Step by step

Also seen as: the walk-through

What are the six steps in the Step by step view?

A single strategy's walk has six steps, each titled as a task. The order below is the full rail — the one a Full setup strategy runs end to end. A Combined walks a shorter rail of its own instead; see Which steps does a Combined walk?.

Why does the step counter say fewer than six?

The step counter counts only the configuring steps your walk requires, and it never counts the final step — so a Full setup strategy reads Step 1 of 5 on its first step, and the final step shows a Review badge instead of a number. The six-step rail is the maximum; each strategy type walks a shorter required path through it, and a Combined walks a different rail altogether.

The progress strip beside the step counts something different, on purpose. The step counter answers where am I; the strip answers what have I looked at. So the strip counts the whole required path including the final step — which its own row labels Recap — giving 2 for Single instrument, 4 for Multiple instruments and Screener, 6 for Full setup, and 4 for a Combined. A step counts as soon as you move on from it — with Continue, with Back, or by switching to All at once — never when you arrive; the final Recap step is the one exception and counts on arrival. Leaving the walk any other way does not count the step you were on: the workspace navigation, the section tabs and your browser's Back button all leave it as it was, ready to be counted when you next move on from it. A decision taken out of order counts just the same. Optional steps are listed with their values but never counted: if they were, a strategy you want no risk conditions on could never reach the end.

Which steps does each strategy type require?

Each strategy type has its own required path; the steps it does not require are still available, offered as Optional add-ons on the final step rather than as screens you walk through.

A Combined is not in this table because it has no strategy type at all: strategy type belongs to each member strategy, never to the Combined that blends them. Its rail is the next section.

Which steps does a Combined walk?

A Combined walks four required steps, and every one of them acts on the Combined itself rather than on any one member strategy. Its progress strip therefore reads 4 — the same number as Multiple instruments and Screener, only counted at the Combined level — and its step counter starts at Step 1 of 3, because the counter never counts the final step.

Choose the strategies occupies the same slot Pick assets holds on a single strategy: at the Combined level what you pick is strategies, not instruments.

Two things set the Combined's rail apart from every strategy type's:

• Set Combined risk is optional — offered, never counted, exactly like every other optional step. It defines the risk conditions that de-risk the whole Combined when they trigger.
• Exit rules are absent entirely, not optional. Take-profit and stop-loss rules live on each member strategy, which keeps its own; the Combined has none of its own to set.

The Combined's allocation and risk are a separate layer above each member strategy's, and the walk states it beside the progress strip: "Combined allocation and risk sit above each strategy's own — the backtest applies both." Neither layer merges into the other.

An Incomplete Combined — one still holding fewer than two strategies — opens this same walk. Its Choose the strategies step is exactly where that is fixed.

Defaults in Fincanva

• On a single strategy the strategy type is chosen first, on the "How do you want to build this strategy?" screen, and it is what shapes the required path; the screen states that you can change anything later. A Combined never sees that screen and has no strategy-type switch inside the walk, because the Combined level has no strategy type.
• A progress strip sits beside the step, listing every step in the walk's order together with its current value. Each counted step carries a Seen mark that fills as soon as you move on from that step — whether the move succeeds or not — and the strip's title states the count — "0 of 2 steps seen", and "All 6 steps seen" once none are left. Steps the walk does not require sit below an Optional divider: they state their values and carry no mark. On a Combined the strip names the walk Combined where a single strategy's names its strategy type.
• A Seen mark belongs to the walk it was earned in. A single strategy's walk and a Combined's walk keep their marks separately, so a strategy sitting at "All 6 steps seen" opens its Combined walk at "0 of 4 steps seen" and has to walk it — choosing the strategies and splitting the capital are Combined steps, and they had never been on screen. Nothing is thrown away: the marks it earned as a single strategy stay with it and are all still there if it is a single strategy again. Inside one walk, marks survive a strategy type change — switch a Full setup strategy to Screener and every mark it already has still counts.
• Every row always states a value, including when a setting is off or empty — "no conditions", "no rules", or the volatility ranking the engine falls back to when nothing is picked. No row is ever blank.
• On a single strategy, a step is gated when the strategy does not yet match its type — for example "Pick exactly 1 instrument." on a Single instrument strategy — and stays blocked until you fix the content or change the strategy type. A Combined has no strategy type, so no gate of this kind applies to its walk.
• The final step commits with Backtest — it saves and starts the first backtest in one action, and reads Backtesting… while it runs, adding the percentage once progress is known; see Saving, running, and copying a strategy.
• Backtest leaves you on Review & backtest. The walk does not navigate away from its final step: the run works while you stay there, and once it finishes and a result exists, a View results button appears next to Back and opens the strategy's Analysis section. If the strategy saves but the run doesn't start, Fincanva shows "Saved, but the backtest didn't start. Try again." and leaves you on the step.
• Step by step opens inside the strategy workspace — the same navigation, library pane and header All at once uses, with Settings showing as the active section. The two views are one place seen two ways.
• A saved strategy reopens in the walk-through from Step by step in its Settings header — a Combined included, since its walk is the Combined level that page already edits. In the other direction, an All at once control switches the same strategy into that view without losing anything. There is no shortcut out of the strategy-type picker itself — you choose a type first, then switch.
• A public strategy opens in Step by step but cannot be saved from it — see Mine / Public.

Worked example

You want a two-instrument strategy that rebalances monthly. You pick Multiple instruments, so Step by step gives you a four-step path and the counter reads Step 1 of 3. On Set up your strategy you name it and set the cadence to one month; on Pick assets you add two tickers; on Distribute capital you leave the default weighting; Review & backtest shows the whole thing and you press Backtest. You never see a Risk or Exit-rules screen — both sit on the final step under Optional add-ons, ready to add later. Doing the same build in All at once would put all of those settings on one page instead, in any order you like.

Now blend that strategy with two others. The Combined walks its own four steps and the counter again reads Step 1 of 3: Set up your Combined names it and sets how often the Combined rebalances, Choose the strategies picks the three strategies, Split the capital decides how much each receives, and Review & backtest runs it. No exit-rules screen appears at any point — each of the three strategies still carries its own — and Set Combined risk waits under Optional add-ons if you want a risk layer over the whole thing.