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Lifetime ROI Explained: How Has All Your Invested Capital Performed?

Lifetime ROI is the return on all capital you've ever deployed - including positions you've since sold. Learn how Turbobulls calculates it, why it differs from ROI (open), and what it tells you about your full trading history.
Lifetime ROI Explained: How Has All Your Invested Capital Performed?
You started investing 5 years ago. Some trades paid off, some flopped, some you sold for a profit, some you still hold. Lifetime ROI is the one number that summarises the whole journey - every dollar you ever invested and what it ended up earning.
Most investing apps show you the return on what you're holding right now. But that ignores your full track record - including all the positions you bought and sold along the way. Lifetime ROI gives you the verdict on every dollar you ever invested, not just the dollars currently in the market.
Built for every reader. This article works whether you're brand new to investing or you've been doing it for decades. Anything marked For the math curious is optional - skip it if formulas make your eyes glaze over.

The One-Sentence Definition

Lifetime ROI is the return on all capital you've ever deployed, including closed positions, divided by the total amount you originally invested in everything you've ever bought.

The same result stated as a multiple rather than a percentage is MOIC: a lifetime ROI of 42% and a MOIC of 1.42x are the same number in different clothes.

Lifetime ROI is calculated automatically in Turbobulls from your full transaction history. See it on your dashboard →

The Intuition: Your Full Trading Record

Person A: Only ever held, never sold

Invested 40,000 over time, never sold anything. Position worth 50,000 today. Lifetime ROI = 25%, same as ROI (open).

Person B: Sold winners along the way

Bought 30,000 of stocks, sold them for 35,000 (5k realized gain). Then bought 10,000 more, now worth 13,000. Lifetime ROI counts both: total gain / total deployed.

Lifetime ROI is a "career batting average" for your investments. It rewards or punishes every decision you've ever made - including the sells.

If you've never closed a position, Lifetime ROI equals ROI (open). The two numbers only diverge when you've sold something - which, for any active investor, is eventually always.

What the Portfolio Badge Means

Inside Turbobulls, every metric carries a small scope badge that tells you what data feeds it. Lifetime ROI carries the Portfolio badge.

That means it looks at your entire investing history:

  • Open lots at every broker (still held)
  • Closed lots (already sold)
  • All realized capital gains
  • All realized currency gains
  • All income (dividends, interest)
  • Minus all taxes and fees ever paid

It deliberately ignores wallet cash, debt, and anything outside your tracked investing activity.

Other Portfolio metrics include ROI (open), MWR, Annualized MWR, Sharpe ratio, Cost efficiency, and Open Win Rate. Lifetime ROI is the most comprehensive of the percentage-return metrics.

How to Read the Number

Lifetime ROIWhat it typically means
NegativeNet losses across your entire history. The market or your strategy hasn't worked out so far.
0% - 10%Modest. Below stock market average; possibly being eaten by fees, taxes, or bad timing.
10% - 30%Decent. In line with or slightly above what passive investing would produce.
30% - 100%Strong. Multiple years of compounding adding up, or some big winners.
> 100%Excellent. Either a long history of strong returns or a few exceptional trades.

See the Verdict on Every Dollar You've Invested

Turbobulls computes Lifetime ROI automatically from your full transaction history. No need to remember closed positions - it's all in one number.
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Lifetime ROI vs ROI (Open): The Key Difference

This is the most important comparison to understand. Turbobulls shows two ROI numbers and they answer different questions:

ROI (open)
Return on currently-held capital only. Excludes closed positions entirely. Cleaner to mentally reconcile with what's on screen.
Lifetime ROI
Return on all capital ever deployed. Includes closed positions in the denominator and their realized gains/income/taxes/fees in the numerator.
If you've sold winning positions in the past, Lifetime ROI typically reads lower than ROI (open) because the cost of those sold positions inflates the denominator. This is correct behaviour - sold profits are a smaller share of your total deployed capital than current paper gains.

How Turbobulls Calculates Lifetime ROI

In plain words: Turbobulls adds up every dollar you've ever invested, every dollar you've gained or lost (realized and unrealized), and divides the second by the first.

For the math curious
The actual formula:

Lifetime ROI = totalGain / principalAll × 100

Where:
1

totalGain. Realized capital gain + realized currency gain + unrealized capital gain + unrealized currency gain + income - taxes - fees. Everything that affected your wealth from investing.

2

principalAll. Sum across every lot ever opened (closed or open) of: original quantity × buy price × FX rate at buy. The total capital you ever deployed.

3

Divide. totalGain divided by principalAll, times 100.

This is the broadest possible measure of your investing performance. Because it includes income (dividends), taxes, and fees, it shows you the net outcome of all your investing decisions - not just price movement.

When Lifetime ROI Matters - and When to Ignore It

Care about Lifetime ROI when...
  • Evaluating your full track record. The complete verdict on every trade you've made.
  • You sell positions regularly. ROI (open) misses your closed-trade history; Lifetime ROI captures it.
  • Comparing strategies over time. Filter by tag or asset type to see lifetime returns per segment.
  • Net-of-cost performance. Fees and taxes are subtracted in the numerator.
Ignore Lifetime ROI when...
  • You only care about current holdings. ROI (open) is the cleaner answer there.
  • You want timing-aware returns. Use MWR - Lifetime ROI ignores when capital was deployed.
  • You want risk-adjusted return. Use Sharpe ratio - Lifetime ROI ignores volatility.
  • You just started investing. Without closed positions, Lifetime ROI equals ROI (open).

The Full Picture: Pair Lifetime ROI With These

Lifetime ROI is the broadest single percentage return measure. Pair it with these for the full performance picture:

Quick Links

ROI (open) - return on what you're holding right now, excluding closed positions

Money-Weighted Return (MWR) - includes timing of every deposit and withdrawal

Sharpe ratio - return adjusted for the risk you took to earn it

See Your Full Investing Track Record in One Number

Turbobulls computes Lifetime ROI automatically from every transaction you've ever logged. No need to manually track closed positions - it's all included.

  • Automatic Lifetime ROI across your entire transaction history
  • Net of fees, taxes, and currency conversion costs
  • Per-broker, per-asset-type, per-currency segment breakdowns
  • Pairs with ROI (open), MWR, and Sharpe for full performance analysis
  • Multi-currency portfolios handled natively
  • Zero manual calculations - log a transaction, see updated metrics
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