Fedweek

Some TSP Investors Chose Flight to Safety in June

The U.S. and international stock market downturns in June—much of it attributed to the “Brexit” decision—triggered a flight to safety by some TSP investors. During the month, a net $1.81 billion was transferred from other investment funds into the ultra-safe government securities G fund, and a net $302 billion into the generally stable bond F fund. Most of that came on a net basis from the three stock-oriented funds–the small company stock S fund (minus $761 million), the large company stock C fund (minus $685 million), and the international stock I fund (minus $284 million). The remaining $382 million was moved out of the five lifecycle L funds collectively. Such moves in response to market downturns are common in the TSP, and often result in the investors then missing out on market rebounds—U.S. stock markets have not only recovered those losses but have hit new highs since then. While the interfund transfer moves may have had significant impacts on investors’ personal accounts, they had little effect on the overall investment profile of the program. Through June the TSP held more than $470 billion in investor account balances; of that, the G fund accounts for 37 percent, the C fund 27 percent, the L funds 18 percent collectively, the S fund 9 percent, the F fund 5 percent and the I fund 4 percent.

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