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Your Performance page helps you understand just how your portfolio of investments is doing as well as how the overall market and your own activity have affected your balance over time.
Your return was calculated using the Personal Rate of Return (money-weighted) calculation. This calculation is based on a number of factors, including changes in the value of the assets you own, dividends and interest you earned, fees that you may have paid, and the size and timing of your additions and/or withdrawals. This type of calculation is also sometimes referred to as an internal rate of return.
Investment
(time-weighted) Rate of Return is commonly used to evaluate the
performance of a fund or an investment manager. Investment Rate of
Return measures the performance of the underlying investments,
including dividends, interest, and fees, but seeks to eliminate or minimize the impact of the size and timing of additions and withdrawals. The effect is to better isolate for observation the investment manager's allocation and investment selection.
Personal (money-weighted) Rate of Return is used to evaluate the combined investment decisions of both the investment manager and the individual investor. Personal Rate of Return measures the performance of the underlying investments, including dividends, interest, and fees, but also considers the impact of the relative amount and timing of the additions and withdrawals that the customer makes. The result is a rate of return that includes a broader array of causes, including the customer's actions.
No, customers cannot elect the calculation methodology.
The Total Portfolio Return calculation includes all of your Fidelity Brokerage accounts as well as any other accounts that you have access to view or trade. Workplace Savings Accounts, Brokerage Flex, Brokerage Link and certain Insurance/Annuity accounts are all excluded from the Total Portfolio Return.
Unfortunately, this feature cannot be added upon user request at this time. Fidelity recognizes the value in providing a combined return number that includes all of your Fidelity accounts. Fidelity is actively pursuing a solution for performance reporting that would allow us to achieve this objective.
Annualized Return shows how much your investments have grown or declined – on average – over each year of a multi-year period. Cumulative Return shows how much your investments have grown or declined – in total – over a multi-year period. In certain instances it may be appropriate to compare annualized returns of different periods, but not cumulative returns of different periods.
The performance calculations are net of fees, reducing the performance by the effect of all applicable fees including, for example, the mutual fund management and annuity separate account fees on your underlying investments and any fees related to their purchase; and bank charges, advisory and brokerage fees related to the maintenance and servicing of your account.
The fees column generally only includes maintenance and servicing related account fees including, for example: advisory fees, bank charges and brokerage account fees. Certain ongoing, asset-based fees, such as mutual fund management and annuity separate account fees, that are reflected in the performance calculation are not displayed in the fees column.
At this time, Fidelity’s performance reporting solution does not include position-level performance. See the research page on Fidelity.com to analyze market performance for individual positions.
Withdrawals are not treated as a decline in your return, but will decrease the basis for your return calculation. The money-weighted methodology, or Personal Rate of Return, takes into account the timing and size of deposits and withdrawals.
Your performance impact will differ based on transaction type. Please refer to the table below for details on how SPS transactions are included in performance reporting.
| SPS Transaction | Performance Start Date |
| Stock Option Plans | Grant price |
| Stock Appreciation Rights | Grant price (if shares) or Fair Market Value (if cash) |
| Employee Stock Purchase Plans | Discounted Purchase Price |
| Restricted Stock Awards | Closing price on date the shares are deposited |
| Restricted Stock Units | Closing price on date the shares are deposited |
| Performance Plans | Closing price on date the shares are deposited |
| Stock Swaps | Fair Market Value |
Please note that performance in the Brokerage account for Stock Plan transactions begins measurement at the time of purchase, exercise or vesting.
Significance of SPS activity on performance will depend on the size of the SPS activity as compared to the remainder of the account or portfolio - the larger the amount of other assets, the smaller the impact and vice-versa.
Refer to customer statement for change in investment value and additional details on SPS transaction activity.
Note: Prior to April 14, 2014, Restricted Stock Awards and Restricted Stock Units were included as follows:
| SPS Transaction (Prior to April 14, 2014) | Performance Start Date (Prior to April 14, 2014) |
| Restricted Stock Awards | $0 acquisition cost |
| Restricted Stock Units | $0 (if shares) or Fair Market Value (if cash) |
The standard performance calculation (your "Personal Rate of Return") uses transaction data differently than your monthly statement and may give different results. See below for examples of differences:
| Transaction | Statement Treatment | Performance Reporting Treatment | Rationale for Difference |
| Pending trades and grants | Valued based on settlement date | Valued based on trade date | Trades placed late in the month may not settle before monthly statements are sent out. To give you an up-to-date rate of return figure, performance reporting on Fidelity.com uses the price on the trade date rather than waiting for the security to settle. |
| Externally paid fees (exclusive to managed accounts) | Ignored on statement | Included as a fee and an offsetting deposit | Fees impact returns because they negatively impact earnings. In order to provide you with an accurate summary of all fees paid on your account, we included externally paid fees as part of the total fees along with an offsetting bookkeeping deposit. |
| Penny stocks | Statements carry prices to as many decimal places as needed | Prices are rounded to the nearest whole penny | The performance calculation rounds prices to the nearest penny, and small discrepancies in values may result. |
In order for Fidelity to provide you with as much historical performance information as possible, a historical conversion process was used to load transaction, market value, and pricing data. This information is used for approximating returns for periods that begin prior to October 31, 2008 and for annuity contracts, prior to January 31, 2012. After October 31, 2008, and for annuity contracts after January 31, 2012 daily data is being used in the returns calculations. As a result, there can be differences between the way that transactions are treated before and after October 31, 2008 and for annuity contracts before and after January 31, 2012. The differences are as follows:
| Transaction | Historical Conversion Treatment | Post-Conversion Performance Reporting Treatment | Rationale for Difference |
| Fixed Income Interest Accrual and Payments | Cash Basis Methodology - Interest earnings on fixed income securities is reported as income and added to market value upon the payment date, rather than reporting a portion of the income each month the security is held. | Performance reporting currently uses both the accrual and cash basis methodology for including fixed income interest in the performance calculation. Accrual Basis Methodology - Interest is accrued and reported for each month that the security is held, as the interest is earned. Performance includes accrued interest for securities like fixed-rate bonds, fixed-rate government bonds and commercial paper. Cash Basis Methodology - The performance of other fixed income securities like certificates of deposit, money market funds and floating interest rate debt securities are computed on a cash basis, with earnings recorded upon payment. |
For performance reporting purposes, it was not possible to use the accrual basis methodology to calculate performance historically given the complexity of the calculation, so the cash basis methodology was employed instead. |
| Deposits and Withdrawals | Deposits are aggregated into a single monthly deposit assumed to occur on the 15th of each month and withdrawals are aggregated into a single monthly withdrawal assumed to occur on the 16th of each month. | Deposits and withdrawals are aggregated daily. | Using net monthly deposit and withdrawal totals is a common approach for providing the required cash flow information for performance reporting. This approach was required to provide as much historical information as possible |
Benchmarks assist in evaluating the performance of your investments. To put your return in context, it is important to compare it to the performance of similar investments.
Your benchmark should represent the segments of the overall market that you're most heavily invested in. The Performance page lets you choose from 26 single market and blended benchmarks. If your account is made up primarily of municipal bonds you may consider a single market index like the Barclays Municipal Bond Index. However, if your account is 85% stocks and 15% bonds, consider selecting the "Aggressive Growth" blended benchmark. Blended benchmarks combine different market indexes and can often be a better fit for your account. Fidelity customers can leverage the Guided Portfolio Summary tool to determine their current asset allocation.
Several default benchmarks returns are available in the Compare Your Returns to the Market section at the bottom of the performance page. You can also add or modify benchmarks by clicking Change/Add Market Indexes.
It's often difficult to outperform benchmarks, since they don't include any fees. Also, keep in mind that benchmarks do not reflect any personal trades or transactions. The size and timing of your trades can have a significant impact on your rate of return, but will not influence the performance of a benchmark.
The relevant blended benchmark is automatically displayed when viewing a managed account. It would not be accurate to view a different blended benchmark as it would not match the strategy of your account.
The first thing you should do is ensure your asset allocation supports your investment strategy, then make the appropriate adjustments if it does not. Fidelity offers several alternatives to help you manage asset allocation, or we can do it for you.
A broad variety of factors may affect the performance of your account, including your asset allocation, concentration of holdings, the timing and size of your trades, and overall market volatility.
To get a better idea of the changes to your account value, review the graph and table at the top of the Performance page labeled “What drove your change in balance?” This information provides a more detailed breakdown of changes such as account deposits and withdrawals and investment gain or loss.
Pre-tax account performance returns for the previous month will be available by the third business day of each month.
Not at this time. Performance calculations are only published on a monthly basis.
At the end of the first month in which the account was opened, at which time accounts will have been added to the performance database.
Since Inception returns are calculated from the date we added your account information to the performance database, first created on January 31, 2003. If you opened your account prior to January 2003, the inception date for performance reporting is January 31, 2003. For accounts opened after that date, it is from the beginning of the first full month of performance. For Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Services managed accounts opened after October 12, 2015, it is from the start of the first business day after your account satisfied all of the requirements for the investment management team to begin actively managing your account.
For Fidelity Retirement Reserves annuity contracts, if you allocated money to the fixed account of your contract prior to January 1, 2007, the Since Inception date for performance reporting is January 1, 2008 (in all other respects the aforementioned Since Inception date rules apply to all annuity contracts).
Customers with three or more accounts have the ability to create their own performance reporting account groupings. To do this, select the Group Accounts link at the top of the Performance Overview page. Next, provide a name for the Account Group and select the accounts to be added to the group. Performance for the group that you have created will be updated overnight and made available the following day. The new group can then be found in the dropdown menu at the top of the Performance page.
Select the Group Accounts link at the top of the Performance Overview page. Customers can modify existing account groups by locating the appropriate account group and selecting Edit. Users can also remove accounts from a Performance reporting group. This change will take effect overnight and be available the following day. Note: The default composite which includes all of the customer’s accounts cannot be edited.
Purged accounts are accounts that have been removed due to two years of inactivity and a balance of zero. Hidden accounts are accounts which customers have decided not to display on Fidelity.com. Purged and hidden accounts, however, will be removed from all account groupings when the returns are refreshed the following month.
Surrendered and terminated annuity contracts will no longer be available on Fidelity.com and will therefore no longer show a personal rate of return. Deferred annuity contracts that have been annuitized (turned into an income stream) will no longer display an account level PRR but the historical annuity returns will still be included in the aggregate rate of return calculation.
Note: For contracts that annuitized prior to January 31, 2012 no historical data will be available.
Hidden accounts are accounts that customers have decided not to display on Fidelity.com. Hidden accounts will be removed from applicable account groupings when the returns are refreshed the following month.
Yes, click Print at the top of each page to obtain a printer-friendly version.
Yes, the performance returns by period chart as well as the performance chart can be downloaded into a spreadsheet.
Performance calculations displayed here are not included in your monthly statement at this time. Fidelity recognizes the importance and value of customer statements. We are constantly exploring opportunities to improve our customer statements and the inclusion of performance reporting information is under consideration.
Surrender, Redemption, Premium Tax for subsequent purchase payments, Annual Maintenance, and Optional Death Benefit are displayed in the fee column. Where applicable, premium taxes on initial purchase payments are not displayed in the fee column nor are they reflected in the return calculation. In addition, where applicable, ongoing asset-based fees (mortality & expense risk charge, administrative charge, and underlying fund fees) are not displayed in the fee column, however, they are included in the return calculation.
When you allocate your assets in a variable annuity, you're actually purchasing units of a subaccount, not shares of a mutual fund. The insurance company owns shares of a mutual fund on your behalf and in turn provides you with unit values to represent your ownership in the fund. Each year, there may be distributions of capital gains and dividends from the mutual fund. When the fund distributes interest, dividends and capital gains, the insurance company receives those distributions and reinvests them on your behalf. Those distributions flow to you via the unit value. For additional information about dividends and capital gains, please see the Annual and Semiannual reports. These reports explain the total underlying fund distributions for the preceding period.
Not at this time. We will look to add this feature in the future.
When you purchase an income annuity contract, your assets are received by the insurance company in exchange for a guarantee that the insurance company will pay you (or you and your spouse) a lifetime income. Your contract now represents an income guaranteed for your lifetime, not a specific asset amount, and so there is no basis (asset value) from which a Personal Rate of Return can be calculated.
Once the contract annuitizes at the individual level you will no longer see your personal rate of return. Your contract now represents an income guaranteed for your lifetime, not a specific asset amount, and so there is no basis (asset value) from which a Personal Rate of Return can be calculated. However, historical data from when the contract was in deferred status remains at the composite level. For contracts that annuitized prior to January 31, 2012 no historical data will be available.
In order for Fidelity to provide you with as much historical performance information as possible, a historical conversion process was used to load transaction, market value, and pricing data. This information is used for approximating returns for periods that begin prior to January 31, 2012. After January 31, 2012, daily data is being used in the return calculations. As a result, there can be differences between the way that transactions are treated before and after January 31, 2012. The differences are as follows:
| Transaction | Historical Conversion Treatment | Post-Conversion Performance Reporting Treatment | Rationale for Difference |
| Deposits and Withdrawals | Deposits are aggregated into a single monthly deposit assumed to occur on the 15th of each month and withdrawals are aggregated into a single monthly withdrawal assumed to occur on the 16th of each month. | Deposits and withdrawals are aggregated daily. | Using net monthly deposit and withdrawal totals is a common approach for providing the required cash flow information for performance reporting. This approach was required to provide as much historical information as possible |
In general surrendered or terminated contracts are excluded form the personal rate of return calculation.