Strategy type

When you create a strategy, Fincanva asks How do you want to build this strategy? and offers four types — Single instrument, Multiple instruments, Screener, and Full setup — that pre-shape Step by step so you only fill in the chapters your idea needs. Each type describes what you are building, not what to invest in: it changes which chapters are required and which Asset selection surface you get, never the result the backtest computes.

The first time you create one, the same dialog also asks How do you prefer to work? — Step by step, one chapter at a time with explanations, or All at once, every setting on one page. Your answer is kept once the strategy is created, and from then on it decides where a new strategy opens: in Step by step, or in All at once with every setting on one page. The popup is the same for both, and the strategy types are chosen there either way. You can change it in Profile › Preferences, under How you build strategies.

The strategy type decides which chapters of Step by step are required. Step by step has six chapters — Strategy type, Asset selection, Allocation, Rebalance, Risk and exits and Summary — and the type trims what is required of you, so a simple idea skips settings it doesn't need. At creation the picker's subheading reassures you: "You can change anything later."

Strategy type is where the type is chosen, and it is confirmed when you create the strategy; the other five chapters are required or optional by type:

A chapter a type leaves out is not lost: it is optional, so you can open it or skip it with Skip this chapter, and All at once shows every section whichever type you are on. Nothing is unreachable. See Step by step for how required and optional chapters work.

The strategy type pins the Asset selection surface, and this is the one place where it genuinely limits what a strategy can do rather than just tidying Step by step. There are three surfaces — a Basket you pick by hand, a Screen built from rules, and Compose, which holds a basket and Include/Exclude screener pools at the same time — and three of the four types offer exactly one of them.

Two consequences follow, and both surprise people:

• Compose and the Include/Exclude pools are Full setup only. A strategy that needs an Exclude pool, or a second Include screener, is a Full setup strategy — no other type has a surface that can show them.
• Max positions stops being a control wherever you pick instruments by hand. On Single instrument, on Multiple instruments, and on Full setup's Basket surface, the number of positions is the number of instruments you picked, so the field is not shown and the count you picked is what runs. Max positions is a control you set only where a screener chooses the holdings — on the Screen surface and inside Compose.

The Single instrument type is for a strategy that trades one instrument, described in its tile as "Trade a single instrument." It is the leanest type: only Asset selection and Summary are required, so you pick the instrument and go straight to the backtest without allocation or rebalancing choices, because a single holding has nothing to weight against.

Its gate is exact — if you select the wrong number of instruments, you are stopped with "Pick exactly 1 instrument."

The Multiple instruments type is for a strategy that holds a basket of instruments you choose yourself, described in its tile as "A basket of instruments you choose." Because there is more than one holding, Allocation (how capital is split across the basket) and Rebalance (how often) become required alongside Asset selection and Summary.

Its gate requires at least two holdings — you are stopped with "Pick 2 or more instruments."

The Screener type is for a strategy whose holdings are chosen by a screener rather than picked by hand, described in its tile as "Let a screener pick the instruments." Its required chapters match Multiple instruments — Asset selection, Allocation, Rebalance and Summary — but in Asset selection you define one screener instead of a fixed basket, and that screener decides which instruments the strategy holds each period.

Its gate requires at least one screener — you are stopped with "Add at least 1 screener." Its surface also holds exactly one screen: a second Include screener, or any Exclude pool, needs Full setup. A strategy that carries them is never trimmed to fit — it reads back as Full setup instead.

The Full setup type is for building a strategy from scratch with every setting exposed, described in its tile as "Every setting, built from scratch." It is the only type for which every chapter is required — including Risk and exits, which the other types leave optional — and the only one whose Asset selection offers all three surfaces.

If you already know you want every control, pick Full setup and work in All at once — choose All at once when the popup asks how you prefer to work, or press See all at once in Step by step — which opens the full Editing a strategy surface, with every card on one page instead of the chapters.

On the Free plan you create Single instrument, Multiple instruments and Full setup strategies; Screener starts from Starter, because a Screener strategy cannot exist without a screener and the Free plan includes no screeners inside strategies. Its tile stays in the picker, marked "from Starter" in its top-right corner, and choosing it opens a short plan dialog instead of starting the build: "Strategies with screeners are available from Starter" — "A screener picks the strategy's instruments at each rebalance. On Free you can still use it on its own, on the Screener page." The Type menu of an existing strategy works the same way for Screener. A Full setup strategy on Free starts on the Basket surface; its Screen and Compose surfaces open as a switched-off preview you can look at but not change — see attaching a screener. A strategy that already holds a screener on Free — made on a paid plan, or kept after a downgrade — is not changed, but its backtest does not start until you remove the screener, change its type, or move to Starter; see plan compliance.

Yes — the Type key in All at once opens a menu that switches a strategy to any of the four, after a confirmation that spells out what the switch changes. Adding instruments, attaching a screener, or turning on Risk and Exit rules after the first backtest does not lock you to your original choice, and every section stays reachable whichever type you are on.

What changes with the type is the Asset selection surface, so switching to a narrower type can cost you part of your selection.

Changing the type also moves Step by step's required chapters, because each type requires a different subset. The switch confirmation says which way it moved: chapters that join the walk carry no review yet, while a switch that takes the unreviewed chapters out of the walk can leave nothing to review — "4 steps leave Step by step, and every step it still asks for has already been reviewed." That decides where Step by step lands when you reopen the strategy and which chapters it marks complete; it never decides whether the Backtest can run, which only the run gate refuses. Nothing you already reviewed is discarded by the switch: each chapter keeps its mark, so switching back costs you no progress.

Anything the new type's surface cannot hold is removed — but only when you save, and the confirmation tells you how much first.

Switching opens a confirmation headed "This removes part of your selection", and the count leads it: "5 selected instruments will be removed — a Screener strategy builds its selection from rules, not from a basket.", or "2 screeners will be removed — this strategy type keeps at most one." Below the count it lists what the new type requires and which configured sections reset to their defaults. The last line is the reassuring one: "Nothing is removed until you save. Switch back before saving to keep it." The switch itself changes nothing on disk — the next save is what trims.

There is one case where nothing further goes at all. If your setup still needs more than the new type offers, Fincanva does not delete the extras to force the narrowing: it says "Your setup needs more than this type offers, so nothing else is removed — the strategy will keep showing as Full setup." The strategy keeps everything and reads back as the wider type.

The strategy type does not change how a backtest is computed, and no section is ever hidden from All at once. What it does restrict is the Asset selection surface: Compose and its Include/Exclude pools exist only on Full setup, and Max positions is derived from your basket rather than set by you wherever you pick instruments by hand. For what a strategy is and what it contains, see Strategy.

To build one, follow Create a strategy. To change settings on an existing strategy, see Editing a strategy.