5 Portfolio Tracking Features You Didn't Know You Needed
When you start tracking your portfolio, you think you only need the total in your currency and the gain percentage. Then you discover those numbers alone tell you nothing useful. Here are the five features that truly change how you invest.
Some of these you won't find in Excel spreadsheets or banking apps. Yet after using them for just a month, you can't do without them.
Time-Weighted Return (TWR)
The true measure of your performance — without cash flow distortion
Problema
Your portfolio gained 12% this year. Or maybe not. If you deposited capital in January and again in June, the simple percentage calculation on the total is distorted. Someone who deposited more in June (right before a rally) shows better numbers — not because they invested better, but because of timing.
Soluzione
Time-Weighted Return (TWR) eliminates the effect of deposits and withdrawals. It measures the pure performance of the strategy, regardless of when you added or withdrew money. It's the metric used by all professional fund managers to evaluate investment decisions — not the timing of cash flows.
"I had deposited £10,000 in three separate tranches over a year. My Excel showed +8.4%, but I couldn't tell if that was good. With TWR I discovered my strategy had returned +11.2% — the timing of my deposits had penalised the final number."
DonkyCapital automatically calculates both TWR and MWR (Money-Weighted Return) for every portfolio. You can compare them side by side to understand the impact of your investment timing versus the quality of your selection.
Benchmark Comparison
Are you actually beating the market, or paying fees for nothing?
Problema
Your portfolio returned +9% last year. Good? It depends. If the S&P 500 returned +18% in the same period, you're significantly underperforming. If instead you made +9% against 8% inflation, you're barely preserving purchasing power. Without a comparison, the number alone means nothing.
Soluzione
Benchmark comparison lets you measure your performance against an objective reference: MSCI World, S&P 500, Eurostoxx 50, inflation, or even a simple global ETF. This lets you answer the real question: are you adding value with your active strategy, or would you be better off with a single ETF?
"For three years I thought I was good at picking stocks. Then I compared against MSCI World: I had made +24% total, they made +31%. Three years of research, fees and stress to get less than an ETF costing 0.20% per year."
In DonkyCapital you can add benchmarks directly to the dashboard and see the graphical comparison at any time. Available benchmarks include S&P 500, MSCI World, MSCI Emerging Markets, Eurostoxx 50, and local inflation for each country.
Portfolio Heatmap
See performance across all your holdings at a single glance
Problema
You have 15, 20, 30 positions in your portfolio. Every day you open your broker app, scroll through a list of red-green numbers and try to understand what's happening. It's mechanical, slow work, and in the end you only look at the top positions and forget about the others.
Soluzione
A portfolio heatmap visualises all your positions simultaneously, with size proportional to portfolio weight and colour indicating performance (from deep red to deep green). In under five seconds you see where the gains are, where the losses are, and which position has been dominating your portfolio without you noticing.
"The heatmap showed me that a single position — one I had almost forgotten about — had grown to 23% of the portfolio due to price appreciation. It had become my main exposure without me realising. I rebalanced immediately."
DonkyCapital includes an interactive heatmap you can filter by daily, weekly, monthly or year-to-date performance. You can also choose whether to size the blocks by current weight or initial investment.
Cost Basis / Average Cost Tracking
Know exactly what you paid for each asset — even after years of multiple purchases
Problema
You bought Apple three times: at $120, then $145, then $132. What's your real average cost basis? And after a stock split? And factoring in commissions? On a spreadsheet you can calculate it, but one missing or incorrectly entered transaction throws everything off. When you then partially sell, it becomes chaos.
Soluzione
Automatic cost basis tracking calculates your updated average cost after every transaction — buys, partial sells, stock splits, reinvested dividends. You always know your exact break-even point for every position, plus realised and unrealised gain/loss, correctly separated.
"I sold half my position in an ETF. My broker showed +8% on the sale, but I couldn't tell if it was gross or net, and my Excel no longer balanced. With automatic cost basis tracking I could see the realised gain was exactly £1,847, including taxes."
DonkyCapital updates the cost basis in real time after every transaction. You can see realised and unrealised gain/loss separately, with detail per purchase lot (FIFO or average cost). Stock splits are handled automatically.
Rebalancing Alerts / Target Allocation
Know when your strategy has drifted too far from its intended course
Problema
You decided on an allocation: 60% equities, 30% bonds, 10% gold. You've stuck with it for a year. Then you look and find equities have become 80% thanks to a rally, bonds 15%, and gold 5%. You didn't do anything wrong — the market moved — but now you're exposed to much more risk than you planned, without even noticing.
Soluzione
Rebalancing alerts continuously monitor your actual allocation against the targets you've set. When an asset class drifts too far from its target (e.g. more than 5% drift), you get a notification. You can see exactly how much to buy/sell of each asset to return to target allocation — no manual calculations.
"In February 2022 I had forgotten to rebalance. Equities had risen a lot in 2021 and accounted for nearly 75% instead of the 60% target. When the correction came, I lost more than I should have. Now I use alerts and rebalance every quarter."
In DonkyCapital you can set allocation targets by asset class, sector, geography or individual asset. The system shows the real-time drift from each target and automatically calculates the rebalancing trades needed to return to the desired weights.
Which Features Do You Actually Need?
Beginner Investor
You've been investing for less than 2 years. Your goal is to understand what you're doing and avoid major mistakes. You have few positions and don't make many transactions.
Features consigliate
Intermediate Investor
You've been investing for a few years, have multiple brokers or accounts, do regular contributions. You want to understand if your strategy is actually working versus the market.
Features consigliate
Advanced Investor
You manage a structured portfolio, have a defined target allocation, do periodic rebalancing. You want full control over every metric.
Features consigliate
Before and After: Life Without vs With These Features
| # | Without this feature | With this feature |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You calculate annual return by hand, get different numbers every time you try, and can't tell if the result is distorted by the deposits you made during the year. | You open the dashboard and see TWR and MWR already calculated, updated in real time. You know exactly how much your strategy returned, regardless of deposit timing. |
| 2 | You think you're doing well because you're in profit. You don't know the benchmark did twice as well in the same period. You keep paying fees for stock-picking that adds no value. | Every performance chart also shows the benchmark for comparison. In a second you understand whether you are adding or destroying value versus a passive strategy. |
| 3 | You scroll through a list of coloured rows every day. It takes 10 minutes to understand the portfolio situation. You ignore some positions because they're at the bottom of the list. | You open the heatmap and in 5 seconds you have a complete picture of the entire portfolio. The most relevant positions — both positive and negative — are immediately visible. |
| 4 | Your Excel has three separate sheets to manage multiple purchases. After every stock split you spend an hour recalculating everything. You sell a position and don't know the exact gain. | The cost basis updates itself after every transaction. Splits, partial sells, reinvested dividends: all calculated automatically. Realised and unrealised gain/loss is always accurate to the cent. |
| 5 | You only think about rebalancing when you read an article reminding you. By that point the allocation is already far from target. You manually calculate how much to buy of each asset. | The system automatically alerts you when any asset class exceeds the tolerated drift. You immediately see the rebalancing trades needed — zero manual calculations. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Try All 5 Features for Free
Create a free account and discover which features truly change the way you invest. No credit card required.
Start for Free