S Fund Price Question

[romad81]

On 12 June 2025 it looks like the Dow was up .24% but the TSP deducted .20% from the S Fund for that day. The DOW is supposed to follow S Fund. Does anyone know why this happened? I called TSP and they didn't even know about this and are looking into it. Any insight into this would be appreciated.

[Aitrus]

Well, the Dow and the S Fund are two different things. The Dow is an index of the top 30 companies in the US market, while the S Fund follows an index made up of everything else in the US market except for the top 500 companies. The Dow is the largest companies, the S Fund is all the mid-sized and small-sized companies. They represent opposite ends of the US stock market spectrum, and that might explain the difference. The big dogs can have a good day while all the small fry have a bad one, and vice versa - happens on occasion.

Now, if you're meaning that the exact index the S Fund follows - the Dow Jones U.S. Completion Total Stock Market Index - was up .24% but the S Fund was down .2%, then yeah - that's odd.

The C Fund is actually more closely linked to the Dow than the S Fund. The C Fund follows the S&P 500, which is the top 500 companies. The Dow and the first 30 companies in the S&P 500 are identical. So it's more unusual for the Dow to have an up day but for the C Fund to have a down day, because those top 30 companies tend to drag around the average of the S&P 500 quite a lot.

[romad81]

Yes, that's what I meant to say The S fund should have been up .24% that day but went down .20%.

[Bubba]

Yes, that's what I meant to say The S fund should have been up .24% that day but went down .20%.

I didn't check the situation you're mentioning (call it being lazy), but the TSP operates a bit differently than most retirement systems. First, the dividends paid are included without announcements (and they avoid telling anyone how that system works) and secondly, Blackrock performs some chicanery when it comes to how they invest the money, usually by providing a bit more return. This is why over a yearly basis, usually our funds outperform their indexes. This also means, that some days you get the lopsided situation where we lose and they gain and other days its the other way around. This is very rare, so perhaps you caught one of them?

[mjedlin66]

Yes, that's what I meant to say The S fund should have been up .24% that day but went down .20%.

Can you provide a reference that says that ^DWCPF was up 0.24% on that day?

From https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDWCPF/history/

6/12/25 Open 2231.59 Close 2242.64
6/11/25 Close 2247.22

Perhaps this is what confused you. The gain for each day is the closing price of today compared to the closing price of the previous day. The return for 6/12/25 is thus (2242.64 - 2247.22)/2247.22 = -0.20%

The opening price on 6/12/25 didn't match the close price on 6/11/25 due to after-hours and pre-market trading. That happens regularly. But that's completely irrelvant for the TSP and similar mutual funds. Closing price to closing price.

[romad81]

If you can provide your email I can send you a pic from CNN.com/business for the 12th on closing. The TSP center also said -.20, don't understand usually CNN business always matches TSP center.

[mjedlin66]

Well then, there was some error at CNN business.

Between my post and Aitrus', we gave you all of the facts of the matter. The reported TSP price change is correct.

[ProduceMan]

Hi Romad, Just my 2 cents, the S Fund also follows DWCPF (which is another DOW), not DOW