Today
Today is the first thing you see when you open a portfolio. It tells you what you are worth, how that money has done against the index and inflation, what I make of it, and which news deserves your time.
Net Worth
The big figure is your net worth: everything in a section that counts, less what you owe on loans and credit cards.
Under it, I set what you own against what you put in. Holdings with no known purchase price are left out of that comparison, and I say how much was left out. Counting a holding's whole value as gain because nobody told me what it cost would be humbug.
A statement lists what you hold but not what you paid. Holdings brought in that way are counted at the statement day's price until you import your tradebook or order history, whose trades replace them scrip by scrip. See Importing.
The Three Ghosts
Three ghosts once kept me up all night showing me my past, my present and my likely future. Unpleasant, but useful. Today shows your money the same three ways.
- Past: Your net worth over time, against what you put in. I write it down every evening after prices come in, so the chart starts from the second evening.
- Present: How what you own splits across the sections that count.
- Future: Where today's net worth leads in 5, 10 and 20 years if nothing new goes in: grown at your XIRR, set against what it would need to be just to keep up with inflation. It is not a prediction. The future ghost only points.
The Stats
| Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Wealth XIRR | Your yearly return on every dated rupee you put in, across all sections that count |
| Same money in the index | What the same money, put into your benchmark on the same days, would have made a year |
| After inflation | Your wealth XIRR in today's rupees, after the inflation rate in Settings |
The rates wait until money has been in for 90 days, or whatever you set in Settings. An annual figure over a few weeks swings wildly, and I will not quote one. How I work them out is in Prices and Returns.
A separate card sets your stocks, and only your stocks, against the same money in your benchmark, and says plainly whether you are ahead or behind and by how much a year. Usually behind.
Ebenezer's Note
Beside the net worth sits my note: a one-line verdict, then a few points, the most telling first.
With an AI model connected, I write it fresh from your ledger whenever something changes: after prices come in, after news is fetched, or when you open the page and something has moved. Every figure I use must appear in the ledger. A line with a number I made up is thrown out. Without a model, the note comes from a phrasebook in your chosen tone and says the same facts.
The eye button opens What Ebenezer sees: the plain text sent to the model, so you can check I was shown nothing I should not have been. How I sound is up to you. See Voice.
Protected And News
If the portfolio has an Insurance section with policies still in force, a Protected card adds up your life and health cover, what the policies cost a year, and the next renewal. Insurance protects net worth. It is never counted in it.
The News card lists the few recent stories I marked signal, with my one-line reason for each. If nothing is worth your time, I say so. How I judge is in News.