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Peak to Trough T-Bill Calculation Question

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:57 pm
by Cortopassi
If you run a PtoT report for YTD, the T-bill starts the year at $2,500 and is currently shown at $2,561

I have yet to find a chart of the actual cash price of a 1-year T-bill, but the current interest rate is 0.25%, and that rate has increased since Jan, so I would suspect the value of the bill has dropped.

How does the program arrive at a $61 gain (effectively 4.88% yearly return or so)??  Seems wrong.

Date S&P500 Tbond Tbill Gold Total
2015-01 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 10,000 (+4.15%)
2015-02 2,422 2,770 2,511 2,712 10,415 (-2.14%)
2015-03 2,555 2,562 2,511 2,564 10,192 (+0.22%)
2015-04 2,501 2,646 2,523 2,544 10,215 (-1.73%)
2015-05 2,560 2,465 2,523 2,490 10,038 (-0.32%)
2015-06 2,564 2,407 2,523 2,512 10,006 (-1.66%)
2015-07 2,522 2,287 2,561 2,469 9,840 (+0.28%)
2015-07-16 2,559 2,319 2,561 2,428 9,867

Re: Peak to Trough T-Bill Calculation Question

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:53 pm
by barrett
Ah, this is an easy one. Where it reads "Reinvest Div/Int", you need to set it to yes. Otherwise your bond interest and stock dividends are getting thrown into cash. I made that mistake at first and thought that peaktotrough was always overstating the performance of cash. Instead of $2,561, with it set to reinvest everything, you'd have $2,503 instead.

Re: Peak to Trough T-Bill Calculation Question

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:57 pm
by Cortopassi
Thanks, barrett