How we calculate returns

When you log a trade, our server fetches the live market price and writes it to the ledger. While the market is closed the trade is queued and filled at the first live print after the bell. There is no "custom price" field and no backdating — editing a trade changes only its note, never the fill or the timestamp.

Each portfolio has a verified-from date — the moment we began independently tracking it. It is set once, at creation (or when a brokerage is first linked), and is never moved by any later action. Your verified return curve starts at 0% on that day. History before it can be shown for context but is clearly labelled as pre-verification and is excluded from your verified track record.

Once a day (and intraday during US market hours) we compute your portfolio's total value: cash, plus every position marked at its current market price, converted to your base currency. That single number — the NAV — is stored with a timestamp. The performance chart is built from this chain of snapshots, so it reflects real marks on real days, not a formula applied after the fact.

We report time-weighted return (TWR), the same standard ETFs and brokerages use. Deposits and withdrawals are stripped out so they can never masquerade as performance. If you deposit $1,000 between two snapshots, that day shows flat — not a phantom gain.

stepReturn = (NAV_today − netFlows − NAV_prev) / NAV_prev
cumulative = cumulative × (1 + stepReturn)

Flows are matched to the exact step they occurred in by timestamp, so a weekend or holiday deposit lands in the right place even when no market snapshot fired that day. The initial cash already in a linked brokerage is treated as your starting capital (baked into day-0 NAV), not as a flow.

• Dividends are a return, not a cash flow — they raise your cash balance and therefore your return, and are never subtracted as a deposit.
• Foreign currency is part of the bet: a foreign holding is marked in its local price and converted at the prevailing rate, so currency moves are reflected in your return exactly as they affect your real money.
• Short positions are carried as a liability — their value subtracts from your NAV, so your return rises when the shorted stock falls and falls when it rises, just like a real short.

On your portfolio you'll also see an account return — how your actual dollars grew, including the timing of your deposits (money-weighted). TWR answers "how good were the picks?"; account return answers "how did my money do?". Both are legitimate; we show them side by side so nothing is hidden.

• No backdated fills or editable prices.
• No moving the verified-from date to flatter a curve.
• No survivorship games — a deleted position stays in your realized history; deleting a collection never alters a member portfolio's record.