An instrument is a single tradable or reference security, identified by a ticker — its short symbol — such as a stock, an ETP (an exchange-traded product like an ETF), or a crypto asset. It is the smallest thing a strategy can hold, and its own price history is what a backtest replays.
Also seen as: ticker, symbol, security
Strategies screen, rank, buy, and sell instruments.
How does Fincanva handle it?
- Instruments are grouped by asset type; today Fincanva offers three — Stocks, ETPs, and Crypto.
- Each instrument is identified by its ticker symbol and carries its own price history and first available date, which set how far back a backtest that uses it can run.
- Delisted instruments are kept and stay searchable, so a strategy can include securities that no longer trade — this is what keeps a backtest from seeing only today's survivors.
What does it look like in practice?
AAPL, SPY, and BTC are three instruments of different types. AAPL is a single company's stock; SPY is an ETP that itself tracks the S&P 500 index; BTC is a crypto asset. A strategy can hold any mix of them, and each brings its own price history — so a backtest that includes BTC can only reach back as far as BTC's own history allows, even if AAPL's stretches decades further.
Used in 125 pages
- Find your way around a strategy's Analysis tabs · Analysis
- Read a strategy's trade history · Analysis
- What Fincanva's data coverage figures count · Data & methodology
- What data your backtests run on · Data & methodology
- Is this financial advice? · Investing theory
- The nine biases Fincanva helps you avoid · Getting started
- Get started with Fincanva in five steps · Getting started
- Find your strategies and screeners with search · Getting started
- Build a screener · Screeners
- Read your matches · Screeners
- Choosing the instruments your strategy holds · Strategies
- Attaching a screener to a strategy · Strategies
- Choose how a method estimates risk · Strategies
- Create a strategy and choose its instruments · Strategies
- Editing a strategy: the settings cards · Strategies
- Limit MPT's weights · Strategies
- Position exits · Strategies
- Set up a risk condition · Strategies
- Accuracy
- Active sessions
- Adjusted beta
- Aggregate comparisons
- Allocation and allocation method
- Asset-selection modes
- Asset subtypes
- Asset type
- Average momentum
- Backtest
- Base currency
- Beta
- Beta neutral
- Black-Litterman
- Calculation window
- Capital
- Capital-gains tax
- Cherry-picking bias
- Clustering
- Comparison modes
- Condition types
- Contracts
- Cost-ignoring bias
- Covariance matrix
- Coverage window
- Data freshness and frontier
- Data-quality bias
- Data-tier gating
- Delisted
- Direction: Long-only, Long/short, Short-only
- Dividends and splits
- Equal weights
- Event-time path
- Exit reason
- Factor roster
- Filter
- Filter condition anatomy
- Filter taxonomy
- Fixed weights
- Fundamental metric columns
- Gross vs net
- Hidden regimes (Markov)
- Hierarchical equal risk contribution
- Hierarchical risk parity
- Positions table columns
- Index lists and point-in-time constituents
- Instrument logo
- Inverse volatility
- Market cap
- Market-day and trading-calendar alignment
- Matches
- Max positions
- Max-symbols cap
- Max diversification
- Mimicking
- Min correlation
- Min CVaR
- Min MAD
- MPT (Markowitz)
- Nested clustered optimization
- Order plan
- Permanent instrument identifier
- Positions detail drill-down
- Positions summary table
- Ranking-based
- Rebalance
- Reinvest delay
- Reinvest profits
- Return windows
- Risk condition
- Risk-free rate
- Risk measure selection
- Risk parity
- Risk templates
- Robust worst case
- Screener
- Screener attach
- Screener execution and caching
- Seed universe
- Selection bias
- Sequential filtering and Top-N ranking
- Shared compute
- Sharpe ratio
- Simple moving average (SMA)
- Simulation start year
- Single-asset simplification
- Special data series
- Special relations
- Standard operators
- Starting capital
- Step by step
- Stochastic programming
- Stop loss
- Strategy
- Strategy alerts
- Strategy type
- Survivorship bias
- SymbolsList
- Take profit
- Target allocation treemap
- Target notional
- Target vs deployed
- Total P&L
- Total return
- Tradable and Not tradable
- Universe
- Universe facets
CompareUniverse · Asset type · Backtest · Strategy · Delisted