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I have been recently reviewing my Vanguard S&P500 (VUSA) performance and I have noticed that it does not correlate with the performance of the same ETF on their website.

Inside Vangurad investment portal: enter image description here

On Vanguard website: enter image description here

It got to the point that I'm confused why the graph for my VUSA performance doesn't look similar to the one from Vanguard's website?

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  • In my portal: What is your portal exactly ?? – DumbCoder Dec 18 '19 at 12:58
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    Have you checked the exchange rate between GBP and USD? – Eric Dec 18 '19 at 13:13
  • Could you please replace one of those charts so they are both denominated in the same currency? As things are you are comparing apples to oranges. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Dec 18 '19 at 23:22
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica, This is how it's presented to me inside Vanguard portal, now I know the my confusion was caused the currency exchange rates. – MMT Dec 19 '19 at 11:38
  • "correspond" would be a better word. They do correlate. – Acccumulation Dec 19 '19 at 18:40
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You're comparing an index that is measured in USD versus an ETF that tracks that index but is paid in GBP. The difference is mostly the difference in exchange rate over time between USD and GBP.

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    Confirmed. In the highlighted period, the GBP strengthened against the USD. The USD went from a high of about 83p on August 13 to about 75p today, or about 10 percent loss flattening out the ~10 percent gain in the S&P. – Eric Dec 18 '19 at 14:36
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D Stanley is correct that the reason for the difference is the change in exchange rate. But your second chart is not of an index (nor are indexes measured in USD, rather in some "points").

You are actually comparing the market price per share of your ETF in GBP (the ETF is traded on a UK exchange), to the net asset value per share in USD (the ETF holding are all traded on the US exchanges). The page you linked includes both in the tables above the chart:

enter image description here

Notice the substantial difference in "one-day change" between these metrics, which is wholly caused by the exchange rate.

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