December 8, 2012
As a small investor with a substantial percent of my assets kept in money market funds, I am totally opposed to the idea of having the price of money market funds "float" rather than being pegged to $1. Investors like myself rely on money markets as a highly liquid and relatively safe instrument where we can temporarily hold money that we are waiting to invest or that is needed for expenses. No other instrument serves those purposes as well. While money market funds can theoretically "break the buck" price, the probability of that is quite low, especially with a conservative money market fund.It has never happened to my funds in my 30+ years of investing. If the price is allowed to float, I will be exposed to a far higher risk of losing money in those funds than I am currently. To maintain an acceptable level of safety, I will be forced to transfer the money into a ladder of CDs which is both inconvenient and far less liquid. Such a step by the SEC will hurt, not help the investing public. If steps must be taken to increase the safety of money market funds, it would be far better to place more controls on the nature of the investments they can hold or on the reserves they must hold. Allowing the price to float is a serious mistake.