Create a strategy and choose its instruments

↗See this in Fincanva — Strategies, under New strategy

Before you start

You need to be signed in. You do not need any existing strategies — this creates your first one.

Steps

1. Open Single in the sidebar and select New strategy.
2. Answer "How do you want to build this strategy?" by choosing one of the four strategy types: Single instrument, Multiple instruments, Screener, or Full setup. Each shapes which chapters Step by step requires — see Strategy type for what each one is for. The first time you create a strategy, the popup also asks "How do you prefer to work?" above the tiles: Step by step (one chapter at a time, with explanations, preselected) or All at once (every setting on one page). Your answer is stored when the strategy is created and changes only in Profile › Preferences, under How you build strategies.
3. The strategy opens where your answer sends it. With Step by step it opens in Step by step on its Asset selection chapter, with the first chapter, Strategy type, already confirmed because you chose the type in the popup. With All at once it opens in All at once, every setting on one page. Either way you can open the other view for one visit — see Step by step.
4. In Asset selection, add the instrument(s) — or, for the Screener type, define the screener — the strategy will trade.
5. Work through the other chapters in the order the map shows: Allocation (how capital is split: a goal, a method, its settings), Rebalance (how often), Risk and exits (when the strategy changes allocation, what it changes to, and its exit rules), then Summary. Your strategy type decides which of them are required — Single instrument is the leanest (just Asset selection and Summary), while Full setup requires all of them — and you can skip an optional chapter with Skip this chapter. See Strategy type for the per-type breakdown. A risk condition switches the strategy between two allocation profiles — Risk-On and Risk-Off — and never pauses, stops or liquidates it, unless the Risk-Off profile you set is itself cash.
6. On Summary, set the Strategy name, the Benchmark, the Starting year and, if you like, a description, then press Save and, once the strategy is saved, Run the backtest. The strategy alerts that still need a decision show on the chapter that resolves each of them and in the strategy's section strip; the Backtest does not wait for any chapter, only for what the run gate refuses.

What you should see

The strategy appears in your Single library and a backtest starts running on it. Running the backtest does not take you anywhere: you stay on Summary while it runs — a neutral alert reads Backtest running, adding the percentage once progress is known, with "You can stay here or keep working." — and when the run finishes with fresh results the alert reads Results ready with View results, which opens the strategy's Analysis section. Any strategy alerts left to decide show on the chapter that resolves each, and in the section strip of the strategy's header — blocking ones stop the backtest until fixed, ones to review don't. To understand how the pieces you just configured fit together, read Strategy. Once the strategy exists, see Editing a strategy for how to change its instruments, allocation, or exit rules later, and CAGR for one of the metrics your first backtest will report.

Common problems

Why can't I continue past a chapter?

Each strategy type enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can confirm Asset selection or run the backtest, and a dialog with OK and Change strategy type shows one of these messages if the selection is missing what it needs:

• "Pick exactly 1 instrument." — the Single instrument type requires exactly one instrument.
• "Pick 2 or more instruments." — the Multiple instruments type requires at least two.
• "Add at least 1 screener." — the Screener strategy type requires at least one screener.

Add the missing instrument or screener in Asset selection, then continue — or take Change strategy type, which opens Strategy type.

Why won't the Summary accept the name I typed?

Because a strategy name has to be at least two characters, and the Summary will not run the backtest with a shorter one. Clear the name or leave a single character and the Strategy name field shows "Enter a name of at least 2 characters." underneath it, and the large button stays unavailable until you fix it. Type a longer name and it clears.

Two characters is what the server requires, so a name this field accepts is one that will save. The name never blocks the backtest otherwise: you can rename the strategy at any time.

What happens while a strategy is being created?

The tiles that create are the four strategy-type tiles and Combined strategy. Press one and it shows that it is working while the others stop accepting clicks, so one press creates exactly one thing, however many times you click — Create new stays open for the whole request rather than closing on the press. Pressing Single strategy creates nothing on the spot: it opens the four strategy-type tiles, and the tile you pick there is what creates.

Three things follow from that:

• Closing the dialog does not cancel the create. Press Esc, click the backdrop, or use the close button while it runs and the strategy still exists afterwards — see What happens when I pick a strategy type from Home?, which describes what Fincanva does in that moment and how to undo it.
• The name in that toast is the one Fincanva actually saved, which is not always the one you expected: if you already have an Untitled strategy, the new one is saved as Untitled strategy (1) and the toast says so.
• The Screener tile creates nothing either, and it appears on one door only. You reach it from Create new in the sidebar; every other route into this dialog offers Single strategy and Combined strategy alone. Pressing it takes you straight to a new screener with nothing to wait for, and nothing is saved until you save it yourself.

The Combined strategy tile behaves like the strategy tiles: it saves a real Combined and opens it. It is the one tile that can answer "not yet" instead — with no strategies of your own to combine, pressing it opens a screen inside the Combined flow that reads "A Combined blends your own strategies — you have none yet. Create one to start." and offers a Create a strategy first button, which takes you on to the strategy-type tiles; a Back control on that step returns you to the Combined screen. Still nothing is created until you actually create and own a strategy.