All Blog Entries

Stock market investors, including those in the Thrift Savings Plan, are probably unhappy with the continuing volatility of stock prices. Watching your future retirement assets going up substantially in a day can be exhilarating. But, for most of us, watching those assets drop substantially over a period of several days is emotionally draining.


According to the Wall Street Journal, there have been 92 days with swings in the stock market of more than 100 points as measured ...

Obviously, the Santa Claus rally remains intact with one more day to go. More follow through? My guess is yes. More on that in a moment.



The stock market took its lead from the overseas markets and kept the SC rally going. There wasn't a lot to drive the action, but there were some data points.

The December ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 53.9 from November's 52.7 reading and was also a bit higher than expected.
...

01/04/12

2012 got off to a good start with the major indices picking up between 1% and 2% on the day. By the close the Dow gained 180-points, but that was 80+ points off of the highs so sellers did step in late.


For the TSP, the C-fund gained 1.55% yesterday, the S-fund was up 1.30%, the I-fund jumped 2.43%, and the F-fund (bonds) lost 0.20%. ...

01/03/12

Happy New Year, everyone! 2011 was a wild ride that ended basically where it started. The S&P 500 finished flat (0.04 below where it started the year), while the Dow was up about 5%, and the Nasdaq was down about 2%.

The Dow lost 69-points on Friday as the market stuck with the recent trend of being down on the last day of the year, rather than the long-term trend of being positive.

...

Last week, the Top 50 had increased their stock exposure by 27.62%. The herd increased theirs by 7.68%. Total stock allocations were high with the Top 50 sporting a 72.32% stock allocation, while the herd was holding a 63.06 allocation. Stocks were down moderately overall last week, but volatility offered some measure of opportunities for those who were nimble.

This week, the first week of the new year, stock allocations start out at a more modest level than last week's numbers. Here's ...