Total Returns tells you how much you've made. XIRR tells you how fast — a yearly rate that accounts for exactly when each rupee went in and came out.
What XIRR measures
XIRR is your annualised, time-weighted return. Every buy, sell and SIP installment has a date, and XIRR uses all of them to work out the single yearly rate that fits your actual cash flows. The card splits it three ways.
Portfolio XIRR up top, with Holdings and Assets broken out below.
- Portfolio XIRR — the rate across everything you hold.
- Holdings XIRR — just your stocks and mutual funds.
- Assets XIRR — your gold, PPF, FDs and other manual assets.
Each holding also has its own XIRR column on the Holdings page.
Why it differs from Total Returns
Total Returns is a simple total: how far you're up or down overall. It doesn't care whether that took one year or ten. XIRR does — it turns the same gain into a per-year rate.
Note: Two holdings can show the same Total Returns percent but very different XIRR — the one that got there in a year has the higher annual rate. That's why XIRR is the fairer way to compare investments of different ages.
XIRR can be negative when you're down, and it shows a dash when there isn't enough dated history yet to calculate a meaningful rate.