Performance Analytics
Your Performance Analytics, Explained
Return attribution, risk metrics, drawdown, and benchmark comparison - where you move from "what do I own" to "how is it really performing."
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Welcome
Performance Analytics is the most quantitative part of the platform. Other pages tell you what you own and what it is worth. This page helps you evaluate the quality of return, the amount of risk taken, and whether a result looks strong once you compare it to an appropriate benchmark.
The page is most useful when you want to answer questions such as which part of my portfolio performed best, was that return worth the volatility, and how did this compare with the market.
These analytics are most reliable for liquid, regularly priced assets such as public equities and digital assets. Illiquid holdings such as real estate and private equity can make ratio-based metrics look precise when they are really only directional.
Asset Class vs. Accounts
Performance Analytics can evaluate results through two different lenses.
- Asset Class - Groups performance by category, such as Public Equity, Fixed Income, Cash and Cash Equivalents, Digital Asset, Real Estate, or Private Equity.
- Accounts - Groups performance by account or institution, which is useful when comparing custodians, advisors, managers, or self-directed accounts.
The underlying metrics work the same in either mode. The main difference is whether you want to understand strategy exposure or account-level execution.
The four analysis tabs
Performance Analytics is organized into four layers of analysis, each answering a different question.
- Overview - Best for a quick read on current value, return, drawdown, and risk-adjusted performance.
- Attribution - Best for understanding which holdings, sleeves, or segments drove the result.
- Risk Analysis - Best for evaluating whether returns were achieved efficiently relative to volatility and market sensitivity.
- Volatility and VaR - Best for understanding how unstable returns have been and what downside might look like under stressed conditions.
A simple workflow works well here: start with Overview, move to Attribution if you need an explanation, then use Risk Analysis and Volatility and VaR when you want a stricter quality check.
Core performance metrics
Several metrics appear repeatedly across the page. These are the ones worth understanding first.
- Current Value - The market value of the selected segment today.
- YTD Return - Year-to-date return, shown in both dollar and percentage terms.
- Periodic Return - Return over the selected time window rather than over the full year.
- Sharpe Ratio - Return earned per unit of total risk taken. Higher is generally better for liquid portfolios.
- Max Drawdown - The largest peak-to-trough decline observed during the period.
Together, these metrics help separate strong returns from fragile returns. A segment can rise meaningfully while still having poor risk efficiency or uncomfortable drawdowns.
Glossary of metrics
- Sharpe Ratio - Excess return earned per unit of total risk. Higher values generally indicate better risk-adjusted performance.
- Max Drawdown - The worst peak-to-trough decline over the observed period.
- Beta - Sensitivity to broad market moves. A beta above 1.0 usually means the segment moves more aggressively than the market.
- Standard Deviation - How much returns fluctuate over time. Higher values mean more volatility.
- Value at Risk (VaR) - A statistical estimate of how much you could lose over a defined period at a given confidence level.
- Periodic Return - Return over the active time window rather than since inception or year-to-date.
When in doubt, read the metrics in pairs. Return plus drawdown, or return plus Sharpe, usually tells a more honest story than any single number on its own.
Common workflows
Quarterly performance review
Review each major asset class or account over the last quarter, compare return against the benchmark, and note whether drawdown and Sharpe Ratio still support the result.
Compare managers or custodians
Switch to the Accounts lens and compare returns, drawdowns, and risk quality across different accounts or advisors.
Stress-test concentration
Look at the segment with the strongest recent gain, then check its drawdown and volatility profile to decide whether the position size still fits your tolerance.
Pre-rebalance review
Before changing allocations, review performance, attribution, and risk together so you are not rebalancing from a headline number alone.