Alphenzi/Portfolio Alpha vs SPY

Performance analytics

Track your portfolio alpha
vs SPY — weekly, rolling, cumulative.

Alpha is the only metric that separates your stock-picking skill from passive market exposure. Alphenzi calculates your portfolio's alpha vs the S&P 500 every week and surfaces it as a weekly figure, a rolling 4-week average, and a cumulative total over your full history.

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Understanding alpha

Alpha is the number your brokerage app doesn't show you.

Your brokerage reports returns. Alpha tells you whether those returns beat what the market handed out for free. It's the only measure that separates skill from luck.

Example: Week in which SPY +2.1%
+1.6% α

Your portfolio returned +3.7%, SPY returned +2.1% — your weekly alpha is +1.6%. You outperformed the passive index by 1.6 percentage points this week.

Example: Week in which SPY −1.4%
−0.9% α

Your portfolio fell −2.3%, SPY fell −1.4% — your weekly alpha is −0.9%. The market was down, but you were down more. Alpha captures that underperformance.

Rolling 4-week alpha
+0.7% avg

Alphenzi smooths weekly volatility into a 4-week rolling average. A consistent positive rolling alpha is a stronger signal than any single week — and harder to achieve than it looks.

What Alphenzi tracks

Alpha is one of eight performance metrics on your dashboard.

Every metric Alphenzi tracks links back to how your portfolio is performing relative to its own history and to the market.

Weekly alpha
Your portfolio's return minus SPY's return for the same 7-day period. The raw, unsmoothed outperformance (or underperformance) signal for each week.
Rolling 4W alpha
The average weekly alpha over the last four weeks. Filters noise and reveals whether outperformance is structural or a single-week event.
Cumulative alpha
The running total of all weekly alphas since you started tracking. Shows whether you've added or destroyed value over your full history relative to simply holding SPY.
Drawdown from peak
Live percentage decline from your portfolio's all-time high. Compared against your own defensive threshold and hard-stop level, not generic benchmarks.
8W rolling volatility
The annualized standard deviation of your weekly returns over the past 8 weeks. Tracks whether your portfolio is taking on more or less risk over time.
Sharpe & Sortino ratios
Risk-adjusted return metrics. Sharpe penalizes all volatility; Sortino penalizes only downside volatility. Both update weekly as new data arrives.
Beta vs SPY
How sensitive your portfolio is to S&P 500 moves. Beta >1 means you amplify market moves; beta <1 means you dampen them. Relevant context for interpreting your alpha.
CAGR
Compound annual growth rate of your portfolio, calculated from your weekly total value history. A clean long-run performance number to compare against published benchmarks.
How to start tracking

Alpha tracking in three steps.

Alphenzi needs two inputs: your holdings (for live pricing) and weekly portfolio totals (for historical alpha). Both take minutes to set up.

01

Enter your holdings

Add your stock and ETF positions to Alphenzi's Holdings page — ticker, share count, and cost basis. Supports NYSE and TSX tickers. Live prices are fetched automatically from Yahoo Finance. Works with Wealthsimple, Robinhood, and any other brokerage.

02

Upload weekly portfolio values

Import an Excel file with your weekly total portfolio value, net deposits, and SPY's return for each week. This is the dataset Alphenzi uses to calculate alpha, drawdown, Sharpe ratio, and cumulative performance. Download the column template from the setup guide.

03

Read your alpha dashboard

Your dashboard auto-populates with all eight metrics, four performance charts (value vs peak, drawdown, rolling alpha, rolling volatility), and a risk regime classification. Add new weeks manually or via Excel as each week closes.

FAQ

Questions about alpha tracking.

What is portfolio alpha?
Portfolio alpha is a measure of outperformance relative to a benchmark. In Alphenzi's case, the benchmark is the S&P 500 via SPY. If your portfolio returned 3.8% in a week when SPY returned 2.1%, your weekly alpha is +1.7%. Positive alpha means your stock selection added value above what passive exposure would have delivered. Negative alpha means the index beat you.
How does Alphenzi calculate alpha vs SPY?
Alphenzi calculates alpha as: portfolio weekly return − SPY weekly return. Both figures are sourced from your imported data and Yahoo Finance's SPY history, respectively. The formula is straightforward: it measures excess return, not risk-adjusted excess return (that's what the Sharpe ratio handles separately).
What is rolling alpha and why does it matter?
Rolling alpha is the average of the last four weekly alphas. A single week's alpha can be driven by luck or a single outlier position. Rolling alpha shows whether outperformance is consistent or concentrated in one event. A portfolio with steady +0.5% rolling alpha is a stronger signal than one that had +4% one week and −3% the next three.
What is a realistic alpha target for an individual investor?
Research consistently shows that most active individual investors underperform the index over multi-year periods after costs. Alphenzi does not prescribe targets — it gives you the number so you can evaluate objectively whether your active decisions are paying off, and make informed choices about allocation, strategy, or risk budget.
How is alpha different from total portfolio returns?
Total return shows absolute gain or loss. Alpha shows how much of that return was above and beyond what the market delivered for free. A +15% annual return looks strong in isolation — but if SPY returned +24% that year, your alpha is −9%. Alpha isolates skill from beta (market exposure) and is the only fair way to evaluate active stock-picking decisions.
Also worth reading

More Alphenzi resources.

AI Features
AI Portfolio Copilot — Buy/Trim/Hold Signals
After tracking alpha, let the AI tell you what to do with that information — buy/trim/hold signals grounded in your specific holdings and risk state.
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple Portfolio Tracker
How to use Alphenzi alongside your Wealthsimple account — including TSX support and CAD/USD dual currency handling.
Robinhood
Robinhood Portfolio Tracker
Using Alphenzi's alpha tracking with a Robinhood portfolio. No brokerage connection required.
Setup
Alphenzi Setup Guide
Step-by-step instructions for importing your data in the correct format and getting your alpha charts live in under 10 minutes.

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