yep. that's why i called them leeches in my previous post. there is very little about trading as it is on WS. they mostly making "deals" like one you just mentioned. all their business is those deals and fees. i'm all for cheap ETF's. your wife should ask them same questions-why we are here (in TIAA) and how they are better than other firms (such vanguard)? the only good thing in TIAA is their real estate fund. one where they do manage actual properties with actual money. not cheap on fees,but imo decent place to park the money,despite many restrictions. definitely better than their money market account (about 0.49% fee! WTF?!) http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=QREARX&insttype=Fund i'm using it as a sort of economic gauge (and place to park cash)
She doesn't have a choice. There is a consultant committee which determines all aspects of the retirement plan, and "that's that". When it was announced her employer's plan was switching from Fidelity to TIAA, we tried to prevent her funds from being switched. No go. Then, we tried to move her money back to Fidelity. Again, "no go"... thanks to "committee rules". Just recently, however, we've been able to switch a majority portion of her assets back to Fidelity via IRA rollover. TIAA will now be imposing their monthly fees only on "current contributions"... which are small compared to total account value. A general word of advice. If you've got assets in an employer sponsored plan... and it's eligible to be moved out to an IRA rollover.... DO IT!! You'll have access to a MUCH greater environment of investment opportunities as well as incurring lower fees. (And hey... the fees "add up" over the years.)
trying to figure out if price is moving up directly related to flows or by pure management or by algo's massaging it up with less money. Whether there is true value in the price increase.
Let me give you a hint. "Why" doesn't matter much. What matters is "what is", and then when it changes. Your objective as a trader/investor is to be "in tune" with all of that as best your can. We live in a "Fed interventional" market these days. Difficult to know what's really what. Could be that it will be much later on that we know what's "really what"... and by then it will be too late to make money on it. If the VTI is giving you concerns, then pick another. There are at least 100 other "market proxy" funds, but the notion of "Ponzi scheme" regarding their assets and values... doesn't apply to any of them.
http://etfdailynews.com/2016/11/18/investors-poured-7-2-billion-into-financial-etfs-last-week/ Pension funds worldwide have estimated 20 trillion under management. 300 billion is a significant amount for just one entity to have inflows in just one year. I haven't seen the breakdown in terms of what percentage of that 20 is in equities or bonds. Probably 40/60. 60 trillion in total equity market cap. 25 trillion in just US. Almost half the market cap is just the US. World GDP is 75 trillion. US GDP is 18.5. 25% of world GDP yet hold almost 50% of the valuation. If US had similar ratio.. US market cap would be at 15 trillion instead of 25. There is a 40% premium relative to production in US company prices. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-the-u-s-stock-market-overvalued/ so if everyone's pension is 40% overvalued, what happens when it reverts to the mean.
Hello Scat Man, Do you shift your wife’s mutual funds around per your TA analysis (with her consent of course). If so, are you using many of the same TA techniques that you used with running a MF timing service? (I’m a big fan of Scat Man [and his previous ET name “Gnome”.] For those that don’t know he has won multiple mutual fund timing contests so when he speaks on trading/investing …. I’m all ears.)