---
title: "Fixed weights"
description: "Fixed weights is the allocation method where you set each share by hand; the numbers you enter are relative and are normalized to 100% before they are used."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/fixed-weights"
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/fixed-weights.md"
---

# Fixed weights

Fixed weights is the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-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](/glossary/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.

$$
{\text{share}_i} = \frac{{x_i}}{{\sum_j \lvert x_j \rvert}}
$$

where:

- 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](/glossary/equal-weights) across three items. The Allocation card shows both figures: each [instrument](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/calculation-window).
- The weights are targets, reapplied at each [rebalance](/glossary/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](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only) 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](/glossary/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](/glossary/strategy-alerts) 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](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) inside a [Combined](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "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.

Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)