Good Evening, Seasonal weakness and sector rotation continued today with the major indices finishing the session on a mixed note. The tech sector was the beneficiary of the rotation today as money moved back into the sector that it vacated last week. It was a textbook September trading day. The Fed (FOMC) meeting starts tomorrow and concludes on Wednesday. It is widely expected that interest rates will be bumped up another notch. That could move the market a little but I feel like it’s already been priced in. We will see. There was an interesting article in FedSmith.com today about current proposed changes to Thrift. I could not believe my eyes when I read some of the proposed changes. I thought to myself, they must be kidding. Such changes as bill that would create a new TSP fund that will “divest from the fossil fuel industry. For the first time, this bill will give millions of federal employees the power to ensure their retirement funds are invested in a more sustainable, socially responsible investment portfolio.” Really, socially responsible? By whose definition? Sounds like a slippery slope to me. I can think of a few things that I consider socially irresponsible but I doubt seriously that any of them are on their list! Anyway, you get the picture. Other politically inspired proposals have included creating actively managed funds to provide more opportunity for investment advisers in minority-owned companies, avoiding investments in South Africa and Northern Ireland, and to back minority-owned businesses with TSP money. Folks irregardless of your political beliefs the purpose of TSP is to make and save money for retirement. I’ve invested for many years both in Thrift and on the street and have been successful doing it. While it is true that (on the street) I don’t invest in things I don’t agree with my primary concern is performance. I don’t have a problem with a minority run company as long as it is the best company. I’ve got a big problem with selecting an investment strictly based on who is running it or the sector that it’s in. That is a recipe for losing money. Is the company making money? How is their future guidance? What does their balance sheet look like? Do they have the best product or service in their sector? Those are the things that will make you money not the race or political affiliation of the management team. How utterly ridiculous! Resist the notion to become involved in this nonsense. TSP is one of the best savings vehicles around. It is a model program. Sure it could use a few more investment options but that is not the type of changes they are talking about. The type of changes they are describing have nothing to do with making money and that’s all you need to know. Resist these changes! They will destroy TSP!!!
The days trading left us with the following results: Our TSP allotment gave up -0.40%. For comparison, the Dow dropped -0.68%, the Nasdaq added +0.08%, and the S&P fell -0.35%.
The days action left us with the following signals: C-Buy, S-Neutral, I-Buy, F-Sell. We are currently invested at 100/S. Our allocation is now +10.73% on the year not including the days results. Here are the latest posted results:
| 09/21/18 | Prior Prices | ||||
| Fund | G Fund | F Fund | C Fund | S Fund | I Fund |
| Price | 15.8588 | 17.8145 | 41.7852 | 54.1135 | 30.7891 |
| $ Change | 0.0012 | 0.0141 | -0.0149 | -0.1796 | 0.2033 |
| % Change day | +0.01% | +0.08% | -0.04% | -0.33% | +0.66% |
| % Change week | +0.06% | -0.26% | +0.86% | -0.61% | +2.90% |
| % Change month | +0.17% | -0.80% | +1.08% | -1.05% | +1.77% |
| % Change year | +2.05% | -1.66% | +11.10% | +11.65% | -0.22% |
| L INC | L 2020 | L 2030 | L 2040 | L 2050 | |
| Price | 20.1423 | 27.8792 | 32.373 | 35.4732 | 20.6638 |
| $ Change | 0.0076 | 0.0146 | 0.0279 | 0.0349 | 0.0223 |
| % Change day | +0.04% | +0.05% | +0.09% | +0.10% | +0.11% |
| % Change week | +0.28% | +0.42% | +0.75% | +0.88% | +0.98% |
| % Change month | +0.28% | +0.37% | +0.59% | +0.66% | +0.72% |
| % Change year | +3.03% | +3.68% | +5.33% | +5.96% | +6.53% |
