What Is the Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWR)?

What Is the Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWR)?

Let me explain the time-weighted rate of return, or TWR, directly to you. It's a way to measure the compound growth rate of your portfolio while completely ignoring the effects of deposits and withdrawals. You break the overall investment period into smaller segments based on when those cash flows happen, calculate the performance for each segment, and then link them together geometrically. This gives you a clear picture of how the portfolio manager's decisions actually performed, without cash movements muddying the waters.

I find this particularly useful when you're assessing fund managers. You can compare their performance against other funds, benchmark indexes, or even different asset classes. It keeps things fair and focused on the investment strategy itself.

Key Takeaways on TWR

Here's what you need to know: TWR strips out the impact of external cash flows like deposits and withdrawals, so you get a more accurate gauge of the portfolio's true performance. It's the go-to method for evaluating and comparing how fund managers handle investment strategies against market benchmarks, as it separates pure returns from any investor-timed cash movements. The formula geometrically links returns from each sub-period, which ensures it reflects compounding precisely over time. That said, remember TWR doesn't show your actual dollar-weighted return, so it might not be the best for personal portfolios with lots of cash activity.

How to Calculate TWR

Calculating TWR isn't complicated if you follow these steps. First, identify the sub-periods—these are the intervals between each deposit or withdrawal. For each sub-period, calculate the return as the percentage change in the portfolio's value before any new cash flow hits. Then, you link all those sub-period returns geometrically to get the overall TWR.

The formula looks like this: TWR = [(1 + HP1) × (1 + HP2) × ⋯ × (1 + HPn)] - 1, where HP is the return for each sub-period, calculated as (End Value - (Initial Value + Cash Flow)) / (Initial Value + Cash Flow), and n is the number of sub-periods. This setup ensures you're compounding the growth accurately across the entire time frame.

Example of TWR in Action

To make this concrete, consider two mutual funds, Fund A and Fund B, each starting with $1 million in assets. Over a year, they experience various value changes and cash flows at the end of each quarter. For Fund A, the sub-period returns work out to 20%, 3.1%, 3.4%, and 12%, linking to a TWR of 43%. Fund B's returns are 15%, 17%, 10%, and 20%, giving a TWR of 77%. Even though Fund A ends with slightly more assets at $1.9 million versus Fund B's $1.85 million, the TWR shows Fund B outperformed because it isolates the investment performance from cash flows.

How to Use TWR Effectively

You should use TWR when you want to evaluate a fund manager's performance, as it zeros in on their investment decisions without the noise of cash inflows or outflows. It allows consistent measurement no matter when contributions or withdrawals occur, which is great for benchmarking against market indices to see if a strategy is beating or trailing the market. Plus, its compounding nature helps you project long-term portfolio growth. But keep in mind its limits—it won't tell you the actual dollar return you experienced, so for that, turn to money-weighted return instead.

The Bottom Line on TWR

In summary, TWR is all about evaluating investment performance by removing the distorting effects of external cash flows, giving you a clean way to compare portfolio returns. Whether you're looking at fund managers, strategies, or market benchmarks, it provides a straightforward view of growth over time. Use it wisely, and pair it with other metrics for a full picture.