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I noticed that he conflated the safety of a T-note* with the asset price. US Treasuries are AAA-rated super safe guaranteed returns because they're not expected to default or miss a coupon payment, and they'll be redeemed for the full value when they mature. That doesn't mean they don't have market prices that fluctuate.

*T-bills are up to 52 weeks maturity.

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Thanks for the note! I'll change the wording in my article WRT bills/notes. :)

With regards to safety, I noted that I think there are two types of safety to note here:

1. Default risk. 2. Asset price volatility.

Ultimately if someone is willing and able to hold to expiry, they aren't subject to #2, but this clearly wasn't the case with SVB and may also be the case with other institutions. I think it lacks nuance to not consider the middle states between the purchase of a bond and the full return of the bond upon expiry.

Heh I was wondering if someone else would spot that too. Who said finance people aren't fun at parties?

Ha, it's one of those things I don't care if people get wrong but I have trouble saying incorrectly myself.

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