# TDB8152 and TDB166



## purplereina (Aug 13, 2017)

Hi,
I need to park some USD cash in a money market fund that's safe. My main goal is for my investments to earn while waiting for the US equities market to correct. I need to be able to access the funds quickly.

I'm looking at TDB8152 vs TDB166. I had asked the TD direct investing rep previously about the difference between the two but I was told they're pretty much the same.

I'd like your opinions on both funds. Which one is better? I saw an MER for TDB8152 but none for TDB166. Does that mean TDB166 will give me a better yield. 

Your inputs are welcome.

Thank you!


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

Once again I am unimpressed with your TD rep. Have a look at this thread from FWF in 2013:
http://www.financialwisdomforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116456
It will give you some background thinking.

Here is some further background:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=TDB8152+and+TDB166


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

imho there's no such thing as a truly safe US MMF or HISA

look at the holdings for most of those hi-yield US MMFs from different fund families. All are holding junk trusts. These are mostly canadian registered junk trusts of low-quality US debt. They don't trade publicly so little or nothing is known about them.

interspersed with the junk trusts are US dollar debt securities issued by recognizable holders such as canadian provinces, canadian banks, canadian utilities.

one has to hope that the risk mix for an individual US MMF is spread thin enough & wide enough that it can weather a default here or there.

what i've found in the past is that, generally speaking, the ultra-hi yielding USD MMFs - the ones with $100,000 minimums - contained more junk trusts than the regular USD MMFs for small investors. In other words, it was higher proportions of junk that were generating the higher yield.

randomly checking holdings for 2 high yields vs one regular US MMF about 6 months ago, though, i noticed that the above was no longer the case. Each held roughly 25-40% junk.

at the same time, i would not be believing that resorting to a US TBill fund would improve safety & security. TBill funds are the biggest lenders of their securities. Blackrock's 3-year US TBill fund was lending out 40% of its holdings to hedge funds, last i looked.

btw investors looking to park more than 100k USD should avoid the big green (yields are too low), look instead to royal bank 305 for similar holdings but higher yield. A while ago a smart, genial representative at the neighbourhood bank branch (he doesn't sell the company line) told me that CIBC also has a high-yielding USD premium MMF.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

humble_pie said:


> .
> imho there's no such thing as a truly safe US MMF or HISA
> .


True, but I believe there has been only one instance (in the USA) of a MMF breaking its pseudo 'par' value with investors suffering a loss. 

The reputational damage that would happen if a large FI let their MMFs break 'par' would be too great. I have read articles in the past that when a MMF has had an NAV below 'par', the sponsoring institution has stepped in with a cash injection to bring it back to $10. I remember a few times myself seeing a MMF with a closing NAV of, for example, $9.998 but then shows $10 the next day. I would not worry about it....with any of the big 5 but I wouldn't trust a boutique firm necessarily, especially if times got bad.


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