Updated 24 September 2026
Why the app's return looks off
“My return is wrong” is one of the most common complaints about Trade Republic. Usually the number is correct, but it follows a formula you need to know. According to the Trade Republic help centre, absolute performance adds up realised and unrealised gains and losses, dividends and bond coupons, minus fees and taxes. Relative performance, the percentage, divides that amount by the average size of your portfolio over the selected period.
That has a few surprising consequences:
- New money lowers the percentage. Buying more during the year increases the average you divide by: the gain in euros stays the same, the percentage drops.
- Each period has its own average. The one-day, one-year and all-time views divide by different portfolio sizes and cannot simply be added up.
- In the red right after buying. Positions are valued at the bid price, you paid the ask price plus the order fee: a brand-new position almost always starts slightly negative.
- Not everything counts. Interest on cash, deposits and withdrawals, card payments and security transfers are excluded from performance, according to Trade Republic.
Three numbers for three questions
There is no single right return. The right number depends on what you want to know:
- Total result in euros
- How much have I made or lost overall? Unrealised and realised gains plus dividends, after fees. This number never lies, but it says nothing about speed.
- Return on purchases
- Total result divided by the sum of all purchases. Easy to read, but it ignores when the money went in: a purchase made yesterday weighs as much as one from three years ago.
- Time-weighted return (TWR)
- How did your investments perform, regardless of when and how much you paid in? TWR chains the returns of each day. Funds report this way, and it is the number to compare with an index such as the MSCI World.
NokxiStats also shows the annualised return on your money (IRR): the annual rate that turns each payment, from its date, into today’s value. Unlike the time-weighted return, it accounts for when you paid in; under one year, it is not annualised.
A worked example
A simplified, made-up example with a single ETF and no fees:
- In January you buy €1,000. By the end of June the ETF is up 10%: your portfolio is worth €1,100.
- In July you buy another €5,000. By December the ETF is down 5%: your portfolio is worth (€1,100 + €5,000) × 0.95 = €5,795.
You invested €6,000 and hold €5,795: the total result is −€205, the return on purchases −3.4%. The TWR, however, is +4.5% (1.10 × 0.95 − 1), because the ETF itself rose over the year. Both are right: your money lost, because most of it arrived just before the fall; the investment itself gained. The app divides the −€205 by the average portfolio size over the year, roughly €3,500, and so shows about −6%.
How to check your own numbers
- Download your transactions as a CSV file: how to export from the app or the browser.
- Drop the file above, or try the sample data first. The file never leaves your browser.
- The Performance tab opens: portfolio value, total result, cumulative return, annualised return and result month by month, filtered by account (securities, crypto) and period (day, month, year, since the start).
- Click a position to see its purchases, sales and dividends, with the average cost after each transaction.
How much new money you actually put in each month: see Money invested. What Saveback has earned you: see Saveback tracker.
What NokxiStats does differently
- Prices: closing prices from Yahoo Finance, not Trade Republic's bid prices. Differences of a few euros are normal.
- Average cost: weighted average of all purchases, fees included. Tax rules can differ (Germany and Spain, for instance, use first-in, first-out), so realised gains may not match your tax statement. NokxiStats does not calculate tax.
- Dividends count net of withholding tax, as credited.
- Securities transferred in from another broker appear without a purchase price: figures for those positions are incomplete.
Frequently asked questions
Is the return in the Trade Republic app wrong?
Usually not. It divides your gain by the average portfolio size over the period. That is a legitimate measure, but a different one from the return on purchases or the time-weighted return.
Which return should I compare with an ETF?
The time-weighted return (TWR): it removes the effect of when you paid in, just like the performance a fund or index publishes.
Are interest and Saveback included?
Interest on cash is not part of performance, neither at Trade Republic nor here: you will find it in the Spending and income tab. Shares bought with Saveback are ordinary purchases and do count.
Do you need my login details?
No. NokxiStats only reads the CSV file you download yourself, and computes everything in your browser. No account, no sign-up.