PDA

View Full Version : Activity Summary



catak
01-30-2014, 02:04 PM
By logging into my TSP account and going to activity summary, under the gain/loss it shows a number in parenthesis. Is this a loss? Also, are other folks doing individual trading within TSP or just the selected funds? Thanks.

sniper
01-30-2014, 02:07 PM
By logging into my TSP account and going to activity summary, under the gain/loss it shows a number in parenthesis. Is this a loss? Also, are other folks doing individual trading within TSP or just the selected funds? Thanks.

Parentheses means loss. A bunch of people on this site do trading but mostly outside of the selected TSP funds. Many do trade the 3x leveraged funds which are directly affected by what the C&S funds are doing, however

catak
01-30-2014, 02:19 PM
That's what I figured. Can you elaborate on the 3x leveraged funds and how do I get into that? Also, have you ever used the planning and tools feature on your TSP account? What would be a good number to expect annual returns?

sniper
01-30-2014, 02:27 PM
That's what I figured. Can you elaborate on the 3x leveraged funds and how do I get into that? Also, have you ever used the planning and tools feature on your TSP account? What would be a good number to expect annual returns?

The leveraged funds can't be used in the TSP, we're limited to the G,F,S,C,I and lifecycle funds here. If you want to get into stock / etf investing, you have to go through a brokerage (like e-trade, scottrade, etc). You could sign up if you're interested, but I would recommend staying away from leveraged funds until you get some experience cause they can be rather unforgiving and stressful if you're not experienced (i know this firsthand lol).

The planning tools on the TSP site are useful and will give you a ballpark estimate on how much you can expect to have at retirement. I'd say a good number for expected annual returns would be about 7-11%. The S&P gives about an average of 7.5% per year over the last 20 years.

There's also a relatively low-risk strategy that has performed well over time and averages 11.5% (Last Month, Best fund Method (LMBF)) http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/longer-term-strategies/15018-alternate-lmbf-methods.html - This one just requires you to make moves in the beginning of a month according to which fund did the best in the previous month. You won't ever get in at the bottom & out at the very top, but over time it has won and has a pretty good track record. It has finished positive in negative years, and avoided disaster in 2008/2011, but has underperformed S fund in those crazy +30-40% years. Could be a good long-term strategy to follow until you find a system that works better for you.

If you're younger you can afford to take on a little more risk than someone who's retiring in less than 5 years though, so it all depends on finding what you're comfortable with.

Good luck :)

k0nkuzh0n
01-30-2014, 03:52 PM
That's what I figured. Can you elaborate on the 3x leveraged funds and how do I get into that? Also, have you ever used the planning and tools feature on your TSP account? What would be a good number to expect annual returns?
Sounds to me like that is the last thing you should be trying to do. But just my honest opinion...:cool: