Portfolios: Currencies
Portfolio currencies allows you to assign a currency to a portfolio so that holdings, values, and performance are all displayed consistently, even across mixed-currency portfolios.
Overview
How It Works
Supported Portfolios and Currencies
Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
Once a portfolio base currency is assigned, portfolio performance reflects both holding performance and the impact of foreign exchange movements.
- Portfolio values are displayed in the selected currency
- Portfolio performance calculations incorporate foreign exchange movements of portfolio holdings
- Portfolio weights and allocations are calculated using converted values.
How It Works
Exchange Rates Impact Returns
- When a holding's currency differs from the portfolio's base currency, YCharts adjusts that holding's return using the change in exchange rate over the same period of time. This means portfolio performance may differ from the holding's native-currency returns.
- Example:
- A U.S. stock may rise 10% in USD terms
- But if the USD weakens relative to CAD during the same period, the return shown in a CAD portfolio may be lower
Currency Conversion
YCharts makes currency exchange adjustments at the individual security level before aggregating to the portfolio. The calculation process is:
- Retrieve holding-level returns
- Apply FX adjustment where applicable
- Apply portfolio weights
- Aggregate returns into portfolio-level performance
Supported Portfolios and Currencies
-
Model, Client, Household, and Benchmark portfolios are currently supported. At this time, dynamic models are not supported.
- Supported Currencies
- US Dollar (USD)
- Canadian Dollar (CAD)
- Euro (EUR)
- British Pound (GBP)
- UAE Dirham (AED)
- Australian Dollar (AUD)
- Bos. Mark (BAM)
- Brazilian Real (BRL)
- Swiss Franc (CHF)
- Chinese Yuan (offshore) (CNH)
- Chinese Yuan (onshore) (CNY)
- Czech Koruna (CZK)
- Danish Krone (DKK)
- British Pence (GBX)
- Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
- Hungarian Forint (HUF)
- Israeli Shekel (ILS)
- Icelandic Krona (ISK)
- Japanese Yen (JPY)
- Mexican Peso (MXN)
- Norwegian Krone (NOK)
- New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
- Polish Zloty (PLN)
- Romanian Leu (RON)
- Russian Ruble (RUB)
- Swedish Krona (SEK)
- Singapore Dollar (SGD)
- South African Rand (ZAR)
Frequently Asked Questions
What source is used for exchange rates?
-
We primarily source exchange rates from the European Central Bank. Where the ECB does not publish a reference rate for a supported currency, we use the Bank of Canada as a fallback source.
What happens if no portfolio currency is selected?
-
If no currency is selected, we will not apply any portfolio-level currency conversions.
I set my portfolio currency to CAD and the portfolio contains both Canadian and US securities. Why doesn't the portfolio return equal the weighted average of the holdings?
- When a portfolio currency is selected, we factor in foreign exchange movements into calculations. In this example, the returns of the US denominated holdings are adjusted to reflect changes in the USD/CAD exchange rate over the same period.
What happens if exchange rate data is unavailable?
- If exchange rate data is missing for a given day, we will use the most recent available exchange rate to avoid gaps in portfolio calculations.
What happens if a household portfolios is denominated in USD, but it holds client portfolios denominated in CAD?
- All underlying portfolios are converted to the household's base currency before being summed.