XIRR or TWR and your benchmark

What you will see

• XIRR (money-weighted): the yearly return of your money, counting when you contributed and withdrew. It answers «how much did I really earn?».
• TWR (time-weighted): ignores when you contributed and measures how your assets did. It is the one to compare with an index.
• In Performance you see both, month by month and year by year, against your benchmark, and the XIRR of each broker.
• Monthly gain: how much the portfolio gained or lost each month without counting your contributions, and which assets moved it.

Change your benchmark

1. Go to Settings → Profile and find Benchmark and risk.
2. Choose your benchmark: the S&P 500 by default, or a world, US or Latin American index, a mixed stocks-and-bonds one, or bitcoin.
3. If you want, change the risk-free rate (Sharpe and Sortino use it).
4. Save. Your portfolio is recalculated and everything is compared with the new benchmark.

Common problems and questions

Why are XIRR and TWR so different?

If you contributed a lot right before a rise, your XIRR will be better than the TWR, and the other way round. Use XIRR to judge your result and TWR to judge your choices.

My broker shows a different return.

Many brokers show the TWR of a single account. Asterholm joins all your accounts.