Base currency

Your base currency is the single currency your entire portfolio is reported in, usually the one you earn and spend in. Holdings quoted in other currencies are translated into it, and so are their purchases, sales and dividends. The choice does not change what you own; it decides the unit every figure on the page is expressed in.

Why it matters

Without one fixed unit, a portfolio spread over three currencies has no total at all, only three separate stories that cannot be added up. The unit also determines what counts as a gain: a position that rose in its own currency can be flat in yours, and the difference is not a rounding error but a real part of what happened to your money. Picking the currency you actually live on keeps the numbers connected to decisions you can recognize.

How BullBenchmark shows it

Every holding, dividend and fee is converted into one currency using the rate that applied on the day of each transaction, so a gain is never confused with a movement in the exchange rate. The allocation view also breaks the portfolio down by currency, which shows how much of the total is exposed to something other than the unit it is reported in. A euro-based portfolio holding American shares is what the demo portfolio runs on.

Related terms

FX (foreign exchange) rate · Market value · Portfolio weight

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