Money market funds refer to funds that invest in short-term securities in the money market. The assets of the Fund are mainly invested in short-term monetary instruments, such as treasury bills, commercial paper, bank time deposit certificates, government short-term bonds, corporate bonds and other short-term securities.

Money market funds were first established in the United States of 1972. By the end of 1986, there were more than 400 money market funds in the United States with total assets exceeding $290 billion. In the United States, money market funds can be divided into two categories according to the risk: ① Treasury money market funds, which mainly invest in treasury bonds and government-guaranteed securities. The maturity of these securities is generally less than 1 year, and the average maturity is 120 days. (2) Diversified money market funds, commonly known as money market funds, usually invest in commercial bills, treasury bills, securities issued by US government agencies, negotiable certificates of deposit, bank acceptance bills and other securities, and the maturity time is similar to the above funds. (3) Tax-free monetary funds are mainly used for short-term financing of high-quality municipal securities, including municipal medium-term bonds and municipal long-term bonds. The advantage of tax-free money funds is that they can reduce or exempt taxes, but the rate of return is usually lower than that of ordinary money market funds (about 30% ~ 40% lower). It is not cost-effective for investors to choose this fund when the tax rate is not high.

money market fund

Compared with traditional funds, money market funds have the following characteristics: ① The main difference between money market funds and other funds that invest in stocks is that the net asset value of the fund unit is fixed, usually per fund unit 1 yuan. After investors invest in this fund, they can reinvest with the proceeds, and the investment income will accumulate continuously to increase the fund share owned by investors. For example, an investor who invests in a money market fund of 100 yuan can own 100 fund shares. After 1 year, if the return on investment is 8%, the investor will have 8 more fund shares, totaling 108, with a value of 108 yuan. ② The standard to measure the performance of money market funds is the rate of return, which is different from other funds that make profits by increasing their net assets. ③ Good liquidity and high capital security. These characteristics are mainly due to the fact that the money market is a low-risk and high-liquidity market. At the same time, investors can transfer the fund shares at any time as needed, regardless of the maturity date. ④ Low risk. The term of money market instruments is usually very short, and the average term of money market fund portfolio is usually 4 ~ 6 months, so the risk is low, and its price is usually only affected by market interest rate. ⑤ Low investment cost. Money market funds usually do not charge redemption fees and have low management fees. The annual management fee of money market funds is about 0.25% ~ 1% of the fund's net asset value, which is lower than the traditional annual management fee 1% ~ 2.5%. ⑥ Money market funds are all open-end funds. Money market funds are usually regarded as risk-free or low-risk investment tools, which are suitable for short-term capital investment to earn interest in case of emergency, especially in the case of high interest rate, high inflation rate, reduced liquidity of securities and reduced credibility, which can prevent the loss of principal.