Conflicting is not the correct term. It’s more like my inability to interpret them correctly. Maybe you tell me if my understanding is correct.
I decided not to go F Fund because the Bollinger Bands show contracting. My understanding is that contracting bands warn that the market is about to trend. The bands first converge into a narrow neck (which is what I see), followed by a sharp price movement. The first is often a false move preceding a strong trend in the opposite direction. Since I have no real clue what direction that might be I decided a wait and see policy would be best for that. Also the Commodity Channel Index (Dy:20) was above the Overbought/Oversold Level (mine are set at 100 and -100 and I have no idea if that’s correct) and the MACD line was running parallel to the MACD Signal (Dy:26:12 and Dy:26:12:9).
I decided to stay out of the I Fund for similar reasons except the Commodity Channel Index was near -75 and rising.
I thought going into the C Fund might be safe. The Bollinger Bands showed narrowing the day before and the price seemed to be moving up. The MACD was getting ready to cross the MACD Signal. I guess the part that did not register was that the Commodity Channel Index was at 200, 100 more than my Overbought/Oversold Level. The Slow Stochastic lines (%K Dy:5:3 SMA and %Dy:3 SMA) were both trending upward which past patterns to me indicated upward price, but I just read tonight to never go long when Stochastic is overbought. On the 13th the C Fund seemed to be overbought.
As for the S Fund, the price was raising, the MACD was trending up and away from the Signal line. The Slow Stochastic was moving up but again showed to be above the Overbought Line so I guess that’s where I may have missed the call. Also when I look back at the Williams %R it was well above the overbought level which I understand now is an indicator to go short. I have another chart I look at called Rainbow. I think I look at it because I like all the colors but all the Moving Averages were going up.
I saw many people talk about Option Day. I do not know what that means but will do some research. It sounds like a volatile time to be in any fund.
This is all very new to me but I’m determined to try to get an understanding of what is happening. There is a question I have though. On my charts I’m tracking the C Fund with SP 500 Index [SPX] but at the bottom of the TSP Talk page the Yahoo Finance link goes to S&P 500 Index, RTH (^GSPC). Is the Yahoo chart different from the one I’m using and should I be looking for ^GSPC vice SPX ?
Today, I’m in the same boat. Not sure which way to go. Maybe G just to watch a little longer! Thanks for reading.