Folder

Also seen as: subfolder, directory.

What can a folder hold?

A folder holds items of one kind, and its subfolders. Strategy folders and screener folders are separate trees, and strategy folders are shown separately for Single and Combined strategies — each library lists its own folders, so a Combined strategy is never filed in a folder of Single ones.

Only your own items go in your folders. The folders under the Public tab are organised by Fincanva, and the app says so where you would create one: "Public folders are managed by Fincanva — copy items to Mine to organize." A Copy to Mine arrives at the top level of Mine, with no folder, so you file it yourself afterwards — see Mine and Public.

Can two folders have the same name?

Not side by side. Two folders directly inside the same parent — or two folders at the top level — cannot share a name. For strategies, the top level counts as one place across both libraries: a top-level folder in Single and a top-level folder in Combined cannot have the same name either. Screener folders are checked only against other screener folders. A subfolder can reuse a name that exists somewhere else in the tree, so Clients / Momentum and Research / Momentum can both exist. Strategies follow the same rule inside a folder: two strategies in one folder cannot share a name, and a copy that would collide is renamed with a (1) suffix — see copies and duplicates.

What happens when you delete a folder?

Deleting a folder deletes everything inside it: its strategies or screeners and all of its subfolders, not only the folder. The confirmation says so before anything happens. For an empty folder it is a single question. For a folder that holds anything, it names how many items and subfolders will go with it and asks you to type delete to confirm, under the warning "This can't be undone."

To keep an item, move it out of the folder before you delete the folder.

How does Fincanva handle it?

• Create a folder with New folder in the library, and a folder inside it with New subfolder on the folder's menu. The same menu holds Rename and Delete — on a screener folder the delete item reads Delete folder.
• Move a strategy or screener with Move to folder on its menu, or by dragging it onto a folder; (No folder) returns it to the top level. A folder moves by dragging it onto another folder, and cannot be dropped into itself or into one of its own subfolders.
• The Strategies · Single and Strategies · Combined pages can show each strategy's folder in a Folder column, with "—" for one at the top level. The column is hidden by default: switch it on from the Columns button in the table's toolbar, which lists every column with a checkbox. Their Folder filter lets you tick one or more folders, plus No folder, and shows only the strategies filed directly in them: a subfolder's strategies are not included when you tick its parent, and only folders that directly hold a strategy are offered — an empty folder, or one that holds only subfolders, is not in the list.
• Home names the folder beside each strategy it lists — see Home.
• Search matches the names of strategies and screeners, not the names of folders, and finds an item wherever it is filed — see search.

What does it look like in practice?

You keep two families of strategies in the Single library and create two folders for them, Income and Growth. Inside Growth you add a subfolder, Tests, for drafts. A strategy you drag into Tests keeps every setting and result it had; only its folder changes, which the Strategies page shows as Tests once you switch its Folder column on.

Months later you delete Growth. The confirmation tells you that the strategies in Growth and its one subfolder will be deleted with it, and waits for you to type delete. If one of those strategies is worth keeping, cancel, move it to Income or to (No folder) first, then delete Growth.