NSurf9 Account Talk

[nsurf9]

I now have a letter from Pamela-Jeanne Morgan, TSP, Director, Office of Participant Services confirming, officially, the case-by-case lift of the santions. I can't get it scanned right now, but the salient sentences are:

"This is in response to your letter of Aprili 1, 2008, seeking an exception to the decision, conveyed in (TSPs) March 13, 2008 letter."

"In your letter, you state that you did not receive the initial Interfund Transfer Restriction Warning letter dated January 24, 2008."

"Your letter has been reviewed and your request has been granted. You may continue to submit your IFT request via our Web . . . or by calling . . ."

 

[RPM]

TO ALL

I can effect IFT by internet and/or phone (2 per month) as a result of my request (in another thread in IFT limits) to Long, et. al.

nsurf9

Congrats!! I think they know that what they are doing is illegal, so if you persist...

What would they do if all 500 who are currently banned sent in similar letters???

Also, since the program is not effective yet, if you can do IFT, I suspect you can do more than 2/month... It would be too complicated to go in and effect the change of software for a few people. Please give that a try. I understand that even with snail mail, you still have unlimited IFTs, just not timely.

 

[Guest2]

I now have a letter from Pamela-Jeanne Morgan, TSP, Director, Office of Participant Services confirming, officially, the case-by-case lift of the santions. I can't get it scanned right now, but the salient sentences are:

Private Message Awaits You

 

[Guest2]

Private Message Awaits You

Thanks NSurf9, Got it! Deeply appreciated !

 

[nsurf9]

Addendum: My letter was addressed to Thomas K. Ernswiler, General Counsel, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board 1250 H Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington DC 20005; FAX (202) 942-1676.

Look on my talk thread for the letter. Again, it seems that you must make demand of lifting the restriction and state some compelling reason - like you didn't receive the January 24, 2008 "Warning" letter.

As a matter of note, someone at TSP underlined a sentence of my letter - that was fax'ed back to me - that I had phoned TSP and made demand to lift the sanction, but that my demand was denied.

You, may want to fax it; and, then ask that abatement of the IFT sanction be confirmed to you by your office (cell etc.) telephone.

 

[Guest2]

Addendum: My letter was addressed to Thomas K. Ernswiler, General Counsel, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board 1250 H Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington DC 20005; FAX (202) 942-1676.

Look on my talk thread for the letter. Again, it seems that you must make demand of lifting the restriction and state some compelling reason - like you didn't receive the January 24, 2008 "Warning" letter.

As a matter of note, someone at TSP underlined a sentence of my letter - that was fax'ed back to me - that I had phoned TSP and made demand to lift the sanction, but that my demand was denied.

You, may want to fax it; and, then ask that abatement of the IFT sanction be confirmed to you by your office (cell etc.) telephone.

I can only hope, as my scenario is different then yours. It's wait & see!

 

[nsurf9]

It is likely that the TSP Board and its managment would have authority (even a duty) to protect the TSP fund, as a whole, from hyperactive trading that generates excessive costs to the fund. Still, it would seem a certified letter warning the hyper-trading member would be required to meet notice and due process requirements.

I don't remember one, but TSP could have posted a warning at on the IFT transfer page and that would probably met the test of notice. But, that I complained that I didn't get the 1st letter, none was likely ever posted.

In my humble opinion, unless some sort of soverign immunity attaches to Long, and the "ye" voting Board members, these guys have liability and a class action complaint should meet a prima facia case. And yes, speculative damages are not normally actionable.

 

[nsurf9]

The average cost per member doesn't mean much if one hyper-member generates excessive costs.

My question is, and I still haven't heard an answer, how much does it cost per trade, per thousand dollars. Put bluntly, did TSP just save $20 on the two trades I would have made that I would have profited from by ~$3-$4,000 at $100k invested (3.19% - 3.87%) on and after 4/1/08.

What is the cost per trade / per share / per fund. For example, how much to does is cost to IFT $100k from "G" to "I", and "G" to "I", "S" to "F", etc. And, how much cost can be trimmed off the "to the 'I' trade"?

Just because other mutual funds limit trades to 2 trades is irrelevant. On the other hand, a run on funds and/or spiraling costs is relevant to all participants. And, we, even as active TSP participants, would want fully addressed.

 

[qibovin]

You are correct. Anyone voluntarily limiting their IFT's out of FEAR of reprisal (snail mail) who is tracking their "would have done" IFT's and can show loss/harm by not making those IFT's, has standing to file for a preliminary injunction. This has been pointed out on the IFT Limits threads. It's also illegal to threaten or impose restrictions on someone who is following existing law for not following a proposed rule that isn't even on the books yet. The existing law has not been repealed, rescinded or changed, therefore their interim rule does not supercede it and their restrictions have no force of law. The changes are PROPOSED.

That's great talk, but it still doesn't help me make any transactions in a timely manner. What of these injunctions? Does anyone know how its done?

 

[nasa1974]

They haven't/won't/can't provide that information. They have defined a cost of $4.13 PER MEMBER PER YEAR for all the IFT's - which is pretty darn cheap. What they have figured out is that costs have decreased, not increased over the past two years, and that the IFT's have made money for TSP, not cost money. The problem lies with Barclay's liquidity pool - they got caught short last October, and FV calculations. Which should be addressed through contract negotiation, not attempting to change member behavior.

Exactly. That's what we keep telling them. And TSP is not a mutual fund and was not designed to operate like one..it's modeled after a 401K.

So it really appears that it was Barclay's that caused the Boards response not the trading by some members. So who is working for whom?

 

[Tomncath]

I hope this situation doesn't get any uglier, otherwise we may find that the TSP Board has failed in their fiduciary responsibility to assure that Barclay's has not jeopardized the Federal 401K to the point of collapse. Hell, if we can bail out BS why not just print more money and give it back to ourselves...I'm laughing like a madman rather than crying like an idiot! :notrust:

 

[nsurf9]

Not enough profitability, realiability, worthwhileness for "F" - and be nimble - my opinion.

"C, S, and I"

Is that a train a-coming? Do you know where your funds are? - Oh, well . . . it could be just a light.

Next week stands to be an interesting one, with several major financial firms reporting earnings, including JP Morgan Chase (JPM 42.77, -1.09), Wells Fargo (WFC 28.26, -0.26), Merrill Lynch (MER 43.82, -0.85) and Citigroup (C 23.46, -0.25) to name a few. There will also be market moving economic reports, including PPI, CPI and retail sales, etc.

 

[Tomncath]

not to worry, there's a new shell game in town to keep all that junk afloat. Lehman just tested it.

Lehman makes move to turn unsold debt to cash: report
Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:27am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc repackaged unsold debt and used the Federal Reserve's new borrowing facility to convert loans that investors mostly rejected into cash to finance its business, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Journal, Lehman transferred $2.8 billion in loans that included some risky leveraged buyout debt into a new investment entity called Freedom.
Freedom then issued debt securities backed by the loans, and $2.26 billion of the securities got investment-grade credit rankings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's, according to the report.
The bank used some of those securities as collateral for a low-interest, short-term cash loan from the Federal Reserve, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move was meant as a test to see what the Federal Reserve would accept, and the size of the loan was not material, the Journal added, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Lehman representatives and the Federal Reserve could not be reached immediately for comment.

Now this is really scary. We're now moving beyond the BS bailout, absolutely unprecedented....I know I sound like an alarmist but if this shell-game collapses forget recession, we'll see the first Depression since the 30's.

 

[nsurf9]

anidoc & tom&cath: tom&cath and other's observations are ringing in my eyes, fingers, nose, mouth, and ears. OPEC and Oil majors playing how high can we go, food prices up, r.e. meltdown, credit vapor-lock, pelted consumers, new job loses, fed running out of duck-tape (further rate decreases) w/ inflation on the rise. If the smoke disappears, and there's a moutain in the way, it will be "holy-grab-your-'seat'" batman.

I'm off the IFT internet restriction, but lost-out on the profitable 4/1 week. However, I missed last week's losses that washed out 4/1's profits.

CPI's coming out tomorrow, NY Index on the next day. It lookes like the up-and-down oscillations are headed back downwards to losses, but I'm keeping my bow and arrow pulled for a quick profit shot - the IFT limit is not yet programmed into the software, so maybe I still pull another 4 IFT's for this month.

 

[Tomncath]

Good luck. My finger is itching to pull the trigger, but I'm waiting until Thursday or Friday. My instincts tell me Thursday will bring us the bottom for now, then we should get a SHORT profit shot. Agree with you Nsurf.

My instincts suck this year. The only thing I got right was getting out of the market 1/10. I thought 1340 would hold, then to 1400, then back to the 1200s for an official bottom. I really can't guess where this market is going but the overall fundamentals are sure bleak.

GL you guys

 

[Tomncath]

I'm using P&F charts and a couple of other tools now, besides the excellent comments from the MB members. You might want to check out P&F Chart School thread - start at the first post if you really want to understand it. Stockcharts.com is good too for understanding tools. Patterns are interesting!

I'm following James too. I'm just not willing to commit right now...I could retire in five years so CP is key. While the TA looks okay the news and fundamentals have me concerned...ya think? :blink:

 

[nsurf9]

Where manufacturing data come from? And, why such a big bounce. I was going to sneek in to equities yesterday, but got busy and missed 12-noon deadline. Wasn't worries, though - figured today would be flat or down some, enough pickup some profit. I have my doubt that the level will hold up, but we won't know until this afternoon. Now what?

 

[nsurf9]

Even w/ 3 or 4 IFTs left for the month, I feel a chilling of my nimbleness to make IFT moves. I can already see that the 2 IFTs limit is really going to stiffle the in's and out's of making profits and avoiding losses in this very volitile market.

 

[FUTURESTRADER]

I've resorted to weekly charts, primarily, with slo stochs 14/3. 24 moves a year looks doable. 2 a month is tougher.

 

[Birchtree]

If I were you I'd be more concerned about the 3 1/2 trillion dollars out there on the sidelines - what happens when it tries to get through the door all at the same time? I will not miss this action - be right and sit tight.