---
title: "Live book"
description: "The live book is the Portfolios page listing every strategy you follow live, with a summary strip: median return, best and weakest, and how many are positive."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/live-book"
last_updated: "2026-07-24"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/live-book.md"
---

# Live book

The live book is the Portfolios page that lists every strategy you follow live, topped by a summary strip that reads the whole book at a glance. Each row is one live-followed [portfolio](/docs/getting-started/portfolio); the strip above them condenses all of those rows into a few numbers — the median return, the best and weakest performers, and how many of the portfolios are positive — for the return window you pick. It is the one screen where you judge your live-followed strategies together rather than one at a time.

**Also seen as:** Portfolios

## What the summary strip shows

The summary strip has three panels that summarise every live portfolio at once, all for the same return window. **Whole book** carries the headline numbers: the **Median return** (the middle portfolio's return, so half your book did better and half did worse), the **Best** and **Weakest** performers, and a positive count reading `{n} of {total} positive portfolios`. **Book health** reports how many portfolios are up to date. You switch the window between **MTD**, **YTD**, **1Y**, and **1M**, and every panel recomputes against that window.

The median is used, not the average, because one runaway winner or loser cannot drag it — it always describes a typical portfolio in the book rather than an outlier.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- The strip summarises only strategies you have marked Live; a strategy you have merely backtested but not followed does not appear in the book.
- Each panel reads the return window you select (MTD, YTD, 1Y, or 1M) — the number is a summary across portfolios, never a single portfolio's figure.
- Before any returns exist the strip shows an empty state (`No returns computed yet`) rather than a zero.

## Worked example

You follow five strategies live, and for the 1Y window their returns are −4%, +2%, +6%, +9%, and +21%. The **Median return** panel shows +6% — the middle of the five, with two portfolios above and two below — so a single +21% outlier does not flatter the headline the way an average would. **Best** reads +21% and **Weakest** reads −4%, and the positive count reads `4 of 5 positive portfolios`. Switch the window to 1M and all three panels recompute from each portfolio's one-month return instead.

*The median, best, and weakest figures describe what the strategies you follow have already returned, not what they will return, and no ranking in the strip is a recommendation to add to, trim, or drop a portfolio. Fincanva provides no financial advice — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice).*