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TSP Funds Set to Dive After Panic in Overseas Markets
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| Close | Change | YTD | |
| G | $13.2091 | +0.0012 | +0.68% |
| F | $13.6399 | +0.0091 | +2.29% |
| C | $13.8863 | +0.0805 | +5.06% |
| S | $18.2024 | +0.1285 | +10.58% |
| I | $18.7514 | +0.0846 | +1.16% |
| Close | Change | YTD | |
| L 2040 | $16.3254 | +0.0762 | +4.42% |
| L 2030 | $16.0684 | +0.0658 | +3.93% |
| L 2020 | $15.8233 | +0.0534 | +3.28% |
| L 2010 | $15.4905 | +0.0218 | +1.78% |
| L Income | $14.1097 | +0.0175 | +1.65% |
March 18, 2010
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Fuzzy Math Gains?
DoDEA
Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:52 PM
Post Reply
I'm no great math wizard. But the sell low buy high blanket-"ain't we so smart about stocks" leaves me with a HUGE question mark? The last Bear Market lasted 2 years. Ouch! Even with a 6 month buy and hold down trend. Exactly at what point do you include just gaining back your losses/breaking even vs. "All the gains or all the money I made." Growth is just that GROWTH (G & F F). Correct me if I am wrong. An investor holding in the G or F is steadily gaining. If they buy when the market is up they are in at a higher price that should be offset by the gains from the G & F funds AND are not caught trying to make up & break even buy and hold losses during a market down turn. If you jumped back in stocks during a bull market you have no BIG buy & hold losses to offset your "gain". The down market holders have a whole lot more $$$ losses to make up BEFORE they see any gains. A basic plus & minus formula I never read about in all the "enjoy the ride" during the down trends.
Math Clueless
I Can't Predict The Future but...
DOI
Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:48 PM
Post Reply
Anyone who is "surprised" by this (long overdue) stock market correction must have not been paying attention at all! Housing/Mortgage mess etc!
Quoting from the TSP Talk Website for 1-18-2008: "We talked for months about the clues we were seeing with the soaring price of oil, gold, commodities in general, the sinking dollar, housing market and interest rates. The writing was on the wall but many of us were in disbelief given the 4.5 years of a bull market with not so much as a 10% correction."
The KEY words being "The writing was on the wall but many of us were in disbelief". I have missed some of the "big gains" (in my TSP) by being 100% in the G Fund the past few years but I'm glad I was, because if we are in for even an average Bear Market correction, there may not be enough time to gain it back before 2011 when I can retire! Since 2000 I've made 300% return on my non-TSP investments, which you guessed it were silver and gold! The TSP should add ETF's such as SLV and GLD!!
Sheep Shearing 101
VA
Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:41 AM
Post Reply
Hi Out There, yes its the VA guy who has been giving classes to oher VA Feds RE TSP survival. Let's see, yesterday's $0.96 I Fund loss culminates what is now about a $3 loss per share so far in Jan 08, another great testimony to the value of 2 trades per month and the L Fund autopilot investment system.
Our TSP Club has been in G & GF splits now for several days... missed the huge CSI implosion completely, and we're awaiting the opportunity for a safe reentry into FI splits, still on line for a $40K year with an average $250K account.
The point is not to experience a sheep shearing as our somnolent Fed brothers & sisters have recently, but to Gain during the market upswings, then Wait while the market cycles back down. Even in the most devastating times there are opportunities --- notice that on this most recent Black Tuesday (1/22/08) we saw the G Fund pay its $0.01 weekly payoff and the F Fund $0.06!
Guess where our club was --- G & GF splits.
It works for us!! :)
Safety in the G-fund.
BOR
Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:33 AM
Post Reply
Lets see, in January 2007 I decided to put 100% of my TSP funds in the L2010 fund. Then in February the stocks took a big dump and I quickly lost $2000.00 of my retirement money. Now to me $2000.00 is a lot of money. In February I transferred all of my TSP funds to the G where they are presently and will stay there. I checked today and since the time I put my funds into the G fund I have gained $3800.00 at just $0.01 at a time, but I haven't lost any of the money that I put in since then ($20500). A penny saved is a penny earned.
Two trades per month???
Air Force Research Laboratory
Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:47 AM
Post Reply
What is this business about two trades per month? With all the stuff that's been going on lately (White House abandoning the dollar, subprime mess, bond insurance morass) it has been useful to try to stay ahead of the game and take a defensive postion. I try to stay at least half invested in C and I just to provide some growth and retain half or so in G for security. By taking prudent precautions, taking some of the equities off the table in October and November (when all the signals were flashing red) I've saved a fair fraction of the downturn. It took a few trades to get it right and then sit tight. This strategy makes absolutely no sense if we're going to be locked in.
Is there anything that we can do about the two trade limit? Call our Congressmen? TSP management? Anything???
Trade restrictions
Air Force Research Laboratory
Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:41 AM
Post Reply
Can somebody please tell me what the real problem is with the excess trading activity? From my (basically buy and hold) perspective, the rapid trades and round trips don't seem to have any effect on fund performance. With 3.5M participants and assets of something like $200G, the $15M TSP trading costs look insignificant. It's about $4 per person in the plan or about 0.01 percent of capital. I agree that these are expenses on all investors caused by a few, but I'll be happy to chip in my $4.
The limitation of trades looks like a really bad idea, probably aimed at the I fund. At a time when the dollar is, what's the best way of putting it, under siege, the I fund looks like one possible hedge against devaluation. There are rapidly changing signals, having largely to do with EU and US interest rates, plus a host of euro and currency pressures, that suggest rapid changes in direction. In that environment, rapid flows between C and I funds seem to be entirely natural.
Posting date/Effective date of Interfund Transfers
Department of Veterans Affairs
Fri Feb 1, 2008 1:08 PM
Post Reply
I made an Interfund transfer in the late afternoon of 1/30/08...The e-mail confirmation of it and the TSP site itself says the posting date for this Interfund transfer was 1/31/08.As is usual with my luck, 1/31/08 happened to be the day that the stock market went up over 200 points! My question is the effective date of this transfer the beginning of business for that day or the end of business? I would assume that a posting date/effective date of a transfer would mean the beginning of the day.So the transfer of all my money from the L2030 into the G Fund on the day of 1/31/08 means I lost out on that 200 point surge I assume unless the posting date for the Interfund transfer meant the end of business on the date of 1/31/08.This is the only Interfund transfer I have made in over a year in a half so I don't Day Trade as it were..And the exact same day I get out of the L Fund and put my money into the G Fund is the day the stock market goes up 200 points! Unbelievable!