Every answer here ends with the account carrying a mix it's measured against. What you're choosing is what the app may do about it. A target means the Rebalancing page suggests trades that move the account toward the mix. A reference is compared against and never traded toward.
Nothing is ever traded for you either way. A suggestion is a list you read.
What each answer does
- Just track it: your holdings become the mix. Nothing is suggested, because the account already matches what it's measured against. Pick this when the positions are your own picks and you want performance, income and drift reported without opinions.
- Help me hit a target mix: you choose a goal allocation, and the account is measured against it. Before anything is set you'll see what making it the target would do to the holdings you already own, and you can take it as a reference instead.
- A mix for most of it: the funds are rebalanced toward a mix while your individual picks stay a slice of their own, sized but never named. See slice for how a self-directed slice works.
- I'll decide later: nothing is set. The account is tracked, and the setup checklist keeps the question open until you answer it.
The part that surprises people
A target model claims the whole account. Anything the account holds that the model doesn't name reads as a position to close, because the model is the statement of what you mean to hold. That's why the wizard shows you the count and the dollars before you commit, and why Just compare exists: it's the same mix, read as analysis instead of instruction.