---
title: "Simulation engine"
description: "The simulation engine is the service that runs your backtests; a status indicator — healthy, updating data, or unavailable — signals how fresh results are."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/simulation-engine"
last_updated: "2026-08-27"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/simulation-engine.md"
---

# Simulation engine

The simulation engine is the computation service that runs your backtests — it replays each strategy over historical data and returns the equity curve and metrics you see. A small status indicator reports its current state, and that state signals how fresh your results are: while the engine is refreshing market data, newly requested results may lag until the refresh finishes.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- The status indicator shows three states, worded in the app as "Engine healthy", "Engine updating data", and "Engine unavailable".
- "Engine healthy" means backtests run normally and results reflect the latest available market close.
- "Engine updating data" means new market data is loading; existing results stay usable, but the very latest figures may not be in until the refresh completes.
- "Engine unavailable" means the engine cannot be reached right now, so new backtests and refreshes wait until it returns — already-computed results still display.
- **This indicator is about the engine; it is not a strategy's status.** Your strategies keep their own [run status](/docs/backtesting/run-status), which always describes the strategy and never Fincanva — no strategy ever reads "unavailable" because the engine could not be reached.

## Worked example

You open a strategy and the indicator reads "Engine updating data". Your existing results still show, but a run you request now may take longer or reflect data from just before the refresh. You wait a few minutes; the indicator returns to "Engine healthy", you run the [backtest](/docs/getting-started/backtest) again, and the results now include the most recent market close.