Rareview Government Money Market ETF (RMME)

The Rareview Government Money Market ETF (RMME) is an exchange-traded product that holds a portfolio of short-term U.S. Treasury bills, government agency paper, and other ultra-safe debt instruments maturing within a year — a modern, liquid wrapper around what has traditionally been the domain of money market mutual funds.

“Money market funds are where a dollar is always a dollar — until the market decides it isn’t.”

What money market funds are

A money market fund is the institutional embodiment of “safe parking.” It holds exclusively short-term, highly liquid debt: U.S. Treasury bills (debt maturing in days to months), government agency paper (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, government-guaranteed loans), and commercial paper from creditworthy issuers. The portfolio is weighted so heavily toward instruments maturing within 90 days that the fund’s value stays rock-stable — nominally, always one dollar per share.

RMME, like all government money market funds, invests only in obligations backed by or issued by the U.S. government or its agencies. It holds no corporate commercial paper, no municipal notes, no private debt. This restriction is both the fund’s strength — maximum credit safety — and the source of its weakness: yields are tightly pegged to the federal funds rate and overnight Treasury yields, so returns track the Fed’s policy stance mechanically.

Why an ETF wrapper instead of a mutual fund?

Historically, money market funds were mutual funds — closed to new investments when assets surged, sometimes with gates imposed during crises. RMME inverts this structure by housing the money market portfolio in an ETF shell. The ETF mechanics allow RMME to trade intraday on an exchange and to be held in a brokerage account without a separate registration. For investors already managing equities through a brokerage, holding cash in RMME sidesteps the friction of a separate money market mutual fund account.

The trade-off is modest. An ETF money market fund’s net asset value can fluctuate slightly from one dollar per share, whereas traditional money market mutual funds artificially hold the NAV constant through accounting conventions. In a benign interest-rate environment, this matters little. In a crisis, the difference could matter, though government money market ETFs remain extraordinarily safe.

Holdings and duration

RMME’s portfolio typically consists of 20 to 60 individual securities, all maturing within 12 months and the bulk within 90 days. Treasury bills often make up 30–50 percent of the fund; government-backed agency debt (often from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Farm Credit agencies) fills much of the remainder. The average maturity of holdings is usually between 30 and 90 days, creating a steadily rolling portfolio: as short-term securities mature, they are replaced with new ones at current yields.

The precise composition shifts daily based on market conditions and management decisions. When overnight Treasury rates are elevated, the fund might weight more toward overnight repo and very-short Treasury bills. When intermediate government rates are attractive relative to overnight rates, the fund might extend into longer government paper (still well under a year).

Yield and its relationship to Fed policy

RMME’s yield is mechanically derived from the federal funds rate and the shape of the short end of the Treasury curve. When the Fed is hiking, money market yields climb almost instantly — funds can reinvest maturing securities into higher-yielding ones. When the Fed cuts, yields fall just as quickly. In the post-2022 environment of elevated overnight rates, money market ETFs offered returns in the 4–5 percent range; in periods of near-zero Fed rates, the yield approaches zero.

This mechanical relationship has a crucial implication: RMME offers no excess return and no yield premium relative to the risk-free rate. An investor choosing RMME is not expecting outperformance; they are choosing the simplest, most liquid way to earn the risk-free rate while retaining the flexibility to sell at any time during market hours.

When RMME makes sense

RMME serves several practical functions. For investors building an emergency fund that must be liquid but holds more than a typical brokerage money market account (which may be uninsured above FDIC limits), RMME provides Treasury-backed safety in a highly liquid form. For tactical allocators, RMME is a temporary holding venue — a place to park cash when no other investment justifies deployment, without surrendering liquidity or taking on credit or duration risk.

RMME also appeals to traders and day-traders who want to hold cash positions overnight without the friction of traditional money market mutual funds. The fund’s intraday trading and settlement within a regular brokerage account make it operationally simpler than moving cash between accounts.

What RMME is not

RMME is not an investment. It is a savings vehicle — a way to hold cash safely with a modest, risk-free yield. Investors sometimes mistakenly treat high money market yields (when Fed rates are elevated) as a reason to abandon equity or bond allocations. The moment Fed rates fall, the appeal evaporates, and many investors regret having held too much cash too long. The question is not “Is RMME yielding well?” but “What is my appropriate cash allocation, and is RMME the best vessel for it?”

Expenses and tax treatment

RMME’s expense ratio is qualitatively very low — consistent with passive Treasury-tracking products — since the fund holds only liquid, frequently-traded government securities and has minimal active management costs. Interest income from Treasuries receives favorable tax treatment: it is exempt from state and local income taxes. That tax advantage makes RMME slightly more attractive to high-income investors in high-tax states.

Researching RMME

The fund’s fact sheet, available from Rareview or through most brokerages, discloses the fund’s current yield, average maturity, and largest holdings. Because government money market funds are so standardized, comparing RMME to peers is straightforward: check the yield (which should be nearly identical to other government money market ETFs), the expense ratio (a few basis points difference matters), and the intraday trading volume (more liquid funds have tighter bid-ask spreads). For most investors, one government money market ETF is interchangeable with another; the choice hinges on custody and trading convenience, not on investment skill.