How to Choose a Liquid Mutual Fund

Debt Mutual Funds, Mutual Funds

Here are step-by-step instructions for choosing a liquid mutual fund. This post is inspired from a comment by Firoz Hajiani. I think the following steps might help the reader become familiar with some of the aspects that govern debt fund selection.

The first question to answer is,

Why choose a liquid fund?

Many ‘experts’ suggest that liquid funds as an alternative to a savings bank account for ‘idle money’. In my opinion, this is half-baked advice that can be misconstrued.

If someone has money idling then they must be urged to holistically look at they way they manage money and not offer liquid funds as a piece-meal solution.

There are others who suggest that liquid funds be used for emergencies. Sure, a part of the emergency corpus can be stashed in a liquid fund, but not all of it. Liquid funds are not as liquid as they are made out to be. Redemptions can take up to 2 days. Those with ATM cards tagged to them have withdrawal limits.

Then there are others who use liquid funds for tactical asset allocation. When the market is overvalued (how that is measured in the first place, is another matter), they keep cash in a liquid fund and switch to equity funds when the time is ‘right’.

Very few use it for short-term goals. Which is a good idea even if there is no tax benefit compared to FD or RDs for less than 3 year periods.

Many from the above groups worry about liquid fund returns. Some say, one can expect 9% from liquid funds, basing their opinions purely on recent returns.

Whatever be the reason for choosing a liquid fund, high returns should not be one of them. Over the past 12 years, annual returns of HDFC liquid has an average of about 7% and individual returns have varied by as much as 2% from the average. That is from about 5% to 9%.  Therefore, it is tough to expect any fixed return, high or low, from liquid funds. All you can say is that they are likely to do better than the 4% bank accounts.

You choose a liquid fund for peace of mind. The capital protection is the highest among all volatile asset classes. The NAV can decrease like it did on July 13th 2013, when short-term rates were hiked by 2% overnight. However, since the bonds have short maturity periods (4-91 days), the interest rate sensitivity (as measured by modified duration) is small and the recovery  (from fallen NAV) will only take a few days.

Typically, credit quality (as measured by CRISIL bond ratings) is not a problem as most of the bonds are rated AA or above.

So one can, in general, state that most liquid funds are ‘safe’ to choose. However, it pays to pay a little more attention to detail.

So here are the steps that I would follow while choosing a liquid fund.

Note:  This process should take about 15 minutes, once you are familiar with VR fund selector format.

How to choose a liquid fund

  • Go to Value Research online. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. You will see Fund Selector under research tools right in the middle of the page.

Value-research-fund-selector

  • If you scroll down the exclude list, you will notice that direct plans are automatically checked! Along with it, so are funds which are unrated, suspended plans, closed-ended, 1 star, 2 star 3 star funds (VR takes its star ratings too seriously!). Uncheck 1,2,3 star  and unrated funds. We will exclude direct plans as they will mess up the table.

Value-research-fund-selector-2

Uncheck these arrows

  • Under fund category, uncheck all equity funds, and select Debt:liquid and click Get Data.

Value-research-fund-selector-3

 

  • The selection should look like this

Value-research-fund-selector-4

 

  • Click on portfolio to get this screen.

Value-research-fund-selector-5

 

  • Click on Average maturity years once to arrange in ascending order and again to arrange in descending order. Note that the shortest period is 0.003 years (which is about 1 day!).  Such funds simply hold cash. The longest period is 0.205 years or about 74 days.  So the average maturity is not a factor while selecting from this list.
  • Similarly the average credit quality ranges from AA to cash. You obviously don’t want funds that simply hold cash as that will impact returns. You don’t want your liquid fund to be that liquid!
  • If you click on bond fund style, you will notice that all of the funds, save two, have a style which looks like this.

Value-research-fund-selector-6

 

High credit quality (irrespective of what the average credit quality is) and low interest rate sensitivity. There are two funds with medium credit quality. You don’t want those.

The first step in any selection process is to make a short-list. When it comes to liquid funds, I will create a list of funds with

  • average credit quality: AAA (interest rate sensitivity is by default low here)
  • Risk grade according to VR: low, below average or average.

This wont exactly be a short list but I can filter it out with my AMC biases.

I like Quantum, ICICI, HDFC, Franklin, Axis etc. That is anywhere, I can invest in with ease.

Note that some AMCs which have a strong equity team may not have a debt or in this case liquid fund management team. Vice-versa is also true. Eg. Escorts AMC.

Speaking of which, Escorts liquid fund is a consistent performer but it buys short-term corporate paper and it is (at least was) a pain to invest in it.

The AMC bias will  make any list short! Then one will have to look at the portfolio. I prefer a fund which invests in PSU+ bank bonds instead of corporate bonds.  This is my own bias. For extremely short duration as in this case, corporate paper or an average rating of AA should be quite fine. It might boost returns.

That is it. I am done. I wont worry about returns history.

If you wish to make a short-list based on returns, as done in the equity mutual fund selection guide, then,

  •  Click on returns tab and then click on 5 year rank to arrange in ascending order as show here. You can then short-list consistent performers. Although it is a liquid fund, I have still used the 3 year and 5 year periods. Force of habit I guess. Using shorter durations does not appeal to me.

Value-research-fund-selector-7

 

Once you have this short-list, you can look at the risk grade, and portfolio contents and then choose one, perhaps with an AMC bias!

Why not simply use star ratings? VR assumes that is okay to club a fund which holds short-term bond with a fund that holds only cash. It clubs together funds with different average credit quality and durations. I am not comfortable about that.

What about metrics like standard deviation, alpha etc.? I dont think it is worth the effort for liquid funds.

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36 thoughts on “How to Choose a Liquid Mutual Fund”

  5. Wonderful article! Just as always… BTW, I think redemption period is also an important parameter if you need the money urgently. For instance “Franklin India TMA-G & Escorts Liquid Fund” have redemption period of 10 days while “JM High Liquidity Fund & ICICI Prudential Liquid Plan – Regular Plan” have a redemption period of 1 day.
    Big difference!, after considering the fact that all these funds are similar performers.
    Also, I got the redemption period data from “http://fundpicker.thefundoo.com/”. Not sure if the same is available on Value Research.

    1. Thanks, yes it is important. Redemption data is not available there. Even 1 day does not mean one day. It depends on when you apply. (before/after cutoff time, weekend, bank holidays etc.)

      1. Redemption data on thefundoo.com is not correct. For reliance tax saver ELSS it says redemption period to be 10 days whereas I was able to get in 3 days.

  6. Wonderful article! Just as always… BTW, I think redemption period is also an important parameter if you need the money urgently. For instance “Franklin India TMA-G & Escorts Liquid Fund” have redemption period of 10 days while “JM High Liquidity Fund & ICICI Prudential Liquid Plan – Regular Plan” have a redemption period of 1 day.
    Big difference!, after considering the fact that all these funds are similar performers.
    Also, I got the redemption period data from “http://fundpicker.thefundoo.com/”. Not sure if the same is available on Value Research.

    1. Thanks, yes it is important. Redemption data is not available there. Even 1 day does not mean one day. It depends on when you apply. (before/after cutoff time, weekend, bank holidays etc.)

      1. Redemption data on thefundoo.com is not correct. For reliance tax saver ELSS it says redemption period to be 10 days whereas I was able to get in 3 days.

  11. Please let me know if you have java API to calculate XIRR. One which takes series of date and amount combinations and returns xirr. Thank you. Regards, Uday Naik

  12. Please let me know if you have java API to calculate XIRR. One which takes series of date and amount combinations and returns xirr. Thank you. Regards, Uday Naik

  13. Dear Pattu sir, while investing in Liquid funds, expense ratio is very important. Infact for investing in debt funds the expenses pays an important role in determining returns. Now the rates are being cut so the debt funds are show double digit returns , but if the tide turns its a different story.

  14. Dear Pattu sir, while investing in Liquid funds, expense ratio is very important. Infact for investing in debt funds the expenses pays an important role in determining returns. Now the rates are being cut so the debt funds are show double digit returns , but if the tide turns its a different story.

  15. Dear Guruji.. ( :)) )
    Well, i have put aside my emergency plus fund in HDFC liquid fund since last 3 years. I am confused with current taxation changes with debt fund.
    As an NRI , what is best way to keep emergency fund for NRI. NRI FD is safe but it will not be liquid as liquid funds.
    If today i wana take out liquid amount , how taxation will impact for NRI in middle east?

    thanks for article . it is worth to read all of ur article sir ji.

    nJoy

    JD

  16. Dear Guruji.. ( :)) )
    Well, i have put aside my emergency plus fund in HDFC liquid fund since last 3 years. I am confused with current taxation changes with debt fund.
    As an NRI , what is best way to keep emergency fund for NRI. NRI FD is safe but it will not be liquid as liquid funds.
    If today i wana take out liquid amount , how taxation will impact for NRI in middle east?

    thanks for article . it is worth to read all of ur article sir ji.

    nJoy

    JD

  17. Sir, I have been using liquid funds for a few years, this is by far the best guide on liquid fund selection that I have come across. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

    There is a tax advantage with liquid funds that might be worth mentioning to your readers. If I hold an FD of 5 lakhs, I have to pay tax on the entire interest amount, regardless of whether or not it is reinvested. In the case of liquid funds, I only pay tax on the redemption amount (i.e. the gains part of the redemption amount).

  18. Sir, I have been using liquid funds for a few years, this is by far the best guide on liquid fund selection that I have come across. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

    There is a tax advantage with liquid funds that might be worth mentioning to your readers. If I hold an FD of 5 lakhs, I have to pay tax on the entire interest amount, regardless of whether or not it is reinvested. In the case of liquid funds, I only pay tax on the redemption amount (i.e. the gains part of the redemption amount).

  19. Thanks for the steps :). But if we get Term Deposits (offered by the bank – for eg: Kotak) which is offering ~8.5% interest and the deposit is linked to my savings account, should we still opt for a liquid fund? With my understanding, I can't think of any other positives, please let me know if I am missing any.

  20. Thanks for the steps :). But if we get Term Deposits (offered by the bank – for eg: Kotak) which is offering ~8.5% interest and the deposit is linked to my savings account, should we still opt for a liquid fund? With my understanding, I can't think of any other positives, please let me know if I am missing any.

  21. Pattu sir… for an NRI who can get FD rate of 9-9.25% at state bank or so, tax free, i suppose it makes better sense to keep some in these tax free FD rather than these debt funds… what do you think?

  22. Pattu sir… for an NRI who can get FD rate of 9-9.25% at state bank or so, tax free, i suppose it makes better sense to keep some in these tax free FD rather than these debt funds… what do you think?

  23. Investing in Escorts is still a pain – no online investment mode, no CAMS or MFU either.

  25. Hello pattabhiraman sir. Recently I bumped into these articles and I can tell you I was looking for all these knowledge. Thanks for all wonderful blogs. One thing I have not got cleared that if I have some lump sum how to invest it . Basically for short period of time say for 2-3yrs period.

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