Run status is the lifecycle state of a strategy's backtest result, shown as a status chip that tells you whether the numbers you are seeing still reflect your current settings and the latest market data. The chip reads one of eight states, and it is always one word or phrase — never a date.
Also seen as: backtest status
How does Fincanva handle it?
Every one of the eight describes the strategy, never Fincanva. Three of them — Set aside, and — Fincanva knows from your own account and your own strategy, so they are true right now and need no engine at all. The other five describe the last backtest result, which Fincanva checks against your current settings and the latest market data rather than trusting a stored badge.
A green, up-to-date chip means the last result is current — it is not a promise that the results page will render, and a "no results" placeholder does not always mean you simply haven't run the strategy. What to press for every other chip is in Bring a strategy back to Up to date.
What does each status mean?
Each chip is one of these states, quoted exactly as the app shows them:
- Set aside — your plan does not cover this strategy, so it cannot run however complete it is. Nothing is deleted; it runs again the moment the plan covers it — see plan compliance.
- — the strategy does not yet hold enough to run: a Combined with fewer than two components, or one you have started and not filled in.
- — the strategy is complete but has never been backtested, so there is nothing to show yet.
- — a run was launched and has not come back; the results replace it when done.
- — a run was launched, but its progress has not moved for more than a day: it has most likely stalled.
- — the result matches your current settings and the latest data; the numbers are current.
- — the result on screen no longer stands, so what you see is the previous run, dimmed: a setting changed since the last run, or a new market day arrived after it.
- — the last run produced no results. Fincanva does not show why a run failed. Related reading: bankruptcy rules.
Why does a strategy flip to Needs re-run?
Editing any setting that feeds the backtest flips the status to , because the saved result no longer matches your configuration. Changing the rebalance frequency, the benchmark, or a cost or tax rate in Settings all invalidate the last run. Flipping one of the three simulation assumption toggles does not: every combination is computed in the same run, so a toggle only picks which finished result is displayed. When a setting does invalidate the run, the app shows Settings changed — re-run to update the results. and keeps displaying the previous numbers, dimmed, until you re-run.
Why a new market day flips it too, even when you changed nothing
A backtest result belongs to the market data it was computed against, so when a newer market day arrives the result stops being current — even though your settings are untouched. This is why a book left alone overnight can read almost everywhere the next morning, with nothing edited and nothing broken: a result from an earlier market day is not up to date, however recently it was computed. Strategies you follow Live are recomputed for you on Fincanva's daily schedule, so they return to on their own — see daily warm and data freshness.
What happens when Fincanva cannot reach the engine?
When Fincanva cannot reach the compute engine, most of your book does not change its wording at all. A strategy that is Set aside, or stays as it was: those three are true whether or not the engine answers.
The other five fall back to the last state Fincanva recorded, and the page carries the caveat once, above the list: Couldn't reach the engine — showing results as of {date}. Where nothing was ever recorded it reads Couldn't reach the engine — showing the last available results. A date qualifies an answer that is not current — never one that is, so the chips stay one word; the same caveat appears in the strategy's own menu. A recording older than the latest market data is not believed: a recorded , or from an earlier day reads . Figures are kept either way, dimmed, so the page is never blank.
A row Fincanva cannot confirm drops its progress percentage and spinner, and keeps its place in the list. The counts beside a list are of what was last recorded. A healthy strategy never turns unavailable because a network call failed, and one mid-recompute never turns needs re-run because the check did not go through — both used to happen, hardest on the strategies you follow Live.
What does it look like in practice?
A strategy is , rebalancing every three months. You open its settings and change the rebalance frequency to monthly, then save. Because the saved result was computed for the old cadence, the chip immediately flips to and the metrics dim. You press Re-run: the chip becomes , the results view shows Computing results… 40%, and when the engine finishes it settles back to with the new monthly-rebalance numbers. You come back the following morning, having changed nothing: a new market day has arrived, so the chip reads again — and one more Re-run puts it back on the latest data.
Used in 20 pages
- Bring a strategy back to Up to date · Backtesting
- Home, the page you land on after signing in · Getting started
- The Fincanva loop · Getting started
- Keep your live book in order · Portfolio & holdings
- All at once
- Backtest
- Bankruptcy rules
- Combined
- Compute time
- Duplicate and Copy to Mine
- Daily warm of Live strategies
- Data freshness and frontier
- Incomplete Combined
- Mark Live
- Plan compliance
- Precomputed toggle variants
- Shared compute
- Simulation engine
- Strategy
- Walk-forward replay