How to read your investment portfolio
Your investing app is full of numbers: value, return, average price, a percentage in green or red. Here's what each one means, and how they fit together.
The short answer
Most portfolio screens come down to three numbers: what your investments are worth now, what you put in, and your return, the difference between the two. Until you sell, that return is unrealised: a gain or loss on paper that keeps moving with prices.
Your average price is what you paid for each share or unit, averaged across all your purchases. Comparing it with today's price tells you whether a holding is up or down overall.
What does “unrealised return” mean?
An unrealised return is a gain or loss you'd make if you sold right now. It's real in the sense that it's what your investments are worth today, but it isn't locked in. Tomorrow's prices will change it. As Sorted puts it, you only make a gain or a loss when you sell.1
A realised return is the gain or loss on something you've already sold. That one is fixed.
Apps label these differently: “return”, “total return”, “gain/loss”, “P&L”. Some count dividends and fees in the figure and some don't. Your app's help pages will say exactly what its number includes.
What is my “average price”?
If you buy the same investment more than once, you'll usually pay a different price each time. Your app adds up everything you've paid and divides it by the number of shares or units you own. That's your average price, sometimes called your average cost or cost basis.
Here's how it works for one holding bought three times.
Illustrative numbers, not a real account or a real fund's prices
Three purchases of a world index fund
- March: $300 at $2.00150 units
- June: $300 at $1.50200 units
- September: $300 at $2.50120 units
- You put in $900470 units
What your app shows today
- Units470
- Average price ($900 ÷ 470)$1.91
- Price today$2.10
- Value (470 × $2.10)$987.00
- Unrealised return+$87.00 (+9.7%)
The return is $987.00 value minus $900 put in. As a percentage, $87 is 9.7% of $900. If your app takes transaction fees out of what you put in, your average price ends up a little higher.
Notice that the price today ($2.10) is below one of the prices paid ($2.50) and above the other two. Individual purchases can be up or down while the holding overall is up. The average price is what lets you see the overall picture in one number.
What's the difference between today's change and my total return?
Many apps show two different moves side by side:
- Today's change is how much your investments have moved since the last trading day's closing prices.
- Total return is how much they've moved since you bought them.
So a holding can be red today and still green overall, or the other way round. A single day's number says very little about how an investment has done over the time you've owned it.
Why did my portfolio value go up when my return didn't?
Because adding money increases your value too. If you invest $50 every week, your portfolio's value rises by $50 a week even when prices don't move at all. That's why return, which compares value with what you put in, is the better measure of how your investments themselves are doing.
Why is my portfolio down when the market is up?
This catches almost everyone out. A few common reasons:
- You don't own “the market”. When the news says “the market is up”, it usually means one index, like the NZX 50 or the S&P 500. Your own mix of investments is different, so it moves differently.
- Exchange rates. If you own overseas investments, your app shows them in NZ dollars. When the NZ dollar strengthens, overseas investments are worth fewer NZ dollars, even if their price didn't change.
- Different clocks. US share markets trade while New Zealand is asleep. A morning headline about “the market” may be about a different market, or a different day, from the one your app is showing.
- Dividends. When a company pays a dividend, its share price usually drops by roughly that amount on the “ex-dividend” date. The value has moved from the share price to you, as cash, so it can look like a fall.
- Fees. Transaction and currency fees come out when you buy, so a new holding often starts slightly below what you put in.
Here's the exchange-rate effect in numbers.
An overseas fund on a day the NZ dollar rises
- The fund's price, in US dollars+1.0%
- The NZ dollar against the US dollar+1.5%
- The same fund, in NZ dollarsabout −0.5%
Illustrative numbers. In NZ dollars the change is 1.010 ÷ 1.015, which is about 0.5% lower. The fund did fine in its own currency; the currency move outweighed it.
Common questions
What does unrealised gain mean?
An unrealised gain is the amount your investment has gone up since you bought it, on paper. It becomes a realised gain only when you sell. Until then it changes with prices, and it can shrink, grow or turn into a loss.
What's the difference between realised and unrealised return?
Realised return is the gain or loss on investments you've already sold; it's fixed. Unrealised return is the gain or loss on investments you still own, worked out at today's prices; it keeps moving until you sell.
What does average price mean on my investments?
Your average price is the total you've paid for an investment divided by the number of shares or units you own. If you bought at several different prices, it tells you the price you've effectively paid for each one, so you can compare it with today's price.
Does my return include dividends?
It depends on the app. Some include dividends in a “total return” figure; others show them separately. Your app's help pages will say how its return is calculated.
Do I pay tax on unrealised gains in New Zealand?
Not always in the way you'd expect. Some investments are taxed each year whether or not you sell, such as many PIE funds, and overseas shares once the FIF rules apply to you. Our page on PIR, PIE and FIF explains those words; for your own situation, check with Inland Revenue or a tax adviser.
General information, not financial advice. This page explains how investing works in general. It doesn't take your situation, goals or attitude to risk into account, and it isn't a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything. Investing involves risk: the value of your investments can go down as well as up, and you could get back less than you put in. Figures are from the sources below on the dates shown, and may have changed since.
Sources
- Sorted, Shares guide: Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission on how shares work, including when gains and losses are made. Checked 20 October 2026.
- Inland Revenue, IR461 Guide to foreign investment funds (April 2026).
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