---
title: "Invested portion"
description: "The invested portion is the share of a Combined's capital a profile deploys: below 100% the rest is a cash reserve, above 100% the excess is borrowed."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/invested-portion"
last_updated: "2026-10-03"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/invested-portion.md"
---

# Invested portion

The invested portion is the share of a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s capital that an allocation profile puts to work, from 0% up to 300%. Below 100%, whatever is left over is held as a cash reserve and deployed into nothing; above 100%, the Combined borrows the difference and invests more than its capital, which is leverage at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level). It is one number for the whole profile of a Combined — a strategy assembled from other strategies — applied before those strategies are weighted against each other, so it controls *how much* of your capital is at work rather than *what* it is at work in. In the app it is the "Invested portion" control, whose helper reads "Share of capital this profile deploys. Above 100% it invests with leverage." and whose unit is "%".

**Also seen as:** invested capital, share of capital deployed, portfolio leverage

## How is the deployed amount calculated?

Multiply the profile's capital by the invested portion; the remainder is the reserve, and a negative remainder is borrowed money.

$$
D = p \times C \qquad R = (1 - p) \times C
$$

where $p$ is the invested portion as a fraction between 0 and 3 (0% to 300%), $C$ is the capital the profile has, $D$ is the amount deployed into strategies, and $R$ is the cash reserve. The deployed amount $D$ is what the allocation method then splits across the strategies the Combined holds; $R$ never reaches them. When $p$ is above 1, $R$ is negative: $(p - 1) \times C$ is borrowed, and the Combined's cash balance is negative by that amount.

## What are the invested-portion presets?

Four presets cover the common cases, with a slider for anything else:

| Preset | Invested portion | Cash reserve |
|---|---|---|
| **Fully invested** | 100% | none |
| **Mostly invested** | 75% | 25% |
| **Half invested** | 50% | 50% |
| **Lightly invested** | 25% | 75% |
| **Custom** | any value you set with the slider, up to your plan's ceiling | the remainder, or a debt above 100% |

The presets stop at 100% on purpose: investing above it is always a **Custom** value, set on the slider.

## What happens to the cash reserve?

The reserve stays as cash: it is not allocated to any strategy and takes no market exposure, so it neither rises nor falls with the instruments the Combined holds. It accrues interest in the simulation only when the **Costs & interests** [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) is on; that assumption is off by default, so on the figures you meet first the reserve earns nothing at all — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid).

Its effect on results is symmetric: a reserve dampens gains and losses in the same proportion, because only the deployed share of capital is exposed to the market. Holding half in cash halves the impact of a market move, in both directions. The return the reserve gives up over a rising window is [cash drag](/glossary/cash-drag), which is the same arithmetic read from the other side.

## What happens when the invested portion is above 100%?

Above 100% the Combined invests more than its capital and borrows the difference: at 150% it deploys one and a half times its capital, and its cash balance goes negative by half its capital — a margin debt. The borrowed part works exactly like [leverage](/glossary/leverage) on a single strategy: gains and losses on the deployed amount are magnified in the same proportion, in both directions. The debt is financed the same way, at the same rate, and only when the **Costs & interests** assumption is on — [what leverage costs](/glossary/leverage#what-does-leverage-cost) is the canonical statement.

## How does Fincanva handle it?

- A new allocation profile starts **fully invested at 100%**. The range runs from 0% up to 300%, bounded by your plan's leverage ceiling.
- **Investing above 100% is included on any plan that includes a Combined at all — from the Advanced plan on** — up to 300%, bounded by the plan's leverage ceiling, which is stated once on [leverage](/glossary/leverage#how-does-fincanva-handle-it). The invested portion exists only on a Combined, so there is no lower plan step where it applies. Where the plan narrows the range, the control shows the cap with a tag naming the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that raises it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes).
- A [volatility target](/glossary/volatility-target) can sit inside the same block and rescale the invested portion at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance); the exposure it produces never exceeds 300% either.
- The value belongs to the profile, not the Combined, so a Risk-Off profile can hold a different invested portion from the Risk-On one — see [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition).
- At 0% nothing is deployed and the run simply tracks an uninvested balance.
- The invested portion is a Combined-level control. A single strategy's exposure is set on its own allocation profile with [leverage](/glossary/leverage) instead.
- A profile that differs from the default is summarised under the allocation method as, for example, "Invested 150%".
- Deploying $D$ does not mean spending exactly $D$: whole-share rounding leaves a little of it unspent, which is [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed).

## What does it look like in practice?

A Combined holds 10,000 and its allocation profile is set to **Mostly invested (75%)**. Deployed is 0.75 × 10,000 = **7,500**, and the cash reserve is 0.25 × 10,000 = **2,500**. The allocation method then splits the 7,500 across the strategies in the Combined; the 2,500 sits in cash and is allocated to nothing.

Now suppose the deployed holdings fall 10% over a month. The loss is 10% of 7,500 = 750, which is 7.5% of the Combined's 10,000 — not 10%, because a quarter of the capital was never exposed. The same arithmetic runs upward: a 10% rise would be 750, or 7.5% of total capital. The reserve did not protect the deployed part; it simply kept a quarter of the capital out of the move.

Set the same Combined to a **Custom 150%** instead. Deployed is 1.5 × 10,000 = **15,000**, and the reserve is (1 − 1.5) × 10,000 = **−5,000**: 5,000 borrowed. The same 10% fall now costs 1,500, or 15% of the Combined's capital, before the interest on the 5,000 — and a 10% rise gains 15%.

*Fincanva does not tell you how much of your capital to put to work or how much to hold in cash — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).*

## How do invested capital and the cash reserve work?

The invested portion is the share of a combined strategy's capital that the allocation profile puts to work; whatever is left over is held as a cash reserve. You set it as a single percentage, so an invested portion of 75% deploys three-quarters of the capital and keeps one-quarter in cash.

## How does the invested portion work?

The invested portion scales how much capital the allocation profile deploys before the strategies it holds are weighted against each other. At 100% the profile is fully invested; below that, the profile deploys only that share and the remainder stays uninvested as cash. It is set on a combined strategy, one value per allocation profile, and it does not change *which* strategies are held — only *how much* of your capital is at work in them.

## Where do you set the invested portion?

You set it in a combined strategy's **Allocation**, on the allocation profile, using the **Invested portion** control — its helper reads "Share of capital this profile deploys" and its unit is "%". Pick a preset or set a custom value with the slider:

| Control value | What it deploys |
|---|---|
| **Fully invested** | 100% — no cash reserve |
| **Mostly invested** | 75% |
| **Half invested** | 50% |
| **Lightly invested** | 25% |
| **Custom** | any value you set with the slider |

To reach the Allocation card, open the strategy's settings — see [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one).

## What happens to the capital you don't invest?

Capital above the invested portion is held as a cash reserve — it is not deployed into any strategy. In a backtest what the reserve does depends on your simulation assumptions: with the Costs assumption off — its default — idle cash earns nothing, so the reserve neither gains nor loses on its own; with Costs on it can earn interest. See [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid) for the rate. Holding more in cash lowers how much of the strategy is exposed to the market, which usually means smaller swings — see [What happens when you run a backtest?](/glossary/backtest#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for what a backtest computes. Fincanva doesn't tell you the right amount to hold in cash — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).

## How can risk conditions lower the invested portion?

A defensive stance holds a smaller invested portion, and therefore more cash, than a fully-invested one. When a combined strategy turns defensive under its Risk conditions — its Risk-Off state — it can hold a lower invested portion, moving capital out of the market and into the cash reserve until conditions ease. How and when that switch happens is set in the **Risk** card, covered under [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one).

## What are the limits and edge cases of the invested portion?

A new profile starts fully invested at 100%; the invested portion can go below that, and above it up to 300% on any plan that includes a Combined — the range and what investing above 100% means are covered in [What happens when the invested portion is above 100%?](#what-happens-when-the-invested-portion-is-above-100). Setting it to 0% holds everything in cash and puts nothing to work — the backtest then just tracks an uninvested balance. The invested portion is a combined-strategy control: a single strategy manages how much capital is at work through its own allocation profile, not through this control.

## Which pages go further on invested capital?

To see where this control sits among the other settings, read [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one). For what a strategy and a combined strategy are, see [How is a strategy different from a Combined?](/glossary/strategy#how-is-a-strategy-different-from-a-combined).

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)