Schwab Portfolio Tracker (2026): Two Return Numbers, One Catch

Schwab is one of the largest US brokers for self-directed investors, and since the TD Ameritrade integration completed in 2024 it is also home to millions of accounts that arrived with a history, a cost basis and a platform (thinkorswim) built somewhere else.^[3] This guide covers what a standard, free Schwab brokerage account gives you for tracking a portfolio, where the two return figures come from and why they differ, and the three places investors run into trouble: migrated cost basis, the export limit and the outside-accounts view. Avex provides mathematical context, not investment advice.

Does Schwab have a built-in portfolio tracker?

Yes — and for a free self-directed account, an unusually detailed one. Two tools do the work. Portfolio Performance (Accounts → Portfolio Performance) shows how an account or a portfolio has performed over a period you choose, with interactive charts, a rate-of-return view and the option to compare against market indexes.^[1] Portfolio Checkup lets you build a portfolio from your Schwab accounts, add outside holdings by hand, and review asset allocation, sector diversification, equity concentration, fixed-income characteristics and the ratings of individual funds and stocks.^[2][4] The Positions page covers the day-to-day view: holdings, gains and losses, price changes.

Accounts that came over from TD Ameritrade also keep thinkorswim, Schwab’s advanced charting and trading platform.^[3] It is a trading tool rather than a portfolio tracker, so it appears here once and not again.

How does Schwab calculate my rate of return?

Two ways, and it shows you both. The personal rate of return is money-weighted: it reflects the size and timing of your deposits and withdrawals, so it describes what your money actually earned. The time-weighted rate of return strips those cash flows out and describes what the investments themselves did, which is the figure used to judge a fund or an index.^[1] Both are available in the Portfolio Performance tool over the same custom date range, which is what makes Schwab a useful place to understand the difference: the two numbers sit next to each other, computed on your own account.

Why does Schwab show me two different return numbers?

Because they answer two different questions — and most apps answer only one. Robinhood’s portfolio chart excludes deposits and withdrawals and is based on the Modified Dietz method, so it shows neither a true money-weighted nor a formal time-weighted figure (our Robinhood tracker guide covers what that means).^[10] Fidelity publishes a money-weighted Personal Rate of Return and uses a time-weighted figure for its fund reporting, but on a monthly schedule (Fidelity guide).^[11] Schwab’s distinction is the toggle: both methods, any date range, up to five indexes alongside.

Where is Schwab’s Portfolio Performance tab — and why does it sometimes show nothing?

Accounts → Portfolio Performance, then pick an account or a Portfolio Checkup portfolio and a date range. Schwab’s own walkthrough notes that some accounts or portfolios may not have the full performance history available back to inception, and recently moved accounts populate over the first days after the move — the usual reasons the chart looks empty.^[1][3] From the same screen you can select one or more of the common indexes, or up to five under “More indexes & definitions”, to compare against.^[1] The tab shows a basic allocation split; the detailed breakdown lives in Portfolio Checkup.

Why is my cost basis wrong after the TD Ameritrade move?

Usually because the lot was “noncovered”, or because it arrived without a basis — and the correction is yours to request, not Schwab’s to make. The TD Ameritrade integration completed in 2024; Schwab states that TD Ameritrade history appears under the Schwab account number, with up to four years of transaction history online and up to ten years of statements and tax documents.^[3] Cost basis itself follows IRS rules: Schwab must report adjusted basis — purchase price plus commissions, adjusted for corporate actions, return of capital, wash sales and similar events — to you and to the IRS on Form 1099-B for covered securities, broadly stocks acquired from 2011 and funds, ETFs and DRIP shares from 2012; noncovered basis is shown to you but not reported to the IRS, and may be missing or marked unknown for older lots.^[5][6]

Two practical points from Schwab’s cost-basis disclosure: the accounting method (FIFO, specific lot and so on) is the investor’s choice, changeable from the profile settings or by form, and it cannot be changed for a trade after settlement.^[5] Where a migrated lot shows no basis, your own records — statements and exports saved before the move — are the only way to reconstruct it. That is the record-keeping habit our US broker export cheat-sheet is built around.

Can I see my other brokerage accounts in Schwab?

Only by typing them in. Portfolio Checkup lets you choose which Schwab accounts to include and then “Add Outside Holdings” — a manual entry of positions held elsewhere, so that allocation and concentration are measured across everything you own.^[4] There is no automatic link to another broker in the free self-directed account. That is a trade-off in the other direction from Fidelity’s Full View, which aggregates outside accounts by storing your other institutions’ logins with an aggregation service: Schwab asks for more typing and no credentials. For the general case — what linking costs you and what the alternatives are — see tracking a portfolio without linking your accounts.

Your options for tracking a Schwab portfolio

Three, as with every broker: the built-in tools, a spreadsheet, or a dedicated tracker. Schwab’s own tools are free and go further than most on returns and allocation, but they stop at Schwab’s walls and at ~1,500 rows per export. A spreadsheet costs time rather than money and breaks quietly on splits, reinvested dividends and transferred basis. A dedicated tracker (Avex is one; there are others) consolidates brokers and does the math, in exchange for a decision about what data you share with it.

Getting your data out

Accounts → History → choose a date range → Export. Schwab offers up to four years of transaction history online.^[3] The limit that matters is not documented by Schwab: third-party import guides report that a request over roughly 1,500 records returns an empty file with no error, and advise exporting in shorter windows — quarterly works.^[7] Open each file and check the first and last dates before trusting it. Older records are available as PDF statements for up to ten years.^[3] The step-by-step version, with the date presets and the filter to check, is in our Schwab CSV export guide.

Your records vs your 1099

Schwab’s 1099 Composite covers one account and one year — filing, not tracking. It combines the 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1099-B and 1099-OID that apply to the account, plus a year-end summary that is not sent to the IRS.^[12] Transferred basis and wash sales across brokers remain the investor’s problem: the IRS disallows a loss on a wash sale and adds it to the basis of the replacement shares, and brokers report wash sales only for identical securities within the same account.^[13][6] One export per account per year, kept permanently, is what closes the gap.

Is Schwab safe?

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer and a SIPC member. SIPC protects securities and cash in a brokerage account up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash, in the event the broker fails and assets are missing; it does not protect against market losses, and commodity interests, futures and cash in futures accounts are outside it.^[8][9] Schwab adds an “excess SIPC” programme that applies only after SIPC limits are exhausted, with a $600 million aggregate cap — the most the programme will pay in total, not a per-customer amount.^[8]