The Performance Report

The Performance Report provides an overview of your portfolio’s performance over several, preselected time periods. It helps you see, at a glance, how your investments have performed over time. In addition to the performance of your investments, the Performance Report also includes the performance of a benchmark symbol (index, ETF or stock) over the same time periods, so you can easily see how your investments faired against “the market”.

To access the Performance Report, click on the “Reports” button in the toolbar and select the “Performance” Report type.

You can setup the Performance report using the filtering tools to the right of the Report type selector.

Report date – allows you to select the end date used for each time period shown in the report.
Benchmark – specify the benchmark ticker symbol to use for the “Benchmark” line in the “Value Summary” and “Returns” sections.

You can set all of the filtering tools back to their default settings by clicking on the “Reset filters” menu found in the “More” menu on the right of the toolbar.

Overview

The Performance report shows the performance of your entire portfolio over various time periods. All transactions recorded in this portfolio are used to calculate the performance values.

The performance time periods available in this report are:

Last 30 days
Last 3 months
Year to date
Last 12 months
Last 3 years
Last 5 years
Since inception

If you would like to see the performance of your portfolio over a time period that is not shown in the Performance report, the Summary report provides for viewing the performance of your portfolio over any date range.

Each time period is divided into 2 sections: the Value Summary section and the Returns section.

Value Summary Section

The Value Summary sections (left-hand column of the report) display the values of your portfolio on the starting and ending dates of the time period. The values are from the close of trade on the starting date through the close of trade on the ending date.

Portfolio

The Portfolio line in the Value Summary section contains the values of your actual portfolio, based on the transactions that are recorded in the Transactions report.

The end date is taken from the “Report date” filter in the toolbar. The start date is calculated from the end date, going back in time to the beginning of the time period.

The market value of the portfolio at the close on the selected dates is displayed for the starting and ending portfolio values. These values are calculated by using the transactions recorded in the Transactions report to re-build the portfolio on the corresponding date (similar to the way the Back-In-Time report is produced).

Starting Market Value – The market value of the portfolio at the close on the starting date.
Ending Market Value – The market value of the portfolio at the close on the ending date.
Net Change – The difference between the starting market value and the ending market value. This value is influenced by the performance of your investments as well as any cash flows (in or out) that occurred in the portfolio during the selected time period.

Benchmark Portfolio

The Benchmark Portfolio line in the Value Summary section represents an imaginary portfolio that has 100% of its value invested in the selected benchmark symbol. The starting value of the imaginary benchmark portfolio is the same as the starting value of the actual portfolio on the given date. The ending value is based on the performance of the benchmark symbol over the given time frame.

In order to be able to compare the benchmark portfolio’s ending value with the ending value of the actual portfolio, cash flows (in or out) that occurred in the actual portfolio are also applied to the imaginary benchmark portfolio. These cash flows increase or decrease the value of the benchmark portfolio and thus the amount invested in the benchmark symbol.

For benchmark symbols that pay dividends, such as the SPY (SPDR S&P 500), those dividends are re-invested.

The Net Change value of the imaginary benchmark portfolio is the difference between its starting value and the ending value, taking into account any cash flows (in or out) as well as the performance of the benchmark symbol over the given time period.

Returns Section

The Returns sections (right-hand column of the report) display the performance of your portfolio and the benchmark portfolio over the time periods.

Returns over the time period for the portfolio and benchmark.

Time-Weighted Rate of Return

The Time-Weighted rate of return, or TWRR, represents the performance of your portfolio and benchmark over the entire selected time period. Time weighted returns are not affected by cash flows (i.e. deposits, withdrawals, etc) or their timing (i.e. when they occurred). It is a pure investment performance measure, showing how effective the investment decisions of the portfolio’s manager were. Time weighted returns are the standard returns reported by the investment industry.

The Annualized Time-Weighted rate of return, or TWRR (Ann) value, represents the annualized performance of your portfolio and benchmark over the selected time period.

The benchmark portfolio’s TWRR is typically equal to the actual price change of the benchmark symbol over the selected time period. However, when using a benchmark symbol that pays dividends, for example, the SPY (SPDR S&P 500), the dividends are re-invested in the imaginary benchmark portfolio, so the TWRR and TWRR (Ann) values will be higher than the the simple price change percentage of the benchmark symbol over the selected period.

Dollar-Weighted Rate of Return

The Dollar-Weighted rate of return, or IRR value, represents your portfolio’s internal rate of return over the entire selected time period. Dollar weighted (also referred to as money-weighted) returns measure the absolute, overall growth of the portfolio, including price gains/losses and cash flows, including the timing of those cash flows.

The IRR (Ann) value, or Annualized Dollar-Weighted rate of return, represents your portfolio’s annualized internal rate of return over the selected time period. The annualized IRR calculation is equivalent to Excel’s XIRR function.

The benchmark portfolio’s IRR is calculated using the cash flows (in or out) that occurred in the actual portfolio. If the benchmark symbol pays dividends, they are re-invested and contribute to the balances used in the performance calculation.