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 stepper steps you see next — see Choosing a strategy type for what each one is for. To configure every setting on one page instead, pick Full setup and switch to All at once once the strategy is open.
3. Work through the stepper, in this order: General ("Set up your strategy"), Asset selection ("Pick assets"), Risk ("Set risk conditions"), Allocation ("Distribute capital"), Exit rules ("Define exit rules"), then Review ("Review & launch"). Your strategy type decides which of these steps appear — Single instrument is the leanest (just Asset selection and Review), while Full setup shows all six. See Choosing a strategy type for the per-type breakdown.
4. In Asset selection, add the instrument(s) — or, for the Screener type, the screener — the strategy will trade.
5. Fill in whichever other steps your strategy type shows: a name and rebalance frequency in General, risk conditions in the "Set risk conditions" step, weights in Allocation, take-profit/stop-loss conditions in Exit rules. 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 Review & launch, check the recap and the "Strategy alerts" panel, then select Backtest.

What you should see

The strategy appears in your Single library and a backtest starts running on it. Selecting Backtest does not take you anywhere: you stay on the final step while the run works — the button in the header reads "Backtesting…", adding the percentage once progress is known — and when the run finishes a View results button appears next to Back and opens the strategy's Analysis section. On Review & launch, the "Strategy alerts" panel lists errors — which block the launch until fixed — and warnings, which don't. To understand how the pieces you just configured fit together, read What is a 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 step?

Each strategy type enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can move on, and you'll see one of these messages if a step 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.

Why won't the General step accept the name I typed?

Because a strategy name has to be at least two characters, and the General step will not save one that is shorter. Clear the name or leave a single character and the field shows "Enter a name of at least 2 characters." underneath it, and the step will not let you move on — Continue in the stepper, or Save when you open General from the Review tiles, stays unavailable until you fix it. Type a longer name and both clear.

Two characters is what the server requires, so a name this step accepts is one that will save.

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.