Below, we list all the top-performing money market mutual funds, based on 1-year total returns, that returned over 5% as of March 31, 2008, according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS rankings publication. As expected, Prime Institutional money funds make up the entire list of top-performers. Among the 861 taxable funds tracked by Crane Data, 813 list 1-year returns. This will likely be the last month in some time that the top 1-year performers return over 5%.
The top funds, listed with their NASDAQ ticker symbols, assets, 7-day yields and 1-year returns, are: 1) Reserve Primary Instit (RPFXX) $34,575 3.51% 5.11%, 2) Russell Money Market Fund S (RMMXX) $6,360 3.45% 5.11%, 3) DWS Daily Assets Fund Instit (DEU01) $5,123 3.25% 5.10%, 4) Oppenheimer Institutional MM E (IOEXX) $5,933 3.29% 5.09%, 5) Reserve Primary Liquid I (RPIXX) $6,220 3.48% 5.08%, 6) Morgan Stanley Inst Liq MMP Inst (MPUXX) $10,162 3.31% 5.06%, 7) Putnam Prime Money Market I (PPMXX) $11,031 3.23% 5.05%, 8) Citi Institutional Liquid Reserves A (CILXX) $12,148 3.35% 5.04%, 9) Barclays Instit MMF Inst (BGIXX) $2,860 3.18% 5.02%, 9) Credit Suisse Inst MMF Prime A (CUTXX) $6,091 3.12% 5.02%, 11) Fidelity Instit MM: MM Port Inst (FNSXX) $11,190 3.23% 5.02%, Janus Instit Cash Mgmt Inst (JCAXX) $3,190 3.11% 5.02%, Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Prime Inst (MPFXX) $23,046 3.21% 5.02%, Reserve Primary Liquid II (RES01) $519 3.42% 5.02%, 15) Fidelity Instit MM: MM Port I (FMPXX) $29,760 3.19% 5.01%, Morgan Stanley Inst Liq MMP Svc (MMRXX) $11 3.24% 5.01%, DWS MM Series Instit (ICAXX) $18,956 3.16% 5.01%, 18) Dreyfus Instit Cash Adv IA (DADXX) $37,891 3.38% 5.00%, 19) Merrill Lynch Premier Institutional (MLPXX) $31,875 3.37% 5.00%.
While most in the money fund business focus on 7-day current yield, the performance statistic that NASD requires funds to publish, longer-term returns are often a better indicator of how well a fund will do going forward. (Returns include capital gains and losses while yields do not. Money funds rarely show gains or losses, and they're almost always tiny when they do.)
