WTD, MTD, QTD and YTD measure your portfolio's profit or loss from the start of the current week, month, quarter or year to today. Each uses a different anchor date, which is exactly why the same account can show a green week and a red month at the same moment.
What do WTD, MTD, QTD and YTD actually mean?
WTD, MTD, QTD and YTD are period-return windows, each measuring how far your portfolio has moved since a fixed anchor date. The anchor is the only thing that changes between them, and that single difference explains most of the confusion investors feel when numbers seem to contradict each other.
Here is what each anchor is:
- WTD (week-to-date): from the close last Friday (or your market's last weekly close) to now.
- MTD (month-to-date): from the close on the last day of the previous month.
- QTD (quarter-to-date): from the close on the last day of the previous quarter (end of March, June, September, December).
- YTD (year-to-date): from the close on 31 December of last year.
A Day figure measures from yesterday's close, and an ALL figure measures from the day you first held anything. None of these is more correct than the others. They answer different questions, and reading them well means knowing which question you asked.
The problem: your broker app shows one number and it misleads you
Most broker apps show a single Day change and an all-time total, with nothing in between. That gap is where real investors lose the plot. A stock that fell 3% today can still be your best holding of the quarter, and a flat day can hide a brutal month.
Common ways a single number misleads:
- A green Day after a red week makes you feel better than your month deserves.
- An all-time gain flatters you by burying this year's drawdown under years of old growth.
- A YTD number in early January is almost meaningless because the window is only a few days old.
This is the same reasoning behind keeping dividends, currency effects and realized sales on their own lines rather than mashed into one figure, a theme we cover in our guide to portfolio trackers versus spreadsheets. One blended number is easy to build and easy to misread.
What the PortfolioTrackr summary card does, concretely
The PortfolioTrackr dashboard puts period pills directly on the summary card so you can switch anchors with one tap. The pills are Day, WTD, MTD, QTD, YTD, 1Y and ALL, and the card heading always names the period you picked.
That heading matters more than it sounds. When the card says "QTD" above the figure, a glance can never be mistaken for today's move. You always know which anchor you are reading.
What each pill measures here
- Day: change since yesterday's saved close.
- WTD / MTD / QTD / YTD: change since the relevant anchor close described above.
- 1Y: the trailing twelve months.
- ALL: all-time profit or loss, including positions you have already sold.
Two details make these figures honest rather than cosmetic. First, each period P&L includes realized gains from any sales made inside that window, so a quarter where you sold a winner shows that profit, not just the paper moves on what you still hold. Second, the figures are measured against saved nightly portfolio snapshots, which gives every window a real, stored starting point instead of a guess.
How to set up period returns step by step
Reading period returns correctly starts with having a portfolio the snapshots can anchor to. The setup is the same whether you type holdings in or connect a broker.
- Create a portfolio and add your holdings. You can use manual entry, voice, text, a CSV file or a broker screenshot on every plan, including the free trial.
- Optionally connect a broker so a read-only portfolio syncs automatically. Direct sync with Alpaca, Bybit and Interactive Brokers works on every plan; the SnapTrade bridge, which connects 42 brokers, needs a paid Pro or Lifetime plan. Our walkthrough on connecting a brokerage account to a portfolio tracker covers the read-only setup.
- Let the nightly snapshot run. PortfolioTrackr saves a daily close for the portfolio. These snapshots are what every WTD, MTD, QTD and YTD figure is measured against.
- Open the summary card and tap a period pill. Confirm the card heading names the period before you read the number.
Connecting a broker is optional throughout. Each connected broker gets its own read-only portfolio and does not count toward your portfolio limit, and the ALL PORTFOLIOS combined view is available to anyone with more than one portfolio.
What you see once it is working
Once a few nightly snapshots exist, the card becomes a quick decoder for how your money is actually doing across time. You tap a pill, read the labeled figure, and the picture resolves.
A realistic read might look like this across a single morning:
| Pill | Anchor | Example figure |
|---|---|---|
| Day | Yesterday's close | -0.8% |
| WTD | Last Friday's close | +1.4% |
| MTD | End of last month | -2.1% |
| YTD | 31 December | +9.7% |
Every one of those figures is true at the same instant. The portfolio is down today, up on the week, down on the month and solidly up on the year. Nothing contradicts anything else; they simply start counting from different days. For investors holding stocks and crypto side by side, the same pills apply cleanly across both, which pairs well with the approach in our guide to tracking stocks and crypto together in one app.
Why Day and Week can disagree
Day and WTD disagree because they use different anchors. Day counts from yesterday; WTD counts from last week's close. A sharp drop today sits on top of several good days earlier in the week, so Day can be red while WTD stays green. This is arithmetic, not an error, and seeing both at once is the whole point.
The honest limits you need to know
Period returns are only as good as the history behind them, and PortfolioTrackr is deliberate about not inventing numbers it cannot support.
A dash is a feature, not a bug
If a portfolio's history has a gap larger than the window, the card shows a dash with a note instead of a figure. Suppose you only started snapshotting two weeks ago and you tap YTD. There is no real 31 December starting point to measure from, so the card refuses to show a made-up percentage. The dash tells the truth: the data to answer that question does not exist yet.
This protects you from the worst failure mode of performance tracking, which is a confident number built on missing history. A dash is recoverable; a wrong figure you trusted is not.
Snapshots are daily closes, not intraday ticks
The figures are built from daily closing snapshots, not from live intraday prices. That means:
- Period returns reflect close-to-close movement, not the high or low a position touched mid-session.
- The anchor for every window is a saved daily close, which is stable and reproducible.
- You will not see a window's figure re-slice itself on every tick during the trading day.
For most investors this is exactly what they want: a steady, auditable read rather than a number that jitters with every quote. If you need to be alerted when a specific price level is touched during the session, that is a separate job handled by price alerts, which are checked once a minute while the market is open and around the clock for crypto, not by the performance card.
Who this is for and who it is not for
Period pills suit investors who want to understand their results across real time horizons without exporting data or rebuilding formulas every quarter.
This is a good fit if you:
- Hold positions for weeks, months or years and want to judge them on the right horizon.
- Run more than one portfolio and want a labeled WTD, MTD, QTD or YTD read on each and on the combined view.
- Value a tool that shows a dash rather than guessing when history is thin.
This is not the right tool if you:
- Need tick-by-tick intraday performance attribution; snapshots are daily closes.
- Expect the card to tell you what to trade. It reports your numbers; it does not give advice.
If you are weighing it against other options, our data comparison of six portfolio trackers lays out how different tools handle period returns and snapshot history.
The bottom line
WTD, MTD, QTD and YTD are the same calculation with four different start dates, and reading them well means always knowing which anchor you picked. The PortfolioTrackr summary card labels the period on every figure, folds in realized gains from sales inside the window, and measures against saved nightly snapshots.
Where history is too short, it shows a dash instead of a fabricated number, and because snapshots are daily closes, the figures are stable rather than twitchy. Tap through the pills, read the heading, and let four honest numbers replace one misleading one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between MTD and YTD returns?
MTD (month-to-date) measures your return from the close of the last day of the previous month to now, while YTD (year-to-date) measures from 31 December of last year. YTD covers a much longer window, so the two can easily show different signs at the same moment.
Why does my portfolio show a gain for the week but a loss for the day?
Because Day and WTD use different anchor dates. Day counts from yesterday's close, and WTD counts from last week's close. A drop today can sit on top of several strong earlier days, leaving the week positive while the day is negative. Both figures are correct simultaneously.
Does PortfolioTrackr include sold positions in period returns?
Yes. Each period P&L in PortfolioTrackr includes realized gains from any sales made inside that window, and the ALL figure shows all-time profit or loss including positions you have already sold. This gives a complete picture rather than only paper moves on current holdings.
Why does my YTD return show a dash in PortfolioTrackr?
A dash appears when your portfolio's saved history has a gap larger than the window you selected. If you started snapshotting recently, there is no real 31 December starting point for YTD, so PortfolioTrackr shows a dash with a note instead of a fabricated figure. The dash is intentional honesty.
Are period returns based on live prices or daily closes?
Period returns in PortfolioTrackr are built from saved nightly snapshots, meaning daily closing prices rather than live intraday ticks. Each window measures close-to-close movement from a stable anchor date, so figures are reproducible and do not re-slice themselves on every quote during the trading day.