Roboadvisor Returns - Are they Real?

 So this link came to my mailbox the other day:

https://blog.seedly.sg/robo-advisors-returns-revealed-endowus-syfe-kristal-ai-and-more/#syfe

Some of the claims seem too good to be true. For example, for Endowus below, most of their funds had positive returns:

It is the same for Syfe:

The good thing is that I have both Endowus and Syfe accounts, so I can verify whether their returns are as good as claimed. 

Firstly, for Endowus I have the Endowus Core Flagship (80/20) fund. I started with $9,999.91 in Feb 2021 and ended with $24,911.83 in Dec 2021. I contributed $1000 every month starting from Feb 2021 till Oct 2021, and then in Nov and Dec 2021, I contributed $2000 monthly. 

Another piece of information you need is that the tables above show time-weighted returns, which is equivalent to the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) or the 'rate' in the fv() formula in Excel and Google Sheets: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093224?hl=en

So now you have the start value of your fund, the end value, and the monthly installments you make to the fund, all you have to do is to adjust the 'rate' inside the fv() formula until the displayed value is the same as your actual end value ($24,911.83 in my case).

Here's what I found for Endowus:

Claimed returns from the table above:  17.91%

My actual returns:                                 13.10%

Hmm...a bit off but that could be because I didn't contribute for the month of Jan 2021.

Now let's do the same analysis for Syfe:

For Syfe I have the Core Equity 100 (100%) fund. I started with $2,028.28 in Jan 2021 and ended with $16,879.90 in Dec 2021. I contributed $1000 every month starting from Feb 2021 till Oct 2021, and then in Nov and Dec 2021, I contributed $2000 monthly. 

Here's what I found for Syfe:

Claimed returns from the table above:  16.04%

My actual returns:                                 10.50%

Hmm...again the actual returns are lower than what is claimed.

So what do you think? How did these roboadvisors compute their time-weight returns? My actual results seem quite off the mark. 

By the way, if you are interested in these Roboadvisors, feel free to use my referral codes:

Endowus:   HDOJH

Syfe:           SRPSL4GWK