Broker screens often show price change only. XIRR answers: how strongly did your capital compound, with every cash flow on the right date.
XIRR (extended internal rate of return) is the annual money-weighted rate r that makes the net present value of all dated cash flows zero — buys negative, dividends/coupons/sales/end value positive — on a 365-day year (Excel =XIRR / German Excel =XINTZINSFUSS).
Solved numerically (Newton–Raphson with bisection fallback). Unlike a simple “end ÷ start − 1”, timing of a mid-year top-up or dividend matters.
| Date | Cash flow |
|---|---|
| 15 Jan 2025 | −€10,000 buy |
| 15 Jan 2026 | +€450 dividend |
| 15 Jan 2026 | +€10,800 end value |
Simple return ≈ +12.5%. XIRR annualises with exact day counts — try it in the free XIRR calculator (DE/EN switcher on the page).
German deep-dive: XIRR-Leitfaden (DE).