IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A trade list that turns the gap between your target sector mix and your actual holdings into concrete buy and trim amounts — or, set to Asset classes, the gap between how you want everything you own split (stocks, cash, crypto, property, pensions, bonds, metals, cards, other) and how it's split now.
WHY IT HELPS
Shows the size of each gap in money rather than percentage points, so a rebalance is a decision about specific positions instead of an abstract chart.
HOW IT'S CALCULATED
Actual percent is sector value divided by total portfolio value, both priced in your portfolio currency. Gap in percentage points is actual minus target. The trade amount is actual sector value minus target percent times total value: positive means trim, negative means add. A fund counts toward every sector it holds, so actual percents include fund slices, but trades only go to directly held stocks, because selling a fund moves every sector it holds. Each sector's amount is split across its directly held stocks in proportion to their value in that sector, a trim is capped at what they hold, and any overweight left over is shown as held through funds rather than traded. Share counts are the holding's amount divided by its price converted to portfolio currency. Drift score is half the sum of the absolute gaps — the share of the portfolio that would change hands to sit exactly on target. Sectors within the tolerance band (default 3 percentage points) are reported as on target with no trade. Asset classes work the same way on the Balance Sheet's figures: actual percent = the class's value ÷ Total Assets (property at full value, before its mortgage), and the amount = the class's value − target percent × Total Assets, shown as an amount to add or reduce rather than a trade in any holding; property and pensions show how far over or under they are, since they can't usually be bought or sold in part. The asset-class plan is only worked out once every class is valued, never on a total with a wallet, card or metal still loading, and the stock filter never applies to it.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.