---
title: "Folder"
description: "A folder groups your own strategies or screeners in the Mine library. Folders nest, a strategy sits in at most one, and deleting a folder deletes what it holds."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/folder"
last_updated: "2026-09-24"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/folder.md"
---

# Folder

A folder is a named container in your **Mine** library that groups your own strategies or your own screeners, so a long library can be organised by theme, client or stage of work. Folders can hold subfolders, each strategy or screener sits in at most one folder, and an item in no folder lives at the top level of the library. Folders only organise: moving an item between folders never changes its settings or its results.

**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](/docs/getting-started/mine-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](/docs/getting-started/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine).

## 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](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in).
- Search matches the names of strategies and screeners, not the names of folders, and finds an item wherever it is filed — see [search](/docs/getting-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-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*.

Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)