Best Portfolio Tracker for US Investors
What Actually Matters in a Tracker
Strip away the feature lists and four things decide whether a tracker is useful over years rather than weeks.
Cost basis you can trust. Every gain you ever report is measured against it. If it arrives incomplete after a transfer, or is computed under a method you cannot see, everything downstream inherits the problem.
A return figure that accounts for your deposits. A tool comparing current value against cost will tell you that you are up 12% when most of the money arrived last month. See money-weighted vs time-weighted return for why the two differ and when.
Export that works. Portfolio history compounds in value and is close to impossible to reconstruct. A tracker you cannot export from is one you cannot leave.
A data model you are comfortable with. This is the one the category rarely raises, and it is the subject of the next section.
The Sync Trade-Off
Automatic syncing works by giving an aggregator credentials or a token for your brokerage account. The tool then holds a live, itemised copy of your positions, balances and transactions.
Nothing about that is sinister and it is how most of the category works. But three consequences follow, and they are worth stating because the convenience is usually presented without them:
- Someone else can read your complete financial position, continuously, not just when you log in.
- That data has value beyond serving you. Some free trackers are funded by advertising or by routing you toward advisory services, and both models work better with detailed knowledge of your finances. Our article on free vs paid trackers covers the four business models and what each needs from you.
- A breach exposes a complete picture rather than a fragment.
The alternative is a tool that cannot read your data at all, which necessarily means it cannot connect to your accounts either. That is the trade we made, and it cuts both ways.
Before You Hand Over Credentials
If you do choose a syncing tracker, which for most US investors is the right call, five questions are worth answering first. None of them takes long and all of them are harder to ask later.
Who actually holds the connection? Most trackers use a third-party aggregator rather than connecting themselves, so your credentials or token sit with a company whose name is not on the app.
What funds the product? Subscription, advertising, or a route into advisory. Each needs something different from you, and the last two work better the more they know.
What happens if you stop paying or stop using it? Does the history stay, and can you get it out on the plan you are on?
Is the cost basis theirs or yours? A synced figure computed by the aggregator can arrive incomplete after a transfer and is not always reconstructable.
How do you revoke access? Worth knowing the answer before you need it rather than after.
None of these is a reason to avoid syncing. They are the difference between accepting the trade knowingly and accepting it by default.
Where Turbobulls Is a Poor Fit for a US Investor
Before anything else, because it is more useful than the rest of the page:
- No automatic account connection. Imports are file-based: you download a file from your broker and upload it. This is a consequence of encrypting your data on your device, not an unfinished feature, and it will not change.
- No US broker import adapters beyond Interactive Brokers. There is no Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, E-Trade or Robinhood adapter. You would use the generic CSV import with manual column mapping.
- No US tax reporting. No 1099 reconciliation, no wash-sale tracking, no cost-basis method elections. We record the underlying data and produce no tax forms.
- Our tax guidance is European. The tax articles in this help centre work through Germany and Romania. They will not answer a US reader's questions.
- Pricing is in euros, billed through Stripe.
If any of those is a dealbreaker, it should be, and a US-native tracker will serve you better. Turbobulls vs Personal Capital (Empower) works through the best known of them, and where each one is the better answer.
Where It Does Fit
Three cases where the trade lands differently:
You hold assets in more than one currency. Multi-currency is the thing this tool is genuinely built around: 30+ currencies with the exchange rate applied on the trade date, and the currency component of a return separable from the asset's own performance. US investors holding international assets, or Americans living abroad, hit this constantly and most US tools handle it thinly.
You would rather no one could read your portfolio. Transactions are encrypted on your device with AES-256 before they are stored, so the server holds ciphertext. We cannot read your portfolio, which is an architectural statement rather than a policy promise. See why end-to-end encryption matters.
You use Interactive Brokers. The activity statement has a dedicated import adapter, so the file-based approach costs you very little. Importing Interactive Brokers walks through the export.
Look Before Signing Up for Anything
The Full Picture: Read These Next
Free vs paid trackers - the four business models behind a free tier
Why end-to-end encryption matters - what the architecture actually means
Reading your statement - which file to download and keep
The UK version of this page - ISA and SIPP, GBP cost basis, and US holdings
MWR vs TWR - why your broker's return figure differs from yours
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can it connect to Schwab, Fidelity or Robinhood?
No, and not to any broker. Imports are file-based by design, because data is encrypted on your device before it reaches us, which makes an automatic connection impossible rather than merely unbuilt. Interactive Brokers has a dedicated adapter for its activity statement; everything else goes through a generic CSV with manual mapping.Q: Does it handle US taxes?
No. There is no 1099 reconciliation, no wash-sale rule tracking and no tax forms of any kind. It records cost basis per lot, realized and unrealized gains, dividends and withholding, and exports all of it on any plan, which is the raw material rather than the report.Q: Is a European tool a problem for a US investor?
For anything jurisdiction-specific, yes, and that is most of tax. For the parts that are not jurisdictional, such as performance measurement, multi-currency handling and cost basis, it makes no difference. Where it is an advantage is if you hold non-US assets, which is the case US-built tools tend to handle least well.Q: Why not just use a free tracker?
Often you should, if the free tier covers your situation. The question worth asking is which business model funds it, since ad-supported and advisory-funnel models both work better the more they know about you. That is a reasonable trade to accept knowingly and a poor one to accept by default.Turbobulls is a tracking and analytics tool, not an investment adviser. Nothing here is investment, tax, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Do your own research or consult a licensed professional.
If the Trade Suits You
No account connections, because we encrypt your portfolio on your device and cannot read it. Multi-currency handled properly, and your export is never paywalled.
- AES-256 encryption on your device, so the server holds only ciphertext
- 30+ currencies with FX applied on the trade date
- Interactive Brokers activity statement import, plus generic CSV
- Free plan with no card and no time limit, within published caps
- Export on every plan, free included, never paywalled
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A checklist for bringing several brokerage accounts into one view, without transferring a single position. What to gather, what breaks, and what to check.
Best Portfolio Tracker for UK Investors
What UK investors actually need from a tracker: GBP cost basis, ISA and SIPP kept apart, and US holdings whose returns move with the exchange rate.
Free vs Paid Portfolio Trackers: When to Upgrade
Free means four different business models, and which one you are using decides what you pay with. What free tiers cut, and when upgrading is worth it.