers are intermediaries who provide prices all day in two-sided markets, where both bids to buy and offers to sell are quoted. Instead of making long-term bets on whether an asset will rise or fall, they make money from holding on to assets for short periods and profiting off their tiny bid-ask spreads. Market makers rely on high volumes in order to generate significant revenue.

Market makers are also sometimes called high-frequency traders because they use ultra-fast technology and algorithms to connect to multiple exchanges and quote numerous prices continuously. They’re considered important participants in modern financial markets because they speed up the pace at which transactions take place, particularly in stock and equity options trading.

On the SoFi Invest® online brokerage app, users can buy and sell stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or fractional shares. SoFi Securities LLC (Active Investing) earns a small amount of money from market makers–a process that allows users to trade without commission fees. For users who choose the Automated Investing service, SoFi will build and manage their portfolios for them and charge no management fees.

Check out SoFi Invest today.

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Jun

2023

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How to Find the Right Fixed Index Annuity Rate for Your Needs

By Rebecca Lake | Growing Wealth, invest, Investing | Comments Off

Annuities are a type of insurance contract that investors can use to fund their retirement or meet other financial goals. When someone purchases an annuity, they pay premiums to the annuity issuer. The annuity company then makes payments back to the annuitant as agreed in the annuity contract.

Those payments can start almost immediately or be deferred to a future date. Payments can be made monthly, annually, or in a single lump-sum. Earnings from the annuity are typically tax-deferred and withdrawals are taxable as ordinary income.

Generally, annuities are indexed, fixed, or variable. With a fixed annuity, you’re guaranteed to earn a minimum rate of return, making them relatively safe investments. Variable annuity returns hinge on how underlying annuity investments, such as mutual funds, perform which can make them riskier. Indexed annuities strike a middle ground in terms of their risk/reward profile.

Annuities can provide a steady stream of income in retirement, something that might feature in many people’s investment goals. What’s important to keep in mind, however, is that rates of return generated can vary from one annuity to the next. It’s helpful to understand how to compare index annuity rates side by side to find the best one for your needs.

What Is an Indexed Annuity?

An indexed annuity, or fixed index annuity, is a specific type of annuity product that can yield a minimum guaranteed rate of return along with a rate of return that’s linked to a stock market index. For example, the annuity’s performance may be based on the performance of the S&P 500 Composite Price Index. This is a market capitalization-weighted index that represents 500 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies.

This type of annuity may be suitable to investors who seek upside potential with built-in downside protection, while enjoying the benefits of tax-deferred growth. Indexed annuities may also be favorable among investors who lean toward a passive versus active investing strategy.

What Are Fixed Index Annuity Rates?

Fixed index annuity rates are the guaranteed minimum rate of return on an annuity. Rather than tracking with interest rates, the fixed index annuity rate is benchmarked against a particular index.

How Fixed Indexed Annuities Work

Fixed index annuities have two phases: the accumulation phase and the income phase.

Once you purchase a fixed indexed annuity, the accumulation phase begins. This is the period during which your annuity earns interest on a tax-deferred basis. The amount of money you have in the annuity, also referred to as the contract value, can fluctuate over time based on how the underlying index that the annuity tracks is performing.

Annuity returns are typically recalculated every 12 months, though the annuity contract should spell out how and when return calculations occur. It’s important to keep in mind that the contract may specify a cap rate, which represents the maximum positive rate of return an indexed annuity can earn.

The income or annuity phase is when payments are made back to you from the contract. These payments can be made periodically or be delivered in a single lump sum. Additionally, they can last for a specified time frame or for the duration of your natural life. If you’re married, indexed annuity payments can also continue to be paid to your spouse after you pass away. The annuity contract will detail the payment schedule.

For example, in the accumulation phase, an annuity might pay out a minimum of 3% with a 7% rate cap (even if the index is tracking at 11%). In the income phase, the fixed index annuity might be paid monthly starting at a predetermined date, and pay out across the lifetime of you and/or your spouse.

How Are Fixed Index Annuity Rates Set?

Broadly speaking, index annuity rates are tied to the index they track. So again, this could be an index like the S&P 500 Composite Price Index or the Nasdaq 100.

With a fixed index annuity, the annuity company guarantees a minimum interest rate alongside the interest rate generated by the underlying index.

When setting fixed index annuity rates, annuity contract providers typically use several factors to determine how much of a return is credited to the contract owner. The actual rate of return realized from an indexed annuity can depend on:

•  Cap rate
•  Participation rate
•  Margin/spread fees
•  Riders

Here’s more on how each one affects fixed index annuity rates.

Cap Rate

Cap rate represents the upper limit on returns that an annuity can earn over time. So for instance, an indexed annuity that has a 3.5% cap rate would limit the returns credited to the annuity owner to that amount—even when the underlying index produces a higher rate of return. Generally, cap rates fall somewhere between 3 and 7% per year.

Participation Rate

If the index an annuity tracks goes up, the participation rate determines how much of that gain is credited to an annuity owner. For instance, if the index increases by 10% and the participation rate is 80%, an 8% return would be credited.

Margin/Spread Fees

Also referred to as an administrative fee, this fee can deduct a set percentage from index gains. An indexed annuity that realizes a 10% gain and has a 3% spread fee, for example, would yield a net credited return of 7%.

Riders

Riders can be used to enhance fixed indexed annuity benefits. For instance, you might choose to add a rider that would guarantee lifetime income payments to your spouse if you’re married. Expanding the annuity’s coverage can result in added premium costs, which may reduce credited returns.

What Is a Good Fixed Index Annuity Rate?

A “good” fixed index annuity rate is one that results in a rate of return that aligns with your objectives and needs. Index annuity rates can also vary based on the length of the contract term. Cost is also an important consideration, as indexed annuities can charge a variety of fees, including administrative fees and surrender charges, which may apply if you decide to cancel an annuity contract.

The top index annuities are the ones that offer the best combination of high rates and low fees. It’s also important to consider an annuity company’s ratings before purchasing an indexed annuity. Annuity Advantage can offer insight into how financially healthy an annuity provider is and how likely they are to be able to make annuity payments back to you when the time comes.

Is an Indexed Annuity Right for You?

Fixed index annuities can offer the potential to earn higher rates of return compared to traditional fixed annuities. At the same time, they may be less risky than a variable annuity product since they track an index rather than investing in the market directly.

Investment risk management is an important part of any strategy for growing wealth, even when you’re starting from scratch with building an investment portfolio. Indexed annuities aim to help with balancing that risk while creating an ongoing stream of income to rely on in retirement.

That said, it’s also important to consider how fixed index annuity rates compare to the rate of return one could earn by investing in the market directly. For example, you may see better returns by investing in individual stocks. That does involve taking more risk but individuals with a longer timeline until retirement generally have a broader window to recover from market downturns.

The Takeaway

A fixed index annuity offers investors a minimum guaranteed rate of return along with a rate of return that’s linked to a stock market index. While fixed indexed annuities do offer some advantages, they may not suit every investor and it’s important to research index annuity rates to find the right one.

If you’re in the early stages of building a portfolio, SoFi Invest is a great place to start. Whether you want to begin investing in ETFs or stocks, or you prefer hands-on investing or an automated approach, SoFi Invest can help.

Find out how to invest with SoFi.

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