Why isn’t SGOV or BIL liquid? As far as I’m concerned their index funds which can be liquidated at any time. They aren’t actual T bills which are locked for a specific amount of time… also what’s the risk factor involved?
They are relatively liquid. However, they are still investments and not cash. You still have to wait T+1 for the sale to clear (day of sale plus 1 business day - sell on Monday, sale clears on Tuesday) before you can pull money out of an investment. You cannot walk into your broker and pull out $500 cash in case of an emergency, regardless of what you are invested in. You can do that with a bank account.
Also, as far as liquidity is concerned, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, KO, GE, etc. (basically any $1B+ company) are all just as liquid. The risk factors (and returns) are different.
So while the risk profile is similar between SGOV/BIL and a HYS, they are not the same type of asset.