"How am I performing?"

For many wealth managers, the honest answer is that delivering a precise, confident response to that question is harder than it should be. Not because the investments have been poorly managed, but because the infrastructure behind the answer hasn't kept pace with the complexity of the portfolios being managed. And in a client relationship, the difference between a precise answer and an approximate one is felt immediately.

The preparation problem most wealth managers don't talk about

Ask a wealth manager how they prepare for a client portfolio review and the answer is usually some version of the same process: pulling statements from custodians, cross-referencing against their own records, assembling a performance picture from multiple sources, and hoping the numbers reconcile cleanly before the meeting starts.

For straightforward portfolios, this works well enough. But for clients with holdings across multiple accounts, brokers, exchanges and currencies — the kind of portfolio complexity that tends to accompany serious wealth — the process becomes genuinely demanding. Corporate actions need to be accounted for, dividends need to be recorded accurately, and tax events need to be tracked continuously rather than reconstructed at year-end. And all of it needs to be consolidated into a coherent picture before you sit down with your client.

The time this takes is one problem, but the reliability of the result is another. When performance data is assembled manually from multiple sources, the margin for error grows with every additional data point. A missed dividend reinvestment, an incorrectly recorded corporate action, a cash flow that distorts the return calculation — these are the kinds of discrepancies that surface at the worst possible moment, in the middle of a meeting, when a client is looking at a different number on their custodian statement and asking why it doesn't match yours.

That moment of misalignment is one of the most damaging things that can happen in a client relationship. Not because the error is necessarily significant, but because it creates doubt. And doubt, once introduced into a wealth management relationship, is difficult to recover from.

What actually builds client confidence

There is a common assumption that client confidence is largely a function of investment performance. If the portfolio has grown, the client is satisfied. If it hasn't, the conversation is difficult. The quality of the adviser's preparation is treated as secondary. It’s important, but it’s not the thing that determines whether trust is maintained.

This underestimates how much clients read your command of the situation, independent of returns. Consider what it communicates when you can answer "how am I performing?" with a precise, time-weighted return figure, benchmarked against a relevant index, broken down by asset class and account, and immediately reconciled against what the client sees elsewhere. That level of readiness projects competence and control. It signals that everything is being watched, tracked and understood.

Conversely, a wealth manager who hedges, qualifies, or has to follow up after the meeting with corrected figures creates a different impression entirely. The investment decisions may have been sound and the strategy may be exactly right. But if the numbers aren't ready, the confidence isn't there — and clients notice.

Genuine confidence in these conversations doesn't come from experience or personality alone. It comes from preparation, and preparation depends on having accurate, consolidated, continuously updated data before you walk into the room.

What that preparation looks like in practice

The foundation is a single, live view of every client holding across every account, automatically reconciled against market data. Not a report assembled the night before a meeting, but a picture that is always current — so when a client calls unexpectedly, or when market conditions shift and a conversation becomes urgent, the data is already there.

From that foundation, the specific outputs that matter most in client conversations become reliable. Time-weighted return calculations isolate true portfolio performance from the distorting effect of cash flows, giving you a number that reflects what your investment decisions have actually delivered. Benchmarked against major global indices, that figure provides the context a client needs to evaluate their performance meaningfully rather than in isolation.

For clients with income-producing assets, automated dividend and corporate action tracking ensures that the performance picture is complete. Splits, rights issues, dividend reinvestment plans and return of capital events are recorded accurately and continuously, not reconstructed from memory or extracted from a PDF at the end of the quarter. The difference in reliability is significant, and it shows in the quality of the conversation.

Tax reporting is another area where preparation really pays off. For clients with complex tax positions (such as capital gains across multiple accounts and dividend income from international holdings), tracking that data continuously means it is ready when needed, not assembled under pressure at year-end. For clients who work with an accountant, it also means the wealth manager can arrive at tax time as a collaborative, prepared partner rather than a source of incomplete information.

The client relationship case for getting this right

The case for better portfolio infrastructure is often made in operational terms: time saved, errors reduced, processes streamlined. These things are real and worth having, but the more important case is relational.

Wealth management is a long-term business. Client relationships that endure are built on consistent demonstrations of competence and care, and few things demonstrate both more clearly than a wealth manager who is always prepared, always accurate, and always able to answer the questions that matter most without hesitation. The client who receives that experience doesn't just stay, they refer.

The client who experiences the alternative — the hedged answer, the follow-up email with corrected figures, the moment of visible uncertainty when the numbers don't reconcile — may stay too, at least for a while. But the relationship operates at a lower level of trust, and lower trust means lower engagement, less openness to advice, and greater vulnerability to a competitor who appears more prepared.

The performance conversation is, in this sense, about much more than performance. It's about whether the client believes their wealth is in capable hands. And that belief is built or eroded in the small moments like the precision of an answer, the readiness of a number, and the confidence with which a question is met.

Preparation is an infrastructure problem

The wealth managers who have the most confident client conversations are not necessarily those with the longest experience or the strongest instincts. They are the ones whose data is always ready, always accurate, and always consolidated into a picture they can stand behind.

That is an infrastructure problem, and it has an infrastructure solution. Sharesight’s portfolio tracker gives wealth managers a consolidated, accurate view of every client portfolio — across every account, exchange and currency — so that the most important conversation in the client relationship starts from a position of clarity rather than approximation.

Ready to walk into every client meeting fully prepared? Start your 14-day free trial of Sharesight.

Tax loss selling is a strategy that you can leverage to minimise your net capital gains earned over the financial year and reduce your income tax. While tax loss selling can be used at any time, it is most useful in the lead-up to the end of the financial year, when you have a clearer picture of your overall capital gains or losses. This makes the final months of the financial year an ideal time to review your investment portfolio and decide whether you could benefit from using this strategy to help offset your capital gains.

This article will cover:

• What is tax loss selling?
• How does tax loss selling work?
• How to model tax loss selling opportunities with Sharesight
• Avoiding wash sales

What is tax loss selling?

Tax loss selling (or tax loss harvesting) involves selling investments that have incurred capital losses in order to “net out” or offset capital gains realised during the year. Essentially, if you wish to sell out of certain unprofitable investments in your portfolio, you may choose to use tax loss selling as a way to alleviate some of that loss and re-align your portfolio with your investing strategy, even if the net effect is still negative.

While many investors choose to leverage tax loss selling towards the end of the financial year, you can harvest losses at any time. The amount of money you save in taxes will differ depending on your tax rate (individual/trust, SMSF, company), but it should be noted that higher tax rates will apply for investments you’ve held for less than a year (short-term capital gains) than investments you’ve sold after holding them for more than a year.

How does tax loss selling work?

To help explain how tax loss selling works, let’s look at an example calculation:

Let’s say you bought 500 shares of Stock A a few years ago, when the price was $30. Today, it’s trading at $300, meaning its value has increased by $135,000. At some point, you also bought 500 shares of Stock B when the price was $100. Since then, the share price has gone down to $50, decreasing its value by $25,000.

While you could hold onto Stock B in the hope that its share price will recover, you could also sell both Stock A and Stock B before the end of the financial year to offset some of the gains from your sale of Stock A with your sale of Stock B. Doing so may not only soften the impact of the loss, but it could also be a good opportunity to shed an unprofitable stock and rebalance your investment portfolio.

How to model tax loss selling opportunities with Sharesight

If you hold investments that have suffered losses this year, Sharesight’s unrealised CGT report can help you calculate how to offset your capital gains by:

1. Displaying the CGT position for all your current holdings, if you were to sell them on the date of the report. These are broken down into:
   • Short term capital gains (unrealised)
   • Long term capital gains (unrealised)
   • Capital losses (unrealised)
2. Modelling the CGT that would occur across your portfolio if the shares identified were sold on the report date.
3. Allowing you to modify the CGT sale allocation method at the overall portfolio or individual holding level to determine your optimal position.

Sharesight’s unrealised CGT report makes it easy to model different tax loss selling scenarios.

The report uses the ‘discount method’ for shares that have been held for more than one year and the ‘other method’ for shares held for less than one year. The discount rate is based on the tax settings of an Australian portfolio:

• Individuals / Trust – CGT discount of 50 %
• Self Managed Super Fund – CGT discount of 33⅓ %
• Company – CGT discount of nil.

The report also allows you to specify the sale allocation method at the overall portfolio and individual holding level to determine your optimum position, including:

• First In, First Out (FIFO) – Sharesight assumes that you sell your longest held shares first
• Last In, First Out (LIFO) – Sharesight assumes that you sell your most recently purchased shares first
• Maximise Gain – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares with the lowest purchase price first
• Minimise Gain – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares with the highest purchase price first
• Minimise CGT – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares that will result in the lowest capital gains tax first. This method is more sophisticated than the ‘Minimise capital gain’ method because it takes into account the Australian CGT discounting rules.

Notes on the unrealised CGT report

• The unrealised CGT report is designed for forecasting purposes only. Refer to the capital gains tax report to calculate your actual (realised) taxable capital gain income for a specific period
• You can carry forward losses from the previous reporting period by clicking on the ‘Advanced options’ link
• It’s a good idea to run the report throughout the year, not just at the end, in order to stay on top of opportunities to offset gains and losses throughout the year. You may want to share secure portfolio access with your accountant and/or adviser, so they can keep this in mind as well
• The unrealised CGT report is available on Australian standard and premium plans
• For more information, see our instructional video below:

Avoiding wash sales

In 2008, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) issued issued tax ruling TR 2008/1, which specifically outlaws arrangements where “...in substance there is no significant change in the taxpayer’s economic exposure to, or interest in, the asset, or where that exposure or interest may be reinstated by the taxpayer”.

In other words, the ATO prevents investors from selling a stock in one financial year to take advantage of a capital loss event, only to buy that stock again in the new financial year. This is known as a “wash sale” and the ATO will disallow the loss if the sole intention of the sale was to minimise tax. As Sharesight Executive Director Andrew Bird says, “if you are going to sell, make sure you really mean it. If you still believe in that stock then choose a different ‘loser’ to sell to offset your gain”.

Calculate tax loss selling opportunities with Sharesight

Join thousands of Australian investors already using Sharesight to track their investment portfolios and optimise their CGT position. Sign up for Sharesight you can:

• Automatically track your dividend and distribution income from stocks, ETFs, LICs and mutual/managed funds from over 60 global exchanges – including the value of franking credits

• Use the dividend reinvestment plan (DRPs/DRIPs) feature to track the impact of DRP transactions on your performance (and tax)

• See the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology

• Run powerful tax reports to calculate your dividend income with the taxable income report

• Plus calculate your CGT obligations with Sharesight’s Australian capital gains tax report and unrealised capital gains tax report

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investment performance (and tax) today.

FURTHER READING

• 7 reasons why Sharesight is better than a spreadsheet
• 5 ways Sharesight helps Australian investors at tax time
• 3 reasons why you need to be tracking dividends

With the Australian financial year rapidly coming to a close, now is the time to get on top of your investments and understand what the tax implications are — before it’s too late.

For tax purposes, each financial year is seen as a snapshot in time used to assess the tax payable by individuals. Because of this, the timing of when investment income is earned, or when you realise capital gains, has important tax implications.

Are you prepared for tax time? If not, don't stress — this article will go through all the important information you need to know to make the most of your time before the end of the financial year.

Take stock of your investments

First, you need to find out what investments you own, and the number of shares/units you own in each.

You could turn to your broker or fund manager for this information, and if you only own investments through a single entity that makes it easy. But for investors who trade across multiple brokers, or who also own unlisted investments, it’s best to consult Australia’s share registries (MUFG Corporate Markets, Computershare and Boardroom being the most common) for records of the investments you own.

Once you have this information, you’ll need to put it together in one place. While some investors build a spreadsheet to do this, it is much easier to use Sharesight to track all your investments in a single place. If you don’t have a Sharesight account, take a second to sign up for a free account before finishing this article.

Paint your financial picture

Once you’re tracking all your investments in one place, you will need to establish the income and capital gains made on your investments during the current financial year.

Share dividend and fund distributions are a good place to start. Records of the income you received during the financial year can be found by running Sharesight’s taxable income report. Once you have this information, you can easily calculate your total income from dividends and distributions.

The taxable income report breaks down taxable income into local income (trust and non-trust) and foreign income.

CGT

Have you sold investments this financial year? If so, there will likely be capital gains tax (CGT) implications. To calculate the CGT on the sale of a parcel of shares, you’ll need to find out the cost price of the shares sold, and the sale price/quantity sold in any trades you made during the financial year. You can find this information from the broker or fund manager you used to make the trades.

It’s also important to note that Australia permits multiple methods to calculate capital gains tax on shares. Using different sale allocation methods such as first-in-first-out, highest-in-first-out and last-in-first-out can impact the cost price of the shares sold (and thus the capital gain made) if multiple parcels of shares were purchased throughout the financial year at different prices.

Fortunately, Sharesight’s capital gains tax report makes it easy to calculate capital gains and losses on investments sold during the year. Built to ATO rules, the capital gains tax report allows investors to calculate the optimal sale allocation method for each holding sold for their individual tax position.

While optimising the choice of sale allocation methods is critical to not pay more capital gains tax than is required, at this point, knowing the size of your realised capital gains or losses during the financial year will let you make the most of the time left before EOFY.

Put yourself in the best tax position

Now that you’ve got the full picture of your investments, do you know how they have performed? If you’ve made large capital gains during the year, there could be an opportunity to engage in tax loss selling strategies before 30 June to minimise your taxable income.

Tax loss selling is a strategy that involves selling an investment at a loss to offset a capital gains tax liability during the financial year. It’s a strategy you can use year-round, but is particularly useful in the lead-up to EOFY, when you have a better picture of your capital gains or losses for the year.

Tax loss selling example

An investor has recorded large capital gains during the year, but still holds shares in Stock X in their portfolio, purchased in 2021 at $1.87 per share. With Stock X shares now valued at $1.16, the investor can sell their shares during this financial year to realise the capital loss and offset the earlier gains from other sold shares.

Sharesight’s unrealised capital gains tax report makes it easy to model potential tax loss selling opportunities like the above in your portfolio. The report allows you to choose from a range of different sale allocation methods, with the results broken down into short and long-term capital gains (which incur different CGT discounts), as well as unrealised capital losses.

The unrealised CGT report helps investors make the most of tax loss selling.

Tax loss selling is within the ATO rules, but you must keep in mind that the ATO seeks to prevent abuse of this strategy, and does not look favourably on wash sales. This is where an investor sells shares right before EOFY to incur a tax loss, then repurchases shares in the same asset for a similar price early in the new financial year.

EOFY doesn’t have to be a nightmare

Whether you’re working with an accountant or filing your own tax return, it's important to be a prepared investor. That means taking ownership of your investment decisions, tracking your own investment portfolio, and implementing strategies to ensure you aren’t paying more tax than necessary. Fortunately, with the rise of online tools — from your fund manager, to share registries to Sharesight — it's now easier than ever to make the most of EOFY.

Complete your EOFY investor checklist with Sharesight

Join thousands of Australian investors already using Sharesight to manage their investment portfolios. Sign up for Sharesight today so you can:

• Automatically track your dividend and distribution income from stocks, ETFs, LICs and mutual/managed funds – including the value of franking credits
• Use the dividend reinvestment plan (DRPs/DRIPs) feature to track the impact of DRP transactions on your performance (and tax)
• See the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology
• Run powerful tax reports to calculate your dividend income with the taxable income report
• Plus calculate your CGT obligations with Sharesight's Australian capital gains tax report and unrealised capital gains tax report

To get started for free, simply sign up, import your holdings and watch as dividends and prices are automatically updated. If you decide to upgrade, you’ll unlock advanced features and everything you need to run your tax reports and gain unparalleled insights into your portfolio performance throughout the year.

Plus, as an Australian tax resident, you can save even more by claiming your Sharesight subscription fees on your tax return.¹

FURTHER READING

• How to calculate your Australian capital gains tax
• 7 reasons to upgrade your Sharesight account
• Record-keeping requirements for Australian investors

¹ If you derive income from the share market, your Sharesight subscription may be tax deductible. Check with your accountant for details.

We're excited to bring US bonds listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE into Sharesight, continuing our expansion of fixed income support following the addition of 20,000+ LSE-listed bonds late last year. Investors with US bond holdings can now easily track performance and income alongside the rest of their portfolio.

For Australian users, we've launched a rebuilt Capital Gains Tax report in beta. The new report is designed to align directly with your ATO tax return, featuring labelled fields, categorised gain/loss tabs, and a holdings-level transaction view. We welcome your feedback as we continue to refine it — you can access the beta version from the Tax tab if you have beta features enabled in your account preferences.

We've also made dividend recording significantly easier for ordinary share custom investments. You can now set up a dividend against a custom investment via the account menu dropdown, and Sharesight will automatically calculate the correct dividend amount for every portfolio that holds that investment. Dividend details can be entered when announced, viewed in the future income report, and then confirmed from the Tasks tab or holdings page once paid. We think this feature should really speed up the task of keeping portfolios up to date for users who hold the same custom investment across multiple portfolios including Sharesight Business users.

New functionality / enhancements

• Added support for US bonds listed on NASDAQ and NYSE
• Added Apple Pay and Google Pay as payment options for Sharesight subscriptions
• Launched a rebuilt Australian CGT report in beta designed to align with ATO tax return
• Made dividend recording for ordinary share custom investments easier
• Improved plan downgrade user experience
• Improved visibility of fractional and near-zero positions — the holdings page now displays the exact quantity remaining when it is less than 0.0001.

Broker import functionality

• Added support for three new broker trade files.

FURTHER READING

• Sharesight product updates – March 2026
• Sharesight product updates – February 2026
• Sharesight product update – January 2026

Top trades in March 2026

Note: To get a closer look at this chart, you can right-click and open the image in a new tab (for desktop) or press-hold and download the image or open it in a web browser (for mobile).

This month, we’ve introduced a new chart design for our trading snapshots that shows which assets have risen or fallen in the rankings compared to the previous month. For the month of March, we can see that the Smartshares US 500 ETF (NZX: USF) has remained in first place, with investors likely taking advantage of market volatility triggered by the Iran war. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw the biggest change, moving from #2 in February to #20 in March. At the same time, fellow “Magnificent Seven” stocks Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose strongly in the rankings.

Most-traded stocks in March 2026

Note: To get a closer look at this chart, you can right-click and open the image in a new tab (for desktop) or press-hold and download the image or open it in a web browser (for mobile).

The top-traded stocks were led by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), which both rose in the rankings compared to the previous month. The top trades were followed by Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB), which continued to be popular with investors due to its strong Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings reports.

Let’s look at some of the market-moving news behind some of this month’s top stocks:

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)

• Microsoft closes out its worst quarter since the GFC, driven by shareholders’ AI skepticism
• Should investors buy into the Microsoft dip?

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

• NVIDIA share price has grown 60% YoY, driven by AI craze
• Share price drops as broader market weakness impacts tech stocks

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB)

• Rocket Lab posts strong Q4 and full-year 2025 results
• Completes two satellite missions in a week

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)

• Analyst sees 40% upside for Alphabet shares
• Will Alphabet survive the ‘SaaS-pocalypse’?

Contact Energy (NZX: CEN)

• Raises NZ$125 million for renewable energy project expansion
• Posts higher sales and reduced costs in February 2026 report

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)

• Tesla share price rises on strong earnings from key battery supplier
• Will the Tesla share price collapse?

Genesis Energy (NZX: GNE)

• Genesis completes NZ$400 million capital raise
• Genesis announces resignation of CFO

Track your investment portfolio with Sharesight

Get access to insights like this by tracking your investment portfolio with Sharesight. Built for the needs of investors like you, with Sharesight you can:

• Track all your investments in one place, including stocks, ETFs, mutual/managed funds, property, and even cryptocurrency
• Get the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology
• Run powerful reports built for investors, including performance, portfolio diversity, contribution analysis, exposure, drawdown risk, multi-period, multi-currency valuation and future income
• Run tax reports including taxable income (dividends/distributions), Capital Gains Tax (Australia and Canada), Traders Tax (Capital Gains for traders in NZ) and FIF foreign investment fund income reports (NZ)

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investments today.

Disclaimer: The above article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a specific product recommendation, or taxation or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. While we use reasonable endeavours to keep the information up-to-date, we make no representation that any information is accurate or up-to-date. If you choose to make use of the content in this article, you do so at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we do not assume any responsibility or liability arising from or connected with your use or reliance on the content on our site. Please check with your adviser or accountant to obtain the correct advice for your situation.

FURTHER READING

• Subscribe to Sharesight20 trading snapshots
• How Sharesight calculates your investment performance
• Sharesight users' top 20 trades – February 2026

Top trades in March 2026

Note: To get a closer look at this chart, you can right-click and open the image in a new tab (for desktop) or press-hold and download the image or open it in a web browser (for mobile).

This month, we’ve introduced a new chart design for our trading snapshots that shows which assets have risen or fallen in the rankings compared to the previous month. For the month of March, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) remain in first and second place. Bitcoin (BTC) experienced the biggest drop in the rankings, moving from 12th to 20th place. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ: IBIT) also fell out of the rankings completely, suggesting waning investor sentiment around cryptocurrency.

Let’s look at the market-moving news behind some of this month’s top stocks:

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)

• Microsoft closes out its worst quarter since the GFC, driven by shareholders’ AI skepticism
• Should investors buy into the Microsoft dip?

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

• NVIDIA share price has grown 60% YoY, driven by AI craze
• Share price drops as broader market weakness impacts tech stocks

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)

• Tesla share price rises on strong earnings from key battery supplier
• Will the Tesla share price collapse?

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)

• Analyst sees 40% upside for Alphabet shares
• Will Alphabet survive the ‘SaaS-pocalypse’?

Meta (NASDAQ: META)

• Meta share price drops following reports its next-gen AI model has been postponed
• Share price slides following hundreds of job cuts
• Meta loses landmark social media addiction ruling

RocketLab (NASDAQ: RKLB)

• RocketLab posts strong Q4 and full-year 2025 results
• Completes two satellite missions in a week

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)

• Is Apple the worst “Magnificent Seven” stock to own?
• Apple share price is up 15% over the past six months

Track your investment portfolio with Sharesight

Get access to insights like this by tracking your investment portfolio with Sharesight. Built for the needs of investors like you, with Sharesight you can:

• Track all your investments in one place, including stocks, ETFs, mutual/managed funds, property, and even cryptocurrency
• Get the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology
• Run powerful reports built for investors, including performance, portfolio diversity, contribution analysis, exposure, drawdown risk, multi-period, multi-currency valuation and future income
• Run tax reports including taxable income (dividends/distributions), Capital Gains Tax (Australia and Canada), Traders Tax (Capital Gains for traders in NZ) and FIF foreign investment fund income reports (NZ)

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investments today.

Disclaimer: The above article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a specific product recommendation, or taxation or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. While we use reasonable endeavours to keep the information up-to-date, we make no representation that any information is accurate or up-to-date. If you choose to make use of the content in this article, you do so at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we do not assume any responsibility or liability arising from or connected with your use or reliance on the content on our site. Please check with your adviser or accountant to obtain the correct advice for your situation.

FURTHER READING

• Subscribe to Sharesight20 trading snapshots
• How Sharesight calculates your investment performance
• Sharesight users' top 20 trades – February 2026

Top trades in March 2026

Note: To get a closer look at this chart, you can right-click and open the image in a new tab (for desktop) or press-hold and download the image or open it in a web browser (for mobile).

This month, we’ve introduced a new chart design for our trading snapshots that shows which assets have risen or fallen in the rankings compared to the previous month. For the month of March, we can see that Vanguard’s MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS) has remained in first place, with investors likely taking advantage of market volatility triggered by the Iran war. In terms of equities, Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) was the biggest climber in the rankings, moving from 20th place to 5th. DroneShield (ASX: DRO) also entered the rankings, likely driven by increased government defence spending due to the war.

Most-traded stocks in March 2026

Note: To get a closer look at this chart, you can right-click and open the image in a new tab (for desktop) or press-hold and download the image or open it in a web browser (for mobile).

In the month of March, the top-traded stocks were Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) and BHP (ASX: BHP) — two stocks which benefitted from a sector rally caused by war-related oil shortages. Investors also piled into WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC), whose share price has been on a downward trend since Q3 2025 when the company finalised its acquisition of e2open, while simultaneously facing backlash over its disappointing FY26 guidance.

Let’s look at some of the market-moving news behind some of this month’s top stocks:

Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS)

• Woodside share price hits multi-year high as Iran war triggers sector rally
• Surging oil prices could be a boon for Woodside dividends
• Appoints acting CEO Lis Wescott as permanent successor to Meg O’Neill

BHP (ASX: BHP)

• BHP appoints Brandon Craig as new CEO
• BHP share price plummets 21% amid market volatility and leadership shakeup

WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC)

• WiseTech shares hit multi-year low as damning reports emerge about founder’s insider trading allegations
• Another brutal month of losses for ASX tech stocks

CSL (ASX: CSL)

• CSL share price plunges to 8-year low
• Leading broker sees upside for CSL share price

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

• NVIDIA share price has grown 60% YoY, driven by AI craze
• Share price drops as broader market weakness impacts tech stocks

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)

• Microsoft closes out its worst quarter since the GFC, driven by shareholders’ AI skepticism
• Should investors buy into the Microsoft dip?

DroneShield (ASX: DRO)

• DroneShield share price skyrockets amid Middle East conflict
• Share price continues to rise as government increases defence spending

Track your investment portfolio with Sharesight

Get access to insights like this by tracking your investment portfolio with Sharesight. Built for the needs of investors like you, with Sharesight you can:

• Track all your investments in one place, including stocks, mutual/managed funds, property, and even cryptocurrency
• Get the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology
• Run powerful reports built for investors, including performance, portfolio diversity, contribution analysis, exposure, drawdown risk, multi-period, multi-currency valuation and future income
• Run tax reports including taxable income (dividends/distributions), Capital Gains Tax (Australia and Canada), Traders Tax (Capital Gains for traders in NZ) and FIF foreign investment fund income reports (NZ)

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investments today.

Disclaimer: The above article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a specific product recommendation, or taxation or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. While we use reasonable endeavours to keep the information up-to-date, we make no representation that any information is accurate or up-to-date. If you choose to make use of the content in this article, you do so at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we do not assume any responsibility or liability arising from or connected with your use or reliance on the content on our site. Please check with your adviser or accountant to obtain the correct advice for your situation.

FURTHER READING

• Subscribe to Sharesight20 trading snapshots
• How Sharesight calculates your investment performance
• Top trades by Australian Sharesight users — February 2026

Typed by country and theme, the list includes the top content from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, India, Singapore, Ireland and Switzerland. This list is updated annually to make sure we are giving you the best content we can find.

To discover the 50 best finance and investing blogs, keep reading.

1. Of Dollars and Data

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: US

A blog covering topics such as what to expect from financial markets, how to think about risk, how to time investment purchases and how to organise and manage your finances.

2. Systematic Money

Theme: Investment

Origin country: UK

A blog about quant trading, investing and economics, written by an independent systematic futures trader, writer, research consultant and university lecturer.

3. Collaborative Fund

Theme: Economics/investment

Origin country: US

The Collaborative Fund blog takes an intellectual view of economics and investment, often highlighting the similarities between history and current events as a way to give readers insight into the economy.

4. Klement on Investing

Theme: Investment/economics

Origin country: UK

Thoughts on financial markets by a research analyst and former CIO with 20 years of experience in the investment industry.

5. Simple Living in Somerset

Theme: Economy/investment

Origin country: UK

A blog by a 50-something professional looking to retire early and start living with intent. Topics range from political economy to investment and personal finance.

6. Firstlinks

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Australia

Firstlinks (formerly Cuffelinks) is a publishing service providing content written by financial market professionals with experience in wealth management, superannuation, banking, academia and financial advice.

7. Kyla’s Newsletter

Theme: Economy

Origin country: US

A high-level blend of economic analysis and cultural commentary, focusing on how human behavior and societal trends intersect to shape the modern economy.

8. Banker on Wheels

Theme: Investment

Origin country: UK

ETF guides, investment strategies and broker reviews from a portfolio manager who traded his Bloomberg Terminal for a bike.

9. Mustachian Post

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: Switzerland

A blog written by a Swiss couple in their 30s who document their goal of becoming homeowners and reaching financial independence by 40.

10. Monevator

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: UK

Monevator is a personal blog about money: making, saving, growing and sometimes even spending it.

11. The Fifth Person

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: Singapore

The aim of The Fifth Person is to spread the message that financial literacy and sound investment knowledge can help people around the world achieve financial independence and lead better lives for themselves and their loved ones.

12. The Intellectual Investor

Theme: Investment/economy

Origin country: US

Value investing, life/philosophy and classical music explained by Vitaly Katsenelson, The Intellectual Investor.

13. JL Collins: The Path to Wealth

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: US

This blog discusses money, life, travel and business, laying out 9 steps for a simple path to wealth.

14. Mouthy Money

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: UK

Mouthy Money is a money blog with a beating heart and a big mouth. It’s made of real people talking daily about real dreams, successes and failures.

15. Flow Financial Planning blog

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: US

A blog written by a financial planner who simplifies complex financial concepts on topics such as investing, financial planning and independence, saving and spending, IPOs, public-company equity and more.

16. Let’s Get Real About Money

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: Australia

The author of this blog is a financial advisor who helps people get real about money and take control of their financial freedom.

17. Financial Samurai

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: US

Financial Samurai delves into investing, real estate, retirement planning, career strategies, and more, so we can all achieve financial independence sooner rather than later.

18. The Happy Saver

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: New Zealand

A blog about enjoying what you have without feeling pressure to have more, using the income you generate to buy just what you need and tucking the rest away.

19. MoneyNing

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: US

The main topics of the MoneyNing blog include helping you become debt-free, showing you how to build wealth over time, and letting you see for yourself how financial choices impact your life.

20. A Purple Life

Theme: Personal finance/travel

Origin country: US

This blog explores the author's journey to early retirement, which began in 2015 with a 10-year plan to retire at 35. Through reduced spending, higher earnings, and geoarbitrage, she achieved her goal in just five years, retiring in 2020 at age 30.

21. The Poor Swiss

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: Switzerland

A blog about a single-income family who are on the journey to financial independence in Switzerland.

22. Sorted

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: NZ

The Sorted blog has the tools and information you need to tackle debt, plan and budget, save and invest, dial up your KiwiSaver, plan for retirement, protect what's important and manage a mortgage.

23. Tawcan

Theme: Investment/personal finance

Origin country: Canada

The aim of this blog is to show it is possible to achieve financial independence as a single-income family with two young kids while living in Vancouver Canada, one of the most expensive cities in the world.

24. A Wealth of Common Sense

Theme: Investment

Origin country: US

A Wealth of Common Sense is a blog that focuses on wealth management, investments, financial markets and investor psychology.

25. Young and the Invested

Theme: Investment

Origin country: US

Young and the Invested is a site dedicated to helping younger generations learn how to invest, manage and plan their money with confidence.

26. The Budgetnista

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: US

The Budgetnista blog provides tips on foundational money management, including debt recovery, credit rebuilding and survival-based budgeting strategies for families and individuals.

27. The Evidence-Based Investor

Theme: Investment

Origin country: UK

The Evidence-Based Investor uses academic research and historical data to advocate for passive indexing and factor-based investing while systematically debunking the myths of active fund management, stock picking and financial market hype.

28. My Own Advisor

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: Canada

A blog on how to achieve financial independence by blending low-cost index ETF investing with a growing portfolio of Canadian dividend-paying stocks.

29. Dad Investor

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: Australia

Dad Investor is a blog with easy to understand information on personal finance that aims to help people make smart financial decisions and spend less time worrying about money.

30. Mr. Money Moustache

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: US

A blog written by a former software engineer who retired at age 30 by spending only a small percentage of his annual salary and consistently investing the remainder, primarily in stock market index funds.

31. Guidance Financial Advice

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: Australia

A blog that provides practical insights on retirement planning, tax-efficiency strategies (like Superannuation and pensions), and navigating major life transitions such as divorce or investment property liquidation.

32. Dr Vijay Malik

Theme: Investment

Origin country: India

Written by an investor with decades of experience in the market, this blog aims to simplify investing by explaining the conceptual aspects of stock analysis, including examples of real companies.

33. The FI Explorer

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Australia

A blog about one person’s journey toward financial independence, exploring investment strategy, finance and portfolio design issues. It also features occasional discussions of new financial products and emerging fintech issues.

34. The Smart Investor

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Singapore

This blog aims to educate people on how to invest smartly by providing investing education, stock commentary and market coverage for Singapore and around the world.

35. The Belle Curve

Theme: Investment/finance

Origin country: US

A finance and investment blog focusing on current events and the achievements of women in business.

36. Investment Moats

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Singapore

The author of this blog aims to share his experiences and thoughts on how money works and ways to grow wealth through investing.

37. Sam Harith - The Comic Accountant

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: New Zealand

A blog dedicated to helping build financial confidence for readers around the world by keeping finance, accounting and economics fun and easy to understand.

38. The Become Wealth Blog

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: NZ

Real financial guidance for New Zealanders, from professionals advising on over $1 billion in client funds.

39. Physician on FIRE

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: US

Whether you’re contemplating an early retirement, or you plan to use your FI status to practice in a way that suits you, this platform aims to provide you with free tools and information to help you reach your goals.

40. Dollars and Sense

Theme: Personal finance/Investment

Origin country: Singapore

Dollars and Sense provides practical guides on investing, insurance, property and national policies like CPF to help Singaporeans make better-informed financial decisions.

41. MyStocksInvesting

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Singapore

This financial blog shares knowledge about stocks and trading, including topics such as stock market analysis, REITs, financial planning and cryptocurrency.

42. The College Investor

Theme: Personal finance/investment

Origin country: US

From getting out of student loan debt to paying for college and building wealth, The Collage Investor has been providing expert financial news and advice since 2009.

43. Strawman Blog – The Last Straw

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Australia

The Strawman Blog features stock market news and insights, as well as information on the Strawman investment club.

44. Left Hook Economics

Theme: Economy

Origin country: US

A progressive economic magazine and blog that provides real-world analysis of economic justice, labour issues and public policy from a challenger, left-of-centre perspective.

45. The Woke Salaryman

Theme: Personal finance

Origin country: Singapore

The Woke Salaryman was set up with the intention of helping Singaporeans make better financial and life choices through education. Even if it means deviating from the conventional path always preached by previous generations/conventional wisdom.

46. The Big Picture

Theme: Investment/economics

Origin country: US

A blog written by an investing expert who discusses how the intersection of behavioral economics and data affect investors.

47. Ernest Lim’s Investing Blog

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Singapore

An avid investor, trader and remisier provides in-depth insights into SGX-listed companies.

48. Turtle Investor

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Singapore

The Turtle Investor blog focuses on investment and personal finance, FIRE, creating alternative income streams, plus money and travel hacks.

49. Jessica Moorhouse

Theme: Investment

Origin country: Canada

Jessica Moorhouse is a money expert who provides relatable, educational content, specialising in millennial-focused budgeting, investing for Canadians, and achieving financial independence through practical life-planning.

50. Crossing Wall St

Theme: Investment

Origin country: US

A blog designed to give people an unbiased view of the market, including a yearly buy list of 25 stocks with details of its performance recorded each year.

Track your investment performance with Sharesight

Hundreds of thousands of self-directed investors are already using Sharesight to manage their investment portfolios. What are you waiting for? Sign up and:

• Track all of your investments in one place, including stocks, mutual/managed funds, property and even cryptocurrency
• Automatically track your dividend and distribution income from stocks, ETFs and mutual/managed Funds
• Run powerful reports built for investors, such as performance, portfolio diversity, contribution analysis, exposure, drawdown risk, multi-period, multi-currency valuation and future income
• See the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investment performance (and tax) today.

FURTHER READING

• Top 50 finance and investing podcasts
• Sharesight's top 10 investing blogs of 2025
• Why Sharesight is the best multi-asset portfolio tracker

The numbers

An analysis of anonymised data from hundreds of thousands of Sharesight users around the world reveals that women account for 24.1% of Australian users on the platform — more than double the number seen in the United States (9.9%) and the United Kingdom (9.6%), and significantly higher than Canada (11.7%) and New Zealand (17.9%).

It's worth noting that Sharesight's user base is opt-in and not nationally representative. These figures reflect who is actively tracking their investments using our platform, not the total investing population of each country. However, the scale of the difference between markets is hard to dismiss.

"Although this doesn't necessarily reflect overall national participation rates, the data suggests Australian women may be more engaged in actively tracking and managing their investments than their peers in other Western markets," says Sharesight's Chief Customer Officer, Jessica Goodall.

What’s driving the difference?

There's no single explanation, but a few structural and cultural factors are worth considering.

Superannuation creates investors by default. Australia's compulsory super system means that every person who enters the workforce, regardless of gender, becomes an investor from day one. Unlike the opt-out pension schemes in the UK and US, there's no disengaging from super — and that early, unavoidable exposure may shape how Australians think about long-term investing. As Morningstar's Director and Investment Specialist Shani Jayamanne puts it: "Compulsory superannuation means women are investors by default from the moment they enter the workforce."

ETFs and passive investing have become mainstream. Australia has a high level of public familiarity with ETFs and passive investing strategies, which lower the perceived complexity of getting started. When investing feels accessible, more people engage with it, including women who might otherwise feel the industry isn't designed for them.

The broader cultural conversation around financial independence. There's been a growing mainstream discussion in Australia around wealth equality and financial independence for women — in the media, in workplaces, and increasingly in everyday conversation. That cultural shift has real implications for who feels welcome and capable in investing spaces.

The household CFO argument

The data only tells part of the story, and the rest is worth paying attention to.

"Many women are already the CFO of their household — from managing day-to-day budgets to planning for the future," says Dora Yip, Chief Marketing Officer of Pocketsmith.

"It's no surprise that investing is a natural extension of that role. The stereotype that women aren't good investors is just one of many outdated myths about women and money."

This is an important point. The skills involved in actively tracking a portfolio — attention to detail, long-term thinking, consistent review — are exactly the same skills many women apply to household financial management every day. The leap to investment tracking isn't as large as the gender gap in traditional investing would suggest.

Engagement is the critical next step

Even with a more encouraging picture in Australia, the data still shows men make up roughly three-quarters of Sharesight's Australian users. The gap hasn't closed, it's just narrower than elsewhere.

But that narrowing matters. It's evidence that participation levels aren't fixed, and that structural, cultural and product factors can genuinely move the needle.

According to Jayamanne, engagement itself is a meaningful outcome.

"Automatic enrolment and participation don't solve the well-documented retirement savings gap,” she notes.

“Engagement — actively tracking and understanding portfolio holdings — is the critical next step. The women who engage with portfolio monitoring tools will make more informed portfolio decisions and strategies that can help with closing retirement savings gaps and lead to better quality of life."

What this means for Sharesight

At Sharesight, we build tools for investors who want to take an active, informed role in understanding their portfolio performance. And data like this is a reminder that the investing community is broader, more diverse, and more engaged than traditional narratives suggest.

Australia may be leading Western markets on this measure, but there's still meaningful ground to cover everywhere, including here at home. We're proud to be part of the infrastructure that helps investors of all backgrounds take their financial future seriously.

FURTHER READING

• Future focus: The perils of the new financial system
• Why women should invest differently
• Why we need to talk more about investing: Angela's story

What is a TFSA?

Introduced in Canada in 2009, a tax-free savings account (TFSA) is an account in which individuals who are 18 or over with a valid social insurance number can put aside money tax-free. Money deposited as well as income earned in the account (such as interest, dividends and capital gains) is non-taxable and can be withdrawn tax-free. While a TFSA is a form of savings account, it can also hold certain investments including mutual funds, shares and bonds.

How to track your TFSA in Sharesight

To track a TFSA in Sharesight, simply set the tax entity of your portfolio to ‘TFSA’. This can be done by accessing the Settings menu and clicking ‘Tax settings’. By setting a Sharesight portfolio to ‘TFSA’, this means all Canadian payouts will be considered non-taxable by default (which can be overridden if necessary), however non-resident withholding tax will still apply.

As can be seen in the screenshot below, a TFSA can be tracked in Sharesight just like any other portfolio type, with the ability to automatically track capital gains and dividends from investments, plus see the value of any deposits or withdrawals by tracking a cash account. You can also benchmark your TFSA against any one of the 700,000+ global stocks, ETFs and funds that Sharesight tracks, which is a good way of understanding your TFSA’s performance in a broader market context.

An example of a Canadian TFSA being tracked in Sharesight.

Tax entities available for Canadian portfolios

Track your investment performance across all of your portfolios

With Sharesight, not only can you track the performance of all your TFSA investments, but you can also track the performance of all your different investment portfolios and accounts in one place. This is made easy with Sharesight’s consolidated views feature, which allows you to see performance across all your portfolios in a single view, including when running most reports. For example, a consolidated view could be useful when running the performance, diversity or contribution analysis reports, as it allows you to see your asset allocation and top-performing investments across all of your portfolios at a glance.

Start tracking your TFSA with Sharesight

If you’re not already using Sharesight to track your TFSA along with the rest of your investments, what are you waiting for? It’s free to sign up, and with Sharesight you can:

• Import historical trades from top Canadian brokers such as Questrade, Scotiabank, RBC Direct Investing and many more, including over 200 global brokers
• Track trades from over 60 global stock exchanges, including the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canadian Securities Exchange, NEO Exchange and Toronto TSX Ventures Exchange
• Track over 40,000 canadian mutual funds, with more than 20 years of historical price and distribution data. Ongoing prices and distributions are automatically updated and editable at any time
• Track Canadian and foreign currencies, including 8 different cryptocurrencies
• Calculate your CGT with the Canadian capital gains tax report

Sign up for a FREE Sharesight account and get started tracking your investment performance (and tax) today.

Disclaimer: The above article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a specific product recommendation, or taxation or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. While we use reasonable endeavours to keep the information up-to-date, we make no representation that any information is accurate or up-to-date. If you choose to make use of the content in this article, you do so at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we do not assume any responsibility or liability arising from or connected with your use or reliance on the content on our site. Please check with your adviser or accountant to obtain the correct advice for your situation.

FURTHER READING

• 3 ways Sharesight helps Canadians at tax time
• Track your RRSP and RRIF in Sharesight
• 7 reasons why Sharesight is better than a spreadsheet