Our service is designed to consistently outperform the buy-and-hold strategy on a yearly basis by helping government employees grow their Thrift Savings in a low risk / high reward manner in both bullish and bearish markets. We use mathematical models of technical analysis built on raw price and volume data to produce charts with proprietary indicators. With over 30 years of experience, we interpret those charts to establish short and intermediate-term forecasts, concentrating on risk-to-reward probabilities rather than reacting to financial news.
ThriftTrading has been providing market timing guidance for TSP investors since 2005. Our full year-by-year performance history — including comparisons against the buy-and-hold benchmark and the G Fund — is available on our Our Returns page.
Our subscribers are civilians or uniformed service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard) employees who are part of the FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System). Even federal employees who have left government service can still make interfund transfers. We believe our subscribers are not professional investors, stockbrokers, or money managers, but hard-working government employees who seek guidance in the stock market and want to maximize their hard-earned retirement savings.
Yes, we trade all of them. We believe our system provides a lower risk method of investing, as opposed to the buy-and-hold strategy. The buy-and-hold method will always be subject to higher risk, volatility, and many uncontrollable factors that can negatively impact fund prices and your savings. Everyone should be familiar with the crash of 2000 through 2002, when the C Fund lost nearly 50% of its value. Simple rules — like monitoring the 50-day and 200-day moving averages — can significantly protect and preserve one's capital and allow investors to wait for better times.
There are five investment options available to federal employees: (1) G Fund: Government Securities Investments, (2) F Fund: Fixed Income Index Investments, (3) C Fund: Common Stock Index Investments, (4) S Fund: Small Capitalization Stock Index Investments, and (5) I Fund: International Stock Index Investments. Please visit our TSP Funds page, which explains each fund in detail.
They are: AGG or VBMFX for the F Fund, $SPX or VFINX for the C Fund, VXF or $DWCPF for the S Fund, and EFA for the I Fund. There is no ticker symbol to track the G Fund.
We encourage you to visit the official Thrift Savings Plan web site for government employees at TSP.gov. You will find everything you need to know there.
The TSP allows two IFTs per calendar month into any combination of funds. After two IFTs have been used, you may still make additional transfers, but only into the G Fund. This is an important rule to keep in mind: when we issue a third or later IFT alert in a month, it will typically involve shifting a greater percentage into the G Fund to work within this restriction.
IFTs submitted before 12:00 noon Eastern Time are processed at that day's closing price. Transfers submitted after noon ET are processed at the next business day's closing price. We recommend checking our subscriber page and your email by 11:45 AM ET on days when a change may be expected.
We personally believe in diversification. An investor should always attempt to minimize risk. Never put all of your eggs in the same basket. We cannot advise anyone how much capital they should trade, as everyone has their own financial objectives and risk tolerances. However, we will state our opinion as to what we are doing in our own account, our reasoning behind our decision, and the percentage breakdown between the various funds.
On our subscriber page, we assess the current market condition using technical chart analysis and write commentary for each of the funds. Each week we present our opinion on the percentage breakdown between the various funds, along with the reasoning behind our positioning. When a shift in market character warrants a change, we issue an IFT alert with the exact new allocation.
There is no general answer that fits all conditions. The market is an ever-changing beast. If the stock market is trending up, we may suggest subscribers have the majority of their savings in the stock funds. If the market is going lateral or trending down, we may suggest most savings go into the G or F Funds. How long they must stay in these funds is only known by Mr. Market. All we can say is that we assess the current market condition on a day-to-day basis and present our opinion to the best of our ability.
This is entirely up to you and your professional advisor for a final decision. In general, the answer is yes.
We post our weekly newsletter on the subscriber access page and notify subscribers by email as soon as it is available. When there has been a change in character of the market, we will also notify subscribers via email that we have made an interfund transfer (IFT). We offer IFT text message notifications to subscribers who have added their information to our mailing system (no added cost). Our IFT alerts show the exact breakdown of percentages for the various funds.
For the most part, the answer is no. We are always aware of the financial news, but this is not directly factored. However, the mathematical equations used to derive the indicators and signals capture all fundamental data. Fundamentalists will always try to explain movements of the stock market based on reasoning, but we have found that applying those justifications to the next situation or trying to determine the next direction of the market is nearly impossible. Fundamentals cannot be applied on a short-term basis to consistently beat the market.
Current pricing and available plan options are listed on our Subscriptions page.
We do not offer any free trials. We do offer a full 30-day money-back guarantee: if you are unsatisfied with our service within the first 30 days, contact us for a full refund, no questions asked. The most important reason why we do not offer free trials is because our system is designed to slowly beat the index funds. We do not want to give the impression that this is a get-rich-quick scheme. Our system requires patience.
Once your payment is approved, you will receive a confirmation email with your login credentials within 12 hours. If you ever need to update your email address, just contact us at services@thrifttrading.com with both your old and new addresses.
First, check your spam or junk folder, as our emails are sometimes filtered there. If you find them, mark the sender as safe to prevent future filtering. If you still aren't receiving emails after a day or two, contact us at services@thrifttrading.com and we'll look into it.
Our company is committed to protecting your privacy while using our site. This is explained in detail in our Privacy Policy.
Log in to your PayPal account, go to Settings → Payments → Manage automatic payments, find ThriftTrading, and cancel from there. You can also email us at services@thrifttrading.com and we will cancel it on your behalf. You retain full subscriber access through the end of your current paid period. Cancellation simply stops the next renewal charge.
You can reach us through our contact page or directly by email at services@thrifttrading.com. We typically respond within one business day.