Pure Benchmarks · Guide

What Percentile Is My Portfolio In?

Short answer

No brokerage will tell you. A percentile needs two things almost nobody has: a verified dataset of other real portfolios, and a way to match them on risk so you are not compared against people taking wildly different bets. Without risk matching a percentile mostly measures how aggressive you were, not how well you decided. Most tools sold as peer comparison rank you against a model allocation or a fund instead, which is a benchmark, not a peer.

Your brokerage shows you a return. It will not tell you whether that return was good, because it has no idea what anyone else did. A percentile answers that directly: out of investors holding roughly what you hold, what share did better? It is a simple number and a surprisingly hard one to produce honestly, because the ranking is only as meaningful as the group it ranks you inside. This page covers what a percentile actually requires, the two ways it is commonly faked, and which tools can produce one at all.

Why your broker cannot tell you

A brokerage sees your account and nobody else's in a form it can compare. It can show your return against an index because index data is public, but ranking you against its other customers would mean pooling and normalising millions of accounts, and it has no commercial reason to tell you that you are in the bottom quartile. The absence is structural rather than an oversight.

A percentile is only as good as its cohort

Ranked against all investors, a percentile mostly measures risk appetite. In a rising market the most aggressive portfolios occupy the top decile and the most conservative the bottom, and the ranking tells you almost nothing about judgement. Matching the comparison group on portfolio risk first is what converts the number from a measure of how much equity you held into a measure of how well you chose inside that constraint.

The two ways peer ranking gets faked

The first is ranking you against a model allocation or a target-date fund and calling it a peer. That is a benchmark with a friendlier name; there is no person on the other side of it. The second is ranking you against self-reported portfolios from a forum or a social feature, where the data is unverified and selection bias runs one direction, because people who lost money post less. Verified, connected holdings are the only input that avoids both.

What the number does and does not prove

A high percentile over one period can be luck, a concentrated position that happened to run, or simply more risk than your neighbours took. What makes the figure useful is watching it across rising and falling markets. Sitting in the same part of the distribution through both is a signal; one good quarter is not. Treat a single percentile as a starting point for a question rather than as a verdict.

Which tools can produce one

Very few. Empower, Morningstar Investor and Sharesight compare against indexes and model allocations only. Kubera compares against aggregated data from customers of similar net worth, which is a wealth cohort rather than a risk cohort. Snowball Analytics lets you browse portfolios other users chose to publish, which is self-selected. Pure Benchmarks, our own product, sorts every connected portfolio into one of nine standardized risk categories and ranks inside that category, which is the comparison this page describes. Its gaps are listed in the same table as everything else.

How this comparison works

Which of these actually ranks you against other real investors, and which ones only compare you to an index while using the word peer?

The test is whether the thing on the other side of the comparison is a person or a product. Several tools marketed around peer comparison benchmark against an index, an ETF or a model allocation, which is a benchmark rather than a peer.
Where a tool does rank you against people, the next question is who those people are: a verified set of connected accounts, or a self-selected group who chose to publish.
The third question is what gets ranked. A hit rate on individual stock picks and a whole-portfolio return answer different questions, and one does not substitute for the other.
Capabilities were read from each vendor's own published pages and documentation on the date shown.
Pure Benchmarks is our own product, and the four things it does not do are listed in the same table as the eight it does.
Two tools are included specifically because they are often named in this category and turn out not to rank you against other investors at all; showing that is more useful than leaving them out.

The comparison

Capabilities verified against each vendor's published pages on September 17, 2026.

Capability	Pure Benchmarks	TipRanks Smart Portfolio	Kubera	Snowball Analytics	PortfoliosLab	Portfellow
Ranks vs investors	Yes	Yes	Partly	Partly	No	No
Risk-matched	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Verified peers	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Whole portfolio	Yes	Partly	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Decision scoring	Yes	Partly	No	No	No	No
Links brokerage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Index benchmark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free real output	Yes	Partly	No	Partly	Partly	Partly
Manual entry	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-market assets	No	No	Yes	Partly	Partly	Yes
Price	Free account	Free tier, paid plans above it	$250 per year, or $2,500 for Black	Free plan, paid tiers above it	Free tier, paid Plus, Pro and Max plans	Free to start, paid plans above it

✓ yes · ~ partly · ✗ no

What each capability means

Ranks your portfolio against other real investors rather than against an index alone

This is the whole question: where do you actually stack up against other investors, and what percentile does your portfolio sit in? Most tools described as peer comparison turn out to compare you against a model allocation or a fund, which is a benchmark, not a peer. A real answer places you in a ranked distribution of other people's portfolios, so you learn whether you are above average or in the bottom half rather than only whether you beat an index.

The comparison group is matched on portfolio risk

Ranking a conservative retiree against a leveraged growth portfolio measures risk appetite, not skill. Without a risk match the ranking mostly tells you what you already knew about your own allocation.

Peer data comes from verified linked accounts rather than self-reported entries

A peer set built from portfolios people chose to publish is a survivorship-biased sample. Nobody publishes the account they are embarrassed by.

Compares the whole portfolio outcome, not individual stock picks

A hit rate on individual trades and a portfolio return are different measurements. You can pick winners often and still trail, if the losers were larger.

Scores each change you made against the portfolio you gave up

Ranking tells you where you finished. Decision scoring tells you which of your own moves put you there.

Connects to a real brokerage account instead of requiring manual entry

A manually entered portfolio drifts out of date the moment you trade, and a comparison run on stale holdings is a comparison of something you no longer own.

Also benchmarks against a market index

Peer comparison is the second baseline, not a replacement for the first. You want both.

Free tier produces the comparison on your real portfolio

Several tools here gate either the peer feature or the holdings capacity behind a paid plan.

Can run on a manually entered portfolio with no account connected

Some people will not link a brokerage, and some accounts cannot be linked. A tool that requires a connection simply cannot serve them, whatever else it does well.

Includes real estate, private holdings and self-custody crypto in the comparison

If a large share of your wealth sits outside a brokerage, a securities-only comparison ranks the visible half of your position.

Every tool in detail

Pure Benchmarks

Ranks whole-portfolio outcomes against verified connected portfolios sorted into nine standardized risk categories.

Best for: Investors who want to know how they did against comparable people, not against a self-selected leaderboard.

Pricing: The ranking and the decision report run on a free account with a linked portfolio.

Strengths

Peer set is built from verified connected accounts rather than portfolios people opted to publish
Every portfolio is recategorized daily from actual end-of-day holdings, so the cohort tracks your allocation as it drifts
Scores each portfolio change against the portfolio you would still hold if you had left it alone
Read-only by design and unable to move money in any linked account

Limitations

Requires a read-only brokerage connection, so there is no way to run it on a manually typed portfolio
Does not track real estate, private holdings or self-custody crypto wallets
An unusual allocation sits in a thinner cohort, which makes its ranking less informative
No stock-picking hit rate, no research ratings and no community leaderboard

TipRanks Smart Portfolio

A genuine investor leaderboard, scored on stock-picking hit rate across a large self-registered user base.

Best for: Active stock pickers who want to know how their trade selection compares to other retail investors.

Pricing: Smart Portfolio has a free tier; the research subscription is sold separately in paid tiers.

Strengths

Measures and ranks the performance of roughly 140,000 individual investors, one of the largest retail peer sets anywhere
Lets you benchmark against average TipRanks portfolios, the best performing TipRanks portfolios, or the S&P 500
Treats each buy or sell as a recommendation and reports a success rate, which is closer to decision-level feedback than most tools get

Limitations

The cohort is everyone who signed up, not investors matched to your risk level, so the ranking blends very different strategies
Scores you as a stock picker via hit rate rather than measuring whole-portfolio outcome
Peer data is drawn from self-registered users rather than a verified cross-custodial set

Kubera

Peer benchmarks drawn from real customers, grouped by net worth rather than by risk.

Best for: People with wealth spread across brokerages, property and private holdings who want a like-for-like wealth comparison.

Pricing: Kubera Essentials is listed at $250 per year and Black at $2,500 per year, after a 14-day trial. No permanent free tier.

Strengths

Club benchmarks compare allocations and performance against aggregated data from Kubera customers with similar net worths
Covers real estate, private equity and crypto alongside listed securities
Peer data comes from actual connected customer accounts

Limitations

The cohort is matched on net worth rather than on portfolio risk, so allocation differences are not controlled for
Comparison is at the allocation and performance level, with no scoring of individual decisions
No permanent free tier

Snowball Analytics

Browsable public portfolios rather than a ranking, with a real free tier.

Best for: Dividend investors who want to see how other people have actually built an income portfolio.

Pricing: A permanent free plan covers one portfolio and ten holdings with limited index benchmarking.

Strengths

Public portfolios of other investors can be browsed on every tier, including the free one
Strong dividend tracking, income projections and filters
A permanent free plan rather than a countdown

Limitations

Browsing published portfolios is not the same as being ranked against a cohort
Published portfolios are self-selected, which biases the sample toward accounts people are happy to show
Benchmarking against anything beyond index funds requires the higher tiers

PortfoliosLab

Strong free analysis and backtesting, compared against indices and model portfolios rather than against people.

Best for: Investors who want risk metrics, drawdowns and backtests without paying for them.

Pricing: Free access is capped at 1 watchlist, 100 symbols, 15 holdings per portfolio, 10 calculations per month and 5 years of history.

Strengths

Backtesting, drawdown and risk analysis across stocks, ETFs, funds, crypto and model portfolios
Free tier limits are published plainly rather than hidden behind a trial
Good correlation and screening tools for portfolio construction

Limitations

Compares against indices and model portfolios, not against other investors, despite often being listed in this category
Portfolios are built manually rather than synced from a brokerage
The free tier caps holdings and monthly calculations, which most real portfolios will exceed

Portfellow

Broad multi-asset tracking with broker sync, benchmarked against indices rather than other users.

Best for: Investors who want one synced tracker across stocks, property, cash and crypto.

Pricing: The site offers a free starting tier; plan prices are published on its pricing page rather than on the feature page.

Strengths

Connects to banks and brokers, including Interactive Brokers and a wide list of other institutions
Covers bonds, single stocks, index funds, real estate, cash and crypto in one view
Calculates true returns including dividends, fees and currency effects

Limitations

No peer ranking or percentile against other users is described on its own feature pages, despite the tool being named in this category
Benchmarking is against market indices and strategies rather than against people
Plan pricing is not stated on the feature page

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Frequently asked questions

What percentile is my portfolio in?

You cannot get this from a brokerage statement. It requires ranking your return inside a group of other verified portfolios, ideally matched on risk. Pure Benchmarks, our own product, produces this on a free account by sorting connected portfolios into nine standardized risk categories and ranking within the category, so the percentile reflects decisions rather than how much equity you happened to hold.

How do I know if I am an above-average investor?

Compare against people, not indexes, and hold risk roughly constant while you do it. Beating the S&P 500 in a year you held 100 percent equities says less than sitting in the top quartile of investors who held a similar mix. And judge across both rising and falling markets, because one direction flatters whoever took the most risk.

Is comparing myself to other investors even useful?

It answers a question an index cannot: whether an outcome was unusual or entirely ordinary for someone in your situation. A loss that everyone in your risk band shared is the market. A loss nobody else took is worth investigating. That distinction is only visible against people.

Why do most portfolio tools not show a percentile?

Producing one requires a verified cross-custodial dataset of real portfolios rather than a price feed, plus a defensible way to group them. Most tools have the price feed and not the dataset, so they benchmark against an index or a model allocation and describe it as peer comparison.

Does a percentile account for how much risk I took?

Only if the cohort is risk-matched, and many are not. Ranking against all investors indiscriminately turns the percentile into a measure of risk appetite. Check what the peer group is built from before reading anything into the number.

Keep exploring

See how portfolios at a specific firm rank against real investors everywhere else:

New here? Read the portfolio benchmarking FAQ or the Pure Benchmarks blog.

This page is an information baseline for comparison only. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy, sell, replace, or transfer any specific asset, account, or firm. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All figures shown are illustrative.