C Fund, Common Stock Index Investment Fund
C Fund
Common Stock Index Investment Fund
Thrift Savings Plan
Fund Information
Key Features
As of December 31, 2008
• The C Fund offers the opportunity to earn a potentially high investment
return over the long term from a broadly diversified portfolio of stocks
Net Assets
of large and medium-sized U.S. companies.
$50.0 bil ion
• The objective of the C Fund is to match the performance of the Stan-
2008 Administrative Expenses
dard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) Index, a broad market index made up of
$0.19 per $1,000
stocks of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies.
account balance,
• There is a risk of loss if the S&P 500 Index declines in response to
.019% (1.9 basis points)
changes in overall economic conditions (market risk).
Benchmark Index
• Earnings consist of gains (or losses) in the prices of stocks, and
Standard & Poor’s 500
dividend income.
Stock Index
www.standardandpoors.com
C Fund Returns*
Asset Manager
Inception – 2008
BlackRock Institutional Trust
40
Company, N.A.
30
n
20
10
Returns
0
S&P 500
-10
C Fund*
Index
Percent Retur
1-Year -36.99%
-37.00%
-20
3-Year
-8.34%
-8.36%
-30
5-Year
-2.18%
-2.19%
-40
10-Year
-1.40%
-1.38%
1988
2008
Since Inception
8.54%
8.80%
January 29, 1988
* 1988 return shown is a partial year return.
*After expenses
S&P 500 Top Ten Holdings
as of December 31, 2008
Growth of $100
Company
Exxon Mobil Corp.
Since Inception
Procter & Gamble
General Electric
1000
900
C Fund
AT&T, Inc.
800
$559.26
700
Johnson & Johnson
600
Chevron Corp.
500
400
Inflation
Microsoft Corp.
300
$1
81.38
200
Walmart Stores, Inc.
100 1/88
12/08
Pfizer, Inc.
JP Morgan Chase & Co.
1/10
C Fund FaCts
By law, the C Fund must be invested in a portfolio designed to replicate the performance of an index of stocks represent-
ing the U.S. stock market. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has chosen as its benchmark the Standard and
Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) Index, which tracks the perform ance of major U.S. companies and industries.
The S&P 500 Index is an index of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies that are traded in the U.S. stock markets.
The index was designed by Standard & Poor’s Corporation (S&P) to provide a representative measure of U.S. stock market
performance. The companies in the index represent 134 sub-industries classified into the 10 major industry groups shown
in the chart. (As of Decem ber 31, 2008, thirteen of the common stocks included in the index were Real Estate Investment
Trusts (REITs), accounting for
0.97% of the index’s market
S&P 500 Index
value.) The stocks in the S&P
500 Index represent 76% of the
Major Industry Groups
market value of the U.S. stock
December 31, 2008
markets.
The S&P 500 is considered a
Consumer
“big company” index. As of De-
Staples
Energy 13%
cember 31, 2008, the largest
13%
100 companies in the S&P 500
represented approximately 69%
Industrials
of the index’s market value. The
Financials
11%
13%
S&P 500 Index includes 412 se-
curities traded on the New York
Stock Exchange and 88 securi-
ties that are traded on NASDAQ.
Consumer
The market value of the largest
Discretionary
company in the index is approxi-
8%
Health Care
mately $406 billion; the market
15%
Telecom Services 4%
value of the smallest company is
approximately $477 million.
Utilities 4%
Materials 3%
The S&P 500 Index is weighted
Information
Technology
by float-adjusted market capi-
16%
talization, in which a company’s
market value and its weighting in the index are calculated using the number of shares that are freely traded, rather than all
outstanding shares. Shares that are not freely traded, such as the holdings of controlling shareholders and their families,
company management, and other companies, are excluded from the calculation. A company’s weighting in the index is
the float-adjusted market value of the company (that is, the share price multiplied by the number of freely traded shares
outstanding) as a percentage of the combined float-adjusted market value of all companies in the index.
BlackRock’s Equity Index Fund — The C Fund is invested in BlackRock’s Equity Index Fund. The C Fund holds all the
stocks included in the S&P 500 Index in virtually the same weights that they have in the index. The performance of the Eq-
uity Index Fund is evaluated on the basis of how closely its returns match those of the S&P 500 Index. A portion of Equity
Index Fund assets is reserved to meet the needs of daily client activity. This liquidity reserve is invested in S&P 500 Index
futures contracts.
The C Fund invests in BlackRock’s Equity Index Fund by purchasing shares of BlackRock’s Equity Index Fund “E,” which, in
turn, holds shares of BlackRock’s Equity Index Master Fund along with a liquidity pool. As of December 31, 2008,
C Fund holdings constituted $48.2 billion of the Equity Index Master Fund, which itself held $77.3 billion of securities.
Note: Participants’ interfund transfer (IFT) requests redistribute their existing account balances among the TSP funds. For
each calendar month, the first two IFTs can redistribute money among any or all of the TSP funds. After that, for the remain-
der of the month, IFTs can only move money into the G Fund. (For participants with both civilian and uniformed services
accounts, this rule applies to each account separately.)
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