Fixed weights is the allocation method where you decide each share yourself instead of letting a rule compute it. You type one number per item, and those numbers are relative: they do not have to add up to 100, because Fincanva rescales them to 100% before the backtest uses them, so only the ratios between them matter.
Also seen as: fixed allocation, manual weights, custom weights
What happens if my weights do not add up to 100?
Nothing breaks — each number is divided by the total of the numbers' sizes, ignoring their sign, and the result is that item's actual share of capital.
- item i's actual share of the capital
- the number you typed for item i
- the total of every number's size, sign ignored
So 50, 30, 20 and 5, 3, 2 produce exactly the same allocation, and 40, 40, 40 is Equal weights across three items. The Allocation card shows both figures: each instrument's share in the Share column, and in the total row 100% beside the raw sum you entered.
How does Fincanva handle it?
The app describes the method as "Set a weight for each instrument manually".
- Every item starts at a weight of 1, so an untouched Fixed weights allocation is an even split — the same result as Equal weights.
- Weights accept decimals: from −999 to 999 inside a strategy, from 0 to 999 inside a Combined. A number outside that range is not changed for you — the field shows "Enter a weight between -999 and 999." (or 0 and 999) until you correct it.
- It reads no history, so it does not use the In-sample calculation window.
- The weights are targets, reapplied at each rebalance date: between rebalances the mix drifts with prices, then snaps back to your numbers.
- Inside a strategy with picked instruments the list of weights always matches the list of instruments: an added instrument gets 1, a removed one takes its weight with it, and the rest are renormalized.
Can a fixed weight be negative?
Yes, inside a strategy: a negative weight is a short position in that instrument, its size the weight's magnitude and its direction the sign — the convention Direction describes for every method that can go short. There is no separate switch: typing a negative number is the choice. Because the total counts sizes, entering 50 and −50 gives a raw total of 100 and an allocation of 50% long and 50% short. Inside a Combined the weights stay between 0 and 999: a Combined cannot be short one of its own strategies.
What happens if every weight is zero?
The allocation invests nothing: there is no total to normalize over, so no capital goes to any item. Fincanva lets you save it, because an all-cash allocation can be deliberate, but says so: the shares read "—", the total row reads "Invests nothing" instead of 100%, and the strategy alert to review "Everything stays in cash" appears — "This allocation invests nothing: every weight is zero, so no capital goes anywhere." — which you can fix or leave like any other. Clear all produces exactly this state: it sets every weight to 0 rather than removing the weights.
Where do the weights apply?
To whatever the level is allocating across: one weight per instrument inside a strategy, one per member strategy inside a Combined. The normalization works identically at both levels.
You type the weights in one place only. In a strategy the Allocation card shows them as a read-only Weights block — one bar for each of the eight largest shares, a line saying how many others there are, then the total. To change a number, use the Weight column of the asset list in the Asset selection card, or press Edit in Asset selection in the Allocation card, which takes you there. In a Combined the weights are typed in the table of the Strategies card, and Edit in Strategies takes you there.
Two shortcuts sit right above those weights: Equal sets every weight to 1, and Clear all sets every weight to 0. When a strategy splits into Risk-On and Risk-Off, each regime's weight column has its own pair, which changes only that regime's weights.
Can you use Fixed weights when a screener picks the instruments?
No — each weight belongs to a named instrument, so Fixed weights needs instruments you picked by hand. On a strategy whose instruments come only from an entry screener, with nothing picked, the method picker shows Fixed weights greyed out with "Needs hand-picked instruments", unless it is already the current method. A strategy that holds it anyway — saved earlier, or left with no picked instrument afterwards — does not start: the screener brings in instruments that have no weight and the backtest would stop, so the blocking strategy alert "The strategy does not run with fixed weights" names the fix — "choose a method that computes the weights itself, for example equal weights." With picked instruments and a screener choosing among them, Fixed weights stays available.
What does it look like in practice?
A strategy holds three instruments and you enter 50, 30, 20. The raw total is 100, so the weights are used as they stand: 50% / 30% / 20%. On $100,000 that is $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000.
Now change the middle number to 40, so you have entered 50, 40, 20. The raw total is 110, and the total row of the Allocation card reads 100% beside 110. Each weight is divided by 110: 50 ÷ 110 = 45.5%, 40 ÷ 110 = 36.4%, 20 ÷ 110 = 18.2%. The first instrument's share fell from 50% to 45.5% even though you never touched its number — because the other numbers grew, and every share is measured against the total.