---
title: "Percent change"
description: "Percent change is how much a series has moved from an earlier point to now, as a percentage of that earlier value — positive for a rise, negative for a fall."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/percent-change"
last_updated: "2026-07-25"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/percent-change.md"
---

# Percent change

Percent change is how much a series has moved from an earlier point to now, expressed as a percentage of that earlier value: positive means the series has risen since then, negative means it has fallen. It is the plainest way to turn two levels into one comparable number, because a percentage strips out the size of the underlying value — a 10% rise is a 10% rise whether the price started at 5 or at 500. In Fincanva percent change is one of the **Indicator** choices on a [risk condition](/docs/strategies/risk-condition), turning a level series into a change series before the threshold comparison.

**Also seen as:** percentage change, % change, price change, rate of change.

## How is percent change calculated?

Percent change is the difference between the current value and the earlier value, divided by the earlier value.

$$
\text{percent change} = \frac{P_t - P_{t-N}}{P_{t-N}} \times 100
$$

where: $P_t$ is the latest value of the series, $P_{t-N}$ is its value $N$ periods earlier, and $N$ is the lookback the **Period** field sets. The denominator is always the *earlier* value, which is why the same absolute move is a bigger percentage from a lower base.

## What does a positive or negative reading mean?

A positive percent change means the series ends the window above where it started; a negative one means it ends below. Zero means it is back where it began, whatever happened in between — percent change compares only the two endpoints and knows nothing about the path between them, so a series that fell hard and fully recovered reads the same as one that never moved. Read it alongside a path-aware measure such as [max drawdown](/docs/analysis/max-drawdown) if the journey matters as much as the endpoint.

This page describes a measurement, not a recommendation — Fincanva does not give investment advice. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice).

## Defaults in Fincanva

- Percent change is one of four **Indicator** options on a risk condition's series, alongside "Raw price", "Simple moving average", and "Average momentum".
- With "Percent change" selected, a **Period** field appears next to the indicator; you type how far back the comparison reaches.
- The indicator only transforms the series being watched. Whether the strategy ends up in [Risk-On or Risk-Off](/docs/strategies/risk-on-and-risk-off) is decided by the condition's [thresholds](/docs/strategies/condition-types), not by the change reading itself.
- The shipped "S&P 500 12-month momentum" [risk template](/docs/strategies/risk-templates) is a 12-month percent change of the index.

## Worked example

An index stands at 4,400 today and stood at 4,000 twelve months ago. The 12-month percent change is (4,400 − 4,000) / 4,000 × 100 = +10% — the index is 10% above its level a year earlier. Now suppose it instead stands at 3,600 after that same year: the reading is (3,600 − 4,000) / 4,000 × 100 = −10%. The two readings are symmetric in wording but not in level: a −10% move from 4,000 lands at 3,600, and a +10% move back from 3,600 only reaches 3,960, not 4,000, because the second percentage is measured against the smaller base.