Portfolio performance and TWR
Your broker shows +18 % while you feel poorer after a large deposit — or +5 % while you know you doubled your money on an old line. Neither screen is necessarily lying; they may be answering different questions. This guide separates time-weighted return (how markets treated your strategy) from money-weighted outcomes (how your personal cash timing interacted with markets), and shows what Wolfora optimises for.
Three performance questions people confuse
Market performance on a fixed strategy: “If I held this allocation through time, how did it compound?” → time-weighted return (TWR).
Personal outcome vs net contributions: “I put in €30k net, portfolio is €35k — did I ‘make’ €5k?” → wealth gain vs deposits (can differ from TWR when timing matters).
Position-level P&L: “This line of NVDA is up 40 % from my average buy.” → useful for tickets, dangerous as a whole-portfolio story when you trade often or move cash.
Why deposits break naive percentages
Simple return since inception = (value − net deposits) / deposits. If you deposit right before a crash, the % looks awful even if your earlier invested capital performed well. If you deposit right before a rally, you look like a genius with little market skill.
TWR removes the timing effect of external cash flows by chaining sub-period returns between deposits and withdrawals. It is the standard way advisors compare managers and indices on equal footing.
Broker apps sometimes mix NAV (cash + investments) with a chart that ignores when you funded the account. Always check whether the reference includes cash flows.
TWR vs money-weighted (IRR)
TWR answers: “How did the portfolio behave?” Money-weighted return (internal rate of return) answers: “How did my actual euros compound given when I added them?” Both are valid; they diverge most when you actively time contributions.
Long-term buy-and-hold investors with steady monthly DCA often see TWR and personal experience closer together. Lump-sum investors who move pensions or bonuses see larger gaps.
Wolfora emphasises TWR on performance charts (and broker official TWR when Saxo/IBKR provide it) because it is comparable across periods and benchmarks. Wealth gain vs deposits is shown separately where relevant.
Benchmarks and periods
A +12 % YTD means little without a reference: MSCI World, S&P 500, or a custom blend. Wolfora overlays major indices on % charts when history is long enough.
Short periods are noisy. Week and month moves dominate headlines; five-year TWR and CAGR tell a different story for retirement portfolios.
FX matters for US assets held by European investors. Performance in EUR can differ from USD index performance even when exposure is “the same” ETF economic story.
Multi-broker performance traps
Summing broker % screens across PEA and CTO is meaningless. Consolidated performance needs one timeline of NAV and cash flows, or official per-account TWR merged with consistent rules.
Transfers between your own accounts are not “losses”. Moving €10k from PEA to IBKR is a withdrawal plus deposit — analytics must treat it as internal, not performance.
CSV imports with missing deposits make TWR explode or flatline. Fix cash history before trusting any dashboard colour.
How Wolfora displays performance
Wolfora builds history from transactions and marks, uses period slicing (YTD, 1Y, max), and shows TWR on performance charts with optional benchmark overlays. Saxo-linked accounts can reuse official TWR points when available.
Header day/week change uses reconciled NAV where possible; wealth gain vs net deposits is shown separately from period TWR on the Resume tab.
Pair with multi-broker tracking and CSV import guides if your history is still split across files.
FAQ
Which number should I compare to MSCI World?
Use time-weighted return on the same period (e.g. YTD TWR vs YTD index). Do not compare wealth gain since first deposit to an index unless you understand cash-flow effects.
Why does Wolfora differ from my broker?
Different NAV definitions (cash inclusion), FX marks, corporate actions, or missing transactions cause gaps. Reconcile positions and recent cash first; then compare TWR definitions.
Is CAGR the same as TWR?
CAGR annualises growth over multi-year windows. Wolfora shows CAGR derived from cumulative TWR over available history — useful for long horizons, not for last week’s move.
Does TWR include dividends?
Yes when dividends stay invested or are modeled as part of portfolio value. Received cash dividends increase NAV unless withdrawn; withdrawn cash is a flow to model explicitly.
Related guides
- Why a multi-broker wealth tracker
PEA, Saxo, IBKR, bank brokerage and crypto in one place: why a multi-broker wealth tracker beats Excel for TWR, allocation, dividends and real net worth.
- PEA vs brokerage account
PEA vs ordinary brokerage (CTO) in France: eligibility, contribution ceilings, tax after five years, withdrawals, US stocks, and how to track both envelopes in one portfolio.
- Track portfolio dividends
How to track dividends received, upcoming payments and yield across PEA, CTO, Saxo and IBKR — without spreadsheets that break every tax season.
- Import broker CSV
When Saxo or IBKR sync is not available: import Trade Republic, Degiro, bank PEA and other CSV exports into Wolfora without breaking performance history.