Frequently Asked Questions
Platform mechanics, security architecture, and methodology.
1. General Overview
What is Truefolio?
Truefolio is a social investment network that allows you to track your portfolio's performance, compare your skills against others and against market benchmarks, and securely view the portfolio allocations of other investors to discover new ideas and spark discussions.
Who is Truefolio for?
Truefolio is designed for medium- to long-term investors aiming to track performance, discover ideas, and objectively evaluate their investing skills over time. Because our platform focuses on end-of-day data and long-term track records, it is not optimized for day traders.
Is Truefolio a brokerage?
No. Truefolio is exclusively a portfolio tracking and social platform. We do not hold your money, and you cannot deposit funds or execute trades directly on Truefolio.
Is Truefolio free to use?
Yes, Truefolio is completely free.
2. Methodology & The Math
What is my "Skill Score" and how is it calculated?
Your Skill Score is based entirely on your Time-Weighted Return (TWR) over various timeframes. TWR is the industry standard for measuring pure investing performance, as it strictly isolates your decision-making and eliminates the distorting effects of cash deposits and withdrawals.
Why use a Skill Score (TWR) instead of Total Gain to rank users?
Total Gain is a measure of absolute dollars made. Dollar gains depend on the amount invested, making them an inaccurate way to compare users with different portfolio sizes. Example: If you double a $1,000 portfolio to $2,000, your True Skill (TWR) is 100%. If you then deposit an additional $100,000, your simple percentage return drops to roughly 1%, even though your $1,000 profit and your investing decisions have not changed. By using TWR for your Skill Score, you remain at a 100% rating, accurately reflecting your successful investing decisions regardless of the new capital.
How is my "Risk Score" calculated?
Your Risk Score is based on annualized volatility, which measures how much portfolio returns fluctuate, and is mapped to a scale from 1 to 10. The volatility calculation requires at least 30 valid daily returns. Current holdings risk uses historical price movements and current portfolio weights; cash-only portfolios with a positive cash balance receive the minimum score.
How are period gains from sales calculated?
We use the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) method. Note that if you execute multiple buy/sell transactions of the exact same ticker on the exact same day, our calculations for those specific same-day trades may be slightly skewed, as we strictly rely on end-of-day data summaries.
What is the difference between "Total Gain" and "Unrealized Gain"?
Total Gain is the overall profit or loss on your investments since purchase, including both sold positions (realized) and currently held positions (unrealized). Unrealized Gain represents only the paper profit or loss on the assets you still hold.
How do the benchmark comparisons work?
We compare your portfolio's daily and historical performance against major market indices to give you a clear picture of how you perform relative to the broader market. These indices currently include the S&P 500 (SPY), the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA).
Why might my Period Gain/Loss differ from my broker's numbers?
Truefolio calculates your performance using Mark-to-Market valuation for the selected timeframe. When you select a specific period (e.g., YTD or 1M), the engine measures your gains based on the asset's exact value at the start of that period, treating it as your new baseline. Traditional brokerages display your Taxable Realized/Unrealized Gains, which are permanently anchored to your original purchase price (Cost Basis), regardless of the timeframe you are viewing. Truefolio focuses strictly on your portfolio's performance momentum within the boundaries of the timeframe you selected. This approach strips out historical tax-lot data to accurately isolate and measure your current investing skill.
How are IBKR trade execution prices estimated?
Due to Interactive Brokers reporting constraints via Plaid, precise execution prices for historical trades are not always transmitted. To preserve mathematical consistency in your Time-Weighted Return (TWR) and Net Asset Value (NAV) history, we estimate sell prices using the daily average, the midpoint of the high and low prices on your trade date: Pₐₑₜ = (Pₕᴵᴳʰ + Pₗₒᵂ) / 2. For liquid assets under normal market conditions this typically results in a daily NAV variance of less than 0.05%. Portfolios with highly volatile assets or trades executed near daily price extremes (e.g., via limit or stop orders) may see more noticeable variances compared to your official broker statements.
What does an estimated cost basis mean?
Your cost basis comes directly from your broker whenever they report it. Some brokers don't send a cost basis for certain holdings, most commonly granted or vested shares such as RSUs, so we estimate it from market prices instead: each acquisition is valued at its trade or vesting-date price (using First-In-First-Out matching), and any shares you held before your earliest synced data are valued at the earliest synced price (that date is shown on your portfolio page). Estimated holdings are marked with an info icon next to their average cost. If we can't value a holding confidently, we leave its cost basis blank rather than guess, so it simply shows no gain.
3. Security Architecture & Privacy
How do you secure my financial data?
We use industry-standard encryption, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP) security protocols and database encryption at rest.
Do you store my brokerage credentials or passwords?
No. We never store your brokerage login credentials on our servers. You authenticate directly with your financial institution through our secure integration partner, Plaid.
Can Truefolio make trades or move money on my behalf?
No. When connecting to your brokerage, we specifically provision secure, read-only access. We have no programmatic ability to execute trades, withdraw funds, or alter your brokerage account in any way.
Can other users see my actual account balance?
No. Privacy is paramount. Other users can only see your percentage returns, your portfolio allocation by sector or asset, and your relative performance metrics (like rank and Skill Score). Your actual account balances and the specific dollar amounts you invest are strictly hidden at the database level.
4. Data Sync & Integration
Which brokerages do you support?
We integrate securely with Plaid to connect to thousands of major financial institutions, including Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard, and E*TRADE. You can search for your specific brokerage during the connection process.
What types of accounts and assets are supported?
We support standard individual US brokerage investment accounts. Currently, we support only USD-denominated accounts. Within those accounts, we track major asset classes: equities (stocks), ETFs, mutual funds, and cash. Support for aggregating multiple linked brokerage accounts is actively in development.
How long does it take for my data to sync?
Your initial portfolio data will sync shortly after you successfully link your account. After that, we update your performance metrics every night on trading days based on market close data.
How far back in time can I track my performance history?
When you first link an account, we securely retrieve your historical transaction data via Plaid to calculate your past performance. Plaid provides up to 2 years of history, depending on your specific brokerage.
5. Platform & Ecosystem Controls
What are the portfolio visibility options?
You have full control over who can see your portfolio. You can set your visibility to Private (only you can see it), Friends Only (only friends can see it), Followers (only your followers can see it), or Public (anyone on Truefolio can see it). Remember, your actual account balances and dollar amounts are always hidden, regardless of your visibility setting.
Can I restrict who can follow me?
Yes. You can set your account visibility to private, which means every follower request will require your manual confirmation.
How does the ranking system work?
Users are ranked on global leaderboards against their peers based on their Skill Score (TWR) and consistent portfolio performance over 1-month, 3-month, 1-year, and all-time timeframes. To participate in and view a specific leaderboard, your portfolio visibility must be set to a compatible level.
Does Truefolio provide financial or investment advice?
No. Truefolio is fundamentally a platform designed for rigorous performance tracking, benchmarking, and quantitative education. None of the content, scores, or rankings on Truefolio, nor any portfolios shared by other users, should be construed as financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset.