---
title: "Saving, running, and copying a strategy"
description: "Save persists your changes and Backtest runs the saved strategy; Duplicate copies your own, Copy to Mine unlocks a Public one. No version history yet."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy"
last_updated: "2026-09-11"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy.md"
---

# Saving, running, and copying a strategy

The strategy workspace header carries one button for both jobs — it shows **Save** while you have unsaved changes and **Backtest** once they're saved — plus a separate copy action that duplicates the strategy or unlocks a Public one for editing.

↗ See this in Fincanva — the header of a strategy's workspace

## Before you start
You need a strategy open in its workspace — see [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) if you haven't made one yet. If the strategy is Public, you can change its settings locally to see how they'd look, but you can't save those changes to it directly — see "Why can't I save changes to a Public strategy?" below.

## Steps
1. Open the strategy from your library and go to its **Settings**.
2. Change a card — see [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one) for what each one controls. The header's primary button switches to **Save** as soon as you have an unsaved change.
3. Select **Save**. Fincanva shows a "Saved" toast when the write succeeds, or "Couldn't save — try again." if it fails — select the button again (it now reads **Retry save**) to retry.
4. Once there's nothing left to save, the same button switches back to **Backtest** — select it to run a new backtest on the strategy's current saved version. While it's running, the button reads "Backtesting…", adding the percentage once progress is known.
5. To duplicate a strategy you own, open its **⋯** menu (top right of the header) and select **Duplicate**. Fincanva names the copy after the original with "(copy)" appended, shows a "Strategy duplicated" toast, and opens the new copy — the original is untouched. The same duplicate action is also available as **Duplicate** from a strategy's row menu in your library list, without opening the strategy first.
6. To get an editable version of a Public strategy, open it and select **Copy to Mine** — on a Public strategy this is the only action shown in the header. Fincanva adds the copy to your own library and shows "Copied to your strategies".

## What you should see
After **Save**, the header's primary button reverts to **Backtest** and the strategy's Settings show your change. After a backtest run finishes, see [How a backtest works](/docs/backtesting/how-backtesting-works#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for what a run actually computes and the states a result can show. A duplicate — from either **Duplicate** or **Duplicate** — is a fully independent strategy: it starts from the strategy's last saved version, and editing, saving, or deleting the copy never touches the original. As with any backtest result, Fincanva doesn't tell you whether a change is good or bad for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).

## The header actions, one by one
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Save** | Persists your unsaved changes to the strategy. Shown only while the form is dirty; not available on a Public strategy. |
| **Backtest** | Runs a new backtest on the strategy's saved version. Takes Save's place in the header once there's nothing left to save — see [How a backtest works](/docs/backtesting/how-backtesting-works). |
| **Duplicate** | Copies a strategy you own, from its last saved version, via the **⋯** menu. |
| **Copy to Mine** | Adds an editable copy of a **Public** strategy to your library; on a Public strategy it's the header's only action, and it adds the copy to your library instead of opening it. |
| **Duplicate** (library list) | The same action, available from a strategy's row menu in your Single or Combined library list. |

## Common problems
### Why can't I save changes to a Public strategy?
Save doesn't appear in the header for a Public strategy — there's nothing to persist to the original. Select **Copy to Mine** to add an editable copy to your own library, then change and save that copy instead.

### Why is Backtest disabled on a Combined strategy?
A Combined strategy needs at least two components to run. If it has fewer, Backtest stays disabled — add a component in Settings, then run it.

### Why was my run refused?
Because one of the setup checks below failed, and the message names which one and the step that fixes it. Fincanva asks the same question wherever a run starts — the header's **Backtest**, **Run** in your library list, **Retry backtest** on a failed run, and the re-run on an analysis or holdings page all go through it — so the answer never depends on where you pressed.

Often the control is already unavailable and carries the reason before you press it, and the wording is the same as if you had. Your library list is the one exception: there, a Combined missing a component is disabled with "Add one more strategy to run this Combined." — the same problem, worded differently and without naming a step. Every other refusal uses the sentences below.

The checks, and the message each one produces:

| What is missing | The message you see |
|---|---|
| Instruments | "Add at least 1 instrument before running this strategy." — the count is whatever your [strategy type](/docs/getting-started/strategy-type) requires. |
| A screener | "Add at least 1 screener before running this strategy." |
| A second component on a Combined | "This Combined strategy is incomplete — add a second component before running it." — see [Incomplete Combined](/docs/backtesting/incomplete-combined). |
| A [blocking alert](/docs/backtesting/strategy-alerts) | The alert's own sentence. Today that is "Risk-Off allocation needs to be set." |
| Readable saved settings | "This strategy's saved settings can't be read, so it can't run. Create it again as a new strategy, or contact support." |

Each of those arrives with the step that owns the fix appended to it, in the form "Fix it in Components." — so a Combined missing a component reads "This Combined strategy is incomplete — add a second component before running it. Fix it in Components." Today that step is **Asset selection**, **Allocation**, or **Components** — the three a refusal can point at. Open it, fix what it names, then run again.

The unreadable-settings refusal is the one that names no step: the stored strategy is damaged, and no step in the editor can show what it held, so the sentence itself says what to do. The same sentence can answer **Save**: since the editor cannot show those settings, a save that would replace them with nothing is refused rather than allowed to erase them.

If Fincanva cannot name the cause it falls back to "This strategy can't run yet; fix the highlighted issue first".

### Can I see previous versions of a strategy?
Not today — Fincanva doesn't keep a version history you can browse or restore. If you want to preserve a strategy's current state before making a risky change, select **Duplicate** first: the copy is independent, so the original stays exactly as it was.