Your Fidelity Performance
Where to find it, and what the numbers mean
Fidelity's website can show you how your accounts have done over a period you choose. Your White Oak advisor will meet with you periodically to discuss performance in the context of your goals; this is for the times in between, when you would like a quick snapshot for yourself. The video walks through where to find the Performance tab, and explains why the two figures it can show — time-weighted and money-weighted return — answer two different questions.
Watch the walkthrough
About two minutes. Captions are on by default, and the full transcript is below if you would rather read it.
Read the transcript instead
0:00Welcome to this quick training from White Oak. We'll walk you through how to view your investment performance on Fidelity.com and what those numbers really mean.
0:11Once you're logged in, go into your main dashboard, click More, and then select Performance.
0:18Here you'll see how your portfolio has performed over time. You can adjust the date range to review different periods, and if you have multiple accounts, you can view them individually. Look at the performance for all accounts or click on an individual account at the left.
0:33Performance can be measured in different ways. Fidelity generally displays performance as a time-weighted return. Think of time-weighted as the measure of how your investments themselves performed, independent of when you put in money or took money out. The time-weighted return is the best way to evaluate how well a mutual fund, ETF, or a portfolio manager has executed their strategy.
0:54It answers, how did the investment portfolio itself perform? At White Oak, we prefer to use a money-weighted return, also called the investor's return or a dollar-weighted return. A money-weighted return includes everything, the rate of growth on all the money that has been invested, taking into account the exact timing and size of every deposit and withdrawal you made.
1:15This number shows your actual personal experience as an investor. It reflects the real-life result of both the investment performance and your own behavior, your decisions about when to contribute or withdraw funds. It answers, how much did my money actually grow? Both numbers are important, but as your advisor, our focus is squarely on the money-weighted return.
1:36The money-weighted return tells the story of your personal wealth growth and your progress towards your specific goals. It's the real result of staying invested and contributing consistently, and it's the number we use to assess if you are on track to achieve the financial future you've planned for.
Two ways of measuring the same account
The video turns on a distinction worth holding onto, because the two numbers answer different questions and neither one is wrong:
- Time-weighted return asks how the investments themselves did, setting aside when money went in or came out. It is the fair way to judge a fund or a strategy, because it does not credit or blame the manager for the timing of your deposits. Fidelity shows this one by default.
- Money-weighted return asks how your money did, counting the size and timing of every contribution and withdrawal. It is the number that reflects your own experience as an investor, and the one we work from when we sit down with you.
The same account can show two different percentages on the same day without either being an error.
About these materials
The material on this page is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is general in nature, does not take into account your individual financial circumstances, investment objectives, risk tolerance, tax situation, or other personal factors. Nothing on this page constitutes investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice, nor should it be construed as a recommendation to purchase, sell, or hold any security, investment strategy, or financial product.
Any examples presented are generic hypothetical illustrations only and not intended to represent the actual experience of any clients of White Oak Financial Management, Inc.
Hypothetical Illustrations
Any charts, tables, examples, videos, calculators, or illustrations presented on this page are hypothetical and are provided for illustration only. They are not based on the performance of any actual client account, portfolio, investment, or strategy.
Any results shown are illustrative and reflect arithmetic only. They are not projections, predictions, forecasts, targeted returns, or estimates of future investment performance. Results do not account for market volatility, periods of negative returns, investment selection, investor behavior, liquidity needs, sequence of returns risk, or other factors that may significantly affect actual outcomes.
The rates of return shown in examples are used for illustration only and should not be interpreted as expected, projected, targeted, or achievable investment returns.
Investment Risk
All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. No investment strategy, financial plan, or advisory service can assure success or protect against loss. Market conditions may result in periods of substantial decline, and investments may lose value for extended periods of time.
There can be no assurance that any investment will achieve a specified rate of return or reach a particular value within any period.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Fees, Expenses, Taxes, and Inflation
Illustrations shown here generally do not account for the impact of advisory fees, brokerage commissions, fund expenses, transaction costs, taxes, withdrawals, or other expenses. These costs reduce investor returns and may significantly affect long-term results.
Similarly, figures shown are generally nominal and do not account for inflation. An account balance may grow while the purchasing power of those assets increases by a substantially smaller amount. Inflation can materially reduce future spending power and may significantly affect long-term financial outcomes.
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