Search:

Custom Search
Photo of Ralph Smith

TSP Stock Funds Tumble in March

By Ralph Smith

Friday, April 1, 2005

You can have daily headlines from FedSmith.com delivered right to your desktop each business morning. The service is free and you don't get junk e-mail as the price of your subscription. Just visit our newsletter page to sign up!

The Federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) results for the past month are in and the TSP stock funds reflect the overall action in the stock market.

The biggest loser in the past month was the I fund which declined 2.52%. It is also the biggest winner for the past 12 months with a gain of 14.96%.

The second biggest loser for March is the S fund. It is down 1.86% for the month but is still up 7.95% for the past twelve months.

The C fund also lost money but less than the other stock funds--it was down 1.71% for the month and has a gain of 6.76% for the past twelve months.

The G fund, as usual, is up slightly for the month with a gain of 0.37%. It is up 4.45% for the past twelve months. The F fund is down, however, with a loss for the month of 0.48%. It also has the smallest return of all the TSP funds for the last twelve months with a return of 1.17%.

The stock market is also down for the entire first quarter of the year. This is the third year in a row that the stock market index for America's largest stocks has been down in the first quarter of the year.

The biggest concerns in the market now appear to be interest rates, which are rising again, and inflation. Both of these can have an impact on the purchasing of goods and services and ultimately impact the overall profitability of companies.

There is also a concern that the bull market may be nearing an end and that stocks may fall further this year.

Last year, stocks were down early and started making a strong comeback just before the presidential election. Investors in the TSP funds undoubtedly hope for a similar turnaround this year although many analysts are more pessimistic than they were last year because of inflation and interest rate fears.

You can get a full report on the recent and historical trends for your TSP funds in the FedSmith.com TSP corner. For those with an interest in how your funds have done in past years, you can check out month by month returns back to 1988.

© 2010 FedSmith Inc. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced without express written consent of FedSmith Inc.

Add a Comment about this Article

** All fields are required.
Note: Your comments will not show up right away. FedSmith.com selects the most insightful comments from our readers for posting. If selected, your comments will show up in the comments section after they have been reviewed and approved. See our terms of use for more information.

Readers' Comments

  • The emotional response to a falling market is to pull completely out of stock funds and into cash and bond funds. Unfortunately, this response often happens after the market has already gone down. Too many of us fall into this trap and end up selling after the market is down and then waiting till ...
    Posted: June 21, 2005 3:30 PM
  • To my fellow engineer, kindly, how could you have "lost everything" unless you drew it all out? And why would you do this if you were at all versed in the historic market place? The mean growth has always been 10 to 20% over the long term with peaks every 3 to 10 years! Go figure my friend....
    Posted: April 25, 2005 6:18 PM
  • The only comment I have is: I would rather have 4-percent of something than 20-percent of nothing plus loose everything that I have put in via payroll deductions. In other words, I lost everything when the stock market went into the tank in the early 2000's plus everything that I put into it. At ...
    Posted: April 25, 2005 11:31 AM

View All Comments »

MORE BY RALPH SMITH

Contact Ralph Smith or read more articles on the author's page.