Learn the mechanics of our strategies with step-by-step instructional guides.
Master the art of momentum trading on Schwab with these 4 essential walkthroughs.
Each trading day, you will receive an email containing our analysis and updated Schwab TIPS 365 spreadsheet.
You don't need to be a financial analyst to use our service! To save you time, we translate the spreadsheet into a simple list of Quick Actions at the top of every email. If you are short on time (remember, daily monitoring should only take 5-10 minutes!), simply follow the bullet points at the top of the email which will explicitly tell you which Buy Stops or Sell Stops have changed and require action.
If you dive into the spreadsheet itself, it uses an intuitive color-coding system so you can see your required actions at a glance:
Note on the Watch List: A stock categorized as "Watch List" means it has an incredibly high Performance Ranking, but the timing is not right to purchase it just yet. Do not place an order on a Watch List stock until it has an active Buy Stop figure.
When you receive a new Buy Stop recommendation for an upward-trending stock, follow these simple steps to correctly execute the order on Schwab using the "Snap Ticket" tool.
When setting your order quantity on the Snap Ticket, switch the selection from "Shares" to the local currency (e.g., "$"). Enter the maximum dollar value you want to allocate to this single trade, and Schwab will automatically calculate the maximum number of full shares.
The Equal Weight Strategy: Because we aim to hold roughly 10 active positions at a time, simply divide your total available trading balance by 10. For example: if you have a $100,000 account, type in $10,000 as your trade size.
The cornerstone of the TIPS 365 investment strategy is avoiding large losses while holding out for massive gains on upward trends. You must set your downside protection immediately after a purchase is made.
When you notice that your Buy Stop order from the previous day has successfully filled, follow these steps to secure your investment:
As the stock price continues to increase in value over the coming days and weeks, you will see the recommended Sell Stop figures go up alongside it. You must routinely update and edit your open Sell Stop orders in Schwab to match these new figures. This process, known as "ratcheting," allows you to systematically lock in your accumulated profit while offering peace-of-mind coverage if the trend eventually falls.
When your portfolio is waiting for fresh technical buy signals, you will occasionally have uninvested capital on the sidelines. We call this "Dry Powder." Holding 50% of your account in cash while waiting for upward breakouts is sub-optimal.
Depending on your risk tolerance, you can pick one of three options for your Dry Powder to keep it working for you:
Schwab TIPS 365 is an aggressive growth investment strategy focusing on momentum. We continually track a watch list of 20 high-performing stocks and ETFs, and aim to be actively invested in roughly 10 of them at any given time. We purchase them as they hit an upward trend, and sell them when that trend reverses. All trades are short-term, generally holding from one day up to a few weeks.
The service is available for $365/year (just a dollar a day!) or $36/month. You can start with a 30-day free trial to see if the strategy is right for you. We also offer a referral program that allows you to earn free monthly credits towards your subscription.
While we highly recommend Charles Schwab for its zero-fee trading and excellent platform, this strategy can be executed on any brokerage platform (e.g., Robinhood, Fidelity) that allows daily trading.
No! Some brokers like Schwab don't maintain a minimum balance. You can start with $1,000, or just buy a single share to practice the order process until you get comfortable with the mechanics.
Because this strategy relies on short term capital gains and frequent trading, we strongly recommend using a tax-deferred account, such as a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or self-directed 401(k). This allows you to avoid tracking and reporting individual short-term gains on your taxes every year. If you have money in a mutual fund within your IRA, you can simply sell a portion of the mutual fund to cash, allowing you to use that cash to fund your TIPS 365 trades.
Checking your emails and executing trade orders should take no more than 5 to 10 minutes a day once you're comfortable with the process.
Our recommendations are strictly data-driven to keep emotions out of investing. They are based on a "Performance Ranking," which looks at a stock's historical return over the last 1-month (weighted at 40%), 3-months (30%), 6-months (20%), and 12-months (10%). We then combine these rankings with technical indicators (like moving averages and candlestick reversals) to confirm buying momentum.
It is critical to follow the trend. A "Buy Stop Market" order acts as a circuit breaker; the order is only placed if the stock is trending *up* and hits your price. A "Buy Limit" order might execute as a stock is crashing downwards—meaning you're catching a falling knife. On the sell side, a "Sell Stop Market" order protects you from large losses if the stock crashes.
Stop orders are only active during regular market hours (9:30 AM to 4:00 PM EST). If a stock gaps up overnight, your Buy Stop order will activate at market open and you may occasionally experience "slippage" where the stock is purchased at a slightly higher price than the stop. Do not worry. The goal is to catch momentum breakouts. You don't want to use Limit orders to avoid slippage, because you might completely miss out on massive upward gains.
We do not try to guess the exact top of the market. Once we own a stock, we immediately set a "Sell Stop" downside protection. As the stock continues to naturally rise and gain value, the Sell Stop price will be systematically "ratcheted up" in your daily emails. When the stock finally peaks and begins to fall, it will hit your ratcheted Sell Stop, automatically locking in your profits.
GTC stands for "Good 'Til Canceled." Whenever you place a Buy Stop or Sell Stop, make sure you select GTC for the duration. This ensures the order remains active the next day if the target price is not hit immediately.
Our daily email is sent out shortly after the market closes. You should enter your orders that evening or before the market opens the following morning.
Stocks on the Watch List have a very high Performance Ranking but have not yet completed a technical reversal giving us the "all clear" buy signal. You do not need to take any action on Watch List stocks until they receive an active "Buy Stop" price.
TSP TIPS is a service designed to bring professional investment recommendations to military personnel and government employees by maximizing its accessibility. Quality financial guidance is out of reach for so many people, and retirement is just too important to leave to chance.
We're here to change that. Our investment strategist (PhD, CFP) has been building portfolios for clients for over 30 years, and every one of our tips is backed by that same level of experience and history of positive results.
In a nutshell: As soon as you receive a notification that new tips have been posted, go to the TSP website to request an interfund transfer. For the transfer, allocate percentages of your entire balance to the G/F/C/S/I accounts according to the numbers in the tips. That's all there is to it.
Yes! By default, you should get email notifications of new tips. If you'd rather not, you can disable them within the TSP TIPS app, under "Settings." You'll also get a push notification on your iPhone or Android device. This may be disabled by default, so go to TSP TIPS under your iPhone's Settings app to make sure they're turned on. Or on Android, under Settings, Sound and Notification, and App Notifications.
Just request an interfund transfer for your entire balance. You can change your paycheck contributions to match the tips if you want, but it's not necessary and is kind of a hassle. We recommend keeping them directed to a stable fund, such as G.
Unfortunately we're limited by the TSP to two interfund transfers per month, unless it's a move to the G fund. Back in the day we could move money around all we wanted, but no more.
Yes and no. While we'd love for you to tell your friends about TSP TIPS, we maintain control over the content (i.e. the tips) and don't authorize any outside distribution. In other words, taking the recommendations and broadcasting them to your coworkers is a no-no. Copyright and intellectual property laws and all.
Very generally speaking, yes. As you'll see below, we don't make any guarantees on our tips' performance (because that's impossible), and so we also can't promise that we'll catch every significant market drop. But if our analysis indicates a sharp drop outside of the usual window, yes; we will send out an update.
Excellent question. TSP TIPS is Investry Analytics LLC (software engineering and general tech administration) and Weisert Investments Inc. (investment gurus). You're probably more interested in our investment gurus' background credentials, and you can read more about them here. Weisert Investments is owned and operated by Roy Weisert, a retired Navy pilot, PhD recipient, and Certified Financial Planner with over 30 years of history of building solid investment portfolios for his clients. We also all have civil service backgrounds, and invest our own accounts using these same strategies.
One of us is! Weisert Investments handles all the market math; Roy Weisert holds a CFP license as well as a PhD. He's been providing personal, professional investment services for clients since 1993, and still does.
We have performance data for our TSP strategies here. Worth pointing out is that this data includes a 4.2% gain (yes, GAIN) in 2008, when markets all over the globe were losing 30% or more.
Roy also has seven years of synopses available here, summarizing the gains he's made for his clients. More data is on the way; in the meantime, tell us if there's something specific you want to know! You can also check out reviews from some folks who've been using our tips for a while, and have had a chance to see them work.
Well, Roy's been doing this for over 30 years. In 2012, he began providing TSP recommendations to coworkers. Word of mouth did its thing, that list of coworkers grew and grew, and the foundation for TSP TIPS was formed. We released a free preview in November 2013, and officially went live in July of 2014.
In financial markets, a "guarantee" is also known as a "lie." We're not liars. What we offer is the credibility and assurance that comes with 20+ years of professional expertise, a history of positive results, and the knowledge that we invest our own accounts the same way.
Weisert Investments' website has a really good description of the core concepts behind their investment strategies. Check it out when you have a few minutes!
No. When following the TSP TIPS recommendations (or anyone's recommendations), sometimes your account may be down for the week. Maybe the month. Maybe even a year.
"Well hell, why would I pay for tips just to lose money?" A fair question. And the answer is, because no one (including us) can post profits all the time. Our strategy is focused strongly on *long-term gain*. An average of almost 10% annually from 2003 to 2013, in fact. Basically, while you may lose battles, we try our best to help you win the war.
The answer here is pretty similar to question 7; different strategies produce different results. For example, we did very well in 2013, gaining around 25%. But so did a lot of people. The S fund grew 35% in 2013.
"Well hell, I'll just keep my money in the S fund then." True, you can do that, and you'd have done very well in those months. But the key is balance. The S fund also lost 38% in 2008; we gained 4.2%. It's not all about big gains all the time.
There's a wealth of information on the Weisert Investments site if you want to gain a bit more knowledge about smart investing and risk management.
contact@tsptips.com
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Professional investment guidance for federal employees and military personnel.
Questions? Email us at contact@tsptips.com
