How to track a multi-currency portfolio in Singapore dollars
Short answer: To track a multi-currency portfolio in Singapore dollars, convert every holding to SGD at a current exchange rate, keep each purchase's cost at the exchange rate on the day it was bought, and convert each foreign dividend at the rate around its payment date. That gives one Singapore-dollar total that separates real price gains from currency movements.
If your money sits in more than one currency, a US brokerage holding VWRA and AAPL, a London-listed ETF, a handful of SGX counters, maybe some crypto, then a simple question gets surprisingly hard: what is all of it worth, today, in Singapore dollars? Each platform shows you its own slice in its own currency. Adding them up by hand means chasing an exchange rate for every line, and the moment you do, it's already out of date. Here's why a multi-currency portfolio is genuinely awkward to read, and what a clean Singapore-dollar view actually requires.
Why "in SGD" is harder than it sounds
The trouble is that foreign exchange quietly works its way into three different places, and most casual tracking gets at least one of them wrong.
1. Your cost basis was set at a different exchange rate
When you bought a US stock two years ago, you paid in US dollars at that day's rate. Today the holding is worth a different number of US dollars, and the US-dollar-to-Singapore-dollar rate has moved too. So your gain in Singapore-dollar terms is part price movement and part currency movement, braided together. A tracker that values today's holding at today's rate but forgets the rate you actually paid will misstate your real return. To see the truth, the cost has to be held at the rate on the day you bought, and the current value at today's rate. The gap between those two is your honest S$ profit or loss.
2. Foreign dividends land in foreign currency
A London-listed ETF pays you in pounds or US dollars. An SGX REIT pays in Singapore dollars. If you want a single trailing-twelve-months income figure, each payment has to be converted at the rate around the day it was paid, not today's rate, because that's the value you actually received. Tally them in their native currencies and your income number is meaningless. Convert them all at one blanket rate and it's merely wrong. Each tranche needs its own conversion.
Dividends across currencies? Merlio's dividend tracker converts every payment to Singapore dollars and folds it into one trailing-twelve-months total, whether it arrived in SGD, USD, GBP or one of nine supported currencies.
3. The number is stale the instant you write it down
Exchange rates move every day. A spreadsheet with a hand-typed USD/SGD rate in one cell was accurate the afternoon you entered it and slightly off ever since. Multiply that by a dozen holdings in three currencies and your "total net worth" cell is carrying a small, invisible error that drifts wider every week. This is the quiet reason multi-currency spreadsheets feel untrustworthy: not one big mistake, but many small staleness errors compounding.
What a clean Singapore-dollar view requires
Pulling those threads together, an honest S$ picture of a multi-currency portfolio needs four things working at once:
- Current value at today's rate. Every holding marked to its latest price, then converted at a current exchange rate, refreshed rather than typed once.
- Cost basis at the historical rate. So the return you see separates genuine price gains from currency swings.
- Dividends converted per payment. Each distribution valued at the rate around its own pay date.
- One pivot currency. Everything resolved to Singapore dollars, the currency you actually spend and plan in, so the headline number means something.
Do all four and the payoff is a single figure you can trust, plus the ability to answer the question behind the question: how much of my gain is the market, and how much is just the Singapore dollar moving?
How Merlio handles it
Merlio stores Singapore dollars as the pivot and converts everything to it. Prices come from multiple public feeds; exchange rates are pulled daily for all nine supported currencies as a set, so a holding or a dividend in any of them resolves correctly without you wiring up anything. Current value uses the latest rate, and foreign dividends fold into your income total in Singapore dollars. The result is one Singapore-dollar net worth number, with the currency effect handled rather than ignored.
It is still your data and your entries, Merlio does the arithmetic and the conversion, not the decisions. It won't tell you which currency to hold or whether to hedge; it shows you, clearly, what you already own in the currency you live in.
Tired of a multi-currency spreadsheet? See why people move off Google Sheets for portfolio tracking, or start a free 60-day trial and bring your holdings into one Singapore-dollar view.
Common questions
How do exchange rates affect my investment returns in SGD?
A foreign holding's return in Singapore dollars combines the change in its share price and the change in the exchange rate since it was bought. A stock can rise in US dollars and still show a smaller gain, or a loss, in Singapore dollars if the US dollar weakened against the Singapore dollar over that time.
Which exchange rate do I use for foreign dividends?
Each dividend is converted at the exchange rate around the day it was paid, because that is the value actually received. Converting every past payment at today's rate gives a different, less accurate income total.
Why does my spreadsheet net worth drift when I hold foreign stocks?
A hand-typed exchange rate goes stale as soon as currencies move. Across many holdings in several currencies, those small gaps add up, so the total drifts away from the true Singapore-dollar value unless the rates are refreshed.
Which currencies does Merlio convert to Singapore dollars?
Merlio converts nine currencies to Singapore dollars: US dollar, British pound, euro, Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, Malaysian ringgit, Chinese yuan and Philippine peso. Exchange rates for all nine are refreshed daily as one set.
Do London-listed ETFs pay dividends in pounds?
It depends on the fund's currency. London-listed ETFs can pay in pounds or US dollars, and accumulating share classes reinvest income and pay no dividend at all.
Merlio is a tracker and calculator, not a financial adviser. It does not recommend currencies, hedging, or allocations. For personalised advice, speak to a MAS-licensed financial adviser.