The per-strategy risk layer is the set of risk conditions attached to one strategy inside a Combined, held separately from the Combined's own risk conditions. Because the two layers are independent, one strategy can switch to its Risk-Off allocation while the others stay fully invested — going defensive is not all-or-nothing for the whole Combined.
Also seen as: per-strategy risk, strategy-level risk conditions
How does Fincanva handle it?
- Every strategy inside a Combined has its own Risk section, and the Combined has its own; each holds at most two conditions, joined with Or — see two-condition combination.
- A strategy joins a Combined as a snapshot copy, and its risk conditions travel with that copy. Editing them does not change the standalone original, and editing the original does not change the copy.
- A strategy-level flip changes what that strategy holds; it does not change how much capital the Combined gives it.
- If a strategy's Risk-Off profile matches its Risk-On profile, its flip changes nothing — see Risk-Off canonicalization.
What does it look like in practice?
A Combined holds three strategies and splits capital equally between them. The first strategy has a risk condition on a volatility index and a Risk-Off profile that takes clearly less exposure; the other two have no conditions at all. Volatility spikes and the first strategy's condition triggers: that strategy pulls most of its third of the capital out of the market, while strategies two and three stay fully invested in their own holdings.
The Combined still gives each strategy a third of the capital — what changed is what the first strategy does with its third. When the condition clears, only that strategy switches back; the other two never moved. Had the same condition been set on the Combined's own Risk section instead, the defensive switch would have applied to the split across all three at once.
How do risk conditions work at two levels in a Combined?
Each strategy inside a Combined carries its own Risk section, and the Combined carries a separate one titled "Combined risk", described as "De-risk the whole Combined when markets turn". A condition on one strategy changes only that strategy's own allocation. A condition at the Combined level changes how capital is split across the strategies. The two layers are evaluated independently, so at any moment both, one, or neither can be in a Risk-Off state.
What happens when only one strategy goes Risk-Off?
Only that strategy changes. It swaps in its own Risk-Off profile — typically taking less exposure and holding more cash — while the other strategies keep running their Risk-On profiles unchanged. The Combined's split of capital across its strategies is untouched, because that split is set by the Combined's own allocation — see Combined weighting — and not by any one strategy's regime. The effect on the Combined as a whole is partial: the share of capital in the defensive strategy goes quiet, and the rest carries on.
A strategy whose Risk-Off profile has a leverage of 0 goes entirely to cash when its condition triggers, and its share of the Combined stays in cash: the engine does not pass it to the other strategies, which keep only their own shares, until that strategy invests again. The Combined's own Allocation card says so with the grey note "When a strategy goes to cash, the others do not take its share" — "When Momentum goes to cash, the engine does not move its share to the other strategies, and the share stays in cash until that strategy invests again." — naming the first such strategy in use; see strategy alerts.