---
title: "Folder"
description: "A folder groups your own strategies or screeners in the Mine library. Folders nest, a strategy sits in at most one, and deleting a folder deletes what it holds."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/folder"
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/folder.md"
---

# Folder

A folder is a named container in your **Mine** library that groups your own strategies or your own screeners, so a long library can be organised by theme, client or stage of work. Folders only organise: moving an item between folders never changes its settings or its results.

**Also seen as:** subfolder, directory.

Folders can hold subfolders, each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) or [screener](/glossary/screener) sits in at most one folder, and an item in no folder lives at the top level of the library.

## How does Fincanva handle it?

- Create a folder with **New folder** in the library, and a folder inside it with **New subfolder** on the folder's menu. The same menu holds **Rename** and **Delete** — on a screener folder the delete item reads **Delete folder**.
- Move a strategy or screener with **Move to folder** on its menu, or by dragging it onto a folder; **(No folder)** returns it to the top level. A folder moves by dragging it onto another folder, and cannot be dropped into itself or into one of its own subfolders.
- The **Strategies · Single** and **Strategies · Combined** pages can show each strategy's folder in a **Folder** column, with "—" for one at the top level. The column is hidden by default: switch it on from the **Columns** button in the table's toolbar, which lists every column with a checkbox. Their **Folder** filter lets you tick one or more folders, plus **No folder**, and shows only the strategies filed directly in them: a subfolder's strategies are not included when you tick its parent, and only folders that directly hold a strategy are offered — an empty folder, or one that holds only subfolders, is not in the list.
- Home names the folder beside each strategy it lists — see [Home](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in).
- Search matches the names of strategies and screeners, not the names of folders, and finds an item wherever it is filed — see [search](/docs/getting-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-search).

## What can a folder hold?

A folder holds items of one kind, and its subfolders. Strategy folders and screener folders are separate trees, and strategy folders are shown separately for **Single** and **Combined** strategies — each library lists its own folders, so a [Combined strategy](/glossary/combined) is never filed in a folder of Single ones.

Only your own items go in your folders. The folders under the **Public** tab are organised by Fincanva, and the app says so where you would create one: "Public folders are managed by Fincanva — copy items to Mine to organize." A **Copy to Mine** arrives at the top level of Mine, with no folder, so you file it yourself afterwards — see [Mine and Public](/glossary/mine-public).

## Can two folders have the same name?

Not side by side. Two folders directly inside the same parent — or two folders at the top level — cannot share a name. For strategies, the top level counts as one place across both libraries: a top-level folder in **Single** and a top-level folder in **Combined** cannot have the same name either. Screener folders are checked only against other screener folders. A subfolder can reuse a name that exists somewhere else in the tree, so *Clients / Momentum* and *Research / Momentum* can both exist. Strategies follow the same rule inside a folder: two strategies in one folder cannot share a name, and a copy that would collide is renamed with a ` (1)` suffix — see [copies and duplicates](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine).

## What happens when you delete a folder?

Deleting a folder deletes **everything inside it**: its strategies or screeners and all of its subfolders, not only the folder. The confirmation says so before anything happens. For an empty folder it is a single question. For a folder that holds anything, it names how many items and subfolders will go with it and asks you to type `delete` to confirm, under the warning "This can't be undone."

To keep an item, move it out of the folder before you delete the folder.

## What does it look like in practice?

You keep two families of strategies in the Single library and create two folders for them, *Income* and *Growth*. Inside *Growth* you add a subfolder, *Tests*, for drafts. A strategy you drag into *Tests* keeps every setting and result it had; only its folder changes, which the Strategies page shows as *Tests* once you switch its **Folder** column on.

Months later you delete *Growth*. The confirmation tells you that the strategies in *Growth* and its one subfolder will be deleted with it, and waits for you to type `delete`. If one of those strategies is worth keeping, cancel, move it to *Income* or to **(No folder)** first, then delete *Growth*.

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)