Year to date annual returns overall 18.6 percent
How is everyone else doing?
Mutual funds in my retirement account only at 8.6 return to date…
When do we expect your annual review Saul…
I need some good reading material…
Year to date annual returns overall 18.6 percent
Hi Darrell, you are doing a lot better than me this year. Congratulations.
Saul
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I had a great start, a lousy middle and a recovering end but I won’t know until December 31. “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Yogi Berra 101! 
Denny Schlesinger
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Interesting to look at.
My account purely managed by me, 12.31%
my account + fool 10.3%
401k in target date fund 7.26%
Overall 9.56% compared to s&p at 13.24%
-e
actually…on retrospect my post is a little misleading,
should read
my account purely managed by me of 99% fool recs. 12.31%
my account + odyssey 1 fool recs 10.3
etc etc
I had a great start, a lousy middle and a recovering end but I won’t know until December 31. “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Yogi Berra 101!
Hi Saul & Denny and everyone else watching.
I have a question for this prestigious group.
My TMF scorecard says I am ahead 14% XIRR (but I am behind the S&P by -10%). I began with TMF in Oct 2013.
On the IB broker platform, same portfolio shows me ahead 21.7% (but doesn’t mention XIRR), and labels that percentage, “Time weighted rate of return, year to date”. I added money during the first quarter.
I don’t know how to use the XIRR percentage to help me make decisions, and I don’t know how to compare my xirr with my YTD or if that is even a valid comparison. Knowing how I did versus the S&P (obviously bad here at -10%)would help me improve my performance for sure.
Any help is appreciated, even if it is directing me elsewhere.
Thanks and if anyone uses IB, please do comment since it’s hard for me to get info out of them.
Mykie
PS I noticed that Scorecard does not handle my 2 short positions like IB does and I wonder if that could be part of the difference? And last but not lease, Happy Holidays and good luck to all my fellow investors in arms.
Internal Rate of Return (IRR) --the Excel function XIRR-- is probably the most “accurate” way of reporting performance. It takes into account all the cash flows: deposits, withdrawals, buy, sell, dividends, etc. It can measure any length of time and the result is always annualized. I don’t use it for the portfolio as a whole but I do use it for each individual position to see how my trading is doing.
To give an example. I bought AXP in 2008 (bad timing) but things improved considerably after 2009 to the point that (with the help of options) my AXP position was outperforming AXP’s historical performance. But it started to slow in 2014 and volatility was too low to make it worth while to sell covered calls so I sold AXP recently. From March 2008 through November 2014 I made 15.4% (net after commissions and taxes) outperforming AXP’s average of 12%.
http://invest.kleinnet.com/bmw1/stats30/AXP.html
For the portfolio as a whole I just use starting and ending numbers (including cash) and use the rate function to figure the performance.
On the comparison with market indexes (S&P 500, DJI, NASDAQ) you’ll get divergent opinions. I like to see how I’m doing vs. the major indexes but others will say that what counts is how you are doing against your needs or your own targets.
If you have lots of loot, you can play it safe, buy the bluest of the blue chips and be happy with a 3 to 4% return because your target is capital preservation. If you have less loot and you need an income, then you might go for higher returns but at the cost of higher risk. This is very individual and there is no one size fits all.
Denny Schlesinger
PS: I have no idea how your broker calculates your return so I have no comment on that. I use my own spreadsheets and portfolio web-app to keep track of things.