First, let's start with the basics: a return is the amount of money earned or lost on an investment. Annual returns are usually shown as a percentage on your statements. Let’s say you start the year with $100, and at the end you have $110; that would mean you have a 10% return on your money.

At Wealthsimple, we calculate your progress in three ways: simple return, time-weighted return, and money-weighted return. For the last number of years, it has been standard for Canadian investment professionals to show their returns as time-weighted. But as of January 2017, all investment firms must begin showing their returns as money-weighted (we already showed you both, so no changes here).

Simple (naive) return
A simple return is a basic calculation of your net earnings divided by your net deposits. It is the easiest calculation to understand, but may not correctly reflect what has actually gone on in your account over time. This calculation takes all of your deposits and assumes they were added to your account on the first day the account was funded. Also, in a case where you've earned positive returns, and then withdrawn more money than you deposited, a simple return won't accurately reflect what's going on.

Time-weighted return
Time-weighted returns are simply the performance of an account over a certain period of time. So if you started the year with $100 in your account, you didn’t touch it, and at the end of the year had $110, that would be a 10% time-weighted return. The thing is, if you make deposits and withdrawals over the year (as most of us do), a time-weighted return won't take that into account. So while it's useful for comparing the performance of different investments or money managers, it won't help you understand how much money you actually made or lost. This return is also affected by foreign currency exchange rates as well as management fees. 

Money-weighted return
Money-weighted returns take into account any deposits and withdrawals you make and reflect the actual money you made or lost over the year. If you make a large deposit and the market goes up, it will influence your money-weighted return upwards (and vice-versa). Same as time-weighted returns, this return is also affected by foreign currency exchange rates as well as management fees. 

You can read more about the difference between time-weighted and money-weighted returns on our blog.