Mutual fund shows negative composition percent in MSN Money (176225)


The information in this article applies to:

  • MSN Money
  • MSN Money Plus
This article was previously published under Q176225

SYMPTOMS

When you view the composition of a mutual fund, you may see negative values for the Percent Cash field and the Percent Other field in MSN Money Investing.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if a particular mutual fund borrowed cash to fund other parts of its composition.

MORE INFORMATION

This issue may occur in the Fund Portfolio section of Funds. Additionally, you may experience this issue when you configure Deluxe Screener's criteria for Fund category Portfolio Composition/Percent Cash to As Low As Possible.

Here is the explanation from Morningstar about these fields:

The definition of the Cash component of the composition statistics is as follows:

"Cash" encompasses both actual cash and cash equivalents (fixed-income securities with a maturity of one year or less) held by the portfolio plus receivables, minus payables.

So, if the fund is in a leveraged position (has borrowed money), or payables exceed receivables, cash may be negative.

Bonds over 100% are related to the negative cash in composition. If the fund has borrowed money it may have more than 100% of its asset base invested -- so you can have over 100% in bonds and you should also have a negative cash position. If the fund has 106% in bonds it should have -6% in cash.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/13/2006
Keywords:kbMoneyInvest kbprb KB176225
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