Choosing a strategy type

How the strategy type shapes what you build

The strategy type decides which of the stepper's six steps you walk through. The stepper always ends at Review, but the steps before it are trimmed to match the type, so a simple idea skips settings it doesn't need. At creation the picker's subheading says it plainly: "You can change anything later — this just shapes the next few steps."

The six stepper steps, in order, are General, Asset selection, Risk, Allocation, Exit rules, and Review. Each type requires a different subset:

Steps that a type leaves out are not lost — every section is either on the type's required rail or offered as an optional add-on you can attach from the Review step, so no section is ever unreachable.

Which Asset selection surface does each strategy type give you?

The strategy type pins the Asset selection surface, and this is the one place where it genuinely limits what a strategy can do rather than just tidying the walk-through. There are three surfaces — a Basket you pick by hand, a Screen built from rules, and Compose, which holds a basket and Include/Exclude screener pools at the same time — and three of the four types offer exactly one of them.

Two consequences follow, and both surprise people:

• Compose and the Include/Exclude pools are Full setup only. A strategy that needs an Exclude pool, or a second Include screener, is a Full setup strategy — no other type has a surface that can show them.
• Max positions stops being a control wherever you pick instruments by hand. On Single instrument, on Multiple instruments, and on Full setup's Basket surface, the number of positions is the number of instruments you picked, so the field is not shown and the count you picked is what runs. Max positions is a control you set only where a screener chooses the holdings — on the Screen surface and inside Compose.

What is the Single instrument type for?

The Single instrument type is for a strategy that trades one instrument, described in its tile as "Trade a single instrument." It is the leanest type: the stepper shows only Asset selection and Review, so you pick the instrument and go straight to the backtest without allocation or rebalancing choices, because a single holding has nothing to weight against.

Its gate is exact — if you select the wrong number of instruments, Asset selection blocks you with "Pick exactly 1 instrument."

What is the Multiple instruments type for?

The Multiple instruments type is for a strategy that holds a basket of instruments you choose yourself, described in its tile as "A basket of instruments you choose." Because there is more than one holding, the stepper adds General (naming and rebalance cadence) and Allocation (how capital is split across the basket) alongside Asset selection and Review.

Its gate requires at least two holdings — Asset selection blocks you with "Pick 2 or more instruments."

What is the Screener type for?

The Screener type is for a strategy whose holdings are chosen by a screener rather than picked by hand, described in its tile as "Let a screener pick the instruments." Its stepper matches Multiple instruments — General, Asset selection, Allocation, and Review — but in Asset selection you define one screener instead of a fixed basket, and that screener decides which instruments the strategy holds each period.

Its gate requires at least one screener — Asset selection blocks you with "Add at least 1 screener." Its surface also holds exactly one screen: a second Include screener, or any Exclude pool, needs Full setup. A strategy that carries them is never trimmed to fit — it reads back as Full setup instead.

What is the Full setup type for?

The Full setup type is for building a strategy from scratch with every setting exposed, described in its tile as "Every setting, built from scratch." It is the only type whose stepper shows all six steps — General, Asset selection, Risk, Allocation, Exit rules, and Review — including the Risk conditions and Exit rules the other types leave as optional add-ons, and the only one whose Asset selection offers all three surfaces.

If you already know you want every control, pick Full setup and then switch to All at once — that opens the full Editing a strategy surface, with every card on one page instead of the walk-through.

Can you change the strategy type later?

Yes — the Strategy type row in All at once switches a strategy to any of the four, and the walk-through's own type picker opens the same four tiles. Adding instruments, attaching a screener, or turning on Risk and Exit rules after launch does not lock you to your original choice, and every section stays reachable whichever type you are on.

The picker knows which of the two you are doing. Opened to change an existing strategy's type, it drops the reassurance it shows at creation and warns instead: "Changing the type is not a conversion — the sections the new type has no place for are reset. You'll see exactly what changes before it happens."

What changes with the type is the Asset selection surface, so switching to a narrower type can cost you part of your selection.

Changing the type also moves the stepper's required steps, because each type requires a different subset of the six. The switch confirmation says which way it moved: steps that join the walk carry no review yet, while a switch that takes the unreviewed steps out of the walk can leave nothing to review — "4 steps leave the guided build, and every step it still asks for has already been reviewed." In the stepper the backtest opens only once every required step has been reviewed, so that is what the movement changes; the Backtest on the settings, Analysis and Holdings surfaces is not gated on reviewing steps. Nothing you already reviewed is discarded by the switch: each step keeps its mark, so switching back costs you no progress.

What happens to your selection when you switch strategy type?

Anything the new type's surface cannot hold is removed — but only when you save, and the confirmation tells you how much first.

Switching opens a confirmation headed "This removes part of your selection", and the count leads it: "5 selected instruments will be removed — a Screener strategy builds its selection from rules, not from a basket.", or "2 screeners will be removed — this strategy type keeps at most one." Below the count it lists what the new type requires and which configured sections reset to their defaults. The last line is the reassuring one: "Nothing is removed until you save. Switch back before saving to keep it." The switch itself changes nothing on disk — the next save is what trims.

There is one case where nothing further goes at all. If your setup still needs more than the new type offers, Fincanva does not delete the extras to force the narrowing: it says "Your setup needs more than this type offers, so nothing else is removed — the strategy will keep showing as Full setup." The strategy keeps everything and reads back as the wider type.

Limits and edge cases

The strategy type does not change how a backtest is computed, and no section is ever hidden from All at once. What it does restrict is the Asset selection surface: Compose and its Include/Exclude pools exist only on Full setup, and Max positions is derived from your basket rather than set by you wherever you pick instruments by hand. For what a strategy is and what it contains, see What is a strategy?; for the term itself, see Strategy type.

Related

To build one step by step, follow Create a strategy. To change settings on an existing strategy, see Editing a strategy.