Step by step

Also seen as: the walk-through

What are the chapters of Step by step?

A single strategy's walk has six chapters, in this order, and each one holds the same controls All at once has for that part of the strategy.

Three details of the chapters are worth knowing before you open them:

• Asset selection puts the screener's universe, filters and maximum positions on one page, or, for chosen instruments, a search box and Your selection — a table of what you picked with a total. Browse lists opens a side sheet of ready-made lists, where you add their instruments one at a time or all together and press Done. On a single instrument the chapter shows one row with Change, and a note says the other chapters are optional.
• Allocation asks what matters most to you, then which method splits the capital, then shows that method's settings already on their defaults. When a risk condition exists, a quiet row on the chapter leads to Then: Risk-Off, because the Risk-Off allocation is set right after the condition that triggers it. The Settings page is never skipped: it also holds the settings every method shares. On a Single instrument strategy, Allocation is that one page alone, titled "How much leverage do you use?": one instrument takes all of the invested capital, so there is no goal or method to choose and the page holds only the sizing — see Single-asset simplification.
• Risk and exits sets the condition first (When), then what the strategy does when it triggers (Then: Risk-Off), then the exits. Until a condition exists, Then: Risk-Off says there is none yet, so the Risk-Off never comes into play.

Which chapters does each strategy type require?

Each strategy type has its own required chapters; the others are optional, can be skipped with Skip this chapter, and never block you. The map lists the required chapters first, numbered in the order you do them, and the optional ones below them under a divider labelled Optional.

Strategy type is not in the table: it is in every walk and is already confirmed when the strategy is created from the Create new popup, where you chose the type. Reopening it and choosing another type runs the same switch All at once's Type control runs, which first says what the later chapters would lose — see Strategy type.

A Combined is not in this table because it has no strategy type: strategy type belongs to each member strategy, never to the Combined that blends them. Its chapters are in the next section.

Which chapters does a Combined walk?

A Combined walks five chapters, and every one of them acts on the Combined itself rather than on any one member: Strategies · Allocation · Rebalance · Risk · Summary. Strategies, Allocation, Rebalance and Summary are required; Risk is optional. The Combined level has no exits — each member strategy keeps its own — so Risk holds When and Then: Risk-Off and no Exits, and there is no chapter for choosing a strategy type.

Allocation has the same three pages as Allocation, applied to the Combined's own capital, and its first page says how the layers fit: "The Combined's allocation and risk sit above each strategy's own: the backtest applies both."

Strategies lists the Combined's strategies, each with its progress ("3 of 5", or "3 of 5 · to finish" while a required chapter is open — the count is of required chapters only), the title of its most serious alert, and one action: Open when nothing is pending, Fix › and a chapter's name when that chapter holds a blocking alert, Continue › and a chapter's name when the strategy is unfinished. A strategy kept aside is tagged Kept aside. Add a strategy opens a side panel — "Pick one of your strategies to copy in, or start a blank one." — with Create a blank strategy and your strategies, each marked Add, or In use when it is already in the Combined; adding one asks "Add a copy of" followed by its name, and copies a snapshot, so the original is untouched.

Each member strategy has its own Step by step, a walk of its own with Back to the Combined at the top of its chapter map. In the strategy tabs above, a member carries a mark: Blocks the backtest, To evaluate, or To finish, the last only in Step by step. An unfinished member does not stop the Combined's backtest; a blocking alert on a member does, as the run gate states. An Incomplete Combined — one still holding fewer than two strategies — opens this same walk, and its Strategies chapter is where that is fixed.

How do you move between chapters?

You move with the chapter map or with the buttons under the chapter, and going back is always free:

• The map lists the required chapters first, numbered 1, 2, 3 … in the order you do them, each with its answer under its title. A divider labelled Optional follows, and under it the optional chapters, with their answer but no number and no check — they are never a step you owe. A walk with no optional chapter, such as Full setup, has no divider. Press any chapter you can reach to open it; a chapter that cannot be opened yet is dimmed, and hovering says why — for example "Confirm “Capital” first".
• Forward reaches up to the first required chapter you have not confirmed, that one included. Optional chapters are always reachable.
• The buttons read Back, Next: … with the name of the next page or chapter, and, on a chapter's last page, Confirm … with the chapter's name; Next and Confirm follow the required path: on a Single instrument strategy, Asset selection leads to Summary, not to Allocation. An optional chapter offers Skip this chapter, and leaving it, either way, returns you to the required path; Back goes to the chapter before it in the walk's order. The chapter counter reads "Chapter 2 of 5" on a required chapter, counting required chapters only, and "Optional" on an optional one. Next is off only while a required answer is missing, such as no instrument yet.

A chapter that holds an alert shows it on the map, with its title under the answer, and shows it again in its own footer — see Where do alerts show in Step by step?.

Does the Backtest wait for Step by step?

No — the Backtest does not wait for any chapter. You can run it from the Summary, or with the Backtest button in the strategy's header, from wherever you are in the walk, as soon as the strategy can run. Two things can stop it: the run gate every view has, whose blocking reason is stated beside the button, and a check of the strategy against its type — if the selection does not match the type, for example two instruments on a Single instrument strategy, a dialog states the fix ("Pick exactly 1 instrument.") with OK and Change strategy type, and nothing runs. No chapter you have not been through and no mark you have not earned ever stops it. On a Combined, an unfinished member strategy does not stop it either.

The Summary holds the large button, which reads Run the backtest, or Run the backtest again once fresh results exist. It wears the same two faces as the header's primary button: while there are unsaved changes it reads Save, and once they are saved it runs the backtest. While the run works, a neutral alert reads Backtest running with the percentage once it is known and "You can stay here or keep working."; when it ends with fresh results, an alert reads Results ready with View results. Nothing navigates by itself: the walk leaves you where you are, and View results is the way to the strategy's Analysis section. If the backtest doesn't start, Fincanva shows "Couldn't start the run" and leaves you on the page.

Where do you land when you reopen a strategy in Step by step?

You land on the first required chapter that is not complete, so the walk points at what still needs you. A chapter is complete when you have confirmed it and nothing the run gate refuses points at it. If every required chapter is complete, you land on the first optional chapter that holds a refusal, and otherwise on the Summary.

What does the explanation pane show?

The explanation pane, on the right of a chapter, explains the choice in front of you and never holds a control or a selection. It appears only where a choice needs explaining — the Goal and Method pages of Allocation — and shows, under What it means for a goal or a heading naming the method it explains, one plain sentence, a schematic marked "A sketch, not a calculation on your holdings", and Read the guide, which opens the page of the concept being explained — in a panel inside the app, or on the docs site. Pages with nothing to explain — Rebalance, Settings, Asset selection — use the full width. The pane reads written explanations, never your strategy's numbers: Fincanva's computed figures come only from the backtest.

Where do alerts show in Step by step?

An alert shows in the chapter whose control resolves it. The chapter's key on the map takes a coloured base — one colour for a blocking alert, another for one to review — and a line with the alert's title, with "+N" when there are more; the same alert shows again as a footer above the chapter's buttons, with its fix where one exists (for a missing Risk-Off, Choose the Risk-Off) and Leave as is on an alert to review. The missing-Risk-Off alert belongs to Risk and exits, not to Allocation. The Summary has no list of alerts of its own: the section strip in the strategy's header, present in every chapter, totals them and opens the Strategy controls popover.

How does Fincanva handle it?

• A preference decides which view a strategy opens in. Profile › Preferences has a row How you build strategies, with Step by step and All at once; until you choose, a strategy opens in All at once. A Live strategy opens on Positions either way. The full account is in Which view does a strategy open in?.
• One popup creates for both views. Create new offers the four strategy types to everyone; the first time, it also asks "How do you prefer to work?" and stores the answer once a strategy is created. A new strategy opens in Step by step on Asset selection when the answer is Step by step, and in All at once otherwise. A Combined keeps its own gate: it needs strategies to combine.
• Two doors, both for this visit only. From All at once, the ⋯ menu's first item, Open step by step, opens the strategy here; the item is offered only to someone who can edit the strategy, and not on a Combined member's own page in All at once. From Step by step, See all at once at the right end of the section band, beside the label Step by step, opens it in All at once — on a member's walk, that member's own advanced page. Neither changes the preference, and both views share one working copy, so what you entered is not lost and what was unsaved stays unsaved.
• Every chapter carries All at once's own controls. Nothing in Step by step is a copy of a setting; it is the same control on a page of its own.
• The marks stay, and they no longer gate anything. A chapter you confirm is remembered, per walk, and the map and the landing read it; it never switches the Backtest on or off.
• A public strategy opens in Step by step but cannot be saved from it — see Mine / Public.

What does it look like in practice?

You want a two-instrument strategy that rebalances monthly. In the Create new popup you choose Multiple instruments, and, as it is your first strategy, you leave Step by step selected; the strategy opens on Asset selection, with Strategy type already confirmed. You add two tickers and confirm. On Allocation you leave the goal and method as offered and confirm; on Rebalance you set one month. Risk and exits is optional, so you press Skip this chapter, and on Summary you name the strategy and press Run the backtest. You never had to open a risk or exits page, and you could have pressed Backtest in the header from Asset selection on.

Now blend that strategy with two others. The Combined walks its own five chapters: Strategies picks the three, Allocation decides how much each receives, Rebalance sets how often the Combined rebalances, and Summary runs it. Risk waits as an optional chapter if you want a risk layer over the whole thing, and each of the three strategies keeps its own exits, which you reach by opening it and using Back to the Combined to return.

What are Step by step and All at once?

Step by step and All at once are Fincanva's two views of one and the same strategy. Step by step walks you through the strategy one chapter at a time, with an explanation beside the choices that need one; All at once puts every setting on a single page. They are two views, not two strategies: neither can set something the other cannot, and the view you used never changes what the strategy does or what its backtest computes. "Advanced" here names a view — it has nothing to do with the Advanced plan.

Which view does a strategy open in?

A strategy opens in the view you chose under How you build strategies in Profile › Preferences: Step by step (one chapter at a time, with explanations) or All at once (every setting on one page). Until you have chosen, a strategy opens in All at once, exactly as it did before the choice existed.

• A Live strategy opens on Positions whatever the preference says, because someone following a strategy with real money wants the positions first. Its Settings tab still follows the preference.
• The preference is yours, not the strategy's. It decides the view for every strategy you open, including a Public one, which opens read-only in either view.
• The Settings tab follows it too, so a link to a strategy's settings and the strategy itself land in the same place.

How do you choose the view the first time?

You choose it the first time you create a strategy: the Create new popup then asks "How do you prefer to work?" above its tiles, with Step by step preselected. The answer is stored when a strategy (or a Combined) is actually created from the popup; opening and closing the popup answers nothing, and creating a screener does not count. From then on the popup stops asking, and the preference changes only in Profile › Preferences.

The popup is the same for both views. Everyone picks the strategy type there, from the four strategy types; the preference decides only where the new strategy lands — Step by step on its Asset selection chapter, or All at once.

How do you switch view for one visit?

You switch with one control on each side, and it changes the view for this visit only — the preference stays as it was, and the next time you open the strategy it follows the preference again:

• All at once → Step by step — open the ⋯ menu in the strategy's header and choose Open step by step, the menu's first item. It is offered only to someone who can edit the strategy, and not on a Combined member's own page.
• Step by step → All at once — press See all at once at the right end of the section band (the row of Settings, Analysis and Positions), next to the label Step by step. On a member of a Combined, it opens that member's own advanced page.

Both views read and write the same working copy, so nothing you have entered is discarded when you switch. What was unsaved before the switch is still unsaved after it — the switch is not a save. The old icon that toggled between the two views has gone from both of them.

Which view should you use: Step by step or All at once?

Use Step by step when you would rather be walked past every decision and have the choices explained, and All at once when you already know which setting you want to change. The two differ in how much of the strategy is on screen at once and in how much explanation comes with it — nothing else.

	Step by step	All at once
What it shows	A map of chapters on the left and one chapter open at a time — Asset selection, Allocation, Rebalance, Risk and exits, Summary — each page with the same controls All at once has, and an explanation pane beside a goal or a method.	The strategy's settings together on one page, each edited in place, in any order.
Good for	A first build, or a change where the order of the decisions is itself the help.	Changing settings you can already name, especially two or three unrelated ones: you edit them on one page, save once and re-run once.
Where you get there from	The Step by step preference, Open step by step in the ⋯ menu, or a new strategy created with Step by step chosen.	The All at once preference (or no preference yet), See all at once in Step by step, or a new strategy created with All at once chosen.

The chapters are described in What are the chapters of Step by step?; what All at once holds is described in All at once and in Editing a strategy: the settings cards.

What are the limits and edge cases of the two views?

• The Backtest does not wait for Step by step. You can run it from any chapter as soon as the strategy can run: only the run gate's blocking reasons, or a selection that does not match the strategy type (a dialog with OK and Change strategy type), stop it — never a chapter you have not been through. See Step by step.

• All at once is a view, not a plan. It has nothing to do with the Advanced plan: a view changes how much of one strategy you see at once, a plan changes what your account includes.

• A strategy inside a Combined has its own Step by step. Each member of a Combined opens in its own walk, with Back to the Combined at the top of its chapter map, and the Combined's own walk has its own chapters. See Which chapters does a Combined walk?. Its Strategies chapter lists each member with an action, and an unfinished member does not stop the backtest while a blocking alert does.

• A setting that is optional for the strategy type is not shown unconditionally. In Step by step an optional chapter sits under the Optional divider of the map, below the required chapters, and can be skipped; Next follows the required path; in All at once the same setting is an Add row until you set it up, and then a full card.

• A strategy that doesn't match its strategy type is refused. The refusal states the fix: "Pick exactly 1 instrument." on a Single instrument strategy, "Pick 2 or more instruments." on Multiple instruments, "Add at least 1 screener." on Screener. Fix the selection, or take Change strategy type.

• A Public strategy opens in either view but cannot be saved from it. Save is disabled, and its tooltip reads:

  Public strategies can't be saved. Use "Copy to Mine" to make an editable version.

  Make your own copy first and edit that — see Mine / Public.

Which pages go further on the two views?

To build a strategy from scratch, follow Create a strategy. To change one you already have, see Editing a strategy: the settings cards. To pick the shape that fits your idea, see Strategy type. To save and re-run after an edit, see Saving, running, and copying a strategy.