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Portfolio FAQ |
This page is designed to help answer some commonly asked questions about Wikinvest's Portfolio. If you are having difficulty importing your portfolio, you can check our Portfolio Help page for brokerage-specific questios. If you are looking for the general Wikinvest site FAQ, you can find it here.
How do I know this is safe?
Protecting and securing user data has been the absolute number one priority in building this product. We went through an exhaustive third-party security audit to validate the security of our platform, which was designed and built by the same people that built Amazon.com's technology for securing credit card numbers and it's secure checkout process. At every step along the way, from transmitting data over a secure connection, to encrypting user credentials from the moment they are entered, we've designed our architecture with security at the forefront. The result is bank level security, with 256 bit SSL encryption for all data.
Furthermore, users of Wikinvest's portfolio register anonymously. At no point of the registration process do we ever ask for your name, address, or phone number. The only personal information Wikinvest requires is a valid email address.
If someone steals my Wikinvest login, can they access my brokerages to make transactions?
No, as Wikinvest's system is "read-only" into your investment accounts. As a result, it is impossible for someone to make trades or obtain funds from your account even if they compromised your Wikinvest login.
What if I'm still uncomfortable with entering my login credentials?
If you do not wish to import your accounts from your brokerages, you can add companies to your watchlist for now. Soon we will allow you to manually enter portfolio data, including things like cost basis, shares owned, etc. Finally, we're building CSV upload so you can export your brokerage holdings to a spreadsheet and upload your details to Wikinvest that way. Stay tuned for these updates!
Is there a fee for using Wikinvest's portfolio?
No, Wikinvest's portfolio feature is completely free of charge.
My brokerage isn't supported. What can I do?
If your brokerage isn't currently supported, you can request it here. We are constantly adding more brokerages, and, if you suggest a brokerage, we will let you know when we do support your brokerage. In addition, you can currently set up a manual watchlist, and very soon, we will support manual portfolio entry as well.
How do we calculate the performance of a portfolio?
Wikinvest's Portfolio pulls your transactions and positions history from your brokerage account. After pulling the positions that you currently have, we use the current market price of each security to determine your total account value at any given time. In order to calculate your return, we take the total account value of today and compare it to the previous day. These returns are calculated net of fees, interest, dividends, and miscellaneous adjustments. Investment returns automatically adjust for deposits and withdrawals to represent true performance of the portfolio.
The daily returns are then chained to reflect your cumulative performance over a given period. For example: If your portfolio returned 2% on Day 1, 3% on Day 2 and 5% on Day 3. Your cumulative returns are calculated as ((1.02*1.03*1.05) - 1) = 10.31%. In general, the performance of your portfolio should reflect the time-weighted return on your assets.
How does Wikinvest break-down the various components of performance?
From your transactions, we are able to determine dividends, interests, fees and other miscellaneous adjusts (such as foreign taxes). We sum these up to reflect the total value of these components over a given period.
Troubleshooting
How come my brokerage data isn't importing to my Wikinvest portfolio?
Some brokerages (i.e. UBS, Bank of America and other banks that act as brokerages) require users to activate direct connect, or Quicken, support. Often, you cannot import your holdings to Wikinvest if you haven't activated this support for your brokerage account. Upon activation, you will receive a new set of online credentials for direct connect support, which you will use to import your holdings from Wikinvest. This set of credentials is very often different from the ones you use for online banking.
If you are having additionaly difficulty importing your account, please see the portfolio help page.
How are the cost basis for my holdings calculated?
Wikinvest's Portfolio uses a First In, First Out (FIFO) method when determining your cost basis. A quick example will help illustrate the point.
- On January 1, you purchase 100 shares of Stock A at $1 per share (batch 1).
- On January 2, you purchase 100 more shares of Stock A at $2 per share (batch 2).
- On January 3, you sell 100 shares of Stock A for $2 per share
As of January 3, you will have 100 shares leftover from batch 2. This is because the shares that were purchased first (batch 1) are the first ones into the portfolio, and as a result are the first ones to be taken out once shares are sold. As a result, the cost basis for the 100 shares leftover will be $2 per share, or $200 in total.
How come the cost basis for some of my holdings isn't displayed?
Some brokerages limit the amount of transaction history we can import. If a position was taken prior to the limit on our history, we won't be able to display this data. For instance, if we can only pull 3 months of data, and you bought a stock a year ago, we won't be able to pull the cost basis.
If we are unable to pull the cost basis data, you can manually enter in the cost basis. Simply click the "add" button under the cost basis column, enter in the data, and then hit save.
How do we calculate the performance of a portfolio?
Wikinvest's Portfolio pulls your transactions and positions history from your brokerage account. After pulling the positions that you currently have, we use the current market price of each security to determine your total account value at any given time. In order to calculate your return, we take the total account value of today and compare it to the previous day. These returns are calculated net of fees, interest, dividends, and miscellaneous adjustments. Returns also do not include deposits and withdrawals.
The daily returns are then chained to reflect your cumulative performance over a given period. For example: If your portfolio returned 2% on Day 1, 3% on Day 2 and 5% on Day 3. Your cumulative returns are calculated as ((1.02*1.03*1.05) - 1) = 10.31%. In general, the performance of your portfolio should reflect the time-weighted return on your assets.
How does Wikinvest break-down the various components of performance?
From your transactions, we are able to determine dividends, interests, fees and other miscellaneous adjusts (such as foreign taxes). We sum these up to reflect the total value of these components over a given period.
My performance chart compared to the Dow/S&P doesn't look right. What's going on?
If your performance relative to the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average looks incorrect, there may be a number of factors at play:
- You may have some over the counter securities for which there is no publicly available data. If this is the case, then after your initial purchase of shares, Wikinvest Portfolio does not pick up the daily change in value. As a result, once you sell those shares, the return to your portfolio will be recognized all at once, leading to a jump in your performance.
- You may hold significant amounts of options in your portfolio. Unfortunately, we currently do not support historical options pricing data. Therefore, like over the counter securities without publicly available data, we are unable to track the daily change in value. As a result, when you sell or exercise the option (or it expires), the entire gain or loss will be realized all at once, leading to a jump on the performance chart. Note that over the long run, your true performance will be accurate; however, in the short term there may be some differences.
- You may be holding substantial amounts of debt. Like options, we are unable to follow the daily price changes for debt. As a result, when you sell a bond or it reaches maturity, any gain or loss will be realized all at once.
- You may have made a trade today. In most cases, brokerages only update the data we import to your account on a daily basis. Check back in a day or two and your performance chart should display correctly again.
There is also the possibility that we are mis-classifying certain transactions, leading to irregular discontinuities in the performance. We are aware of this, and we are constantly updating our algorithms, so please check back often to see if your performance has been updated. You may find it helpful to refresh the page, or manually re-import your account.
I do not want to receive emails about my portfolio. How do I change the settings?
To change your email settings, just click on the manage link next to your brokerage account, and then click on the communication link on the following page. Then just un-check the relevant boxes under the Portfolio Alerts section.
How do I delete my account?
If you would like to delete your Wikinvest account and remove all of your portfolio data from Wikinvest, please go to My Account > Delete Account at www.wikinvest.com/portfolio.
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