(1) A short thread on the correct way to assess your investment returns.
(2) Things you will need:

1. Dates and values of all your investment transactions
2. Dates and values of all your dividends / coupons from investment
3. Value of your PF as on the initial day and final day of calculation
(3) If you don't have these details, you can obtain #1 and #2 from your broker. #3 can be obtained from your broker too or can also be easily calculated if your know your holdings on those dates.
(4) Open an Excel and make two columns: Dates and Values. Enter the values as as shown.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

1. Initial value and any further investment should have a negative sign
2. Final value, sales and dividends should have a positive sign
(5) Use the 'XIRR' formula in Excel as shown. It should be =XIRR(Values,Dates). Don't worry about the '[guess]' requirement. There's no need to add that.
(6) Hit 'Enter' and you should get the result. In this case, the returns for the entire year of 2019 is 22.52%
(7) Of course, you can choose to split the calculation in different years or calculate it in a cumulative fashion (Or both). You choice.
(8) What about Bonus, Splits & Rights Issues? Bonus is accounted when you calculate the final value. Splits do not impact cashflows. So don't make any special entries for these. If you subscribe to a Rights Issue, include it (With a negative sign, because it's a new investment).
(9) What about the cash you keep in your bank account or liquid funds? You should ideally include them too. But it depends upon how much of your cash you are going to allocate for investment purposes. It's a grey area and often how investment managers manipulate their returns.
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