Contents of this article:
Your Simply Wall St portfolio amounts can differ from your broker's for a few common reasons. You may find the likely cause here:
Prices are from different times
Simply Wall St updates your portfolio once a day and uses end-of-day closing prices. Your broker may show real-time prices, so the two values can differ.
What to check: Compare your broker's closing price for the same stock with the price in Simply Wall St.
Some assets may not be included
Simply Wall St's portfolio analysis focuses on equities. These asset types aren't available:
- Cash balances
- Cryptocurrencies
- Derivatives and options
- Mutual funds
If your broker's total includes these assets, it may not match your Simply Wall St portfolio.
What to check: Look for assets other than equities in your broker account, and compare only your equity holdings.
Holdings above your plan's limit
Holdings above your plan's limit aren't included in your portfolio's overall value, returns, or analysis.
What to check: Compare the number of holdings in your portfolio with your plan's limit. See Portfolio Limits
Your portfolio type
Your portfolio type affects how returns are calculated.
Linked and Manual Holdings portfolios: Returns are based on the average price of your holdings. If you have the following portfolio types, please note that they don't have the full history of your buys and sells. Your estimated total cost is the average price of a stock multiplied by the number of units you hold. This estimates your returns, but it doesn't account for the exact timing and price of each transaction.
Transactions portfolios: Returns are calculated from your transaction history, which allows more detailed figures:
- Realised returns
- Unrealised returns
- Dividend returns
- Currency gains or losses
- Annualised returns
What to check: Confirm which type your portfolio is. If you want transaction-based returns, see Creating a Manual Portfolio
How splits and dividends are entered
The portfolio tool recognizes stock splits and dividends automatically and adjusts for them.
If you add historical transactions for a stock that has split:
- Enter the transaction as it was at the time of the trade, before the split.
- Don't enter post-split quantities.
- Don't add separate split or dividend transactions.
The system already makes these adjustments, so entering them again changes your share quantities and returns.
What to check: Look at your historical transactions for post-split quantities or manual split and dividend entries. To change or remove a transaction, see How to Update Your Transactions Portfolio
Do I need a Transactions portfolio?
A Transactions portfolio is built from your full transaction history, not average prices. You need one if you want:
- Realised and unrealised returns, dividend returns, currency gains or losses, and annualised returns
- The Detailed Returns Report
- The full Value Over Time chart, also called the Equity Curve
- A detailed breakdown of your portfolio's returns
A Linked and a Holdings portfolio records only what you currently own, so it doesn't have the history these need.
How do I convert a Holdings portfolio to a Transactions portfolio?
Converting creates a new Transactions portfolio from your current holdings. You can start from three places.
- Open your Holdings portfolio.
- Go to the Value Over Time chart.
- Select the option to convert your portfolio.
- Open your Holdings portfolio.
- Select Edit Holdings.
- Follow the prompt to convert.
- Open the Detailed Returns Report.
- Select Limited Data.
- Follow the prompt to convert.
Linked portfolios: It cannot be converted, but you may create a Manual Transactions portfolio from the Detailed Returns Report. See How to Create a Manual Portfolio
What happens after you convert
- A new Transactions portfolio is created from your current holdings. The name will be "Copy of (your portfolio name)."
- Your holdings are recorded as initial Buy transactions.
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Review the entries and adjust the dates if needed. Add your other trades to complete your transaction history.