All performance math deliberately reads the adjusted close series. That includes Screener trailing returns, category comparisons, and Model Backtest curves.
An adjusted close folds dividends and splits back into the price path, so a return computed from it is a total return: what you'd have earned with distributions reinvested. Raw closes would make an income fund look like it "loses" its yield every distribution date and would break across every split.
Consequences worth knowing
- A fund's chart level here can differ from the price your broker quotes. The shape and the returns are what's comparable, not the raw level.
- Dividends are already inside every performance number. Adding income on top of these returns would double-count it.
- When a data source misses a split, the adjusted series breaks visibly (a cliff). The manual-split mechanism exists to repair exactly that.
If a number here disagrees with a fact sheet, check the window first (fact sheets love month-end windows), then the price source. Total-return math itself is the industry standard; it is the input series that varies.