---
title: "Portfolio"
description: "A portfolio is a strategy you follow live on the Portfolios page; marking it Live starts paper monitoring — nothing is traded and no orders are placed."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/portfolio"
last_updated: "2026-07-24"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/portfolio.md"
---

# Portfolio

A portfolio, on the Portfolios page, is a single strategy you have chosen to follow live — one of the strategies that make up your [live book](/docs/getting-started/live-book). [Marking a strategy Live](/docs/getting-started/mark-live) adds it to Portfolios and starts paper monitoring: Fincanva keeps following what the strategy would hold and how it would perform, but nothing is ever traded and no orders are placed. In Fincanva "portfolio" always means a live-followed strategy; a strategy built out of other strategies is a [Combined](/docs/getting-started/combined), which is what "portfolio" used to mean in earlier versions.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- Marking a strategy Live uses the "Go live" control; it then shows in Portfolios and counts toward your dashboard.
- Going live starts paper monitoring only — Fincanva tracks the strategy's holdings and performance and never places an order or moves real money.
- Choosing "Stop following" removes the strategy from Portfolios; the strategy itself is unchanged and can be followed again later.

## Worked example

You have a screener-based strategy you have [backtested](/docs/getting-started/backtest) and like. You open it and choose Go live, and it moves to the Portfolios page to be tracked day to day. No broker is connected and no trade is ever sent — Fincanva simply follows the positions the strategy's rules imply and shows how that paper book would perform. Later you choose Stop following, and the strategy leaves Portfolios with no effect on the saved strategy itself.