Why your returns won't match the Pilot's: proportional following, timing, fractional shares, and the cash that never got invested

I'm Chris, co-founder of Autopilot. Here's a sentence I'd rather say up front than have you discover: your account will not match the Pilot's Portfolio, and your return will not match the chart. Not because something broke. Because following a Portfolio in your own brokerage account, with your own money, at your own moment, is a different thing from the Portfolio itself. Here's each reason the two diverge, which ones you can shrink, and how to read the numbers we publish so you're comparing the right things.

One thing first, because we're an SEC-registered investment adviser and I have to say it. Autopilot is the app. The actual investment advice comes from Autopilot Advisers, LLC. If you want the full legal version of anything in here, it's on our disclaimer page.

1) Following is proportional, not identical

If the Pilot's Portfolio is a set of weights, your account gets those weights applied to your allocation. Your trades are smaller and in the same direction, not the same share counts. That alone produces a difference: an allocation of a few hundred dollars can't hold a fifty-stock Portfolio at exact weights when shares come in fixed sizes. The smaller the allocation, the coarser the approximation. Some trades the Pilot makes simply can't happen in your account, because the position would be below the minimum order size, because your buying power ran out, or because you blacklisted the stock.

2) You started on a different day

The chart for a Portfolio shows one continuous history. You joined it on a particular day, at particular prices. If you joined near a high, your return from that day is lower than the chart's; join near a low and it's higher. Add money over time and your personal return diverges further, because each deposit buys at a different price. This alone explains most of the gap most people see, and it's the one nobody can fix, because nobody gets to join at the beginning of the chart.

3) Timing of the orders

You're never trading at the same time as the Pilot. For a tracker built on public filings, the fund traded weeks or months before the filing appeared, and your account trades after the filing. For a Pilot-run Portfolio, the Pilot changes the Portfolio, we send the orders, and your broker fills them; the fill happens at whatever price exists then. On brokerages that require you to approve each trade in their own app, the delay is however long you take to approve, and the longer that is, the more your account drifts from the Pilot. Approving promptly is the one timing gap you control.

4) Fractional shares and the cash cushion

Some brokerages let us buy fractions of a share; some trade in whole shares only; some allow fractions with restrictions, like fractional sells only in certain situations. In whole-share accounts, a Portfolio's weights can only be approximated, small positions may be skipped entirely, and more of your allocation stays in cash. Even in fractional accounts, a few dollars are usually left over after buys, and sale proceeds sit unusable until they settle. That leftover cash is inside your allocation, so it drags on your return relative to a chart that assumes everything is invested. Which brokerages support fractional shares is the brokerage's call, and it changes; the connect screen and your brokerage are the sources.

5) Your own actions

Selling positions by hand during a downturn, changing allocations to chase what's hot, or pausing and restarting all produce a result different from a Portfolio that was followed continuously. That's not a criticism; it's arithmetic. A chart assumes nobody touched it. I wrote what happens mechanically when you sell by hand in Selling by hand while you follow a Portfolio: what Autopilot does next, and the two buttons to use instead.

6) Which number to compare yourself to

There are two kinds of performance figures around a Portfolio, and they answer different questions. A Pilot's or a vendor's own history, sometimes a backtest from before the Portfolio existed on Autopilot, describes the strategy. Our fact sheets describe what actual follower accounts did: a live composite of client accounts following the Portfolio, measured only from the day it launched on Autopilot, gross and modeled net, with drawdown and a date on every figure, and with the caveat that accounts at brokerages without fractional shares will differ from it. That composite is the honest yardstick for a follower, because it already contains the proportional rounding, the timing, and the cash cushion. Your own account will still differ from it, for reasons 2 and 5 above. How to read one is in How to read a Portfolio's track record before you follow it.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't my returns match the Portfolio's performance chart?

Because the chart is one continuous history and your account started on a particular day at particular prices, with your own deposits and withdrawals along the way. On top of that, following is proportional rather than identical, orders fill after the Pilot's own trades, brokerages differ on fractional shares and minimum order sizes, some of your allocation sits in cash, and any selling or reallocating you did by hand changes the result. The fact sheet's live composite is the closer comparison, and even that will differ from your account.

Why is my Autopilot portfolio different from the Pilot's?

Your account holds the Pilot's weights applied to your allocation, so share counts differ, small positions can be skipped when they fall below minimum order sizes, whole-share brokerages can only approximate weights, blacklisted stocks are excluded, and orders fill at later prices than the Pilot's own trades. For trackers built on public filings, the fund traded weeks or months before the filing you're following appeared.

Does Autopilot support fractional shares?

It depends on your brokerage, not on Autopilot. Some brokerages fill fractional orders, some trade whole shares only, and some allow fractions with restrictions. In a whole-share account, Portfolio weights are approximated, small positions may be skipped, and more of your allocation stays in cash. Check your brokerage's fractional-share policy and the connect screen; policies change.

Why did some of my allocation stay in cash?

Shares come in fixed sizes, so a few dollars are usually left over after buys; sale proceeds can't be reinvested until they settle; whole-share brokerages leave more uninvested; and an allocation larger than your actual available buying power shows up as cash that isn't real. If the cash line looks large, check whether you allocated more than you had available or sold positions by hand at the brokerage.

TLDR

Your return won't match the chart, and it isn't supposed to: you joined on a different day, your account holds proportions rather than share counts, your orders fill after the Pilot's, fractional-share rules and minimum order sizes vary by brokerage, some cash always sits uninvested, and anything you did by hand changes the math. Compare yourself to the fact sheet's live follower composite, not to a chart, approve trades promptly if your brokerage requires it, and keep your allocation at what's actually available.

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Since Autopilot Advisers is an SEC-registered investment adviser, we have to put disclaimers on stuff like this. They're below, and the full version is on our disclaimer page.

Disclosures

© Autopilot Holdings Corporation 2026 — All rights reserved. “Autopilot” refers to Autopilot Holdings Corporation and its wholly-owned, and separately managed subsidiaries, including Autopilot Advisers, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. All investing is subject to investment risks, including possible loss of the principal invested, and past performance is not indicative of future results. View our Customer Relationship Summary and other important information at joinautopilot.com/disclaimer.

This information is provided by Autopilot for educational and illustrative purposes only and is not a recommendation, an offer to sell or the solicitation to buy any security. Autopilot relies on information from various sources believed to be reliable, including information from Clients, Pilots and other third parties, but cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information. Autopilot does not provide tax or legal advice and you are encouraged to consult with professionals before making investment decisions.

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Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You should carefully consider your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon before investing through Autopilot.

Autopilot Advisers, LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Additional information about Autopilot is available in our Form ADV Part 2A, available at adviserinfo.sec.gov or joinautopilot.com/adv.

Autopilot provides limited investment advisory services focused on Portfolio selection and suitability assessment. Our services are not intended to replace comprehensive financial planning. We recommend consulting with a qualified financial advisor regarding your complete financial situation.

This content is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice and should not be relied upon as the basis for any investment decision. You should consult with qualified professionals regarding your specific circumstances.

Autopilot does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult with qualified tax and legal professionals regarding your specific circumstances.

Autopilot does not hold client assets. All investments are held at the brokerage firm you select and connect to Autopilot. Your brokerage firm is responsible for trade execution, custody, and reporting. Autopilot is not responsible for your broker-dealer’s services, fees, or execution quality.

Autopilot’s services depend on technology systems, third-party APIs, and internet connectivity. System outages, API disruptions, or connectivity issues may temporarily affect service availability or trade execution timing.

Client account holdings are designed to track the Portfolio you’ve selected, but your actual holdings and performance may differ from the Portfolio due to execution timing, market conditions, brokerage capacity constraints, fractional share availability, and other factors outside Autopilot’s control.

For Portfolios inspired by publicly disclosed trading activity, there may be a delay between when a Pilot executes a trade and when that trade becomes publicly available and is incorporated into the Portfolio. This timing delay may affect the suitability or performance of trades when executed in client accounts.

The reasons individual results differ from published figures follow Autopilot's public help center as of the publish date and the disclosures on every fact sheet. Fractional-share availability, minimum order sizes, approval requirements, and settlement rules are set by each brokerage and change. No performance figure is stated here; the Portfolio records are on their dated fact sheets.