Max hold months

Q: When does max hold actually close a position?

Max hold acts at the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, so a position leaves at the first scheduled rebalance at which it has been held long enough — never partway through a period, and never on a rebalance a risk condition forced off schedule. $$ t_{\text{exit}} = \min \{\, t \in R \;:\; t - t_{\text{entry}} \ge N \text{ months} \,\} $$ where: $R$ is the set of the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, $t_{\text{entry}}$ is the date the position was opened, $N$ is the max hold months you set, and $t_{\text{exit}}$ is the date the position is closed. The practical consequence is that the realised holding period is at least N months and can be longer — up to one rebalance interval longer — so a max hold is a floor on the hold, not an exact stopwatch. Because the exit lands on a scheduled rebalance date, the value you enter has to line up with the rebalance clock: it must be a whole multiple of the strategy's rebalance interval, and the app blocks anything else with "Must be a multiple of {rebalanceEvery} months". That whole-multiples rule belongs to the rebalance cadence itself and is described in full under rebalance.

UPDATED 2026-09-17

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Foundations

Max hold months is a time-based exit that closes a position once it has been held for the number of whole months you set — but at the first scheduled rebalance at or after that point, not on the position's month anniversary. It is a cap on how long any single position may stay in a strategy, regardless of whether the position is up or down. In the app the control is labelled Max hold, with the helper "Sell a position after holding it this long".

Also seen as: Max hold, maximum holding period, hold cap.

When does max hold actually close a position?

Max hold acts at the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, so a position leaves at the first scheduled rebalance at which it has been held long enough — never partway through a period, and never on a rebalance a risk condition forced off schedule.

t_{\text{exit}} = \min \{\, t \in R \;:\; t - t_{\text{entry}} \ge N \text{ months} \,\}

where: $R$ is the set of the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, $t_{\text{entry}}$ is the date the position was opened, $N$ is the max hold months you set, and $t_{\text{exit}}$ is the date the position is closed. The practical consequence is that the realised holding period is at least N months and can be longer — up to one rebalance interval longer — so a max hold is a floor on the hold, not an exact stopwatch.

Because the exit lands on a scheduled rebalance date, the value you enter has to line up with the rebalance clock: it must be a whole multiple of the strategy's rebalance interval, and the app blocks anything else with "Must be a multiple of {rebalanceEvery} months". That whole-multiples rule belongs to the rebalance cadence itself and is described in full under rebalance.

Defaults in Fincanva

Off by default. When you switch it on, the value starts at the strategy's own rebalance interval — always a valid multiple — and you raise it from there.
Entered in months (the field's suffix reads "mo"), up to a maximum of 120 months; the field itself will not take a value outside that range.
The value must stay a whole multiple of the rebalance interval, so changing the cadence can leave a value you already set invalid — see rebalance.
A position closed by this rule is recorded with the exit reason Max hold — see exit reason for the full list of causes a backtest records.
Max hold is one of the per-position exits, alongside take profit and stop loss. It looks only at elapsed time; it does not look at the position's gain or loss.
Only the strategy's scheduled rebalances act on it. Take profit and stop loss run on the position's own price bars and can close it between two rebalances; max hold cannot, and a rebalance forced off schedule by a risk condition does not close a position for max hold.

Worked example

A strategy rebalances every month and has max hold set to 5 months. A position opened on the 12 January rebalance is 5 whole months old on 12 June, which is also a rebalance date, so it is closed there and its trade history shows the reason Max hold. Nothing happens at the February through May rebalances — the clock has not run out yet — and nothing happens between rebalances either.

The quantization shows up when a position does not enter on a scheduled date. Suppose a risk condition forces an off-schedule rebalance on 20 January and a position opens then. Five whole months later is 20 June, which is not a scheduled rebalance date, so the position stays on until the next scheduled rebalance after that point and is closed there instead — held slightly more than five months. Had a second off-schedule rebalance fallen on 20 June, the position would still not have closed there: an off-schedule rebalance does not act on max hold. Now raise the cadence to every 3 months: 5 is no longer a whole multiple of 3, so the app refuses it with "Must be a multiple of 3 months", and the nearest valid settings are 3 or 6 months.

Fincanva does not recommend a holding period, or whether to cap one at all — a backtest shows what a setting would have done on historical data, not what it will do. See Is this financial advice?.

Where this term is used

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The pages that use this term: read it in context there.

Position exits

Strategies · The four position-exit controls — Take profit, Stop loss, Max hold, and Reinvest delay — where each one lives, its range, default, and how the toggles work.

How often your strategy rebalances

Strategies · The rebalance frequency is your strategy's master clock: pick 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, or 24 months with Rebalance every, and it sets how often a backtest re-checks.

Also referenced by 7 terms

Asset-selection modes Exit reason Max positions Reinvest delay Stop loss Strategy alerts Take profit

Deep diveHow often your strategy rebalances · Is this financial advice?

Do itPosition exits

CompareRebalance · Take profit · Stop loss · Exit reason · Reinvest delay · Risk condition

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Fincanva provides no financial advice. Backtests show what would have happened — not what will.

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