---
title: "Get started with Fincanva in five steps"
description: "Create your first strategy, pick a strategy type, complete the stepper, run a backtest and read the result — the five steps on a new account."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps"
last_updated: "2026-08-02"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps.md"
---

# Get started with Fincanva in five steps

You get started with Fincanva by creating a strategy, picking how it's built, configuring it in a stepper, running a backtest, and reading the result. This guide walks a brand-new account through those five steps, start to finish, in about ten minutes.

## What do I need to start using Fincanva?
You need a Fincanva account and to be signed in. No instruments or strategies need to exist yet — you create the first one here.

## How do you sign in, and how do you keep the account yours?
The sign-in screen offers [passwordless sign-in](/docs/account-security/passwordless-sign-in) first: you type your email and Fincanva sends one message carrying both a link and a 6-digit code. A password and **Continue with Google** stay available as the other two routes, and once you are in you can register a [passkey](/docs/account-security/passkeys) so the next sign-in is your device's own unlock instead of anything you type.

Two account settings are worth setting up on day one rather than after something goes wrong: [two-factor authentication](/docs/account-security/two-factor-authentication), which adds a second step to every sign-in, and [active sessions](/docs/account-security/active-sessions), the list of devices currently signed in — that list is where you sign a forgotten laptop out from anywhere.

## How do I make my first strategy?
1. From the sidebar, open **Single** (IT: **Singole**) and select **New strategy** (IT: **Nuova strategia**).
2. Choose a strategy type under "How do you want to build this strategy?" (IT: "Come vuoi costruire questa strategia?"). Pick the shape that matches what you're building:
   - **Single instrument** — trade a single instrument.
   - **Multiple instruments** — a basket of instruments you choose.
   - **Screener** — let a screener pick the instruments.
   - **Full setup** — every setting, built from scratch.

   You can change this later — the type only shapes which steps come next.
3. Walk the stepper the type opens. Depending on what you picked, it shows some or all of: General (name the strategy and set how often it rebalances), Asset selection (define the instruments and screeners it trades), Risk (conditions that switch it to its Risk-Off allocation), Allocation (how capital is divided across instruments), Exit rules (take-profit and stop-loss conditions), and Review.
4. On Review, check the recap and the "Strategy alerts" panel, then select **Backtest** to save the strategy and launch its first backtest. The button carries the same word in Italian.
5. Read the first result: an equity curve with headline figures including CAGR and max drawdown.

## Which steps you'll actually see
The stepper only shows the steps your strategy type needs:
- **Single instrument** shows just Asset selection and Review.
- **Multiple instruments** and **Screener** show General, Asset selection, Allocation, and Review.
- **Full setup** shows all six: General, Asset selection, Risk, Allocation, Exit rules, and Review.

Any step a type skips can still be added later from Review. If you'd rather configure everything yourself from the start, pick **Full setup** and then switch to **All at once** (IT: **Tutto insieme**).

## What you should see
Your new strategy appears in the **Single** library, and the backtest shows an equity curve with headline figures such as CAGR and max drawdown. From the next sign-in on, that strategy is summarised for you on [Home](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in), the page Fincanva opens first. See [What is a strategy?](/docs/strategies/what-is-a-strategy-in-fincanva) for what those parts mean, [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) for a closer look at building one, [Choosing a strategy type](/docs/strategies/choosing-a-strategy-type) for how the four types differ, and [How a backtest works](/docs/backtesting/how-backtesting-works) for what the equity curve and metrics actually compute.

## Why is the backtest button disabled?
A backtest needs at least one instrument selected on the strategy. Add an instrument, then select **Backtest** again — the same rule blocks saving an empty strategy. Each strategy type also enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can leave a step; see [Why can't I continue past a step?](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments#why-cant-i-continue-past-a-step) for those messages.