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Tracking difference

The realised gap between a fund's return and its index return over a period. Unlike tracking error it has a sign, and it is the number that determines what an index investor actually kept.

An index fund charging 0.07% should lag its index by roughly 0.07% before other effects. In practice tracking difference can be larger or smaller: securities lending revenue, favourable tax treaties, and sampling choices can all pull it toward zero or even positive, while dividend withholding tax and rebalancing costs push it wider.

Example: an index returns 8.00%, the fund returns 7.88%. Tracking difference is -0.12% despite a 0.07% total-expense-ratio, meaning about 5 basis points went to trading and tax friction.

Compare funds on multi-year tracking difference rather than headline fee, since two funds tracking the same index with identical fees can differ by 20 basis points a year for structural reasons. See withholding-tax-drag and securities-lending.

Related: tracking-error, total-expense-ratio, index-fund, withholding-tax-drag, securities-lending, index-replication

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