Steps
- Read the strategy's chip in your strategy library: it names what to do next.
- Needs re-run — press Re-run. The previous numbers stay on screen, dimmed, until the new run brings the strategy onto your current settings and the latest market day. A manual Backtest is today's reliable way back to Up to date.
- To run — press Backtest. The chip reads Computing while the run is under way; the results replace it when done, with no need to refresh.
- Failed — press Backtest or Re-run to ask the engine to try again. If it declines, change one of the strategy's own settings, or wait for new market data; the retry is explained below.
- The run didn't start, above the settings — press Retry backtest.
- Incomplete — finish the strategy: a Combined needs at least two components, and below that floor its Run button is disabled, saying what is missing; once complete it reads To run. Set aside — bring the strategy inside your plan, as plan compliance explains. A switched-off Single strategy, whose settings open on "This strategy is switched off and is not simulated.", runs again once you press Switch back on.
- Stalled — the run's progress has not moved for more than a day. Wait: Fincanva does not mark the run failed, because the engine has not returned an outcome yet. If it stays Stalled, contact Fincanva support.
Done. The chip reads Up to date: the numbers match your current settings and the latest market data.
Can I re-run a strategy whose last run failed?
Yes — pressing Backtest (or Re-run) on a strategy whose last run failed asks the engine to try again, so the press is never a guaranteed result. If the engine takes the run, it starts like any other and the chip moves to Computing. If the engine declines, no run starts and Fincanva answers The run didn't restart: the engine still holds a failed result for these settings. Try again later, or change the strategy's settings.
Two other things also clear a failed run. New market data makes the strategy runnable again on its own. Changing the strategy's own settings does it immediately: the starting year, the starting capital, the base currency, the portfolio settings, a cost or reinvest setting — the lever you hold when the engine declines. Changing only the benchmark is not a reliable way out: a benchmark is a separate comparison series rather than part of the strategy's own settings, so swapping it can leave the run exactly where it was.
The Backtest and Re-run buttons stay enabled on a failed strategy, because pressing one is how you ask for the retry; a declined retry changes nothing. Fincanva does not tell you why a run failed: no notice, marker or message carries a reason, and there is nowhere in the app to look one up.
What does a strategy whose last run failed show?
Opening it shows a notice that stays on every tab of its workspace, headed The last run failed and reading The engine produced no results for these settings. Press Retry to try again. On a public strategy you can view but not run, the notice reads only The engine produced no results for these settings. A results section on that strategy says No results — the last run failed rather than inviting you to run it, and the freshness marker beside the results reads Last run failed with a see why link that opens The last run produced no results. Press Retry to try again. The notice and the marker stay until the engine takes a run.
Why does a strategy say the run didn't start?
A strategy says The run didn't start when you pressed Backtest and no run began: Fincanva could not reach the engine, or the engine did not accept the launch. The notice sits above the strategy's settings, and on the Summary of Step by step, with its own Retry backtest button.
When the cause is the calculation service — it could not be reached, it did not answer in time, or it failed internally — the notice says so: The calculation service did not respond. It is not your settings: try again in a few minutes., and pressing Backtest in that moment shows a message that says the same. Nothing in the strategy needs changing; try again once the service answers. When the engine instead declined the launch for another reason, the notice reads Try again. as before.
It is a different event from a failed run. A failed run started and produced no results, and its notice reads The last run failed. Here nothing ran, so there is nothing to explain: press Retry backtest, or Backtest, to launch it again.
The notice leaves on its own once it no longer describes the strategy: when a result for the current settings is ready or computing, when the engine reports the run as failed (the failed-run notice then takes its place), or when the strategy's portfolio, starting year or benchmark no longer match the ones the attempt was made with. Other edits, such as the strategy's name or description, leave it in place.
What do the Set aside and Computing chips show?
A Set aside strategy's row in your library carries, before the name, a small square with the bars of the plan level that would bring it back, whose tooltip says which of the two reasons it is; its chip reads Set aside beside the same bars, and so does the strategy's own page header. It is the first thing Fincanva asks about a strategy, ahead of Incomplete, because finishing a strategy the plan does not cover would not make it runnable. Nothing is edited, and pressing Backtest on it is refused with a message naming your plan.
A Computing run carries a live progress percentage inside a results view (Computing results… {progress}%). In your strategy library and on Home the chip carries the same percentage while the run is moving (Computing 40%), updating on its own; when Fincanva cannot confirm the run's progress right now, the chip reads Computing without a number rather than show one that may no longer be true.