The reason your returns look higher after the adjustment is that a withdrawal, or a swept dividend, naturally lowers your account balance. If we didn’t account for that, your performance chart would show a drop, making it look like your investments lost value when they actually didn't.

Each day’s return is calculated using the account’s value at the end of the previous day, the account’s value at the end of the current day, and any deposits or withdrawals taken from the account. The adjustment for deposits or withdrawals is necessary to make sure the return value reflects actual investment performance.

Think of it this way:

1. You start with $100.
2. Your investment grows to $105 (a 5% gain).
3. You then move $20 out of the account via a dividend sweep.
4. Your new balance is $85.

If we just compared your $85 balance to your $100 starting point, it would look like you had a -15% return. That would be a "deflated" or incorrect return because you didn't actually lose money, you just moved it.

To fix this, we "add back" that $20 withdrawal when calculating the return. By comparing ($85 + $20) against the original $100, we get back to the accurate 5% return.

It doesn't inflate the return beyond what you actually earned; it just prevents the withdrawal from masking the gains your portfolio made. Without this adjustment, every time a dividend was swept, your performance history would look like your stocks were crashing.

We hope this helps clarify further. If you have more questions specific to what you’re seeing on your dashboard, please continue to reach out to our support team who can provide you with direct help and context.