Welcome to the TSP Discussion Board!

Background. The Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings plan created by the Federal Employee's Retirement System Act of 1986 for current or retired employees of the federal civil service. The thrift savings plan is a defined-contribution plan designed to give federal employees the same retirement savings related benefits that workers in the private sector enjoy with 401(k) plans.

Purpose. This board contains market-timing commentary and discussion about the Government's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) and the investment choices thereof.

References. What to see what others are saying about TSP? See http://www.tsplinks.info/thrift_savings_plan_links.htm
The TSP Web address for asset transfers and asset allocations is http://www.tsp.gov/account/index.html
 

G Fund.  The G Fund invests in short-term U.S. treasuries and functions as a money market account. Principal is guaranteed.
 

S Fund.  The S Fund - Small cap is a bit of a misnomer for this fund. It is actually all of the U.S. stocks that are not included in the S&P 500. There are some fairly large companies in this fund. It is really a compilation of mid-cap stocks and small cap stocks. It tracks the Barclays Extended Market Index Fund, which tracks the Wilshire 4500 index. By investing in both the C and S funds, you are basically investing in every tradable U.S. company. 

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C Fund.  The C Fund invests in the Barclays Equity Index Fund which tracks the S&P 500, the 500 largest U.S. companies being traded. 

 

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F Fund.  The F Fund is invested in the Barclays U.S. Debt Index Fund, bond index fund which holds a representative sample of the bonds in the Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate (LBA) index. Economic indicators and money supply affect interest rates. Interest rates influence the movement of this fund. When yields move lower, bonds go up in price and the F fund goes up in value. When yields move higher, bonds go down in price and the F fund goes down in value. For expanded charting and discussion about the F Fund, see #board-12339. 

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I Fund.  The I Fund - The International Fund follows the *EAFE index. This stands for Europe, Australia and Far East. The EAFE countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. If you surf through any of the financial networks on TV at night, you will see quotes on these exchanges and those results affect the next day's I fund price. The I Fund also carries the risk of foreign currency fluctuations. The stock prices of the companies in the EAFE index are expressed in the currency of each respective country and then converted to U.S. dollars to determine the value of the EAFE index. Thus, the value of the EAFE index will rise as the value of the U.S. dollar falls — and fall as the value of the U.S. dollar rises — relative to the currencies of countries with companies that are represented in the EAFE index.

* On some days, the change in the I Fund share price reported by the TSP does not match the change reported for the Morgan Stanley EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) index, which the I Fund tracks. This happens when the Board's investment manager, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) reprices its EAFE Equity Index Fund, in which the TSP invests, after the close of the foreign markets. This process, known as "fair valuation," occurs when there are large U.S. market or currency movements between the time the foreign markets close and 4:00 p.m., eastern time, when BGI's share prices are determined. Fair valuation ensures that traders cannot "market time" the I Fund by making investment decisions based on the "stale" prices, thus diluting the returns of other participants who invest in the I Fund. Because the EAFE uses the foreign market closing prices to calculate its values, its price change will differ from the TSP's on those days. 

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SEVEN SENTINELS STATUS

RULES FOR FOLLOWING THE SEVEN SENTINELS  

The concurrent alignment of all seven signals under specific conditions constitutes a signal and defines the context or prevailing trend of the market. Here are the individual buy/sell triggers:
 

• TRINQ and TRIN: Daily reading below the 13 Day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) is buy mode, a reading above the 13 Day EMA is sell mode.

• For NAMO, NYMO, NAHL, NYHL, a daily reading above the 6 Day EMA is buy mode, and reading below the 6 Day EMA is sell mode.

• For BPCOMPQ, A positive crossing though the lower or upper bollinger band constitutes buy mode. A negative crossing through the lower or upper Bolinger Band constitutes sell mode. It stays in buy mode or in sell mode until it re-crosses in the opposite direction.

A Seven Sentinels Buy Signal is triggered when ALL SEVEN individual indicators are in "buy mode" simultaneously, and NYMO has reached a 28 trading day high, and it defines the warranted overall trading posture which then STAYS in effect until it is superseded by a new signal.

A Seven Sentinels Sell Signal is triggered when ALL SEVEN individual indicators are in "sell mode" simultaneously, and NYMO has reached a 28 trading day low, and it defines the warranted overall trading posture which then STAYS in effect until it is superseded by a new signal.

 See www.sevensentinels.com or http://www.traders-talk.com/mb2/index.php?showtopic=113745&st=0&gopid=497516&#entry497516 for expanded information about this powerful timing tool.

 ...Worth-a-Click...

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Why I Fund Investing is Important  #msg-53047367