It is easy to design a strategy that looks good on paper and evaporates the moment you account for trading. Brokers no longer charge commissions on US stocks, but every trade still pays something to the spread between the bid and ask, plus a small amount of slippage on the way in and the way out. For the kind of large, liquid companies we hold, that round-trip cost works out to roughly 0.05 % of the trade size. We charge every simulated trade exactly that, so the portfolio performance shown on the site is what an investor would actually have received — not a frictionless ideal. It's also why the rules above — keeping winners, ignoring small drifts — matter. Trading less means keeping more.
At a glance
| Cost we charge each trade | About 0.05 % (5 basis points) |
|---|
From today’s portfolio
What trading has actually cost this portfolio so far, on the assumption that each round-trip pays about 0.05 % in spread.
| Trades placed | 981 |
|---|---|
| Total turnover | $39.61M |
| Estimated trading cost | $19.81K |
| Drag on the portfolio | 1.16% |