---
title: "Raw price"
description: "Raw price is the Indicator option that leaves a series untransformed, so a risk condition compares the series' own level against your threshold directly."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/raw-price"
last_updated: "2026-08-02"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/raw-price.md"
---

# Raw price

Raw price is the **Indicator** option in a [risk condition](/docs/strategies/risk-condition) that applies no transformation at all, so the condition compares the watched series' own level against your threshold. It is the simplest of the four indicator options, and the one a new condition starts on: pick it when the number you want to test against is the level the series publishes, not something derived from it.

**Also seen as:** price level, index level, untransformed series.

## When does a condition use Raw price?

A condition uses Raw price whenever the number you want to compare against is the series' published level itself, not something derived from it. That covers a volatility index you compare against a level, a yield spread you compare against zero, and a price you compare against another price. Because nothing is derived, no window is involved: the **Period** field has nothing to read over and does not apply. In a **Double series** condition, Raw price on one side is how a series is compared against a transformed version of itself — for example a price against its own moving average.

## Defaults in Fincanva

- Raw price is one of four **Indicator** options, alongside "Simple moving average", "Percent change", and "Average momentum".
- Raw price takes no lookback window — the **Period** field applies to the indicators that summarise a span.
- The threshold you type is read in the series' own units: an index level for an index, a rate in percent for a yield series, a price for a stock or ETP.
- Several built-in [risk templates](/docs/strategies/risk-templates) use Raw price, including the VIX and VIX ratio templates and every yield-curve spread template.

## Worked example

You build a Single series condition on a volatility index and leave the **Indicator** at "Raw price". The condition now reads whatever the index publishes: 18 one day, 31 a few weeks later. Those readings are compared straight against the number on the **Risk-Off** row, with no averaging, no percentage, and no window in between — so a single day's print is the whole signal. That directness is exactly why the [confirmation delay](/docs/strategies/confirmation-delay) exists: on a Raw price condition it is the only thing that stops one unusual day from asking for a switch.

Change the same condition's **Indicator** to "Simple moving average" with a **Period** of 20 and the comparison would instead read the average of the last twenty periods — a smoother number, and one that needs a **Period** to be meaningful.

**Learn more:** [Risk conditions](/docs/strategies/risk-conditions#what-a-single-risk-condition-is-made-of)