EAFE Quotes Look Strange Today

[tsptalk]

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^EFV
139.27

1.25[/b]
-0.89%[/b]

EFA
140.40

0.70[/b]
+0.50%

With 25% in the I fund today, I wonder which quote is more correct. That's quite a difference.

 

[Pete1]

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The timing of the returns of our EAFE do seem to differ as compared to other EAFE accounts. I believe that IShares EFA is the closest that we have to go by, at least according to Paul Merriman of fundadvice.com. I thought it was really weird yesterday, April 20th, when our EAFE was down while Vanguard's Developed Markets EAFE was up. In fact, nearly all of Vanguard's international funds were up yesterday (my wife has shares in both International Value and Emerging Markets). However, today, April 21, all of the Vanguard international funds look a lot like yesterday's TSP I fund returns. This makes me believe that Vanguard is a day behind but I'm not sure. I have been considering reallocating some of the Vanguard funds and if my hypothesis is correct, it may be advantageous to know for sure. If our EAFE is up tonight and Vanguard's international accounts are up by close of business tomorrow night, I'm on to something. But back to your question, I think Ishares EFA is very close to TSP EAFE.

 

[Pete1]

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You know, there has to be a logical explanation. Hopefully someone can clarify. I pulled up the style boxes for Ishares EFA and Vanguard's Developed Markets EAFE, and found that they are significantly different in terms of composition:

IShares EAFE Style Box:

49 13 26

6 2 3



Vanguard Developed Markets EAFE:

33 29 26

5 3 4

0 1 0



IShares EAFE appears to have a significant Value exposure, much more than I suspected. Maybe this is why the returns are so different.

 

[Pete1]

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Wow, I think I just visited Bizarro world!! Here is the style box for Vanguard's International Value:

37 33 13

3 8 6



Ishares EAFE appears to have more value exposure than Vanguard's International Value!!! This is truly weird. Ishares EAFE is listed by Morningstar as "large blend" but it appears to be closure to large value. Maybe Morningstar's Instant Xray is screwed up. But once again, Ibelieve that Ishares EAFE is our model.

 

[Pete1]

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Okay, I have no idea what our EAFE index is tracking. It was down .02 cents today, April 21. This return seems to fall squarely between the EFV and EFA returns you listed. Sorry, I have kind of went off on this one but I find the I fund the toughest to grasp in terms of what we are buying.

 

[tsptalk]

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Pete -
Thanks for the info. I don't know if you've checked out the I fund forum. We discussed this many times and we are still all a bit confused.:?

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/forum14/