Are you a Federal Employee, or member of the U. S. Military? Do you have a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account? Do you contribute to your TSP account on a regular basis? Do you check your account balance on a regular basis, more than once a month? Do you wish your account balance would lose less when the market declines? Do you wish your account balance would gain more when the market is going up? Are you uncertain which funds are best for your needs? Do you hesitate to submit an interfund transfer when the market seems to have changed? If you answered yes to most or all of these questions, then this website was developed you, and other like you.

Welcome to TSP Companion. I developed this website for use by present and past Federal Employees and members of the U.S. Military. I named the website TSP Companion because it is meant to be a companion to the services provided by the Thrift Savings Board through their official website www.tsp.com.

If the website sounds like it might be useful, please continue by reading the short descriptions I've provided for each of our website tools or login by choosing a user name and password and begin using the tools..Welcome to TSP Companion.

TSP Companion

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The accompanying figure is an example of the charts that are the foundation of this website. The website provides set of ten similar charts, one for each of the ten TSP Funds. The accompanying figure is an example of the appearance of one of the charts. They are line charts. Each chart has three elements. They are a price line, a trend line and a Bollinger Band.

The price line on each chart is a dark green line that tracks the daily closing price for a share of the charted fund. Each of the ten funds vary widely in price and price volatility (price variation and range). All of the charts, with the exception of the G Fund, are ten vertical units in height. The G Fund chart is six units high. The vertical scale of the charts, therefore, varies from one chart to another.

The trend line is a dashed dark blue line that is designed to smooth out the price line data and give an indication of the direction the price is moving (up or down) over time.

The Bollinger Band is comprised of two dashed light blue lines that are the upper and lower limits of the band. The band tracks the trend line. The width of the band is an indication of price volatility. The wider the band, the greater the price volatility.

The Bollinger Band provides a few useful indications for the purpose of this website. It provides a measure of the importance of a one day change in the price of a share of the charted fund, particularly when a share price decreases.

I have used the charts to determine how much of my account balance to invest in each of the TSP funds. I used the spread sheet that supports the charts as the statistical base for the Positioning Guide.

To learn more about the charts and their use please choose a user name and password and login to the website.

I developed a tool to help with the process of deciding how to position my account balance in the G, F, C, S and I Funds. I tested the tool by positioning my account balance according to the percentages it provided. When I saw that I was getting satisfactory results using the tool, I decided to expand it so that it would be usable by a website member of any age and named it Positioning Guide.  I update and post the guide after the close of each business day that the TSP is open.

The finished Positioning Guide is illustrated, in an abbreviated form, by the example at left. The example illustrates the appearance of the guide. The guide provides website members with suggestions for percentages of their account balances to invest in the G, F, C, S and I Funds. The percentage values for the G Fund are age weighted, based on sound risk management principles. The values for the F, C, S and I Funds represent a balanced approach to investing in these funds. The percentage values are derived from the statistics that are the basis for our F, C, S and I Fund charts.

When the F, C, S and I Funds are growing in value The Guide will provide percentage values that are balanced and emphasize the fund that is growing fastest. When the market goes into a decline the guide percentages for all of the funds will adjust appropriately, usually to zero for the C, S and I Funds, this could vary for the F Fund. The percentage for the G Fund will typically rise during a decline, often reaching 100%. This adjustment won't happen instantly, that's impossible. It will, however, happen quickly enough to offer protection for the majority of the growth you will have achieved prior to the market decline. If a decline comes on to rapidly for the Positioning Guide, such as a correction, I will reposition my account and post my new positions in the Daily Market Summary as early as I reasonably can. When the market returns to recovery and subsequent growth, the percentages for the C, Sand I Funds will return to appropriate values that reflect a balanced investment.

The Guide was developed as an advancement on the TSP's L Funds concept. It addresses some risk concerns that the L Funds do not address. It is offered as a suggestion to our members. To be effective it requires that the member who uses the website and The Guide check it on a regular basis and submit an occasional interfund transfer to TSP; always keeping their policy concerning how often an investor can move money between the index funds. I suggest checking the guide at least once every week as a minimum.

The last step of my website update process, each business day, is to prepare a Daily Market Summary. The summary contains a list of the days results for the G, F,C, Sand I Funds; a brief description of significant market events for the day; followed by my impressions of the days events and; a list of my positions in the TSP Funds with my reasoning when I make position changes. The Summary is closed with a brief statement of how we intend the summary to be used.