Investments in Monarch

by Lara

Last Updated October 28, 2025 20:36

Monarch helps you track, analyze, and understand your investments alongside the rest of your finances. With connected accounts and manual holdings, you can see your full portfolio performance, asset allocation, and net worth in one place.

When you connect an investment account (such as a brokerage, IRA, or 401k), Monarch pulls in your holdings from your financial institution. You can also add manual holdings if some of your accounts or securities aren’t supported.

There are two key concepts:

Holdings: The number of shares or units of each security you own in a given account.
Securities: The underlying stocks, funds, ETFs, crypto, or other assets. Securities include ticker symbols, names, and price history.

Monarch uses holdings data (from your institutions or added manually) and matches it to our securities database. Prices and historical data come from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP). If FMP does not support a given ticker, pricing and performance may be inaccurate.

Viewing investments in Monarch

Investments page

The Investments page has two sections, which you can navigate between at the top:

1. 1. Holdings
    This section shows a list of all securities you own, grouped by type, institution, or account, along with a performance graph.

- 1. - - See price, quantity, and total value.
      - Add manual holdings with the + Add holding button.
      - Drill into individual holdings for detailed charts and account-level breakdowns.
      - View a performance graph comparing your portfolio’s return to benchmarks like the S&P 500.
        
        Monarch calculates your return using a time-weighted return method, which accounts for when you bought or sold securities.
        
        The weighting is based on the size of each position — larger holdings influence your total return more. Example: If you hold one small stock down 1% and one large stock down 9%, your portfolio return will be closer to -9%.
  2. Allocation
    This section shows a breakdown of your portfolio by asset class (mutual funds, ETFs, cash, stocks, crypto, etc.).
    - - Helps you understand diversification and concentration.

Accounts page

Investment accounts also appear under the Accounts page. Here you can:

- View your net worth at the top of the page, which includes all assets and liabilities.
- Drill into Investments specifically to see balances and recent changes.
- See each investment account individually, with its balance, holdings, and transaction history.

Dashboard

You can customize your Monarch Dashboard to show the most important parts of your financial life front and center! The Investments widget will show the total of your investments, today’s change, and a list of the top movers today.

To turn this widget on or off, click “Customize” in the top right corner of the Dashboard.

Phone widgets

Monarch’s Apple and Android Widgets bring your investment information right to your phone! Read more about the widget options and adding them to your phone here: Using Mobile Widgets.

Manual holdings and accounts

If Monarch cannot automatically import your holdings, you can add them manually:

Manual investment accounts let you either:
- Track balances manually (enter a balance amount), or
- Track holdings manually (add individual securities and quantities, updated with market data).
  - Manual holdings are matched to Monarch’s securities database. Prices update daily if FMP supports the security.

Note: Once you create a manual holding, you cannot change its underlying security. To correct an error, add the correct holding first, then delete the incorrect one.

See more here: Manual Investment Holdings.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I turn on investment transactions?

Investment Transactions are currently a Monarch Labs feature. Go to Settings > Preferences > Monarch Labs to enable them. Once enabled, you’ll see buy/sell transaction details in supported accounts.

What kind of assets are supported?

Publicly-traded US Stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, fixed income (treasuries, CDs, bonds, etc), forex, derivatives (options), and cryptocurrencies.

Which Coinbase crypto assets are included in my Monarch net worth?

We include Coinbase crypto assets held in wallets, vaults, staked funds, multisig wallets or vaults, and DeFi yield accounts. These represent funds that are owned and accessible to you.

We don’t include crypto assets that are loaned out, borrowed, or used as collateral. Those funds are considered tied up in financial agreements and not fully available for use, so they’re excluded from your total net worth.

Why don’t my holdings update automatically?

Monarch only updates prices if your security is supported by FMP. If not, the price may stay frozen. For some brokerages connected via MX, Monarch does not receive holding information and you’ll need to add them manually.

How does Monarch calculate investment performance if I don’t have purchase dates or cost basis entered?

Monarch calculates your portfolio’s performance based on the current value and pricing history of your holdings. Since purchase dates and acquisition prices aren’t always available from financial institutions, the performance chart shows how your portfolio would have performed as if you had held your current securities for the entire date range selected.

Why does my holdings total have a different number than my account balance?

The Accounts page shows the account's total balance as received directly from our data provider. The Investments page summary is calculated from your holdings (quantity × closing price). These can differ if:

- - Some holdings are not public and thus do not have a public ticker
  - Holdings are missing or show an incorrect quantity
  - “Other” holdings should be classified as “Fixed Income” (see fix here)
  - Part of your account balance may be from Cash Holdings, which are not always reported by the institution to the data providers.

Can I separate vested vs. unvested shares?

Monarch shows whatever your institution reports, which may include unvested balances. To exclude them delete the holding.

Do investment transactions affect my budget?

No. Buys and sells inside an investment account are treated as transfers, not cash-flow transactions. This prevents your budget or net worth from being double-counted.

Can I benchmark unsupported funds?

Not today. We’re exploring the ability to assign a proxy (e.g., “treat this fund as the S&P 500”) but it’s not available yet.

Where can I find my retirement accounts and view their performance?

Retirement accounts (401k, IRA, HSA) are currently grouped under Investments. You can edit the subtype of an account in its settings, but filtering the accounts or investments pages by subtype (like “Retirement only”) is not yet available. Instead, you’ll use Reports, where you can select only retirement accounts to view their performance.

How does Monarch handle stock splits?

When a company issues a stock split, your holdings and current value in Monarch remain accurate because they come directly from your financial institution. While we attempt to update historical performance charts, at times these may not be automatically adjusted for the split.

If you notice differences in your historical performance after a stock split, our team can adjust this for you. Simply open a support ticket, and we’ll process the update to ensure your charts reflect the split correctly.

Why is my holding value inflated by 100? How can I change the holding type?

This sometimes occurs with CD or bond type holdings, when they are incorrectly calculating share x quantity. To fix this, change the type to "Fixed Income."

Why does my portfolio holding show $0 in the performance graph?

Monarch is only able to provide historical stock performance for securities with a public ticker. We cannot provide historical performance for non-public securities.

How often do prices update?

Approximately every 15 minutes.

Why are my Canadian stocks shown in USD, and why can’t I see prices for Canadian exchanges?

All stocks in Monarch are displayed with values in U.S. dollars (USD). At this time, Monarch does not support securities listed on Canadian exchanges. This means you’ll see pricing data for securities that trade on U.S. exchanges only, even if the security itself is Canadian. Current pricing and historical data is only supported for securities on US exchanges