---
title: "Comparison modes"
description: "Comparison modes are the ways a screener filter tests a metric: vs Value, Between, vs Lagged Self, Highest / Lowest, or vs Aggregate against peers."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/comparison-modes"
last_updated: "2026-07-24"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/comparison-modes.md"
---

# Comparison modes

Comparison modes are the ways a screener filter can test an instrument's metric — what the reading is measured *against*. The choices are **vs Value** (against a fixed number), **Between** (inside a range), **vs Lagged Self** (against the metric's own earlier reading), **Highest / Lowest** (a rank within the results), and **vs Aggregate** (against a market or sector figure, covered on its own page). Each mode changes what the filter's threshold means, not which metric it reads — the symbol that does the testing inside a mode is a separate choice, covered in [standard operators](/docs/screeners/standard-operators).

## How each comparison mode works

- **vs Value** — passes instruments whose metric sits on the chosen side of one fixed number, for example `P/E < 15`.
- **Between** — passes instruments whose metric falls inside a low–high range, for example `P/E between 10 and 20`.
- **vs Lagged Self** — compares the metric to its own value at an earlier point you set (a [lag](/docs/screeners/lag-period-and-multiplier)), so you screen on change rather than level.
- **Highest / Lowest** — ranks instruments on the metric and keeps only the top or bottom N; the pool it ranks is whatever is still passing at that point, so its position in the strip is part of the rule (see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/docs/screeners/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking)).
- **vs Aggregate** — compares the metric to a market or sector statistic such as the median; see [aggregate comparisons](/docs/screeners/aggregate-comparisons).

A handful of filters replace these modes entirely with pattern tests — crossings and valuation bands — which are [special relations](/docs/screeners/special-relations) rather than comparison modes.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- The mode is chosen per filter in the filter editor; the resolved sentence under **You're saying** restates it in plain language.
- Not every mode is available for every filter — the editor shows only the relations that filter supports.
- Switching mode keeps the metric but changes the inputs: a single value, a range, a lag, a rank, or a scope plus a statistic.

## Worked example

Take a Price/Earnings filter. In **vs Value** mode you set `P/E < 15`, so any instrument trading below 15× earnings passes. Switch the same filter to **vs Lagged Self** and set the lag to 12 months: now it compares each instrument's current P/E to its own P/E a year earlier, passing those whose P/E has fallen — a completely different screen built from the same metric.