---
title: "Build a screener"
description: "Build a screener from an untitled draft: set the universe, add filter conditions in the Add filter flyout, check the You're saying line, and save it."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/build-a-screener"
last_updated: "2026-08-30"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/build-a-screener.md"
---

# Build a screener

You build a screener in its workspace: set the universe it draws from, add one or more filter conditions, then name it and save it to your library.

↗ See this in Fincanva — Screeners, on the filter strip

## Before you start
No prerequisites — a screener is independent of any strategy, and you can build one before you have built anything else. Opening **Screeners** always takes you to a fresh, unsaved workspace titled "Untitled screener", so there is nothing to create first.

## Steps
1. Open **Screeners**. You land in an empty workspace called "Untitled screener" — a new draft, not a list of saved screeners. Your saved ones live in the **Library** pane in the sidebar, under its **Mine** and **Public** tabs.
2. Pick the asset type on the left of the filter strip: **Stocks**, **ETPs**, or **Crypto**. A new screener starts on **Stocks**. Changing it later asks "Switch asset type?" first, because each asset type has its own universe filters.
3. Narrow the [universe](/docs/getting-started/universe) if you want less than everything the asset type covers. The strip's chips — **Asset type**, **Country**, **Exchange**, **Asset subtype**, **Index**, **Sector**, **Currency** — each open a list; a chip you have not touched reads **All**, and **Reset** puts one back to its default.
4. Select **Add filter**. The flyout has three columns — **Category**, **Subcategory**, **Filter** — or you can type in **Search filters…** instead. Categories are **Universe**, **Fundamental**, **Technical**, **Macro**, and **Market & Sector**; a sixth, **Custom**, is listed but not usable yet ("Custom filters are post-V1.").
5. Pick a filter. It arrives as a chip at its own default condition and opens its editor. Choose the relation you want across the editor's tabs — **vs Value**, **vs Aggregate**, **vs Lagged Self**, **Highest / Lowest**, **Between** — and set the value.
6. Read the **You're saying** line before you commit. It restates the condition as a sentence, rewritten as you type, so you can check the rule says what you meant. Until you have picked values it reads "Choose values to see what this filter says."
7. Select **Apply**. The chip joins the strip and the **Matches** count updates.
8. Repeat steps 4–7 for each further condition. Conditions combine with AND — an instrument has to satisfy every one of them.
9. Select **Save**. A new screener asks "Name your screener" first; type a name and confirm with **Save**.

## What you should see
The screener's name replaces "Untitled screener" in the header, `Last edited {when}` appears beside it, and the **Discard** button disappears because there are no unsaved changes left. The screener now shows in the **Library** pane under **Mine**, and the **Matches** tab carries the count of instruments that pass every condition. Reading that list, and the columns it offers, is covered in [Read your matches](/docs/screeners/read-your-matches).

Fincanva does not tell you which filters to screen with, and a screener that returns a short, attractive-looking list is not a recommendation to buy anything on it — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).

## How do I keep only the top few instruments rather than everything that passes?
Use the **Highest / Lowest** relation on the filter you want to rank by, and set its **Rank**. That is the only ranking mechanism a screener has — there is no separate ordering or sort-weight step. "Market Cap → Highest → Rank 50" keeps the fifty largest instruments still standing when the ranking runs — which is not the same as the fifty largest overall, because a screener applies its conditions in the order they sit in the strip. [Sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/docs/screeners/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking) covers what that order does.

## Where do the extra Period, Lag, and Multiplier fields come from?
They are the filter editor's optional **Advanced** panel, and only filters that support them show them. They shift or scale the reading before the comparison happens rather than changing the comparison itself; **Reset to defaults** puts them back. What each one does is covered in [lag, period, and multiplier](/docs/screeners/lag-period-and-multiplier).

## Common problems
### Why is Save greyed out on a screener I just started?
You'll see "Add a filter or change the universe to enable Save." An untouched draft has nothing to persist, so add at least one filter, or narrow the universe, and Save becomes available.

### Why can't I save changes to a screener from the Public tab?
You'll see "Public screener — use Copy to Mine to create your own version." A Public screener is Fincanva's, not yours, so it is read-only. Select **Copy to Mine** to get your own editable copy, then build on that.

### The results area says "No instruments match your filters"
Nothing has gone wrong — the conditions together are simply too tight, or two of them contradict each other. What the empty state offers you is covered in [Read your matches](/docs/screeners/read-your-matches#the-list-is-empty-no-instruments-match-your-filters).

### I want to use my screener in a strategy — do I build it here?
You can build it either way, and this workspace is not the only place. Attaching a screener to a strategy, including attaching a blank one and building it directly on the strategy, is its own flow — see [Attaching a screener to a strategy](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy).