# Fincanva — full documentation > Documentation for Fincanva — build, backtest, screen, and follow investment strategies on historical market data. > Language: English (canonical). Translations mirror this text. --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-search # Find your strategies and screeners with search Search finds any [strategy](/glossary/strategy), live portfolio or [screener](/glossary/screener) you own by its name, and jumps to any main page of Fincanva. Open it with **⌘K** on a Mac or **Ctrl+K** elsewhere, type part of a name, and pick the result. ## Before you start No prerequisites. Search is available on every page of the app once you are signed in, and it only ever looks at items you own. ## Steps 1. Press **⌘K** (Mac) or **Ctrl+K** (Windows, Linux). You can also select the **Search** field at the top of the sidebar, or its magnifier icon when the sidebar is collapsed — all three open the same search. 2. Type part of the name. The start of any word in it is enough, and capitals do not matter. 3. Read the results, grouped as **Strategies**, **Portfolios**, **Screeners** and **Pages**. 4. Select a result, or move to it with the arrow keys and press **Enter**. Search closes and opens what you picked. Press **Esc**, or click outside search, to close it without choosing anything; that also clears what you typed, so the next search starts from an empty field. Pressing **⌘K** or **Ctrl+K** again closes it too, but keeps what you typed, and the next **⌘K** or **Ctrl+K** reopens it on the same search. ## What you should see With nothing typed, search lists only **Pages** — the fixed destinations of the app, in the order the sidebar shows them: **Home**, **Screeners**, **Portfolios**, **Strategies · Single**, **Strategies · Combined**, and one entry per Settings page (**Settings · Overview**, **Settings · Profile**, **Settings · Access and security**, **Settings · Notifications**, **Settings · Simulation defaults**, **Settings · Plan and usage**, **Settings · Payments and invoices**, **Settings · Privacy and data**). Typing narrows that list to the pages whose name contains what you typed, so typing "settings" leaves every Settings page. Once you type, "Searching…" is shown briefly, then your own items appear above the pages. The **Strategies**, **Portfolios** and **Screeners** groups list at most eight matches each; **Pages** lists every page whose name matches. Where a result takes you depends on its group: | Group | What it holds | Selecting a result opens | |---|---|---| | **Strategies** | your strategies that are not followed live | the strategy's **Settings** | | **Portfolios** | your strategies that are [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live) | the strategy's **Positions** | | **Screeners** | your saved screeners | the screener | | **Pages** | the app's main pages | that page | When nothing matches, search reads "No results found." ## How do I find my strategy? Press **⌘K** or **Ctrl+K** and type the first letters of any word in its name. A strategy you follow live is listed under **Portfolios**, not under **Strategies**, because the two groups never overlap: every strategy you own appears in exactly one of them. Selecting it under **Portfolios** opens its Positions; selecting it under **Strategies** opens its Settings. If you would rather browse than type, the **Strategies · Single** and **Strategies · Combined** pages list every strategy you own, and the **Folder** filter there narrows the list to the [folders](/glossary/folder) you tick — one or several. Your live strategies are also listed together on the **Portfolios** page — see [live book](/glossary/live-book). ## What does search not cover? Search reads the **names** of the strategies, portfolios and screeners **you own**, and nothing else: - **Public strategies and screeners never appear.** Search only reads your Mine library; see [Mine and Public](/glossary/mine-public). To find a Public item, browse the Public tab of the library. - **Instruments are not searched here.** Finding a stock, ETP or crypto to hold is done in a strategy's asset selection, which has its own [instrument](/glossary/instrument) search. - **Settings, filters and results inside an item are not searched** — only the item's name is. - **There is no list of recent searches and no action shortcuts**: search finds items and pages, and opens them. ## Common problems ### My strategy is not in the results Check three things in order. If the strategy is followed live, look under **Portfolios** rather than **Strategies**. If more than eight of your strategies, portfolios or screeners match what you typed, only eight are shown in that group — type more of the name to narrow it. If it is a Public strategy you have not copied, search cannot find it; use **Copy to Mine** first, and the copy becomes yours and searchable. ### Search says "No results found." for a name I know exists First check the name is yours and not a Public item's, which search never shows. If it is yours, the lookup itself may have failed: search shows the same "No results found." whether nothing matched or the lookup could not complete, so the two cannot be told apart on screen. Close search with **Esc** and search again. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps # Get started with Fincanva in five steps You get started with Fincanva by creating a strategy, picking how it's built, setting it up in Step by step, running a backtest, and reading the result. This guide walks a brand-new account through those five steps, start to finish, in about ten minutes. ## What do I need to start using Fincanva? You need a Fincanva account and to be signed in. No instruments or strategies need to exist yet — you create the first one here. ## How do I make my first strategy? 1. From the sidebar, open **Single** (IT: **Singole**) and select **New strategy** (IT: **Nuova strategia**). 2. Choose a strategy type under "How do you want to build this strategy?" (IT: "Come vuoi costruire questa strategia?"). Pick the shape that matches what you're building: - **Single instrument** — trade a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument). - **Multiple instruments** — a basket of instruments you choose. - **Screener** — let a [screener](/glossary/screener) pick the instruments. - **Full setup** — every setting, built from scratch. You can change this later — the type only shapes which chapters are required next. The first time, the popup also asks "How do you prefer to work?" (IT: "Come preferisci lavorare?"): **Step by step** (one chapter at a time, with explanations) or **All at once** (every setting on one page), with **Step by step** preselected. Your answer is kept, and you can change it in **Profile › Preferences** under **How you build strategies**. 3. Set the strategy up. In **Step by step**, the [walk](/glossary/step-by-step) opens on **Asset selection** (IT: **Selezione asset**): add the instruments or the screener the strategy trades. Then, depending on the type, work through **Allocation** (how capital is divided), **Rebalance** (how often), and **Risk and exits** (conditions that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation, and take-profit and stop-loss rules). With **All at once**, [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) shows all of these on one page. 4. On **Summary** (Step by step), name the strategy, check the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) and [starting year](/glossary/simulation-start-year), then select **Save**, and once the strategy is saved select **Run the backtest** to start its first backtest. Any [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts) that need a decision show on the chapter that resolves them. In All at once, select **Save** and then **Backtest** in the strategy's header. 5. Read the first result: an [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) with headline figures including [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). ## What should I see after my first backtest? Your new strategy appears in the **Single** library, and the backtest shows an equity curve with headline figures such as CAGR and max drawdown. From the next sign-in on, that strategy is summarised for you on [Home](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in), the page Fincanva opens first. See [Strategy](/glossary/strategy) for what those parts mean, [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) for a closer look at building one, [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) for how the four types differ, and [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) for what the equity curve and metrics actually compute. ## Which chapters will I actually see? Step by step requires only the chapters your strategy type needs: - **Single instrument** requires just Asset selection and Summary. - **Multiple instruments** and **Screener** require Asset selection, Allocation, [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), and Summary. - **Full setup** requires every chapter, including Risk and exits. A chapter a type doesn't require is optional: you can open it or skip it with **Skip this chapter**. If you'd rather see every setting at once, choose **All at once** when the popup asks how you prefer to work, or press **See all at once** (IT: **Vedi tutto insieme**) in Step by step. See [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step). ## How do you sign in, and how do you keep the account yours? The sign-in screen offers [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in) first: you type your email and Fincanva sends one message carrying both a link and a 6-digit code. A password and **Continue with Google** stay available as the other two routes. [Passkeys](/glossary/passkeys) are not available, and the settings carry no passkey option. Two account settings are worth setting up on day one rather than after something goes wrong: [two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication), which adds a second step to every sign-in, and [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions), the list of devices currently signed in — that list is where you sign a forgotten laptop out from anywhere. ## Common problems ### Why is the backtest button disabled? A backtest needs at least one instrument selected on the strategy. Add an instrument, then select **Backtest** again — the same rule blocks saving an empty strategy. Each strategy type also enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can confirm **Asset selection**; see [Why can't I continue past a chapter?](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments#why-cant-i-continue-past-a-chapter) for those messages. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in # Home, the page you land on after signing in **Home** is the first page Fincanva opens after you sign in, and it is a summary rather than a workspace: it tells you what your strategies did, what needs attention, and what you were last working on, then sends you to the page that can act on it. This guide reads it top to bottom and answers the things about it that look like faults and are not. ↗ See this in Fincanva — the Home page ## How is Home laid out? At the top, either a date band with one true sentence about the strategies you follow live or a **Needs you** list of the ones asking something of you, with tiles beside it that agree with whichever it is; then a rail holding those same strategies ranked, and a **Recently edited** block, reading your whole book, that gets you back to work. If you follow nothing live, **Recently edited** is the whole page. While a backtest is running, Home keeps itself up to date — the verdict and the tiles follow the run without you reloading the page. ## What do I need before Home is useful? Nothing beyond a signed-in account, and at least one [strategy](/glossary/strategy) [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live) before the top of the page has anything to say. Home picks what to show you: a **first-run** version until you have saved anything at all, **Recently edited** on its own while nothing is marked Live, and the full board once something is. ## What does Home show on a brand-new account? Until you have saved a strategy or a [screener](/glossary/screener), Home shows three cards instead of a board — **Build a strategy**, **Screen the market** and **Follow it live** — each stating what that route is for, plus the **Fincanva templates** rail underneath. There is no [live book](/glossary/live-book) and no status tile on this version, because there is nothing yet for either to be about. Home switches to the full board from the first save onwards. ## Why does Home show me only "Recently edited"? Because you have saved strategies but have not [marked any of them Live](/glossary/mark-live), and everything above **Recently edited** describes your live strategies only. With none of them live there is nothing for the date band, **Needs you** or the tiles to be about, so Home leaves the whole top half out rather than printing a green all-clear over an empty set. This is not the first-run version: that one appears only while you have saved nothing at all, and it shows three route cards instead of **Recently edited**. Mark one strategy Live and the full top half is there the next time you open Home. ## What is on Home once I have strategies? Two halves that describe two different sets. **Everything above Recently edited is about the strategies you have [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live), and only those.** **Recently edited** is about your whole book, every strategy in it, live or not. The live half is one card at the top of the page, and that card has two layouts: a **Needs you** list when something is asking you for an action, and a dated verdict band when nothing is — never both at once, which is what [Why does the top of Home change shape from one day to the next?](#why-does-the-top-of-home-change-shape-from-one-day-to-the-next) below is about. Under that card sits **Your live book**, the ranked rail of your live strategies, covered further down. Then the whole-book half: **Recently edited**, covered below too. The **Browse Fincanva templates** link sits last and belongs to neither half — it opens the **Public** tab of the strategy library, which is Fincanva's own catalogue rather than anything of yours. Most mornings most of your book will read **Needs re-run**, because a result computed against an earlier market day is no longer current even when you have changed nothing — see [run status](/glossary/run-status). **Needs you** does not fill up with them, because it lists live strategies only and those are the ones Fincanva keeps current for you. One you merely saved arrives at **Needs re-run** because that is what you chose for it, and Home does not ask you to undo the choice. ## Why does the top of Home change shape from one day to the next? Because the top of Home is one card with two layouts, and it shows exactly one of them: a **Needs you** list when something is asking you for an action, and a dated verdict band when nothing is. They never appear together, so a tile that was there yesterday can be gone today. **When something needs you**, the card is a **Needs you** header with a count beside it, then up to five of your live strategies, each with the reason and the [folder](/glossary/folder) it lives in: one that **failed**, one that is **incomplete**, one you have never run, one with open configuration warnings, and one whose result is no longer current. Beside that list sit two tiles, **Next rebalances** and **Live book status**. The **View all in Portfolios** link at the top, and the **View all N** line under the rows, both open **Portfolios**, the page that lists exactly these strategies. There is no date band and no **Followed live** tile in this layout. **When nothing needs you**, the card is the date band instead: `Today · {date}`, in your browser's own [time zone](/glossary/time-zone), with one sentence of verdict over your live strategies — for example `All 12 live strategies up to date`, `3 live strategies still computing`, `Couldn't reach the engine`, or a line saying Home is showing the most recently updated of a larger number of them. Beside it sit **Followed live** and **Next rebalances**. There is no **Needs you** block and no **Live book status** tile in this layout. Two of the three tiles are therefore conditional. **Followed live** — how many strategies you are following live, with their **Median 1M** and how many are **Positive 1M** — appears only while nothing needs you. **Live book status** — your live strategies split into `up to date`, `computing`, `to re-run`, `to run`, `failed` and `incomplete` — appears only while something does. **Next rebalances** appears in both. Which layout you get is decided in a fixed order, first match wins: something needs you, then Home could not reach the engine, then Home read only part of your live book, then something is still computing, then everything is up to date. **Needs you** comes first because an action outranks a wait, and the other four are all sentences of that same band. The order is also why `N live strategies still computing` is hard to catch in practice: a strategy that is computing is not something Home asks you to act on, so that sentence only ever appears on a live book where nothing else is asking for anything. ## Why is a strategy I never marked Live not flagged on Home? Because the top half of Home describes your live strategies and nothing else, and the rule has no exception for a broken one: a strategy you never [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live) is not counted, ranked or flagged up there even when its last run **failed** or it is still **incomplete**. There is no other place on Home that flags it either. It is not lost, and nothing about it has changed. It keeps its own [run status](/glossary/run-status) chip wherever it is listed, it appears in **Recently edited** if it is one of the five you touched most recently, and it is in **Strategies** with the rest of your book. Mark it Live and it joins **Needs you** the next time you open Home. ## What is in "Your live book"? **Your live book** is the ranked rail of the strategies you have [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live), and only those. Each card carries the strategy's return over the chosen window, its folder and type, and a small curve. Clicking anywhere on a card opens that strategy. Above the rail, **Return window** switches the headline figure between **1M**, **YTD** and **1Y**. If no live strategy has a figure for the window you pick, the rail says so and invites you to pick another one rather than showing an empty rail. The rail stops at eight cards. When you have more than that, it ends with **View all N live strategies**, which opens the full list. Returns shown here are past results. ## Why does the curve not change when I change the return window? Because the curve is always the one-year series, whatever the **Return window** says. The card labels it **1Y curve** for that reason, and a card with less than a year of history reads **No 1-year curve yet** instead of drawing a shorter one. **Return window** re-windows the headline percentage only. It is worth knowing before you compare a **1M** figure against the shape of the curve beside it, because those two are measuring different spans on purpose. ## What is in "Recently edited"? Two columns — **Strategies** and **Screeners** — each listing the five you touched most recently, so you can get back into something you left half-built. This is the one block on Home that reads your **whole** private book: it lists what you edited last whether or not you have [marked it Live](/glossary/mark-live). **The Screeners column is the only place in Fincanva that lists your saved screeners.** Nowhere else does. That is why the two columns are not symmetrical: **Strategies** ends with an **All N** link to the full library, and **Screeners** ends with nothing, because opening **Screeners** from the sidebar starts a new screener rather than showing a list of the ones you have. ## What happens when I pick a strategy type from Home? The strategy is created immediately, before you have configured anything. **New strategy** opens the type tiles, and pressing one creates a real strategy and takes you into its walk. So there is no draft state to discard: if you change your mind and leave the walk, the strategy stays in **Strategies**, empty. **Deleting it from the Strategies list is how you undo it.** The same is true if you close the dialog while the strategy is being created — Fincanva tells you it was created and leaves you where you are, because by then it exists. ## Why does Home say it is showing only some of my strategies? Because Home reads a capped slice of your book, most recently updated first, and says so on the date band when you have more live strategies than it read. The strategies it did not read are the ones you have touched least recently. The band counts live strategies, like everything else in the top half — `Showing the 500 most recently updated of your 640 live strategies` — and every count beside it describes what Home read, not necessarily the whole of your live book. ## Limits and edge cases ### Why did a failed strategy disappear from my live book? Because the rail ranks strategies by their returns, and a strategy whose last run **failed** has no returns to rank. That is intended, and it is not a strategy that has been lost: it moves to **Needs you** above, which is the block that owns what is broken. That move happens only for a strategy you have [marked Live](/glossary/mark-live). A failed strategy you never marked Live was never in the rail and does not appear in **Needs you** either — see [Why is a strategy I never marked Live not flagged on Home?](#why-is-a-strategy-i-never-marked-live-not-flagged-on-home) above. The split is the same across the live half of the page — **Needs you** owns what is wrong, the live book owns what is working. A strategy that merely **needs a re-run** is a different case: it keeps its last known figures and stays in the rail, dimmed. ### What does Home show when it cannot reach the engine? It shows your book as it was last recorded, dated, instead of reporting an all-clear. Where that dating appears depends on which layout the top of Home is in. On the verdict band, the verdict itself reads `Couldn't reach the engine`, with `Couldn't reach the engine — showing results as of {date}.` under it; that verdict outranks both the "showing the most recently updated of N" line and the `N live strategies still computing` line, and it is never the green all-clear. When something needs you, that same `Couldn't reach the engine — showing results as of {date}.` line sits above the **Needs you** list instead, and the **Live book status** tile beside it keeps its counts with `Couldn't reach the engine` next to them, because those are counts of what was last recorded rather than of what is true right now. Each strategy keeps its last recorded [run status](/glossary/run-status) and figures, dimmed — unless that recording predates the latest market data, in which case the chip reads **Needs re-run** rather than repeating a state that is no longer true. Two blocks have nothing recorded to fall back on and say so rather than assert an absence. **Next rebalances** has no saved [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) dates, so it says `Couldn't reach the engine` instead of `No upcoming rebalances`. **Your live book** does the same instead of telling you no live strategy has a figure for the window you picked. Every row in **Needs you** still carries its chip during an outage, because each chip names something you can do to the strategy itself: one you have never run reads **Run**, one whose result is no longer current reads **Re-run**, one whose last run failed reads **Fix**. Home keeps retrying on its own and stops as soon as the engine answers, so the page recovers without you reloading it. ## Related For what those figures mean, see [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) and [Metrics explained](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means); for the workflow Home sits at the centre of, see [The Fincanva loop](/docs/getting-started/the-fincanva-loop). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/the-fincanva-loop # The Fincanva loop The Fincanva loop is the core workflow of the product, and it has three stages: you **build** a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), **backtest** it on real market history, and **analyze** the result — then refine what you built and go round again until it holds up. The forward path runs one way, Build → Backtest → Analyze; refining is the only edge that goes back. An idea enters the loop at Build, and a strategy leaves it when you [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live) to follow it going forward — which is monitoring only, and reversible. If you are new to Fincanva, [What is Fincanva, and what can you do with it?](/docs/getting-started/what-is-fincanva-and-what-can-you-do-with-it) covers the product itself. For the click-by-click version of the loop, follow [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps). ## What are the three stages of the Fincanva loop? The Fincanva loop has three stages, and every idea you test goes through all three: 1. **Build** — you define the strategy: what it may hold, how capital is spread across it, when it turns defensive, and when it exits a position. 2. **Backtest** — Fincanva replays that strategy over real market history and reports what it would have produced. 3. **Analyze** — you read the evidence: the equity curve, the metrics, the drawdowns. Analyze is a decision point, not an end point. If the result holds up you leave the loop and Mark Live; if it does not, you refine — back to Build — and run it again. Nothing else in the app sits outside this shape: screeners feed Build, and a [Combined](/glossary/combined) runs the same three stages one level up, over several strategies at once. ## What do you configure in the Build stage? Build is the single stage in which a strategy is defined — there is no separate stage for picking instruments, because choosing what a strategy holds is part of building it. In Build you set: - **What it may hold** — a basket of instruments you choose, or a [screener](/glossary/screener) that picks them by rule from a [universe](/glossary/universe). - **When it turns defensive** — the [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) that switch the strategy to its [Risk-Off allocation](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) when they trigger. - **How capital is spread** — the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that weights capital across those instruments, and how often the strategy [rebalances](/glossary/rebalance) back to those weights. - **When a position closes** — the [take-profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop-loss](/glossary/stop-loss) exit rules applied to each position. Which of those a strategy requires depends on its [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) — **Single instrument**, **Multiple instruments**, **Screener**, or **Full setup** — and the parts a type does not require stay optional. You do the building in one of two views: [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) puts one chapter on screen at a time, with explanations, while [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) lays every settings card out on a single page in any order. It is the same strategy with the same settings in both. A preference under **How you build strategies** decides which view a strategy opens in; see [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) for which to use when. One further set of choices shapes what a run *reports* rather than what the strategy *does*: the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — whether trading costs, tax, and [profit compounding](/glossary/reinvest-profits) are applied. They are not part of the strategy itself, and they are not set in the editor: the three toggles sit above the results in the Analyze stage, and the rates behind them are saved in Settings. ## What does the Backtest stage do? The Backtest stage replays the strategy you built over real market history and reports what it would have produced. A [backtest](/glossary/backtest) applies that strategy's own allocation, rebalancing, risk conditions, and exit rules step by step across the period, and it runs from the earliest date your instruments and configuration allow through the latest available market close — the end date follows the newest market data, not today's calendar date. Nothing is traded and nothing is forecast: a backtest is a simulation over the past. [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) covers what it computes and what it cannot. ## What do you read in the Analyze stage? The Analyze stage is where you read the evidence a backtest produced and decide what to do with it. Three things carry most of that reading: the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), which shows the shape of the whole run rather than only its final number; the performance metrics; and the [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), the deepest fall from a peak the strategy sat through. [What every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) explains each figure in turn. The question this stage answers is a single one — does this result hold up, or is there something to change? ## How does refining close the loop? Refining closes the loop by sending you back to the Build stage: you change something about the strategy, backtest it again, and read the new result against the old one. That is the only edge in the loop that runs backwards — Build → Backtest → Analyze goes one way, and refining is the way round. There is no separate "refine" screen: it is the same saved strategy, edited and run again. Changing a setting that feeds the backtest leaves the last result on screen and marks it **Needs re-run** until you re-run it. Most strategies go round the loop several times before their result holds up. ## What starts the loop, and what ends it? An idea starts the loop and **Mark Live** ends it. The idea is whatever you want to test — a market, a rule, a rebalancing habit — and it enters at Build, where picking a [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) turns it into something the app can actually run. [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live) is the exit: it starts following the strategy going forward instead of only over history. Live is monitoring only — nothing is traded, no order reaches a broker, and no real money moves — and **Unfollow** reverses it at any time, which puts the strategy back within reach of the loop. ## Limits and edge cases - **Build is one stage, not two.** Instruments, allocation, risk conditions, and exit rules are all part of building a strategy. Step by step shows them as separate chapters on screen and All at once shows them as cards on one page, but neither is a distinct stage of the loop. - **Not every part of Build applies to every strategy.** The strategy type decides which settings a strategy requires; the rest remain optional and can be added later. - **A backtest is evidence, not a promise.** Analyze tells you what would have happened over the period tested. Going round the loop can improve a strategy; it never removes uncertainty. - **Refine is the only loop-back.** The forward path has no shortcuts and no side branches — a result you want to change sends you back to Build, never anywhere else. - **Mark Live is reversible, and it changes nothing about history.** Following a strategy changes what you track going forward; a backtest already run is unaffected. - **Only a Live strategy is re-run for you.** A strategy you have marked Live is refreshed as new market data arrives; one you have only saved goes **Needs re-run** after a data refresh and stays there until you run it again — see [run status](/glossary/run-status). *The loop is a workflow for testing ideas against history, not a recommendation to act on any result.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/the-nine-biases-fincanva-helps-you-avoid # The nine biases Fincanva helps you avoid Backtesting a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is easy to get wrong: a handful of well-known research biases can make a strategy look far better on history than it really was. Fincanva is built so that a backtest replays your exact rules over real historical market data, which structurally reduces nine of these biases: look-ahead, survivorship, selection, [overfitting](/glossary/overfitting), data-snooping, cherry-picking, confirmation, cost-ignoring, and [data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias). No tool removes bias entirely — the choices you make still matter — but the sections below explain each bias and the product behavior that works against it. If you are new here, start with [What is Fincanva?](/docs/getting-started/what-is-fincanva-and-what-can-you-do-with-it) and [The Fincanva loop](/docs/getting-started/the-fincanva-loop), then [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps). ## How does Fincanva reduce look-ahead bias? [Look-ahead bias](/glossary/look-ahead-bias) is using information in a test that would not have been available at the time the decision was made — for example acting on a price or a result before it was actually known. A Fincanva backtest works against this by replaying your strategy's rules in chronological order, using only the data available up to each point in time as it moves forward through history (a [walk-forward replay](/glossary/walk-forward-replay)). It runs to the latest available market close and never into the future, so a decision at any date can only rely on what was known by that date. See [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) for the replay in more detail. ## How does Fincanva handle survivorship bias? [Survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) is testing only on the instruments that survived to today, ignoring the companies that failed, merged, or were [delisted](/glossary/delisted) — which flatters results because the losers have been removed. Fincanva's data removes it by construction: delisted instruments are retained rather than dropped, each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) participates only across the span in which it actually existed, and [index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) is resolved as of the simulated date rather than as it stands today. What stays yours is the choice of [universe](/glossary/universe) and period — a hand-typed list of names you know today reintroduces the bias whatever the underlying data contains. ## How does Fincanva reduce selection bias? [Selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias) is drawing conclusions from a sample of instruments or periods that is not representative — typically a small, favorable subset picked with hindsight. Fincanva lets you test over a broad instrument universe and a long history rather than a hand-chosen slice that happens to look good. Testing the same rules across a wide universe and a long span makes a result harder to attribute to a lucky handful of names or a single kind stretch of the market. ## How does Fincanva reduce overfitting? Overfitting — also called curve-fitting — is tuning a strategy so tightly to past data that it captures noise rather than a durable signal, so it looks excellent on history and fails afterwards. In Fincanva, you define the rules; Fincanva does not auto-tune or optimize your parameters to fit the past for you, so a backtest shows only what your exact stated rules would have done — which keeps you in control of how closely your rules are shaped to history. ## Can Fincanva prevent data-snooping bias? [Data-snooping bias](/glossary/data-snooping-bias) is trying many variations of a strategy until one looks good by chance, then treating that lucky result as if it were real signal. Fincanva does not prevent this for you: the app lets you test freely, so being aware of how many variants you tried — and treating a result that only appeared after many tries with caution — is the discipline this leaves to you. If you run dozens of variants and keep only the best-looking one, that result may reflect chance rather than a repeatable edge — the more combinations you try, the more likely one looks good for no durable reason. ## How does Fincanva reduce cherry-picking bias? [Cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) is reporting only the favorable results or the periods that worked, while quietly omitting the rest. A Fincanva backtest reports the full-period result together with its drawdowns, not just the stretches that went well — harder to cherry-pick when the same run surfaces the whole history, including the worst peak-to-trough falls; see [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) for what those falls measure. ## How does Fincanva reduce confirmation bias? [Confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias) is seeing what you expected to see and discounting evidence that contradicts it. A Fincanva backtest applies the same rules mechanically across the whole history regardless of what you hoped would happen, surfacing the full result — including losses and the maximum [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), with headline figures like [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) — rather than only the parts that confirm your idea, giving the rules a chance to disagree with you. ## How does a Fincanva backtest account for trading costs and taxes? [Cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias) is pretending trading is free — leaving out the costs and taxes that a real account would pay, which inflates results. A Fincanva backtest can include these through its [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions): under **Include** you can switch on **Costs & interests** ("Trading costs, financing & interest"), **Taxes** ("Tax on dividends & realized gains"), and **Reinvest profits**, so a result is not cost-blind. Turning these on brings a backtest closer to what a real account would have kept after costs and tax. ## How does data quality affect a Fincanva backtest? Data-quality bias is when conclusions are distorted by poor, stale, or incomplete data rather than by the strategy itself. Fincanva runs backtests on broad, daily-updated market data covering many asset classes and regions, and a backtest runs to the latest available market close. Wider, current data across more of the market gives a strategy less room to look good only because the data behind it was thin or out of date. *Reducing a bias is not the same as removing it.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/getting-started/what-is-fincanva-and-what-can-you-do-with-it # What is Fincanva, and what can you do with it? Fincanva is a research and simulation tool: a strategy-building and backtesting platform for investment strategies on historical market data. Concretely, it lets you build a strategy, combine strategies, screen instruments, backtest, analyze the result, and refine what you built — all before you decide whether to follow a strategy over time. ## What kind of tool is Fincanva? Fincanva is a research and simulation tool, not an advisor: it lets you design a strategy's rules and see how those rules would have behaved on historical data, rather than telling you what to buy or sell. The unit you design is a strategy — a saved set of instruments plus the rules for allocating capital and changing positions; see [Strategy](/glossary/strategy) for what it contains. ## What can you do with Fincanva? You can do six things with Fincanva, in the order most strategies move through them: - **Build a strategy** — save a set of instruments together with allocation and rule settings as a strategy. See [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). - **Combine strategies** — blend several strategies into one [Combined](/glossary/combined). - **Screen instruments** — use a [screener](/glossary/screener) to select instruments by rule instead of picking them one by one. - **Backtest** — run a strategy over historical data to see how its rules would have behaved. - **Analyze results** — read the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) and headline figures such as [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). - **Refine and follow** — adjust the rules and re-run the backtest, and optionally follow a strategy going forward as new data arrives. [The Fincanva loop](/docs/getting-started/the-fincanva-loop) walks through how these steps connect in practice; [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps) walks a new account through them directly. ## How current is the data behind a backtest? Fincanva's market data updates daily, so a backtest runs to the latest available market close. Re-running the same strategy on a later day can produce a different result, simply because there is more history for it to run over. ## Limits and edge cases [Biases Fincanva helps you avoid](/docs/getting-started/the-nine-biases-fincanva-helps-you-avoid) covers the reasoning pitfalls a research-and-simulation workflow is built to counter. Nothing here is a commitment: everything you build stays yours to remove, and [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion) is a scheduled request with a 14-day window you can cancel from, not an immediate erase. ## Related For what a strategy is made of, see [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). For what actually happens when you run one, see [Backtest](/glossary/backtest). To try it yourself, follow [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Fincanva documentation hub is live **2026-07-21** · getting-started · 2026.07 The Fincanva documentation hub is now live on the site, replacing the previous knowledge base. It hosts guides, concepts, a glossary, FAQs, and this changelog, all authored and versioned alongside the product. New to Fincanva? Start with [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # The sidebar is regrouped, and its plan tile shows your Live count **2026-09-24** · getting-started · 2026.09 The main sidebar's groups now follow the order of the work: Home and Screener first, then **Strategies** — Portfolios, Single, Combined — then **Other**, with Simulation settings, Learn and Documentation. The plan tile at its foot is one card: your plan and how many strategies you have [live](/glossary/mark-live), reading, for example, "Live 3/5". Its panel lists those live strategies and, wherever a plan above yours would let you keep more live, invites you to switch. See [what your Usage page tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Two new ways to look something up in the docs **2026-08-01** · getting-started · 2026.08 The documentation now has two lookup surfaces of its own, both reachable from the docs subject tree. **Glossary**, at `/docs/glossary`, lists every term the docs define, A–Z — [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) and [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) are two of them. **Questions**, at `/docs/questions`, indexes the questions the corpus answers, built from the pages themselves rather than maintained by hand, so it stays current as pages are written. The hand-written FAQ is retired in the same change: its answers now live on the pages that own them, and an old `/docs/faq/` page link redirects to the question index. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy # Attaching a screener to a strategy You attach a [screener](/glossary/screener) to a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) from its **Asset selection** card, so the strategy's instruments are chosen by a rule instead of picked by hand. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Settings, on the Screening card ## Before you start You need a strategy open in **Asset selection** — either while building one (the **Screener** or **Full setup** [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type), see [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments)) or later in [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one). Having a screener already saved in your library isn't required — you can also attach a blank one and build it directly on the strategy. If the strategy is public, you can open Asset selection but can't save an attach — make your own copy first, then attach and save on the copy. ## Steps 1. Open the strategy's **Asset selection** card and select **Browse library**, or, in **Pro** mode, select **Attach to In** or **Attach to Out** next to the pool you want to add to. Each opens the **Attach a screener** sheet — "Pick a screener to attach to this strategy." 2. In the sheet, switch between the **My screeners** and **Templates** tabs, or search, to find a screener. Selecting one shows a preview of its filters. 3. Select **Attach screener** to use it, or select **Insert empty screener** to attach one with no filters yet and build it directly on the strategy instead. 4. In **Pro** mode, repeat steps 1–3 for each extra In or Out screener you want — the sheet stays open so you can attach several without reopening it. 5. Save the strategy to keep the attachment — see [Saving, running, and copying a strategy](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy). ## What you should see The attached screener's name appears in Asset selection, marked **Saved screener**, with **Change** and **Remove** actions next to it. In **Compose**, each screener you attached sits by name in its **Qualify** or **Reject** group, and you can open it again to edit its filters without detaching it. Fincanva doesn't tell you which screener to attach or whether it's a good fit for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Easy vs Pro: what each mode lets you attach **Easy** and **Pro** are the two attach modes on Asset selection, and they set how many screeners a strategy can use. In **Easy** mode, a strategy uses a single screener — if more than one In screener was attached (for example after switching down from Pro), Easy shows and applies only the first one. In **Pro** mode, you can attach multiple **In** screeners and multiple **Out** screeners to the same strategy, and you can also restrict the [universe](/glossary/universe) each screener draws from. Switching Pro down to Easy hides what Easy can't show, and Fincanva asks you to confirm first — see [What happens to my extra In or Out screeners if I switch from Pro to Easy?](#what-happens-to-my-extra-in-or-out-screeners-if-i-switch-from-pro-to-easy) for what is kept and what is dropped. ## What In screeners and Out screeners do An **In** screener narrows the strategy to instruments that match it, and an **Out** screener removes any [instrument](/glossary/instrument) that matches it — you can only set both in **Pro** mode. Fincanva states the rule for each directly: "Instruments must match an In screener to be considered." and "Instruments matching any Out screener are excluded." With more than one In screener attached, an instrument only needs to match one of them; with more than one Out screener, matching any single one is enough to exclude it. Building and tuning a screener's own filters has its own guide. ## Does editing the saved screener update strategies that already use it? No — attaching a screener copies its filters into the strategy at that moment, so a later edit to the saved screener in your library does not change strategies that already have it attached. Each attached screener becomes its own copy inside the strategy: you can edit that copy's filters directly in Asset selection, and the change only affects this strategy, not your saved screener or any other strategy that used it. Fincanva remembers which library screener an attachment came from, but only to support one manual, one-directional action: from the strategy, you can select **Update source screener** to push that strategy's copy back onto the saved screener in your library, overwriting its filters and universe. Nothing pushes the other way — saving a change to the library screener itself never reaches back into strategies you've already attached it to. ## Common problems ### Why is "Update source screener" unavailable for a screener I attached? You'll see "No source screener tracked — use Save as new instead". Fincanva only offers **Update source screener** when the attached copy still traces back to a screener in your library. An **Insert empty screener** attachment never had a library origin, so it has nothing to update — use **Save as new…** to add it to your library instead. A screener whose library original was later deleted loses the same option, for the same reason. ### What happens to my extra In or Out screeners if I switch from Pro to Easy? They are kept, not deleted. Fincanva asks you to confirm first, in a **Switch to Easy mode** dialog that reads "Easy mode hides these Pro settings. They're kept and restored if you switch back to Pro:" and lists what applies to your strategy — extra In screeners beyond the first (Easy shows only the first), any Out screeners, and your custom max-hold and reinvest-delay timing. Those stop applying in Easy, and switching back to Pro brings them back exactly as you left them. One item on that list is the exception: when you have also picked instruments and your first In screener carries [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets), the dialog adds "Your screener's universe filters will be dropped — in Easy, your picked instruments are the universe." Those filters are not restored. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/choose-an-allocation-method # Choose an allocation method The [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) is chosen on the **Allocation** card of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), or of a [Combined](/glossary/combined), from a picker that lists every method that level offers. A strategy's Allocation card names the method in use, with its goal and a line describing it, and beneath it the method the strategy uses in Risk-Off. ## Steps 1. Open the **Allocation** card. On a strategy split into [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off), each profile has its own method, and you change one at a time. 2. Press **Change** beside the current method. The picker opens as "Choose allocation method" — "Method for Risk-On" or "Method for Risk-Off" on a split strategy — with the current method marked **Current**. 3. Narrow the list with the **Filter by goal** chips, or type in **Search methods**. What each goal means is on the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method#how-does-the-method-picker-help-you-find-a-method) page. 4. Read the marks before choosing: how slow a method is to compute, and the plan that includes a method your plan does not. 5. Select a method and press **Apply** with its name. Whenever you switch to a different method, the picker first warns "The current method’s specific parameters will be reset." — except between [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) and Black-Litterman. 6. Set the new method's own settings on the card; each method's page lists them. **Done.** The card names the method you applied, and the next [backtest](/glossary/backtest) weights the holdings with it. ## What do the speed and plan marks in the picker mean? - **Speed.** Methods that take noticeably longer to compute say so: [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification), [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad), [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), Scenario CVaR, [CDaR](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk), [EVaR](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk) and [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) are marked "slow to compute", and [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming) "very slow to compute". Every other method carries no mark. - **Plan.** A method your plan does not include stays in the list, tagged with the plan that includes it, rather than being hidden. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## Does a method I am not using still affect my results? No — only the method you have selected executes, and every other method's settings are inert. Each level holds one selected method at a time, and switching to a different method resets the previous method's own parameters: the picker warns "The current method’s specific parameters will be reset." before it applies the change. The one exception is moving between MPT (Markowitz) and [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman): Black-Litterman is built on MPT and shares its settings, so they are kept and the picker shows no warning. Nothing a non-selected method was configured with reaches the backtest. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/choose-how-a-method-estimates-risk # Choose how a method estimates risk Methods built on volatilities and correlations read them through an estimate you choose on the method, in the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Allocation** card: the **Covariance matrix**, or the **Correlation matrix** on [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation). ## Steps 1. Open the **Allocation** card on a method that reads one — see [which methods use the covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix#which-methods-use-the-covariance-matrix). 2. Press **Change** beside **Covariance matrix** (or **Correlation matrix**) and pick an estimate; the covariance list marks Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation **Recommended**. What each one does is on [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). 3. For **EWMA**, set the **Decay factor**; for **Manual shrinkage**, enter the **Shrinkage intensity**, which is required. 4. Check the [in-sample period](/glossary/calculation-window) is long enough for the estimator you chose — the card warns when it is not. 5. On a split strategy, repeat for the other profile: [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) keep their own estimate. 6. On Min correlation, a chip under the method names any choice other than Sample: "Correlation: Pearson", "Correlation: Spearman", "Correlation: Kendall", "Correlation: EWMA" or "Correlation: Marchenko-Pastur". **Done.** The method reads its volatilities and correlations through the estimate you chose, from the next [backtest](/glossary/backtest) on. ## Why does an estimator have no effect with a short history? **Two advanced estimators need enough history, and quietly fall back to Sample without it.** Regime-conditional (HMM) needs about 126 trading days — an in-sample period of at least 6 months — and also falls back when calm and turbulent periods cannot be told apart. Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf needs about 30 trading days, so at least 2 months. When the window is too short the app warns: "With this history the estimate has no effect", with an action to lengthen the in-sample period. ## Why does a flat-priced instrument stop the backtest? **An instrument whose price stayed flat for the whole window has no measured risk, and most estimates leave it that way.** With Sample, Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation, EWMA, Manual shrinkage, Marchenko-Pastur or Regime-conditional (HMM), such an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) stops the backtest when the method is [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution), [Nested clustered optimization](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization) or [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification). Ledoit-Wolf · identity and Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf give it a small positive risk instead, so the backtest runs — Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf only once the window holds about 30 trading days, below which it behaves as Sample. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/choosing-the-instruments-your-strategy-holds # Choosing the instruments your strategy holds The instruments a strategy holds are set in its **Asset selection** — the card where you add specific instruments and lists by hand, scope the strategy by asset class, or leave the choosing to a [screener](/glossary/screener). It is one of the settings cards covered in [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one), and the step you complete when you first build one in [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). ## How you add instruments to a strategy You add instruments in **Asset selection** by searching and adding them one at a time, or by adding a saved list that brings several in at once. The search field reads "Search instruments or lists…"; type a ticker or name, pick a result, and it joins the strategy's selection. A list adds all of its members together, and any already in your selection are skipped. You are not required to name instruments individually, but something has to choose them. With nothing picked, an entry [screener](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy) chooses: it searches its own whole [universe](/glossary/universe) at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), and you narrow that universe with its filters. With nothing picked and no entry screener, the strategy has nothing to choose from and buys nothing — see the next section. To have the instruments chosen for you by a rule rather than named by hand, attach a screener instead — that path has its own page, [attach a screener](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy). ## What does the card show when nothing is picked? The **Asset selection** card shows no count badge; with nothing picked, the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) list itself says what the strategy has to choose from, and the answer depends on whether an entry screener is attached. - **No entry screener** — the list reads **No instruments**, and, where filters sit below it, "With no instruments and no entry screener the engine buys nothing: search above to pick some, or add an entry screener." The strategy has no candidate on any date, so it would never invest; its backtest is refused by the blocking [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "The strategy has no instruments", or by the instrument count its [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) requires. - **An entry screener** — the list reads **All instruments**: the screener searches its own whole universe at every rebalance, and the positions are filled from what passes it — see [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#which-titles-does-an-entry-screener-put-into-the-positions). ## What the "Delisted" and "Not tradable" badges mean An instrument in your selection can carry one of two badges. **"Delisted"** marks an instrument that no longer trades on a live exchange — for example a company that was acquired, went private, or went bankrupt — but whose historical data is still in the catalogue. **"Not tradable"** marks an instrument that exists in the reference data for coverage but is not one you can trade as a live position. Both badges are informational: they tell you why an instrument behaves differently from a currently trading one. ## Why delisted instruments stay in the catalogue [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments are kept in the data and stay usable, rather than being dropped once they stop trading. That keeps a backtest free of [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) — it can include names that later delisted, instead of testing only the survivors that still exist today. For why leaving them out distorts results, see [which biases Fincanva helps you avoid](/docs/getting-started/the-nine-biases-fincanva-helps-you-avoid#how-does-fincanva-handle-survivorship-bias). ## What the instrument catalogue covers The catalogue spans multiple asset classes, so a strategy can hold instruments across more than one market — and it is the same catalogue behind every strategy, however you select its instruments. What it contains, how it is kept current, and why it keeps names that no longer trade are covered in [what data your backtests run on](/docs/data-methodology/what-data-your-backtests-run-on). ## Limits and edge cases A strategy needs at least one instrument — or, on the screener path, at least one attached screener — before it can be backtested or saved; [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) covers the exact gate messages. Leaving the picked list empty is allowed only with an entry screener, which then chooses from its own universe; with neither, the strategy buys nothing and does not run. There is no fixed upper limit on how many instruments a strategy can hold today. On a public strategy you can open the card but not save changes — make your own copy first, as in [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards). ## Related To choose instruments while building, follow [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments); to change them later, see [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards). To have a rule select instruments for you, see [attach a screener](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy). For how a run uses the instruments you selected, read [What happens when you run a backtest?](/glossary/backtest#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest); for what a strategy is as a whole, see [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). Fincanva does not tell you which instruments to hold — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments # Create a strategy and choose its instruments You create a strategy from **Single** by picking a [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) in the **Create new** popup, setting it up in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) or [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once), and running its [backtest](/glossary/backtest). ↗ See this in Fincanva — Strategies, under New strategy ## Before you start You need to be signed in. You do not need any existing strategies — this creates your first one. ## Steps 1. Open **Single** in the sidebar and select **New strategy**. 2. Answer "How do you want to build this strategy?" by choosing one of the four strategy types: **Single instrument**, **Multiple instruments**, **Screener**, or **Full setup**. Each shapes which chapters Step by step requires — see [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) for what each one is for. The first time you create a strategy, the popup also asks "How do you prefer to work?" above the tiles: **Step by step** (one chapter at a time, with explanations, preselected) or **All at once** (every setting on one page). Your answer is stored when the strategy is created and changes only in **Profile › Preferences**, under **How you build strategies**. 3. The strategy opens where your answer sends it. With **Step by step** it opens in Step by step on its **Asset selection** chapter, with the first chapter, **Strategy type**, already confirmed because you chose the type in the popup. With **All at once** it opens in All at once, every setting on one page. Either way you can open the other view for one visit — see [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step). 4. In **Asset selection**, add the [instrument](/glossary/instrument)(s) — or, for the **Screener** type, define the [screener](/glossary/screener) — the strategy will trade. 5. Work through the other chapters in the order the map shows: **Allocation** (how capital is split: a goal, a method, its settings), **Rebalance** (how often), **Risk and exits** (when the strategy changes allocation, what it changes to, and its exit rules), then **Summary**. Your strategy type decides which of them are required — **Single instrument** is the leanest (just **Asset selection** and **Summary**), while **Full setup** requires all of them — and you can skip an optional chapter with **Skip this chapter**. See [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) for the per-type breakdown. A [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) switches the strategy between two allocation profiles — [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) — and never pauses, stops or liquidates it, unless the Risk-Off profile you set is itself cash. 6. On **Summary**, set the **Strategy name**, the **Benchmark**, the **Starting year** and, if you like, a description, then press **Save** and, once the strategy is saved, **Run the backtest**. The [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts) that still need a decision show on the chapter that resolves each of them and in the strategy's section strip; the Backtest does not wait for any chapter, only for what the run gate refuses. ## What you should see The strategy appears in your **Single** library and a backtest starts running on it. Running the backtest does not take you anywhere: you stay on **Summary** while it runs — a neutral alert reads **Backtest running**, adding the percentage once progress is known, with "You can stay here or keep working." — and when the run finishes with fresh results the alert reads **Results ready** with **View results**, which opens the strategy's **Analysis** section. Any [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts) left to decide show on the chapter that resolves each, and in the section strip of the strategy's header — blocking ones stop the backtest until fixed, ones to review don't. To understand how the pieces you just configured fit together, read [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). Once the strategy exists, see [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards) for how to change its instruments, allocation, or exit rules later, and [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) for one of the metrics your first backtest will report. ## Common problems ### Why can't I continue past a chapter? Each strategy type enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can confirm **Asset selection** or run the backtest, and a dialog with **OK** and **Change strategy type** shows one of these messages if the selection is missing what it needs: - "Pick exactly 1 instrument." — the **Single instrument** type requires exactly one instrument. - "Pick 2 or more instruments." — the **Multiple instruments** type requires at least two. - "Add at least 1 screener." — the **Screener** strategy type requires at least one screener. Add the missing instrument or screener in **Asset selection**, then continue — or take **Change strategy type**, which opens **Strategy type**. ### Why won't the Summary accept the name I typed? Because a strategy name has to be at least two characters, and the **Summary** will not run the backtest with a shorter one. Clear the name or leave a single character and the **Strategy name** field shows "Enter a name of at least 2 characters." underneath it, and the large button stays unavailable until you fix it. Type a longer name and it clears. Two characters is what the server requires, so a name this field accepts is one that will save. The name never blocks the backtest otherwise: you can rename the strategy at any time. ### What happens while a strategy is being created? The tiles that create are the four strategy-type tiles and **Combined strategy**. Press one and it shows that it is working while the others stop accepting clicks, so one press creates exactly one thing, however many times you click — **Create new** stays open for the whole request rather than closing on the press. Pressing **Single strategy** creates nothing on the spot: it opens the four strategy-type tiles, and the tile you pick there is what creates. Three things follow from that: - **Closing the dialog does not cancel the create.** Press **Esc**, click the backdrop, or use the close button while it runs and the strategy still exists afterwards — see [What happens when I pick a strategy type from Home?](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in#what-happens-when-i-pick-a-strategy-type-from-home), which describes what Fincanva does in that moment and how to undo it. - **The name in that toast is the one Fincanva actually saved**, which is not always the one you expected: if you already have an *Untitled strategy*, the new one is saved as *Untitled strategy (1)* and the toast says so. - **The Screener tile creates nothing either, and it appears on one door only.** You reach it from **Create new** in the sidebar; every other route into this dialog offers **Single strategy** and **Combined strategy** alone. Pressing it takes you straight to a new screener with nothing to wait for, and nothing is saved until you save it yourself. The **Combined strategy** tile behaves like the strategy tiles: it saves a real [Combined](/glossary/combined) and opens it. It is the one tile that can answer "not yet" instead — with no strategies of your own to combine, pressing it opens a screen inside the Combined flow that reads "A Combined blends your own strategies — you have none yet. Create one to start." and offers a **Create a strategy first** button, which takes you on to the strategy-type tiles; a **Back** control on that step returns you to the Combined screen. Still nothing is created until you actually create and own a strategy. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards # Editing a strategy: the settings cards You edit an existing strategy in [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once)'s **Settings**, opened from the strategy's page in your **Single** library. If your preference under **How you build strategies** is **Step by step**, the strategy opens in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) instead, which edits the same settings one chapter at a time; press **See all at once** there to see the cards. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Settings ## Before you start You need a strategy you've already created — see [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). To understand what a strategy's parts are before you change them, read [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). If the strategy is public, you can open its Settings but can't save changes — make your own copy first, then edit and save the copy. ## Steps 1. Open **Single** in the sidebar and select the strategy you want to change. 2. Open its **Settings**. In Step by step, press **See all at once** to get the cards; the switch is for this visit only. 3. Change a card — for example, pick a different **Risk** condition, or a new **Allocation** method. The change applies to your working copy right away. 4. Save the strategy. 5. Select **Backtest** to run a new backtest and see the effect of the change. ## What you should see The card you changed shows its new value in **Settings**. After you select **Backtest**, a new run reflects the change — see [What happens when you run a backtest?](/glossary/backtest#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for what a run actually computes, including [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). Fincanva doesn't tell you whether a change is good or bad for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## The settings cards, one by one A single strategy's Settings is laid out in two columns: **Strategy type**, **Asset selection**, and **Risk** on the left; **Rebalance**, **Allocation**, and **Position exits** on the right. Optional sections you haven't set up yet appear as an add chip rather than a full card. Each one controls a different part of the strategy: | Card | What it controls | |---|---| | **Strategy type** | Which of the four types the strategy is (Single [instrument](/glossary/instrument), Multiple instruments, Screener, or Full setup) — see [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type). | | **Asset selection** | The instruments the strategy holds, added directly or attached through screeners. | | **Risk** | Risk conditions that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation when they trigger. The conditions themselves are covered in their own guide. | | **Rebalance** | How often the strategy rebalances, set with the "Rebalance every" control. | | **Allocation** | How capital is distributed across the strategy's instruments. The allocation methods are covered in their own guide. | | **Position exits** | The take-profit and stop-loss rules that close a position. The exit mechanics are covered in their own guide. | ## Common problems ### Why can't I save my changes? Save is disabled on a public strategy. Public strategies can't be edited directly — make your own copy, then edit and save the copy instead of the original. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/limit-mpt-s-weights # Limit MPT's weights [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) can be held to a direction, a minimum and maximum weight per [instrument](/glossary/instrument), and forced diversification, all set on the method in the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Allocation** card. ## Steps 1. Open the strategy's **Allocation** card and choose **MPT (Markowitz)** — or [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman), which shares every MPT setting. 2. At the strategy level, set **Position direction**: **Long-only** keeps every weight at 0 or more; **Long/short**, where it starts, allows negative weights. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) has no direction control. 3. Turn on **Weight limits**. Which plan includes them is on [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz#how-does-fincanva-handle-it). 4. Set **Min weight** (starts at 0) and **Max weight** (starts at 0.5, that is 50%) so that the number of instruments times **Max weight** reaches 100% and times **Min weight** does not pass it. 5. Turn on **Force diversification**, off by default, if you want the weights spread more evenly. 6. Read the strategy alerts to review on the Allocation card: they say when your limits leave capital in cash or invest nothing. **Done.** At every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) the optimisation picks only weights inside the limits you set. ## What do the MPT constraint toggles do? Three controls narrow which portfolios the optimisation is allowed to pick from. They change the answer by changing the admissible set — a tighter constraint can only move the result away from the unconstrained frontier point, or make the problem impossible to satisfy at all. | Control | Effect | |---|---| | **[Position direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only)** (strategy level only) | "Long-only requires every weight ≥ 0. Long/short allows negative weights (short positions)." At the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) MPT is positive-only by construction, so this control does not appear there. | | **Weight limits** | "Constrain each instrument's weight to a range" — turning it on reveals **Min weight** and **Max weight**, which every instrument's weight must then respect. | | **Diversification** | "Force diversification" spreads weights more evenly across instruments instead of letting the optimisation concentrate them in a few. On a small set of instruments it can leave nothing that satisfies every constraint at once. | The weight-limit bounds themselves depend on the level and the direction: inside a **Combined** the weights run from 0 to 1; inside a single strategy set to **Long-only** they also run from 0 to 1, and set to **Long/short** they run from −1 to 1. ## What happens when the weight limits do not add up to 100%? With **Weight limits** on, $N \times \text{Max weight}$ has to reach 100% and $N \times \text{Min weight}$ must not pass it, $N$ being the number of instruments the strategy holds. On a **Long-only** strategy — or a **Long/short** one whose **Min weight** is 0% or more, which the engine then solves as long-only — without **Force diversification**, a [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review on the Allocation card says when either fails: - **Maximum too low — part of the capital stays in cash.** 5 instruments at a Max weight of 10% invest at most 50%: "With 5 instruments and a maximum weight of 10%, the engine invests at most 50% and the rest stays in cash: raise the maximum weight or add instruments." - **Minimum too high — nothing is invested.** 5 minimums of 25% ask for 125%, which no weights satisfy, so everything stays in cash: "With 5 instruments a minimum weight of 25% asks for more than 100%: the engine finds no valid weights and stays in cash. Bring the minimum below 20%." $N$ is the number of instruments you picked, capped by [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions). With an entry [screener](/glossary/screener) the number is only known at each rebalance, so Max positions — the most the strategy can hold — stands in for it: the maximum-weight alert still speaks, because fewer instruments would leave even more in cash, while the minimum-weight one stays silent. Both alerts can be left as is when the setup is deliberate. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/position-exits # Position exits Position exits are auto-close rules that act on each individual position rather than on the strategy as a whole, and Fincanva has four of them: **Take profit**, **Stop loss**, **Max hold**, and **Reinvest delay**. Each one is an on/off toggle paired with a value — off means the rule isn't applied. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Settings, on the Position exits card ## Before you start You need a strategy open in its settings, either while building one or later in [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one). Two of the four exits live on the **Position exits** card ("Auto-close rules applied to each position"); the other two live in the Pro-mode screening settings — see [Where the four exit controls live](#where-the-four-exit-controls-live) below. If the strategy is public, you can open its settings but can't save an edit — make your own copy first. ## Steps Each exit is a toggle with a value, and turning the toggle off is what stops the rule from applying. While you build a strategy, the rules step asks it as a question — "When should positions be exited?". 1. Open the strategy's settings, while building it or later from [the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one). 2. For **Take profit** or **Stop loss**, switch its toggle on in the **Position exits** card and enter a percentage. [Take profit](/glossary/take-profit) starts at **150%**, [Stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) at **−30%**. 3. For **Max hold** or **Reinvest delay**, set the **Screening** card to **Pro**, then switch the control on and enter a number of months. Each starts at your rebalance frequency. 4. To stop a rule from applying, switch its toggle off. A rule with its toggle off is simply not evaluated. 5. Save the strategy and run a new **Backtest** to see the effect — see [saving and running a strategy](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy). ## What you should see On the strategy's **Settings** page, exits sit in the strip above Asset selection and Allocation, as the **Exits** key. It shows the active levels — Stop loss in the negative colour, Take profit in the positive colour — for example "−20% / +50%", or only the side that is switched on; with both off it reads "none". A value outside its range turns that side's figure red. Clicking the key opens the **Position exits** panel, with the same Stop loss and Take profit switches and percentage fields. For a [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) where exits are optional and not added yet, the strip shows "+ Exits" instead, which adds them and opens the panel. While building a strategy with the walk, the **Position exits** card instead carries a header badge that counts how many of the two exits are active — "Not set up" with neither on, or the count otherwise. Either way, with Stop loss or Take profit on, the footer names the level a position closes at, starting "Positions close at". When no exit rule is active it reads "No exit rules active — positions only close at the next rebalance." ## Where the four exit controls live The four exits are split across two surfaces in the app, so where you find each one depends on the control. **Take profit** and **Stop loss** are on the **Position exits** card, described there as "Auto-close rules applied to each position". **Max hold** and **Reinvest delay** are Pro-mode settings on the screening surface, not on the Position exits card. All four behave the same way — a toggle plus a value, where turning the toggle off stops the rule from applying — but you reach the first pair and the second pair from different places. ## What does Take profit do? Take profit closes a position once it reaches a target gain, and it lives on the **Position exits** card — the card described there as "Auto-close rules applied to each position". Its value is a positive percentage (suffix "%") and it is **off by default**. When you turn it on it starts at **150%**, and you can set it anywhere from **5% to 1000%**. If you enter a value outside that band, the app blocks it with "Take profit must be between 5% and 1000%." A higher number means the position has to gain more before the rule closes it. ## What does Stop loss do? Stop loss closes a position once it has fallen past a threshold loss, and it sits on the same **Position exits** card, under the title "Stop loss". Its value is a *negative* percentage (suffix "%") because it describes a loss, and it is **off by default**. When you turn it on it starts at **−30%**, and you can set it anywhere from **−100% to −5%**. A value outside that band is blocked with "Stop loss must be between −100% and −5%." A number closer to −100% lets a position fall further before the rule closes it; a number closer to −5% closes it sooner. ## What does Max hold do? [Max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months) sells a position after you have held it for a set number of months, and it is a **Pro-mode** setting on the screening surface — not on the Position exits card. Its hint reads "Sell a position after holding it this long", its value is in months (suffix "mo"), and it is **off by default**. When you turn it on, the field is seeded with your own rebalance frequency — always a valid multiple, so the value it starts at depends on the strategy. You can set it from **1 to 120 months**, and the value must be a **whole multiple of your rebalance frequency** — see [How the rebalance frequency paces exits](#how-does-the-rebalance-frequency-pace-exits) below. ## What does Reinvest delay do? Reinvest delay keeps an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) out of the strategy's choices for a set number of months after its position closes, so the strategy cannot buy it straight back — it holds back the instrument, not the freed cash (see [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay)). It is also a **Pro-mode** setting on the screening surface. Its hint reads "Wait this long before re-entering an instrument after its position closes", its value is in months (suffix "mo"), and it is **off by default**. Like Max hold, turning it on seeds the field with your own rebalance frequency rather than a fixed number. It ranges from **1 to 120 months** and must be a **whole multiple of your rebalance frequency**. ## How does the rebalance frequency pace exits? It paces two of the four and neither of the other two. **Max hold** and **Reinvest delay** are quantized to whole rebalance periods, which is why each must be a whole multiple of your [rebalance frequency](/glossary/rebalance#how-do-risk-conditions-and-exits-interact-with-the-frequency). If you enter a number that isn't such a multiple, the app blocks it with a message naming your frequency, such as "Must be a multiple of 3 months". So a strategy that rebalances every 3 months accepts a Max hold of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months, but not 4 or 5. Max hold acts at the strategy's **scheduled** rebalances only: a rebalance forced off schedule by a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) does not close a position for max hold. **Take profit** and **Stop loss** run on a different clock. Each position's gain or loss is checked on that position's own price bars, so either exit can close a position between two rebalances, on the bar that reached the threshold rather than at the next rebalance — see [execution time](/glossary/execution-time#when-does-a-modelled-trade-fill-within-a-bar) for the price such a close books at. ## What happens after a stop loss or take profit closes a position? The position's slot stays in cash until the next rebalance: a stop loss or a take profit is checked every day, measured from the price the position was opened at, but new positions are bought only at a rebalance, so the capital the exit freed waits there. What the rebalance then buys depends on how the strategy chooses its instruments. - **No entry screener** — at the next rebalance the engine buys the same instrument again. The Exits card says so with the grey note "After a stop the capital stays in cash": "Stop and target are checked every day; after the exit the capital stays in cash and at the next rebalance the engine buys the instrument again (with a screener: if it still passes)." - **An entry screener, no Reinvest delay** — if at the next rebalance the title still passes the [screener](/glossary/screener), the engine buys it again. The Exits card flags it as the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review "After a stop the title can come straight back": "If at the next rebalance the title still passes the screener, the engine buys it again: set «Reinvest delay» to keep it out." - **An entry screener and a Reinvest delay** — the title stays out until the delay has passed. The delay counts calendar months and is checked only at rebalances, so a delay equal to the rebalance interval can let a title stopped out in the month of the last rebalance back at the very next one; the alert "The wait after a stop is shorter than it looks" says so, and twice the interval always skips at least one rebalance — see [how the wait is counted](/glossary/reinvest-delay#when-does-the-clock-start-at-the-exit-or-at-the-rebalance-that-records-it). ## What are the limits and validation messages? Every exit control has a fixed range, a value it takes when enabled, and its own validation message, and all four are off until you turn them on: - **Take profit** — 5% to 1000%, starts at 150%. Out of range: "Take profit must be between 5% and 1000%." - **Stop loss** — −100% to −5%, starts at −30%. Out of range: "Stop loss must be between −100% and −5%." - **Max hold** — 1 to 120 months, starts at your rebalance frequency, whole multiple of that frequency. Not a multiple: "Must be a multiple of 3 months" (the number shown is your rebalance frequency). - **Reinvest delay** — 1 to 120 months, starts at your rebalance frequency, whole multiple of that frequency. Same messages as Max hold. With all four off, the card confirms it: "No exit rules active — positions only close at the next rebalance." Fincanva does not tell you which take-profit or stop-loss level is best for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Common problems ### Why does the Exits key turn red? "Enter a value." under an exit means it is switched on with its field empty. "Take profit must be between 5% and 1000%." or "Stop loss must be between −100% and −5%." means its value is outside the range. While either problem stands, the affected side's figure in the **Exits** key turns red. To fix it, open the key and enter a value inside the range — every range is listed under [What are the limits and validation messages?](#what-are-the-limits-and-validation-messages). ### Why won't Max hold or Reinvest delay accept my number? The field under the control names the reason: - "Enter a value." — the control is switched on with its field empty. - "Enter 1–120 months." — the number is outside the range. - "Enter a whole number." — the number has a decimal part. - "Must be a multiple of 3 months" — the number is not a whole multiple of your rebalance frequency; the figure shown is your own frequency. To fix it, enter a whole number of months from 1 to 120 that is a multiple of your rebalance frequency — see [How does the rebalance frequency pace exits?](#how-does-the-rebalance-frequency-pace-exits). ## Related Position exits act on individual positions; to make the *whole* strategy go defensive instead, see [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) and [Set up a risk condition](/docs/strategies/set-up-a-risk-condition). To change any of these controls on an existing strategy, follow [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one), then [save and re-run](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy) to see the effect. For where exits fit among a strategy's parts, read [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy # Saving, running, and copying a strategy The [strategy](/glossary/strategy) workspace header carries one button for both jobs — it shows **Save** while you have unsaved changes and **Backtest** once they're saved — plus a separate copy action that duplicates the strategy or unlocks a Public one for editing. ↗ See this in Fincanva — the header of a strategy's workspace ## Before you start You need a strategy open in its workspace — see [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) if you haven't made one yet. If the strategy is Public, you can change its settings locally to see how they'd look, but you can't save those changes to it directly — see "Why can't I save changes to a Public strategy?" below. ## Steps 1. Open the strategy from your library and go to its **Settings**. 2. Change a card — see [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one) for what each one controls. The header's primary button switches to **Save** as soon as you have an unsaved change. 3. Select **Save**. Fincanva shows a "Saved" toast when the write succeeds, or "Couldn't save — try again." if it fails — select the button again (it now reads **Retry save**) to retry. 4. Once there's nothing left to save, the same button switches back to **Backtest** — select it to run a new backtest on the strategy's current saved version. While it's running, the button reads "Backtesting…", adding the percentage once progress is known. 5. To duplicate a strategy you own, open its **⋯** menu (top right of the header) and select **Duplicate**. Fincanva names the copy after the original with "(copy)" appended, shows a "Strategy duplicated" toast, and opens the new copy — the original is untouched. The same duplicate action is also available as **Duplicate** from a strategy's row menu in your library list, without opening the strategy first. 6. To get an editable version of a Public strategy, open it and select **Copy to Mine** — on a Public strategy this is the only action shown in the header. Fincanva adds the copy to your own library and shows "Copied to your strategies". ## What you should see After **Save**, the header's primary button reverts to **Backtest** and the strategy's Settings show your change. After a backtest run finishes, see [What happens when you run a backtest?](/glossary/backtest#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for what a run actually computes and the states a result can show. A duplicate — whether you made it from the header's **⋯** menu or from your library list — is a fully independent strategy: it starts from the strategy's last saved version, and editing, saving, or deleting the copy never touches the original. As with any backtest result, Fincanva doesn't tell you whether a change is good or bad for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## The header actions, one by one | Action | What it does | |---|---| | **Save** | Persists your unsaved changes to the strategy. Shown only while the form is dirty; not available on a Public strategy. | | **Backtest** | Runs a new backtest on the strategy's saved version. Takes Save's place in the header once there's nothing left to save — see [Backtest](/glossary/backtest). | | **Duplicate** | Copies a strategy you own, from its last saved version, via the **⋯** menu. | | **Copy to Mine** | Adds an editable copy of a **Public** strategy to your library; on a Public strategy it's the header's only action, and it adds the copy to your library instead of opening it. | | **Duplicate** (library list) | The same action, available from a strategy's row menu in your Single or [Combined](/glossary/combined) library list. | ## Common problems ### Why can't I save changes to a Public strategy? Save doesn't appear in the header for a Public strategy — there's nothing to persist to the original. Select **Copy to Mine** to add an editable copy to your own library, then change and save that copy instead. ### Why is Backtest disabled on a Combined strategy? A Combined needs at least two strategies switched on to run. With fewer, Backtest stays disabled — open the Combined's **Settings**, add a strategy on its **Strategies** card with **Add strategy** (or switch a kept-aside one back on), then run it. ### Why was my run refused? Because one of the setup checks below failed, and the message names which one and the step that fixes it. Fincanva asks the same question wherever a run starts — the header's **Backtest**, **Run** in your library list, **Retry backtest** on a failed run, and the re-run on an analysis or Positions page all go through it — so the answer never depends on where you pressed. Often the control is already unavailable and carries the reason before you press it, and the wording is the same as if you had — in your library list too. The checks, and the message each one produces: | What is missing | The message you see | |---|---| | Instruments | "Add at least 1 instrument before running this strategy." — the count is whatever your [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) requires. | | A [screener](/glossary/screener) | "Add at least 1 screener before running this strategy." | | A second [strategy in a Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) | "Add one more strategy to run this Combined." — the number is however many the Combined is short of two. See [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined). | | Enough strategies switched on in a Combined | "Running this needs 2 strategies switched on." — a strategy kept aside on the **Strategies** card does not count until you switch it back on. | | A [blocking alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) | The alert's own sentence. Today there are five, one per setting the engine cannot run — each explained, with what clears it, in [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts#which-alerts-can-appear-and-what-fixes-each-one): "You turned on a risk condition but have not chosen what to do when it triggers. Choose a Risk-Off allocation: until you do, the backtest cannot run." · "There is nothing for the strategy to choose from: no instruments and no entry screener. Add instruments or an entry screener: until you do, the backtest cannot run." · "With this method the engine accepts only 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, and with 9 the backtest stops with an error: choose one of these values." (the number is the [in-sample period](/glossary/calculation-window) you set) · "Fixed weights are set instrument by instrument, but the screener picks instruments you have not weighted and the backtest would stop: choose a method that computes the weights itself, for example equal weights." · "This strategy uses a screener, and strategies with screeners start at Starter. Nothing changes until you decide: remove it or switch to Starter. Until then the backtest will not run." (on the Free plan). The second is left out when the instruments or screener check above has already refused the run, so the same fix is not named twice. When several fire, the Backtest names the first in the order Asset selection, Allocation, Risk conditions. | | Readable saved settings | "This strategy's saved settings can't be read, so it can't run. Create it again as a new strategy, or contact support." | Each of those arrives with the place that owns the fix appended to it, in the form "Fix it in Strategies." — so a Combined holding a single strategy reads "Add one more strategy to run this Combined. Fix it in Strategies." Today that place is **Asset selection**, **Allocation**, **Risk conditions**, or **Strategies** — the four a refusal can point at. Open it, fix what it names, then run again. The unreadable-settings refusal names no step: the stored strategy is damaged, and no step in the editor can show what it held, so the sentence itself says what to do. The same sentence can answer **Save**: since the editor cannot show those settings, a save that would replace them with nothing is refused rather than allowed to erase them. If Fincanva cannot name the cause it falls back to "This strategy can't run yet; fix the highlighted issue first". ### Can I see previous versions of a strategy? Not today — Fincanva doesn't keep a version history you can browse or restore. If you want to preserve a strategy's current state before making a risky change, select **Duplicate** first: the copy is independent, so the original stays exactly as it was. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/set-up-a-risk-condition # Set up a risk condition You set up a risk condition from a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Risk** card, using the condition builder to define the market signal that flips the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Settings, on the Risk card ## Before you start You need a strategy open in its settings, with the **Risk** card visible — see [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one). For what the two regimes are before you configure one, see [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition). ## Steps 1. Open the strategy's **Risk** card and select **Add a condition** — or **Add second condition** if a first one already exists. Either opens the condition builder — "Configure a market condition that flips this strategy to its Risk-Off allocation." 2. Choose what the rule watches from the **Signal** menu at the top. A ready-made template, grouped under **Volatility**, **Yield curve**, **Inflation** and **S&P 500**, fills the rule in for you; the two blank ones under **Custom** are **Single series** — one [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s indicator against two thresholds — and **Double series**, which compares two series directly. The **Quantitative regimes** group lists [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov), [Clustering](/glossary/clustering) and, on a [Combined](/glossary/combined), [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance): rules that decide from a model, with their own settings in place of the indicator, operator and thresholds. The template's description appears under the menu, with " (modified)" after it once you change what it set, and the reset button beside the menu puts it back as it ships. 3. Read the rule as a sentence and set its values. The builder writes the rule out — for the **VIX** template, "Go Risk-Off when the value of" the VIX "is above 25. Back to Risk-On when it is below 20." — and every value in it is underlined: select one to open a small panel holding its control and a short explanation. The instrument opens the instrument search; the measure ("value", "200-day moving average") opens the **Indicator** — **Raw price**, **Simple moving average**, **Percent change** or **Average momentum** — with a **Period** field when the indicator reads over a window; each comparison opens its operator; each number opens its field. 4. On a **Single series** rule, set both halves: the **Risk-Off** comparison that switches the strategy into its Risk-Off allocation, and the **Risk-On** comparison that switches it back. A **Double series** rule has one comparison between its two series and no thresholds. 5. Set the last sentence, "When the rule flips, switch immediately without rebalancing.": the first value is the **Confirmation delay (weeks)** — "0 = act immediately.", 0 to 12 weeks — and the second is **Auto-rebalance** — "Trigger a rebalance when the condition flips." — which you turn on if you want a flip to trigger an extra [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) right away instead of waiting for the next scheduled one. 6. Select **Save condition**, or **Cancel** to close without saving. 7. Optional: repeat from step 1 and select **Add second condition**. On the Settings page, the Risk card joins two conditions with a divider reading "Or" — either one firing is enough. ## What you should see Your condition appears summarized on the **Risk** card — its instrument, indicator, and thresholds — with edit and remove actions next to it. A saved condition only changes what the strategy actually holds once its **Risk-Off** allocation is also set — see [What does Risk-Off do to your allocation?](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off#what-is-the-difference-between-risk-on-and-risk-off) and [Auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip) for how a flip reaches your holdings. Risk-Off profiles commonly hold a lower invested portion — more cash, less market exposure — see [How can risk conditions lower the invested portion?](/glossary/invested-portion#how-can-risk-conditions-lower-the-invested-portion). [Take profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) are separate rules on the **Position exits** card, not part of a risk condition — see [Position exits](/docs/strategies/position-exits). Fincanva doesn't tell you which condition, indicator, or thresholds to set — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Common problems ### "Enter a value." A value the rule needs — the **Period** of a [moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma) or a [percent change](/glossary/percent-change) — was left empty. The value turns red in the sentence and the message stays under it; select the value and fill it in before selecting **Save condition**. An empty instrument reads "choose an instrument" in the sentence, with "Pick an instrument." under it. ### "Confirmation delay must be between 0 and 12 weeks." The **Confirmation delay (weeks)** field only accepts whole numbers from 0 to 12. Enter a value in that range — 0 acts immediately, 12 waits three months of confirmation before the strategy switches. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/starring-strategies-and-screeners # Starring strategies and screeners You mark a strategy or [screener](/glossary/screener) as a favourite by selecting its star; the **Favourites** filter then shows you only the items you've starred. ↗ See this in Fincanva — the Favourites filter on Strategies ## Before you start No prerequisites — you can favourite anything you can see, including your own strategies and screeners and any public ones you're browsing. To understand what a strategy is before you start starring them, see [Strategy](/glossary/strategy). ## Steps 1. Find the strategy or screener — in its explorer sidebar row, in its dashboard table row, or on its own page — and select the star. 2. Selecting an unstarred star adds the item to your favourites; selecting a starred (yellow) star removes it. You can do the same from the row's ⋯ menu, which shows "Add to favourites" or "Remove from favourites" depending on the current state. 3. To see only your starred items, turn on the **Favourites** filter above the strategy or screener list. ## What you should see A favourited item's star stays filled yellow — the same yellow as the **Favourites** filter when it is on — visible even when you're not hovering the row. The one exception is a Live strategy's row in the sidebar library, which shows, in the star's place, a small bright-green square carrying only a rising line — a screen reader announces it as "Live". Turning on the **Favourites** filter narrows the list to your starred strategies or screeners only; if you haven't starred anything yet in that list, you see "No favourites yet". ## Why does a live strategy's star lock? Marking a strategy Live automatically adds it to your favourites and keeps it there for as long as the strategy stays live — you can't remove it from favourites while it's live. In the dashboard table and in the strategy page's header, its star locks yellow; in the sidebar library, its row shows the small bright-green Live square — only a rising line — in the star's place instead, and the sidebar's **Favourites** filter still includes it. Selecting the locked star, or otherwise trying to unfavourite a live strategy, shows "Turn the strategy off first"; turn the strategy off, then unstar it if you want to. Screeners have no Live state, so a screener's star never locks. ## How many favourites can I have? You can favourite up to 200 strategies and up to 200 screeners — the two lists are tracked and capped separately, so favouriting 200 screeners doesn't use up any of your strategy favourites. If a strategy is auto-favourited by going Live while you're already at the 200-strategy cap, it still goes live — it just isn't added to your favourites, rather than blocking the Live toggle. ## Common problems ### Why can't I unstar my live strategy? The strategy is currently Live, and Fincanva keeps a live strategy favourited so you don't lose track of it. Turn the strategy off first, then remove the star. ### Why won't a new favourite save? If you're already at the 200-item cap for that list — strategies or screeners — the app can't add another and shows "Couldn't save favourite". Remove an existing favourite from that list, then try again. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/when-risk-management-changes-a-strategy # When risk management changes a strategy Risk conditions change a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s behavior by switching it between two allocation profiles, and the levers you set — [Confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay), Auto-rebalance — change how quickly and how often that switch happens. ## How risk conditions change what a strategy holds A strategy with a Risk-Off allocation configured holds two allocation profiles instead of one — [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off), each with its own method and its own invested portion — and runs one or the other depending on whether a risk condition is currently triggered. See [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) for what the two regimes are and [Set up a risk condition](/docs/strategies/set-up-a-risk-condition) for how you configure one. Fincanva doesn't tell you when to switch a strategy defensive or which condition to use — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What's the trade-off between reacting fast and whipsaw? A condition that flips easily reacts to a real regime change quickly, but the same sensitivity also makes it flip on brief, temporary moves that reverse soon after — each reversal is a [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw), and a flip that reverses switches the strategy's allocation and back again for no lasting benefit. A condition that's harder to trigger avoids most whipsaws but also reacts more slowly to a genuine regime change, staying in the wrong regime longer while it waits for confirmation. ## How does Confirmation delay change that trade-off? **Confirmation delay (weeks)** tunes the fast-reaction-versus-whipsaw trade-off by setting how long a flipped condition must hold before the strategy acts on it, from 0 to 12 weeks — its hint reads "0 = act immediately." At 0, the strategy switches the moment the condition flips, favoring responsiveness. A longer delay requires the flip to persist before it counts, filtering out brief flips at the cost of reacting later to a flip that turns out to be real. ## What's the cash drag when a strategy goes defensive? [Cash drag](/glossary/cash-drag) is the market return a defensive strategy gives up because more of its capital sits in cash instead of being invested. Going Risk-Off commonly pairs with a lower invested portion on the Risk-Off allocation profile, so more of the strategy's capital sits in cash and less is exposed to the market — see [How can risk conditions lower the invested portion?](/glossary/invested-portion#how-can-risk-conditions-lower-the-invested-portion). Less market exposure means smaller swings in both directions: the strategy is shielded from further declines, but it also captures less of any recovery while it stays defensive. ## What's the trade-off with Auto-rebalance? **Auto-rebalance** (the toggle on a condition, note "Trigger a rebalance when the condition flips.") trades immediacy against staying on schedule: with it on, the regime switch reaches your holdings right away through an off-schedule rebalance; with it off, the switch waits for the next scheduled [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). See [Auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip) for the mechanics. ## Limits and edge cases Configuring the Risk-Off allocation identically to Risk-On makes the condition a no-op — the strategy still flips, but nothing about what it holds actually changes. Fincanva doesn't currently notify you when a condition flips — see [How do you find out your strategy has gone Risk-Off?](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off#how-do-you-find-out-your-strategy-has-gone-risk-off). Position exits — [take profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) — are a separate mechanism on their own card and don't interact with risk conditions; see [Position exits](/docs/strategies/position-exits). ## Related For what the two regimes are, read [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition). To configure one, follow [Set up a risk condition](/docs/strategies/set-up-a-risk-condition). For how a flip reaches your allocation, see [Auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # A volatility target for Combined strategies, and more room for leverage **2026-09-24** · combined-strategies · 2026.09 A Combined's allocation profile can now carry a [volatility target](/glossary/volatility-target), which rescales the invested portion at every rebalance to keep the Combined's volatility near a yearly level you choose; it is included from Advanced. The [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) of a Combined can now go above 100%, borrowing the difference, within the plan's leverage ceiling. [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) above 1.00× on a single strategy now starts at Starter, and the ceiling is higher on every paid plan. The ceilings each plan sets are on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Black-Litterman becomes its own allocation method **2026-09-25** · strategies · 2026.09 [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman) is now an allocation method of its own in the picker, listed right after [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz), instead of a switch inside MPT; the MPT settings no longer show a Black-Litterman switch. It aims at **Optimal** or **Max return** and keeps every MPT setting, and moving between the two methods keeps your settings. It is still included wherever MPT is. A strategy saved with the old switch on and the **Min volatility** target is shown as MPT (Markowitz) and keeps running exactly as saved. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Black-Litterman, Resampled MPT and a choice of risk estimator **2026-09-24** · strategies · 2026.09 [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) has two new options. [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman) replaces the noisy average returns with a steadier estimate tilted toward momentum, and comes with the method; [Resampled](/glossary/mpt-markowitz#what-does-the-resampled-option-do) repeats the optimisation on many resampled histories and averages the weights, and is included from Ultimate. Every method built on a covariance estimate now shows a **Risk estimation** control with eight estimators — see [risk estimation](/glossary/covariance-matrix); the basic ones come with the method and the three advanced ones start at Ultimate. What each plan unlocks is on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Eight allocation methods for tail risk and diversification **2026-09-24** · strategies · 2026.09 Eight new allocation methods aim at the bad outcomes rather than at average risk, or at spreading risk as widely as possible: [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification), [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) and its [Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar#what-is-scenario-cvar) variant, [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad), [Conditional drawdown at risk](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk), [Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk), [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) and [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming). Each works both inside a strategy and across the strategies of a Combined. They are included from Ultimate — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Equal and Clear all sit above your weights, with one rule everywhere **2026-09-23** · strategies · 2026.09 **Equal** and **Clear all** now sit directly above the weights they rewrite — the instruments table inside a strategy, and the Strategies table inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) — instead of on the Allocation card below. Every [relative weight](/glossary/fixed-weights) now follows one rule wherever you set it: up to ±999, decimals allowed, and a weight that sums to zero saves with a yellow warning instead of being refused. A fresh [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) strategy starts on Equal Weight. See [combined weighting](/glossary/combined-weighting) and [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Quantitative risk rules and the regime timeline **2026-09-24** · strategies · 2026.09 The risk condition builder has a new **Quantitative regimes** group with three rules. [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov) and [Clustering](/glossary/clustering) learn from one series when the market has been calm or turbulent, and are included from Advanced, at the strategy level and inside a Combined; [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance) watches a Combined as a whole, and is included from Ultimate. Whenever a risk condition is active, the new [regime timeline](/glossary/regime-timeline) under the growth chart on **Performance Metrics** shows the days spent in Risk-On and in Risk-Off. What each plan unlocks is on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Single and Combined strategies are now separate sections **2026-07-13** · strategies · 2026.07 The library now presents **Single** and **Combined** as separate sidebar sections. Building one strategy directly and combining several strategies into one book are now distinct workflows, each with its own library. To build a single strategy, see [Create a strategy and choose its instruments](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Switch a Combined's component off and back on **2026-09-23** · combined-strategies · 2026.09 A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s Strategies list now lets you pause a component and bring it back on: a paused component moves into a **Kept aside** group, and only the components still switched on count against your plan's limit. Bringing one back on is refused only where saving would already refuse it — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). A single strategy switched off the same way shows **Switch back on** in its own settings. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # The Risk estimation setting is now called Covariance matrix **2026-09-25** · strategies · 2026.09 The allocation setting that chooses how a method estimates volatilities and correlations from history is now labelled **Covariance matrix**, because that matrix is what it sets. Nothing else changed: the same eight estimators, the same defaults, and the same plans. The chips that flag a setting different from the default now read "Covariance: …" instead of "Estimate: …", and the docs page moved with it — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). Links to the old page still land on the new one. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Three hierarchical allocation methods **2026-09-24** · strategies · 2026.09 A strategy can now allocate with three hierarchical methods, which group instruments by how alike they move before splitting the capital between the groups: [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) and [Nested clustered optimization](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization). They work inside a strategy, not across the strategies of a Combined. All three are included from Advanced — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/backtest-a-screener # Backtest a screener A screener backtest re-screens the market month by month over history and measures what the matches went on to return over six holding horizons, against a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark). You run it from the [screener](/glossary/screener)'s **Backtest** tab. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a screener's Backtest tab ## Before you start You need a saved screener with at least one filter. With none, the **Backtest** tab shows "Backtest your screening rules" over "Add at least one screening rule in the filter bar above, then run it to see how it would have performed against the market, 2000 to today." — the tab is always there, it simply has nothing to run yet. A backtest runs against the screener's **last saved** filters and [universe](/glossary/universe), so save your edits before running one. ## Steps 1. Open the screener and select the **Backtest** tab. Before its first run the tab shows a faded preview of the finished layout behind "See how this screener beat the market". 2. Select **Run backtest** — or **Backtest**, which is what the header's primary action reads once the screener has no unsaved changes. 3. Wait. The action reads `Backtesting {percent}%` and the panel shows "Computing performance across six horizons" with the same percentage. **Cancel** stops watching the run; it does not undo anything, and a result already on screen stays. 4. Read the verdict band when it finishes, then the panels below it. 5. Re-run it after changing filters, using **Re-run backtest** beside the out-of-date banner. ## What you should see The verdict band states the result as an edge over the benchmark — a hero figure read as "annualized above the benchmark" or "annualized below the benchmark", the horizon it was best at, and the benchmark's own name under **Benchmark universe**. Below it, **Edge by holding horizon** charts that edge across all six horizons, **What happens after selection** plots the screener's picks against the benchmark from the moment of selection, and **Which filters earn their place** breaks the result down filter by filter. A trust strip closes the view with "Rebalanced monthly" and "Past performance does not guarantee future results". Every figure in the band is an edge, so it is quoted in percentage points rather than as a return. A screener backtest that beat its benchmark is not a prediction and not a recommendation — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What exactly do the six horizons measure? They measure what the matched instruments returned over the 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after each monthly screening date, averaged across every such date in the tested history. So a screener backtest has six per-horizon averages and no [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve): it never builds a portfolio, it repeats the screen and follows what came out. That is a different question from a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) [backtest](/glossary/backtest), which replays allocation, [rebalancing](/glossary/rebalance), and exits to produce one path — [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) covers the distinction, and [holding horizon](/glossary/holding-horizon) covers the windows themselves. ## Why is my result measured against a benchmark I did not choose? Because a screener's return means nothing on its own — the same list of matches looks strong in a rising market and weak in a falling one, and only the gap against a benchmark separates the filters from the market they ran in. The band names the benchmark it used under **Benchmark universe**. [The screener backtest benchmark](/glossary/screener-backtest-benchmark) covers what that choice does to the numbers you read. ## Why did my result come back instantly the second time? Because a screener backtest you have already run is served from the result already held rather than computed again. That lasts until the daily market-data refresh, after which the first run of the new day computes in full and its figures can shift slightly even though you changed nothing. [Screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching) covers both halves. ## Common problems ### The banner reads "Out of date — filters changed since the last backtest. Showing the previous run." You edited a filter after the run. Fincanva keeps the earlier result and dims it rather than deleting it, so you can still read it while knowing it belongs to the earlier filter set. Select **Re-run backtest** beside the banner to measure the filters you have now. ### The run failed: "This backtest couldn't complete" The body reads "Something went wrong while running it. Your screener and filters are unchanged — try again." Nothing was lost. Select **Retry backtest**. ### The band reads "Refreshing data…" instead of a percentage Market data is being loaded, and the run waits for it rather than answering from a partial picture. It keeps retrying on its own — there is nothing for you to do. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/build-a-screener # Build a screener You build a [screener](/glossary/screener) in its workspace: set the universe it draws from, add one or more filter conditions, then name it and save it to your library. ↗ See this in Fincanva — Screeners, on the filter strip ## Before you start No prerequisites — a screener is independent of any [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and you can build one before you have built anything else. Opening **Screeners** always takes you to a fresh, unsaved workspace titled "Untitled screener", so there is nothing to create first. ## Steps 1. Open **Screeners**. You land in an empty workspace called "Untitled screener" — a new draft, not a list of saved screeners. Your saved ones live in the **Library** pane in the sidebar, under its **Mine** and **Public** tabs. 2. Pick the [asset type](/glossary/asset-type) on the left of the filter strip: **Stocks**, **ETPs**, or **Crypto**. A new screener starts on **Stocks**. Changing it later asks "Switch asset type?" first, because each asset type has its own [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets). 3. Narrow the [universe](/glossary/universe) if you want less than everything the asset type covers. The strip's chips — **Asset type**, **Country**, **Exchange**, **Asset subtype**, **Index**, **Sector**, **Currency** — each open a list; a chip you have not touched reads **All**, and **Reset** puts one back to its default. 4. Select **Add filter**. The flyout has three columns — **Category**, **Subcategory**, **Filter** — or you can type in **Search filters…** instead. Categories are **Universe**, **Fundamental**, **Technical**, **Macro**, and **Market & Sector**; a sixth, **Custom**, is listed but not usable yet ("Custom filters are post-V1."). 5. Pick a filter. It arrives as a chip at its own default condition and opens its editor. Choose the relation you want across the editor's tabs — **vs Value**, **vs Aggregate**, **vs Lagged Self**, **Highest / Lowest**, **Between** — and set the value. 6. Read the **You're saying** line before you commit. It restates the condition as a sentence, rewritten as you type, so you can check the rule says what you meant. Until you have picked values it reads "Choose values to see what this filter says." 7. Select **Apply**. The chip joins the strip and the **Matches** count updates. 8. Repeat steps 4–7 for each further condition. Conditions combine with AND — an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) has to satisfy every one of them. 9. Select **Save**. A new screener asks "Name your screener" first; type a name and confirm with **Save**. ## What you should see The screener's name replaces "Untitled screener" in the header, `Last edited {when}` appears beside it, and the **Discard** button disappears because there are no unsaved changes left. The screener now shows in the **Library** pane under **Mine**, and the **Matches** tab carries the count of instruments that pass every condition. Reading that list, and the columns it offers, is covered in [Read your matches](/docs/screeners/read-your-matches). Fincanva does not tell you which filters to screen with, and a screener that returns a short, attractive-looking list is not a recommendation to buy anything on it — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## How do I keep only the top few instruments rather than everything that passes? Use the **Highest / Lowest** relation on the filter you want to rank by, and set its **Rank**. That is the only ranking mechanism a screener has — there is no separate ordering or sort-weight step. "Market Cap → Highest → Rank 50" keeps the fifty largest instruments still standing when the ranking runs — which is not the same as the fifty largest overall, because a screener applies its conditions in the order they sit in the strip. [Sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking) covers what that order does. ## Where do the extra Period, Lag, and Multiplier fields come from? They are the filter editor's optional **Advanced** panel, and only filters that support them show them. They shift or scale the reading before the comparison happens rather than changing the comparison itself; **Reset to defaults** puts them back. What each one does is covered in [lag, period, and multiplier](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier). ## Common problems ### Why is Save greyed out on a screener I just started? You'll see "Add a filter or change the universe to enable Save." An untouched draft has nothing to persist, so add at least one filter, or narrow the universe, and Save becomes available. ### Why can't I save changes to a screener from the Public tab? You'll see "Public screener — use Copy to Mine to create your own version." A Public screener is Fincanva's, not yours, so it is read-only. Select **Copy to Mine** to get your own editable copy, then build on that. ### The results area says "No instruments match your filters" Nothing has gone wrong — the conditions together are simply too tight, or two of them contradict each other. What the empty state offers you is covered in [Read your matches](/docs/screeners/read-your-matches#the-list-is-empty-no-instruments-match-your-filters). ### I want to use my screener in a strategy — do I build it here? You can build it either way, and this workspace is not the only place. Attaching a screener to a strategy, including attaching a blank one and building it directly on the strategy, is its own flow — see [Attaching a screener to a strategy](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/read-your-matches # Read your matches The **Matches** tab lists every instrument that passes all of a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s conditions, in a table you can re-column, search, sort, and page through. ↗ See this in Fincanva — Screeners, on the filter strip ## Before you start No prerequisites. A screener with no filters at all still returns matches — the whole [universe](/glossary/universe) of its [asset type](/glossary/asset-type) — so the table has something to show from the moment you open one. Building the filters that narrow it is covered in [Build a screener](/docs/screeners/build-a-screener). ## Steps 1. Open the screener and select the **Matches** tab. The count of instruments currently passing every condition sits at the right end of the action row above, labelled **Matches**. 2. Choose the column set with the tabs above the table: **Overview**, **Returns**, **Fundamentals**, **Ratios**, **Dividend**. Each one is a different set of columns over the same matches, not a different result. 3. Adjust the columns within a tab with **Columns**, which turns individual columns on and off for that tab. 4. Find one instrument with the search box — "Search ticker or name". 5. Sort by any column by selecting its header. Selecting a numeric column sorts it high-to-low first; a text column sorts A-to-Z first. Selecting the same header again reverses it. Until you select one, the list is ordered by **Market Cap**, largest first. 6. Move through the list with the pager at the foot of the table. Page sizes are 25, 50, and 100, and it opens at 50. The range beside it — `{from}–{to} of {total}` — tells you where you are. ## What you should see The table lists one row per matching [instrument](/glossary/instrument), under the columns of the tab you picked. **Overview** is identity and size — **Symbol**, **Asset type**, **Asset subtype**, **Market Cap**, a **1Y** sparkline, **Exchange**, **Country**, **Sector**, **Industry** — while the other [return windows](/glossary/return-windows) (**YTD**, **1M**, **MTD**) sit on **Returns** with **Sharpe** and **Beta**. While a run is in flight the area reads "Refreshing matches…" and the previous list stays on screen, dimmed, rather than blanking. What each column measures is covered in [results columns](/glossary/fundamental-metric-columns). The picture beside each row is [its own logo, or a flag for its recorded origin](/glossary/instrument-logo). A match is a statement about what passed your rules today, not a view about what any of these instruments will do — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What order does the list open in? Matches open ordered by **Market Cap**, largest company first, and every column tab opens the same way — so the instruments on page 1 of **Overview** are the instruments on page 1 of **Returns**, **Fundamentals**, **Ratios** and **Dividend**. Selecting a column header replaces that order with your own for as long as you stay on the tab; moving to another tab returns to Market Cap. An instrument with no market cap sits at the end of the list, in either direction — it is unknown, not small. Exchange-traded products, crypto and indices have no market cap at all, so a screener whose universe is one of those has nothing to order by: every row ties, and the table falls back to the tie it always uses, each instrument's [permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier). That order is stable — the same screener opens the same way tomorrow, and paging never shows you a row twice — but it says nothing about the instruments, so sort by a column that means something to you. ## Why does the list change on its own between one day and the next? Because a screener always runs against the most recently loaded market close, not against a stored answer. The same filters over a new day's data produce a different list, and there is no option to run a screener as of some other date. [Screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching) covers what is recomputed each time and what is not. ## My screener matches more instruments than my strategy holds — why? Because a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds a capped number of positions and a screener caps nothing — it returns everything that passes. The control you set is **Max positions**, under **Selection rules** on the strategy's **Asset selection** card. It is not the only limit between the filters and the holdings, and the two are easy to confuse: [the max symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap) is the page that separates them and says which instruments survive when one bites. ## Common problems ### The list is empty: "No instruments match your filters" The body reads "Try removing or relaxing one of your filters." Your conditions are too tight together, or two of them cannot both be true. The empty state itself offers `Remove: {name}` for the filter you added last, and **Clear all filters**. ### The results area says "Couldn't run the screen." The message continues with the reason. Your screener and its filters are unchanged — nothing was lost — so run it again once the reason it names is dealt with. ### The list is far too long to be useful Add a **Highest / Lowest** condition with a **Rank** on the metric you care about, which keeps only the top or bottom N of what still passes. That is a change to the screener rather than to this table: the pager only pages the list, it never shortens it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Screener results open sorted by market cap **2026-09-23** · screeners · 2026.09 A screener's results table now opens ordered by market cap, largest first, on every tab and on both the app's workspace and the embedded screener. Where an instrument carries no market cap — exchange-traded products, crypto, index and macro series — that order has nothing to sort by; see [read your matches](/docs/screeners/read-your-matches) for what the table shows in that case. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/backtesting/bring-a-strategy-back-to-up-to-date # Bring a strategy back to Up to date A [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s result is current only when its [run status](/glossary/run-status) chip reads **Up to date**; every other chip names what stands in the way, and each has one step that clears it. The Up to date chip: the result matches the strategy's current settings and the latest market data. ## Steps 1. Read the strategy's chip in your strategy library: it names what to do next. 2. **Needs re-run** — press **Re-run**. The previous numbers stay on screen, dimmed, until the new run brings the strategy onto your current settings and the latest market day. A manual **Backtest** is today's reliable way back to Up to date. 3. **To run** — press **Backtest**. The chip reads **Computing** while the run is under way; the results replace it when done, with no need to refresh. 4. **Failed** — press **Backtest** or **Re-run** to ask the engine to try again. If it declines, change one of the strategy's own settings, or wait for new market data; [the retry is explained below](#can-i-re-run-a-strategy-whose-last-run-failed). 5. **The run didn't start**, above the settings — press **Retry backtest**. 6. **Incomplete** — finish the strategy: a [Combined](/glossary/combined) needs at least two components, and below that floor its **Run** button is disabled, saying what is missing; once complete it reads **To run**. **Set aside** — bring the strategy inside your plan, as [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) explains. A switched-off Single strategy, whose settings open on "This strategy is switched off and is not simulated.", runs again once you press **Switch back on**. 7. **Stalled** — the run's progress has not moved for more than a day. Wait: Fincanva does not mark the run failed, because the engine has not returned an outcome yet. If it stays Stalled, contact Fincanva support. **Done.** The chip reads **Up to date**: the numbers match your current settings and the latest market data. ## Can I re-run a strategy whose last run failed? Yes — pressing **Backtest** (or **Re-run**) on a strategy whose last run failed asks the engine to try again, so the press is never a guaranteed result. If the engine takes the run, it starts like any other and the chip moves to **Computing**. If the engine declines, no run starts and Fincanva answers `The run didn't restart: the engine still holds a failed result for these settings. Try again later, or change the strategy's settings`. Two other things also clear a failed run. **New market data** makes the strategy runnable again on its own. **Changing the strategy's own settings** does it immediately: the [starting year](/glossary/simulation-start-year), the [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital), the [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), the portfolio settings, a cost or [reinvest](/glossary/reinvest-profits) setting — the lever you hold when the engine declines. **Changing only the benchmark is not a reliable way out**: a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) is a separate comparison series rather than part of the strategy's own settings, so swapping it can leave the run exactly where it was. The **Backtest** and **Re-run** buttons stay enabled on a failed strategy, because pressing one is how you ask for the retry; a declined retry changes nothing. **Fincanva does not tell you why a run failed**: no notice, marker or message carries a reason, and there is nowhere in the app to look one up. ## What does a strategy whose last run failed show? Opening it shows a notice that stays on every tab of its workspace, headed `The last run failed` and reading `The engine produced no results for these settings. Press Retry to try again.` On a public strategy you can view but not run, the notice reads only `The engine produced no results for these settings.` A results section on that strategy says `No results — the last run failed` rather than inviting you to run it, and the freshness marker beside the results reads `Last run failed` with a `see why` link that opens `The last run produced no results. Press Retry to try again.` The notice and the marker stay until the engine takes a run. ## Why does a strategy say the run didn't start? A strategy says `The run didn't start` when you pressed **Backtest** and no run began: Fincanva could not reach the engine, or the engine did not accept the launch. The notice sits above the strategy's settings, and on the **Summary** of [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), with its own `Retry backtest` button. When the cause is the calculation service — it could not be reached, it did not answer in time, or it failed internally — the notice says so: `The calculation service did not respond. It is not your settings: try again in a few minutes.`, and pressing **Backtest** in that moment shows a message that says the same. Nothing in the strategy needs changing; try again once the service answers. When the engine instead declined the launch for another reason, the notice reads `Try again.` as before. It is a different event from a failed run. A failed run started and produced no results, and its notice reads `The last run failed`. Here nothing ran, so there is nothing to explain: press `Retry backtest`, or **Backtest**, to launch it again. The notice leaves on its own once it no longer describes the strategy: when a result for the current settings is ready or computing, when the engine reports the run as failed (the failed-run notice then takes its place), or when the strategy's portfolio, starting year or benchmark no longer match the ones the attempt was made with. Other edits, such as the strategy's name or description, leave it in place. ## What do the Set aside and Computing chips show? A **Set aside** strategy's row in your library carries, before the name, a small square with the bars of the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that would bring it back, whose tooltip says which of the two reasons it is; its chip reads Set aside beside the same bars, and so does the strategy's own page header. It is the first thing Fincanva asks about a strategy, ahead of Incomplete, because finishing a strategy the plan does not cover would not make it runnable. Nothing is edited, and pressing **Backtest** on it is refused with a message naming your plan. A **Computing** run carries a live progress percentage inside a results view (`Computing results… {progress}%`). In your strategy library and on Home the chip carries the same percentage while the run is moving (`Computing 40%`), updating on its own; when Fincanva cannot confirm the run's progress right now, the chip reads Computing without a number rather than show one that may no longer be true. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # A failed backtest can be re-run **2026-09-24** · backtesting · 2026.09 A strategy whose last backtest failed can now be sent to run again: press **Backtest** to try again, from the strategy page or the results popover, which says "The last run produced no results. Press Backtest to try again." If it still can't complete, Fincanva says so — "The run didn't restart: the engine still holds a failed result for these settings. Try again later, or change the strategy's settings" — instead of leaving the failed state as final. See [what a run's status means](/glossary/run-status). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/find-your-way-around-a-strategy-s-analysis-tabs # Find your way around a strategy's Analysis tabs A [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Analysis** is split into ten tabs, each reading the same [backtest](/glossary/backtest) from a different angle. Open a strategy, choose **Analysis**, and the tabs sit in a row under the page title. Some go by a shorter name there — **Growth** for **Capital Growth**, **Trades** for **Trade History** — with the full name as their tooltip and as the page's title. The row names every tab that fits the window; the ones that do not fit fold, from the right, into one menu, and the tab you are on is never folded. A tab your plan does not include is still there, marked beside its name with the level of the plan that includes it, drawn as bars, and opens to explain what it would show and which plan includes it. ## Before you start The strategy needs a completed backtest; before its first run, every tab explains that there are no results yet. Which tabs show your own figures depends on your plan (see below). ## Steps 1. Open the strategy, then choose **Analysis** among its sections. It opens on **Capital Growth**, the first tab. 2. Choose a tab in the row. Every tab reads the same backtest; only the angle changes. If the window is too narrow for all ten, the last ones are in the menu at the end of the row, labelled with how many it holds — "5 more", for example. 3. To change what the figures assume, open **Simulation settings** at the top of the tab. Its **Simulation assumptions** hold the **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** and **Reinvest profits** switches. They apply to the tab you are on and are not carried to the next one: every tab opens with **Costs & interests** and **Taxes** off and **Reinvest profits** on. ## What you should see The tab you chose shows the strategy's latest backtest from its own angle, under the row of tabs, and the page's title is the tab's full name. A tab your plan does not include carries the bars of the plan that includes it and opens on an explanation instead of figures — see [What does a tab outside my plan show?](#what-does-a-tab-outside-my-plan-show). ## What does each Analysis tab show? The ten tabs, in the order they appear, each with the short name the row shows and the page that explains it: | Tab | Name in the row | What it shows | Explained on | |---|---|---|---| | **Capital Growth** | **Growth** | how the invested capital grows over the whole backtest, against your [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) | [capital chart](/glossary/capital-chart), [final value](/glossary/final-value) | | **Trade History** | **Trades** | every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) the backtest traded — gross, costs, net, dividends and P&L per symbol — then its positions, trades, [dividends and splits](/glossary/dividends-and-splits) | [read the trade history](/docs/analysis/read-a-strategy-s-trade-history) | | **Performance Metrics** | **Metrics** | return, [volatility](/glossary/volatility), drawdown and the rest of the performance record, year by year | [metrics explained](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) | | **Monthly Returns** | **Monthly Returns** | month-by-month returns, so a bad stretch is a stretch and not a rumour | [monthly returns heatmap](/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap) | | **Strategy Weights** | **Strategy Weights** | how the money was split between the strategies of a Combined over time — weight, capital and profit — and the last [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) | [allocations chart](/glossary/allocations-chart) | | **Components** | **Components** | each strategy of a Combined judged on its own — what it contributed, and what it cost | [strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) | | **Correlations** | **Correlations** | how the strategies of a Combined move with each other, with the Combined itself and with the big markets | [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) | | **Start-Date Sensitivity** | **Start Dates** | the same strategy started on other days, to show how much of the result was timing | [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) | | **Projection** | **Projection** | a cone of values the strategy could reach in one to five years, rebuilt from the days it has already lived — a range, not a forecast | [the Projection tab](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab) | | **Robustness** | **Robustness** | whether the result could be luck, and how the risk figures move under a stress scenario | [the Robustness tab](/docs/analysis/test-how-much-to-trust-a-backtest-with-the-robustness-tab) | In prose: four tabs go by a shorter name in the row — **Growth**, **Trades**, **Metrics** and **Start Dates** — and keep their full name as their tooltip, as what a screen reader announces, and as the title of their page; the other six show their full name in the row too. The row names as many tabs as the window has room for, in this order; the rest fold, starting from the right end, into a menu at the end of the row labelled with how many it holds ("5 more", for example), which lists them by their full names. Widen the window and they come back out one at a time. The tab you are on is always named in the row, even when it comes after tabs that fold. **Strategy Weights** and **Components** read the parts of a [Combined](/glossary/combined), so they have something to say only on a Combined strategy. **Correlations** does both jobs: it compares the strategies of a Combined with each other, and it sets a strategy against the big markets — and that second part appears on a single strategy too. **Projection** and **Robustness** compute nothing until you ask: Projection and Robustness's backtest reliability panel each have a **Calculate** button, the stress-test panel an **Apply scenario** button, and each builds its result on request from the backtest the other tabs read. ## What does a tab outside my plan show? A tab your plan does not include **does not disappear**. It stays in the row — or in the menu at its end, if it has folded there — and it still opens. Beside its name sits a small solid square with the level of the plan that includes it drawn as bars — one bar for Starter, two for Advanced, three for Ultimate; a screen reader announces it as "from Starter", or whichever plan it is. Where its charts would be, the page shows: - a small button carrying the plan that includes it: its level as bars, and its name. Pressing it opens a window headed "Unlocks with ·" followed by that plan, which says the tab is not in your plan, repeats what it shows, and offers a **Switch to** button followed by the plan's name, which opens your billing settings; - one sentence on what the tab shows — the tab's name is already on the tab, so the page repeats no title; - behind them, a faded **sample**, drawn from a demonstration strategy rather than from yours. None of your figures are hidden there: for a tab outside your plan, your strategy's figures for that tab are not computed at all. Nothing about the strategy changes, and the tab shows your own figures as soon as your plan includes it. ## Which tabs does my plan include? **Capital Growth**, **Performance Metrics**, **Monthly Returns** and **Projection** are included on every plan — Projection with a horizon and a number of scenarios your plan sets, stated on [the Projection tab](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab). The other six depend on your plan, and each tab names the plan that includes it when you open it: **Trade History** Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Start-Date Sensitivity** Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Strategy Weights** Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Components** Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Correlations** is gated by a limit Fincanva applies itself rather than by the plan matrix, so it cannot be stated here in the same form; its plan is named on the tab and on the [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) page. **Robustness** opens on the plan that includes both of its checks, and is gated the same way; that plan is named on the tab and on the [backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability) and [stress test](/glossary/stress-test) pages. [What each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) sets every plan difference side by side. ## Why do my figures say they are gross of costs? Because the **Costs & interests** or **Taxes** switch is off, and both are off by default: every tab opens with the figures gross of both, and says so beside them: "These figures are gross of trading costs and taxes." With only **Costs & interests** off the label reads "These figures are gross of trading costs.", and with only **Taxes** off "These figures are gross of taxes." Switch one on under **Simulation settings** to see the figures net of it, on that tab. The label appears whether you turned the switch off yourself or your plan does not include it; a switch your plan does not include is shown closed, marked with the name of the plan that includes it, and pressing it opens a window that names that plan. See [the costs switch](/glossary/costs-toggle) and [the taxes switch](/glossary/taxes-toggle). ## Common problems ### A strategy I own shows no figures on any tab If a strategy is outside what your plan allows — for example after a change of plan left you with more strategies than it covers — its Analysis shows why in place of the figures, on every tab, and that reason takes precedence over a single tab's plan note. See [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). ### A Public strategy shows figures on a tab my plan does not include That is expected. The plan check applies to strategies you own; a Public strategy's Analysis is not charged to your plan, so its pages show their figures whatever your plan. See [Mine and Public](/glossary/mine-public). The two exceptions are **Projection** and **Robustness**. They compute only when you ask — **Calculate**, or **Apply scenario** on the stress test — and that calculation is charged to whoever asks for it — so on a Public strategy too, their limits and the plan mark on their tab follow your plan. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/read-a-strategy-s-trade-history # Read a strategy's trade history The **Trade History** tab of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s Analysis lists everything its [backtest](/glossary/backtest) traded, from the widest view to the narrowest: one row per [symbol](/glossary/instrument), then the positions taken in that symbol, then the trades that made up each position. Every level carries the same three money columns — **Gross**, **Costs** and **Net** — read the same way. ## Before you start - The strategy needs a completed backtest. - One convention to hold throughout: **Gross** is before costs, **Net** is after, and **Costs** is the difference, shown as a positive amount. See [gross vs net](/glossary/gross-vs-net). **Trade History** depends on your plan. If its tab shows a small square of bars beside its name, see [what a tab outside your plan shows](/docs/analysis/find-your-way-around-a-strategy-s-analysis-tabs). Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## Steps 1. Open the strategy, choose **Analysis**, then the **Trade History** tab — the row of tabs shows it as **Trades**. 2. Read the four figures across the top: **Symbols traded**, **Profitable symbols**, **Best symbol**, and **Trading costs**. 3. Read the **By symbol** table: one row for every instrument the backtest ever held, with its **Gross**, **Costs**, **Net**, **Dividends** and **Total P&L** over the whole run. To find one instrument, type its ticker or name in **Search symbols…**; to rank the table differently, select a column heading. More rows load as you scroll. 4. Select a symbol's row to open it. It lists the positions taken in that symbol under **Positions** with a count, each with its **Start**, **End**, **Side** and **Max contracts** and the same money columns. 5. Select a position to open it. Its **Executions** lists every fill, and **Dividends & splits** lists the events recorded while it was held. ## What you should see Three nested tables describing the same trades at three scales: the whole life of a symbol, one position in it, and one fill. The profit-and-loss columns — **Gross**, **Costs**, **Net**, **Dividends** and **Total P&L** — are in the currency the analysis is shown in at every level, so rows can be compared directly: your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency) on a strategy you own, and US dollars on a Public strategy, which is shown with default settings. Prices are not converted: a trade's **Actual execution price**, and the value and price of a dividend or split, are in the instrument's own currency. Each column is explained on the page that owns it: - the **By symbol** table and the four figures above it — [positions summary table](/glossary/positions-summary-table); - the positions and trades inside a symbol — [positions detail drill-down](/glossary/positions-detail-drill-down); - the last column, a symbol's whole result with dividends — [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l); - why a closing trade happened, in its **Reason** column — [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason); - a position still open at the end of the run — [realized vs open P&L](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l). ## Common problems ### Net is the same as Gross on every row The backtest charged no trading costs, which is the default. **Costs & interests** is off whenever the tab opens, so every Costs cell is zero, Net equals Gross, and the page says so: "These figures are gross of trading costs and taxes.", because **Taxes** is off by default too. Switch it on under **Simulation settings** to see costs deducted. See [the costs switch](/glossary/costs-toggle). ### Gross minus Costs is one unit away from Net Each cell is rounded on its own, so the three displayed figures can differ by one in the last digit. Nothing is missing; see [gross vs net](/glossary/gross-vs-net#how-do-you-read-the-sign-of-the-costs-column). ### The table lists a company that no longer trades That is by design. A company that was delisted, acquired or taken private stays in the market data with the history it had, and a backtest can hold it for the period it actually traded — dropping it would leave only the survivors and flatter the result. See [delisted](/glossary/delisted), and [what the data coverage figures count](/docs/data-methodology/what-fincanva-s-data-coverage-figures-count) for how such instruments are counted. ### The table reads "No symbols in this backtest." The run opened no positions at all, so there is nothing to list. Inside a symbol or a position the same situation reads "No positions for this symbol.", "No trades." or "No dividends or splits." ### Rows stop loading with "Couldn't load results." The next page of rows could not be fetched. Reload the tab to try again. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap # Reading the monthly returns heatmap The [monthly returns heatmap](/glossary/months-matrix), titled **Monthly returns**, is a grid of your [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s return for every month, with a row per year and three summary columns — **Total**, **DD**, and **NP/DD** — on the right. This guide reads the grid, the summary columns, and the toggles that decide what the numbers include. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Analysis, under Monthly Returns ## Before you start Run a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) first — the heatmap fills in only after a strategy has been simulated. ## Steps 1. Open your strategy, go to **Analysis**, and select **Monthly Returns**. 2. Read one year across its row, or one calendar month down its column; the exact figure sits in each cell. 3. To change what the figures include, switch **Costs & interests**, **Taxes**, or **Reinvest profits** under **Simulation assumptions**. ## What you should see A grid of monthly returns laid out by year, shaded from weaker to stronger months, with a **Total**, **DD**, and **NP/DD** summary beside each year's row and the four period KPIs — **Avg month**, **Best month**, **Worst month**, and **Positive months** — nearby. Flipping a toggle re-labels the same grid with the pre-computed set it selects. ## How do you read the month grid? Each row is a year (**Year**) and each cell is that year-and-month's return, so you can scan a single year across or one calendar month down the columns. Four KPIs summarise the whole period alongside the grid: **Avg month**, **Best month**, **Worst month**, and **Positive months**. ## What do the Total, DD, and NP/DD columns mean? Three columns on the right summarise each year. - **Total** is the [total return](/glossary/total-return) for the year. - **DD** is that year's maximum [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). - **NP/DD** is net profit divided by maximum drawdown. It is a plain, public ratio, the same figure the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) calls the return-to-drawdown ratio. See [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). ## How do the Costs, Taxes, and Reinvest toggles change the numbers? Three toggles under **Simulation assumptions** — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes**, and **Reinvest profits** — decide what the figures include. By default **Costs & interests** is off, **Taxes** is off, and **Reinvest profits** is on. Turning one on or off switches the whole page to a version the engine pre-computed when the backtest ran; the page reads the matching set of results rather than recalculating on the spot, so the change is immediate. The current-state view of live holdings ignores these toggles — it always shows reinvested figures with costs and taxes off. ## Common problems ### The heatmap is empty or shows no months The grid needs a completed backtest with monthly results. Run the strategy first; a strategy that has never been simulated has no monthly series to plot. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab # See where a strategy could go with the Projection tab The **Projection** tab of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s Analysis draws a cone of values the strategy could reach over the next one to five years, starting from the last value of its [backtest](/glossary/backtest). Fincanva builds it by recombining the daily returns the strategy has already lived through into hundreds or thousands of possible paths, so the cone shows the spread of outcomes the strategy's own past makes plausible — never a forecast of the one that will happen. ## Before you start - The strategy needs a completed backtest. Nothing is computed when you open the tab: the projection runs only when you press **Calculate**. - A simulation stored before the Projection tab existed cannot be projected until you run the backtest again — see [Common problems](#common-problems). - The tab is on every plan; how far ahead you can project, and how many scenarios one calculation may draw, depend on your plan — see [How far ahead does my plan let me project?](#how-far-ahead-does-my-plan-let-me-project). ## Steps 1. Open the strategy, choose **Analysis**, then **Projection**. 2. Under **Horizon**, choose how far ahead to look: **1 year**, **2 years**, **3 years** or **5 years**. A year here is 252 trading days. 3. Under **Method**, choose how the paths are built: **Blocks of days**, **Single days** or **Gaussian**. **Blocks of days** is selected when the tab opens; the next section says what each one assumes. 4. Under **Scenarios**, choose how many paths to draw: 500, 1,000, 2,000 or 10,000. Beside the list, a note gives the most your plan allows. 5. Press **Calculate**. While it runs the button reads, for example, "Calculating 1,000 scenarios…"; it takes a few seconds. The result stays on screen until you change a control, or switch **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** or **Reinvest profits** under **Simulation settings**: the cone is always computed for the figures the tab is currently showing, so a change asks you to press **Calculate** again. ## What you should see Before the first calculation the chart area reads "Choose a horizon and a method, then calculate". After it, the chart continues the strategy's own curve, labelled **History**, past the line marked **today** into a fan: - the light band, **5–95%**, holds the middle 90% of the scenarios at every future day; - the darker band, **25–75%**, holds the middle half; - the line, **Median**, is the middle scenario: half end above it, half below. Above the chart the title gives the horizon ("In 3 years") and a summary ("Value today … · median …"). Under the chart a table reads the fan at the horizon, one row per percentile — the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th — each as a **Value** and as a **Change** from today's value. Under the table the tab restates what the cone is: "This is not a forecast.", followed by how many past days it drew on and the date they run up to. One outcome in 20 lands below the light band and one in 20 above it. ## How is the projection cone built? The cone is a Monte Carlo projection: each scenario is one possible path, built by drawing daily returns from the strategy's own backtest, one day after another up to the horizon, and compounding them from today's value. Repeating that for every scenario gives a spread of end values, and at each future day the cone marks where the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles of that spread fall. The same request on the same backtest always returns the same cone. The concept itself, and how to read its bands, is on [projection cone](/glossary/projection-cone). With **Blocks of days** and **Single days**, every day in a path is a day the strategy has already lived, so no single day is worse than the worst day of the backtest — but a run of bad days can stack up into a fall deeper than any in the backtest, so the cone's lower edge is not capped by history. With **Gaussian**, days are drawn from a normal curve rather than from the history, so a single day can also be worse than any the strategy lived. Either way, a history that happened to be kind makes a cone that is kind too. The cone measures how widely the past could have played out, not what the future holds — which is why it reads "This is not a forecast." For how much of the backtest itself could have been luck, see [the Robustness tab](/docs/analysis/test-how-much-to-trust-a-backtest-with-the-robustness-tab). ## What does each projection method assume? The three methods answer "how is a future day drawn from the past?" differently, and each keeps a different property of the history. - **Blocks of days** draws runs of consecutive days rather than single days, so a calm stretch stays calm and a turbulent one stays turbulent. The tendency of markets to have volatile spells, rather than volatile days scattered at random, survives into the paths. In textbook terms it is a block bootstrap. - **Single days** draws each day independently from the history. Every day keeps its real size, but the order they came in is shuffled away, so spells of turbulence are broken up. It is the classic, independent (i.i.d.) bootstrap. - **Gaussian** draws each day from a normal distribution with the history's own average and [volatility](/glossary/volatility). It keeps those two numbers and nothing else: the normal curve makes very large days rarer than markets actually produce them, and knows nothing of the order the days came in. All three assume the future resembles the past; none of them can say whether it will. ## What does the number of scenarios change? More scenarios make the cone's edges steadier, not the projection truer. With few paths, the 5th and 95th percentiles rest on a handful of extreme scenarios and move noticeably if the draw changes; with many, they settle. The spread itself — how wide the cone is — comes from the strategy's history and the method, and does not grow or shrink because more paths were drawn. ## How far ahead does my plan let me project? The Projection tab is on every plan, and a plan sets two limits on it. The first is the longest horizon, counted in trading days — 252 of them make one year: Set by your plan: 252 on Free and Starter, 756 on Advanced and 1260 on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). The second is the most scenarios one calculation may draw: Set by your plan: 500 on Free, 1000 on Starter, 2000 on Advanced and 10000 on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). A horizon or a scenario count beyond your plan still appears in its list, marked with the plan that includes it. Choosing it sends no calculation: it opens a window that says how far your plan goes and what the next plan up allows. ## Common problems ### The tab says the projection isn't available The message reads "The projection isn't available for this simulation. If the backtest ran before the update, run it again to enable it." The projection draws on a record of daily returns that simulations stored before the tab existed do not have. Run the backtest again, then press **Calculate**. ### The cone changed after I switched costs or taxes It was recalculated for different figures. The cone starts from the value the tab is showing and draws on the daily returns behind it, so with **Costs & interests** or **Taxes** on it projects the net figures, and with them off the gross ones. See [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/test-how-much-to-trust-a-backtest-with-the-robustness-tab # Test how much to trust a backtest with the Robustness tab The **Robustness** tab of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s Analysis holds two checks that question the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) instead of reporting it. **Backtest reliability** resamples the strategy's history to ask whether a result this good could be luck, and how much its figures could have varied. **Stress test** replays the same history under a scenario you choose — a −20% year, doubled [volatility](/glossary/volatility) — to show how the figures would move. Both run only when you ask, and both work on the days the strategy has already lived. ## Before you start - The strategy needs a completed backtest. A simulation stored before the tab existed has to be run again first — see [Common problems](#common-problems). - The tab and both of its checks depend on your plan: if the tab carries bars beside its name — the level of the plan that includes it — it opens to say which plan includes it. [Backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability) and [the stress test](/glossary/stress-test) each name the plan that includes them. ## Steps 1. Open the strategy, choose **Analysis**, then **Robustness**. The tab has two panels, **Backtest reliability** and **Stress test**; choose one. 2. For **Backtest reliability**: under **Method** choose **Blocks of days** or **Single days**, under **Resamples** choose 100 or 1,000, then press **Calculate**. While it runs the button reads, for example, "Calculating 1,000 resamples…". 3. For **Stress test**: pick one of the **Ready-made scenarios** — "A −20% year", "Double volatility", "A flat year" or "Crash: −40% and volatility ×2" — or set your own with the two sliders, **Assumed annual return** (from −50% to +50%, switched on with "Use an assumed annual return") and **Volatility multiplier** (from 0.5× to 3×; "Off = 1×"). At least one of the two must differ from normal. Then press **Apply scenario**. Each result stays until you change a control on its panel, or one of the **Simulation settings** switches; then calculate again. ## What you should see **Backtest reliability** opens on a verdict under the question "Could it be luck?" — "Probably not", "Uncertain" or "It could be luck" — with the number behind it and one sentence saying what that number means. Below it come **Years in profit**, a band showing how much the average annual return, the [Sharpe](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) and the maximum drawdown could have varied, and a **Year by year** table. The figures are explained on [backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability). **Stress test** shows two gauges — **How far we bent history** and **Days that still count** — and a table, **On the strategy's historical days**, that sets the **Base** figures beside **With the scenario**: average annual return, annual volatility, and the [daily VaR](/glossary/value-at-risk) and [CVaR](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk) at 95%. The gauges and the table are explained on [stress test](/glossary/stress-test). ## How is the Robustness tab different from the Projection tab? The two tabs point in different directions. [Projection](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab) looks forward: it builds possible futures out of the strategy's past days and shows their spread. Robustness looks back at the backtest itself: reliability asks how much of the result the same days could have produced by chance, and the stress test asks how the result depends on the kind of days the history happened to hold. Neither tab is a forecast. ## Why is the return here not the one on Performance Metrics? Because both panels report the **arithmetic** average annual return — the average daily return scaled to a year — while [Performance Metrics](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) reports the compound growth rate, [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). The two answer different questions and differ most when returns swing widely; the app says so under the reliability band ("The return is arithmetic, so it does not match the one on the Metrics page."). In the stress test, the **Base** column is also computed differently from [the Metrics page](/glossary/metrics-table), which the table states beside it — compare **Base** with **With the scenario**, not with Performance Metrics. ## Common problems ### A panel says it isn't available for this simulation Reliability reads "Backtest reliability isn't available for this simulation. If the backtest ran before the update, run it again to enable it." Both checks draw on a record of daily returns that older simulations do not store. Run the backtest again, then calculate. ### The stress test says it couldn't calculate the scenario The message reads "We couldn't calculate this scenario." A scenario too far from anything in the strategy's history cannot be reached by reweighting its days. Try a less extreme scenario — the panel offers a button, "Soften to …", that brings the more extreme of the two settings halfway back to normal — or run the backtest again if the simulation predates the update. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means # What every number in Performance Metrics means **Performance Metrics** turns your [backtest](/glossary/backtest) into a table of return, drawdown, volatility, worst-day and monthly-performance figures. This guide walks each row in the order the app shows it, states the convention Fincanva uses, and links to the full definition of each term. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Analysis, under Performance Metrics ## Before you start Run a backtest first — the metrics fill in only after a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) has been simulated. ## Steps 1. Open your strategy, go to **Analysis**, and select **Performance Metrics**. 2. Read the table one group at a time — each group has its own section below. ## What you should see The figures sit in a grouped table under the headings **Performance**, **Drawdown**, **Volatility and risk**, **Worst days · 95%**, **Monthly performance**, and **Averages**. Every group is shown on every plan. Every value is stored internally as a fraction (for example `0.153`) and formatted for display as a percentage ("15.3%"), while ratio rows such as **Sharpe** and **Return-to-drawdown ratio** are shown as plain numbers. Beside the table, a [growth chart](/glossary/equity-curve) draws the strategy against its [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark); on a strategy with an active risk condition, a band under that chart shows when it ran Risk-On and when Risk-Off — see [regime timeline](/glossary/regime-timeline). ## What do the Performance rows show? The **Performance** group reports how much the strategy made and how fast. - **Total return (%)** is the whole-period return of the strategy over the backtest — the total gain or loss from the first simulated day to the last. See [total return](/glossary/total-return). - **Years** is the number of calendar years between the first and last simulated date, carried to decimal months so partial years count. - **CAGR** is the compound (geometric) annual growth rate: `(1 + total return) ^ (1 / years) − 1`. It is the row shown when the **Reinvest profits** toggle is on. See [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). - **AAGR** is the average (arithmetic) annual growth rate: `total return ÷ years`. CAGR and AAGR share one table slot — AAGR appears instead of CAGR when **Reinvest profits** is off. See [AAGR](/glossary/aagr). ## What do the Drawdown rows show? The **Drawdown** group measures how far the strategy fell and how long it took to come back. - **Max drawdown** is the largest peak-to-trough decline of the capital curve over the period. See [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). - **Return-to-drawdown ratio** is the period return divided by the size of the max drawdown (`return ÷ |max drawdown|`). It is a plain, public ratio — the same figure the heatmap labels **NP/DD**. See [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). - **Longest drawdown (months)** is the longest stretch, in months, the strategy stayed below a prior peak. See [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown). - **Longest recovery (months)** is the longest time, in months, it took to climb back to a prior peak after the trough. See [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery). ## What do the Volatility and risk rows show? The **Volatility and risk** group describes how bumpy the ride was and how the return compares to a risk-free baseline. - **Volatility** is the annualized standard deviation of returns, using the standard 252-trading-day convention (the daily figure is scaled by √252). The group heading and the KPI strip call this same quantity **Volatility**. See [volatility](/glossary/volatility). - **Semideviation (downside only)** is the same measure computed on the losing days alone, annualized the same way: how much the strategy's losing days differed from one another. Between two strategies, the higher semideviation belongs to the one whose bad days were more uneven — some mild, some much worse. It is not the share of the movement that went down: because it measures the losing days around their own average, even a strategy whose ups and downs were perfectly symmetric shows a semideviation of about 0.6 times its volatility, so a figure near that is ordinary rather than a sign of mostly upward movement. It follows the same losing-days convention as the [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) on the **Components** tab. See [semideviation](/glossary/semideviation). - **Risk-free rate** is a short-term reference interest rate drawn from real market data, matched to the period of your backtest; for any months of the window outside that data, a flat 2% a year stands in. The row shows the period average. See [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). - **Sharpe** is the Sharpe ratio: `(annualized return − risk-free rate) ÷ annualized volatility`. The annualized-return term is CAGR when **Reinvest profits** is on and AAGR when it is off. Other views label the same figure **Sharpe ratio**. See [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio). ## What do the worst-days rows show? The **Worst days · 95%** group reports how much the strategy lost on its bad days — the 5% of trading days with the worst returns. All three rows are **daily** losses written as positive numbers: "2.1%" means a loss of 2.1% in one day, and a larger number is a larger loss. - **Daily VaR · historical** is the value at risk at 95%, read straight off the backtest: on 95% of days the strategy lost less than this, and on the worst 5% it lost at least this much. - **Daily VaR · Gaussian** is the same threshold computed as if daily returns followed a normal distribution with the backtest's own average and volatility: $\text{VaR}_{95\%} = 1.645\,\sigma - \mu$, where $\sigma$ is the daily volatility, $\mu$ the average daily return, and 1.645 the number of standard deviations that leaves 5% of a normal distribution below it. See [value at risk](/glossary/value-at-risk). - **Daily CVaR · historical** is the conditional value at risk, also called expected shortfall: the **average** loss across that worst 5% of days. It is never smaller than the historical VaR, because the VaR is where the worst days begin and the CVaR is how bad they are on average. See [conditional value at risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk). Read the two VaRs side by side: when the historical one is clearly larger than the Gaussian one, the strategy's bad days were worse than a normal distribution expects — its losses have fat tails, and the Gaussian figure understates them. A backtest with only a few hundred days rests its worst 5% on a handful of days, so these rows are rougher on a short history. ## What do the Monthly performance rows show? The **Monthly performance** group summarises the strategy month by month. - **Positive months (%)** is the share of months in the period that ended with a positive return. See [positive months](/glossary/positive-months). - **Best month** and **Worst month** are the highest and lowest single-month returns over the period. See [best month and worst month](/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month). ## What do the Averages rows show? The **Averages** group reports simple averages of the return series. **Monthly average** is the plain average of the monthly return series, and **Yearly average** is the plain average of the annual return series. See [monthly and yearly average](/glossary/monthly-and-yearly-average). ## How are these numbers annualized? Every annualized figure on this page shares one basis: Fincanva scales volatility with the √252 trading-day convention and measures years as geometric calendar years carried to decimal months. Values are stored as fractions and formatted for display, and the risk-free baseline is a real, period-matched market series rather than a fixed value — except for months outside that series, where a flat 2% a year stands in. ## Metrics shown in other views Some figures live on other analysis surfaces rather than the main [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table). On a [Combined](/glossary/combined), the **Components** tab's **Each strategy, against the Combined** block adds a [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio), [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error), and [information ratio](/glossary/information-ratio) for each of its strategies. The [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view reports [average pain](/glossary/average-pain). On a Combined, the same **Components** tab opens with [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics), which splits the Combined's return, volatility, Sharpe and daily VaR among its strategies. The [stress test](/glossary/stress-test) on the **Robustness** tab recomputes the daily VaR and CVaR under a scenario, and [backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability) shows how much the return, the Sharpe and the maximum drawdown could have varied. Two textbook risk measures are worth knowing even though Performance Metrics does not display them today: [beta](/glossary/beta), which appears in the [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) allocation method rather than as a metric, and [alpha](/glossary/alpha). The [Fincanva score](/glossary/fincanva-score) summarises overall quality — see [Fincanva score](/glossary/fincanva-score). ## Common problems ### The tab reads "No results yet" The strategy has no completed backtest, and the tab says so: "Backtest this strategy to generate its metrics." Select **Backtest** and the table fills in once the backtest finishes. ### The table shows AAGR where I expected CAGR **Reinvest profits** is off in the tab's **Simulation assumptions**. CAGR and AAGR share one row, and AAGR takes it while reinvesting is off — switch **Reinvest profits** on to read CAGR. The same switch decides which of the two the **Sharpe** row uses. ### The worst-days rows and Semideviation read "n/a" The simulation was computed before those rows existed, and it does not carry them. A value that could not be computed reads "n/a", never 0% — a 0% loss would claim a safety the figure does not show. When all four read "n/a" on a strategy you can run, a notice above the table says "Some metrics can't be computed for this simulation. If it ran before this update, rerun it to get them." with a **Rerun** button; press it, and the rows fill in when the new backtest finishes. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Components is rebuilt, and Correlations gets its own page **2026-09-12** · analysis · 2026.09 The **Components** tab of a Combined's Analysis is rebuilt: a return-versus-volatility view of each strategy against the Combined, one row-aligned comparison panel, and each strategy's profit curve — see [component analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics). What used to sit inside it now has its own **Correlations** tab, showing how the strategies of a Combined move with each other, with the Combined itself and with the wider market — see [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix). Correlations is included from Advanced; see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) and [find your way around the Analysis tabs](/docs/analysis/find-your-way-around-a-strategy-s-analysis-tabs). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Project a strategy forward with the Projection tab **2026-09-24** · analysis · 2026.09 A strategy's Analysis has a new **Projection** tab that draws a cone of values the strategy could reach over the coming years, by simulating many possible paths from the returns it has already lived through — resampled days or blocks of days, or a normal curve fitted to them — a spread of outcomes, never a forecast. You choose the method, the horizon and the number of scenarios; see [the Projection guide](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab). The tab is on every plan, Free included, and your plan sets how far ahead it projects and how many scenarios one calculation may draw — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Test how far to trust a backtest with the Robustness tab **2026-09-24** · analysis · 2026.09 A strategy's Analysis has a new **Robustness** tab with two checks that question the backtest instead of reporting it. [Backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability) resamples the strategy's history to ask whether a result this good could be luck, and how much its figures could have varied; the [stress test](/glossary/stress-test) reweights the same history toward a scenario you set and shows how the risk figures move. Both run only when you ask — see [the Robustness guide](/docs/analysis/test-how-much-to-trust-a-backtest-with-the-robustness-tab). The tab is included from Advanced — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Worst-days metrics and contribution analytics **2026-09-24** · analysis · 2026.09 **Performance Metrics** has a new **Worst days · 95%** group — historical and Gaussian value at risk, and conditional value at risk — on every plan; see [what the worst-days rows show](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means#what-do-the-worst-days-rows-show). A Combined's **Components** tab now opens with [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics), which splits the Combined's return, risk, Sharpe and daily VaR among the strategies inside it, with what belongs to none of them in a **Residual** row. It comes with the Combined, so it is included from Advanced — see [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/data-methodology/what-data-your-backtests-run-on # What data your backtests run on Every backtest in Fincanva reads one shared market-data catalogue: daily price history for the [instruments](/glossary/instrument) a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can hold, plus reference-only series it can measure but never buy. The catalogue is maintained so that a run reads history **as it actually stood** — companies that later disappeared are still in it, and index membership is recorded per date rather than as it looks today. That property, not the size of the catalogue, is what makes a backtest result worth reading. ## What is in the catalogue a backtest reads Three things, and the difference between them decides what a strategy can do with each. - **Tradable instruments** — the ones a strategy can actually hold, spanning several asset classes. Each carries a [permanent identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier) and a [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window): the first and last dates for which it has prices. - **Reference-only instruments** — indices and macro series that exist for measurement, not ownership. They carry the **Not tradable** badge in instrument search, and the pickers that decide what a strategy *holds* are restricted to tradable ones, so a reference series cannot become a position by accident. See [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable). - **Special data series** — market-wide references kept beside instrument prices, such as interest rates, inflation and valuation indicators. See [special data series](/glossary/special-data-series). The catalogue is refreshed daily, and a backtest ends at the latest available market close rather than at today's calendar date — so the data, not the clock, closes a run. See [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## Why does the catalogue keep companies that no longer trade? Because dropping them would quietly rig every backtest in your favour. An instrument that stopped trading — acquired, taken private, or failed — stays in the catalogue with the history it had, and stays usable for the period it did trade. It carries the **Delisted** badge in instrument search. A catalogue that kept only today's survivors would let a strategy be tested exclusively on names that made it, which is [survivorship bias](/docs/getting-started/the-nine-biases-fincanva-helps-you-avoid#how-does-fincanva-handle-survivorship-bias) — the single most flattering error a backtest can contain. Keeping delisted names is what removes it. [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) covers the term itself. ## Why an instrument keeps its history when its ticker changes Because the catalogue identifies an instrument by a [permanent identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier) rather than by its ticker. Tickers get reassigned and renamed; an identity that changed with them would split one company's price history into two unrelated fragments, or silently join two different companies under one symbol. Lists and index membership are recorded against that identifier too, so a member that renamed mid-membership stays one continuous entry. You never type this identifier, but you can see its absence: a strategy that references an instrument the library cannot resolve fails with "Referenced instruments do not exist in the platform data library". Add the instrument again from the search field in **Asset selection** so the strategy points at an entry that exists. ## What does the catalogue know about index membership? It knows who was in an index **on each past date**, not just who is in it now. Membership is stored per index as a joined/left history, so a run can read the index as it stood at the time rather than as it stands today — the same reason delisted names are kept, applied to lists instead of instruments. In the app this reaches you as one of the [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) rather than as a data screen: alongside **Asset type**, **Country**, **Exchange**, **Sector** and **Currency**, the **Index** filter is hinted "Index membership". [Index lists and point-in-time constituents](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) covers what that record contains. ## Limits and edge cases - **Nothing in the app shows you an instrument's coverage window.** There is no first-price-date column, and Fincanva does not move your [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) forward to match a short history — so a run can span two decades while one of its instruments only existed for the last three years. This matters enough to read before trusting a long-history number: [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window). - **Instruments from exchanges with different holidays share one date axis.** How they are placed onto it is covered in [market-day and trading-calendar alignment](/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment). - **Your plan sets how far back a run may start** — Free, Starter and Advanced each have an earliest start year, Ultimate and Professional reach every year there is data for — while the per-instrument data level the catalogue records is not applied yet. See [data-tier gating](/glossary/data-tier-gating). - **[SymbolsLists](/glossary/symbolslist) ship with the market data and are not yours to create or edit**, and unlike index lists they record membership as it stands now, with no joined/left history. ## Related To choose which of these instruments a strategy holds, see [choosing the instruments your strategy holds](/docs/strategies/choosing-the-instruments-your-strategy-holds); for what a run does with them, see [Backtest](/glossary/backtest). A catalogue free of [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) makes a backtest honest, not predictive — Fincanva does not tell you what to hold, see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/data-methodology/what-fincanva-s-data-coverage-figures-count # What Fincanva's data coverage figures count Fincanva's coverage figures — how many instruments, on how many exchanges, from how many countries, reaching how far back — are measurements of its market-data catalogue, each taken at a point in time, and each counts one specific thing. They count the **investable** [universe](/glossary/universe): the stocks, ETPs and crypto a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can hold, delisted ones included. Reference series that can be measured but not held are counted separately or not at all. This page says what each figure includes and excludes, and states how far back the history reaches for the asset-class index series, stocks and ETPs; it does not repeat the counts, because they move as the catalogue does. ## Which instruments do the coverage figures count? The [instrument](/glossary/instrument) count covers the three [asset types](/glossary/asset-type) a strategy can hold — **Stocks**, **ETPs** and **Crypto** — and nothing else. Two choices decide what that means: - **Delisted instruments are counted.** A company that stopped trading stays in the catalogue with the history it had, and a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) can hold it for the period it traded, so it belongs in the universe a backtest runs on. Leaving it out would describe a survivors-only catalogue, which is exactly the bias the catalogue is kept to avoid — see [delisted](/glossary/delisted). - **Reference series are not counted.** Indices, macro indicators, long-run asset-class return series and currency series are in the catalogue to measure against or to feed a simulation, not to be held, so they are outside the investable universe the figure describes. See [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable) and [special data series](/glossary/special-data-series). ## What counts as an exchange? An exchange, in the coverage figure, is a **trading venue on which at least one investable instrument is listed**. The rule that decides it is whether an instrument trades on a venue at all: - **Crypto and macro series trade on no venue.** The data still gives them an exchange label so every record has one, but those labels mark the absence of a venue, and they are not counted. - **The OTC market is counted.** Over-the-counter instruments do trade on a venue, even though OTC is a market rather than an exchange in the strictest sense. The rule is "trades on a venue", and OTC meets it, so it is one of the exchanges the figure counts. The [screener](/glossary/screener)'s **Exchange** filter shows fewer options than the exchanges counted, because it groups every European venue into a single **EU listed** option — see [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets). ## What counts as a country? A country, in the coverage figure, is the **country an investable instrument originates in**. Crypto belongs to no country: the data gives it a global origin instead, and that is not counted as a country. The countries counted are the United States and a group of European countries. ## How far back does the data reach? How far back the data reaches depends on what you are looking at: the asset-class index series start in 1793, stocks in 1962 and ETPs in 1978, and each instrument's own history starts at its first price in the data. Three distinctions decide how to read any depth figure: - **Each instrument's history starts at its first price in the data.** That is its listing date or the start of the data, whichever is later: an instrument listed before the data begins starts where the data starts, and one listed later has history only from its own listing. A figure for the depth of the catalogue is the start of its deepest histories. The app does not show that first date for an instrument, which matters for a long backtest — see [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window). - **The asset types start at different points.** Stocks, ETPs and crypto each have their own earliest date, and a figure stated for one type is not true of the others. - **Reference series reach much further back than any tradable instrument.** A long index or asset-class history is the history of a series you can measure against, not of a stock or ETP you can hold, so its depth never describes the investable universe. The depth of the data is also not the length of a backtest. A backtest runs from its [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) to the latest market close the data holds — see [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## Which coverage figures does the documentation print? The documentation prints only the history floors in the section above — where the asset-class index series, stocks and ETPs start — and leaves the counts out. The floors are not typed into the page: they come from the same measurement the Fincanva website publishes, so the two always state the same years, and when that measurement is re-run and finds a different start, the page and the website change together. The counts — instruments, exchanges, countries — change with the catalogue itself: it is refreshed daily, instruments list and delist, and a count copied into a page is wrong from the day the next measurement differs. This page carries the part that does not change — what each figure counts — so that any figure you meet can be read correctly. ## Limits and edge cases - **A coverage count is not a match count.** The instrument figure covers the whole investable universe; a screener only ever considers what its universe filters leave, so no single screener reaches all of it. - **Counting an exchange says nothing about how many instruments trade there.** A venue with one listed instrument counts once, exactly like one with thousands. - **The figures describe the catalogue, not a guarantee about any one instrument.** Whether a particular instrument has prices for the dates your backtest covers is a question about that instrument's own coverage window, not about the catalogue's totals. ## Related For what the catalogue keeps and why — delisted names, dated [index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents), permanent identifiers — see [what data your backtests run on](/docs/data-methodology/what-data-your-backtests-run-on). For why a survivors-only catalogue would flatter every result, see [the biases Fincanva helps avoid](/docs/getting-started/the-nine-biases-fincanva-helps-you-avoid#how-does-fincanva-handle-survivorship-bias). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Every instrument shows its own logo **2026-09-19** · data-methodology · 2026.09 Every instrument now shows its own logo wherever Fincanva has one, instead of one picture shared by every instrument on the same exchange. Where an instrument has no logo of its own, it falls back to the flag of its recorded origin, exactly as before — see [instrument logo](/glossary/instrument-logo) for the full fallback rule. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/portfolio-holdings/follow-a-strategy-live # Follow a strategy live You follow a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) by marking it **Live**, which starts tracking what its rules would hold from today forward and lists it on the **Portfolios** page. ↗ See this in Fincanva — the Portfolios page ## Before you start You need one of your own strategies — a Public strategy has no Live control, because it is not yours to follow. There is no separate "create a portfolio" step: a portfolio *is* a strategy you have marked Live, which is why **Portfolios** and **Strategies** show the same rows filtered differently. **Live is monitoring only.** Fincanva places no orders, connects to no broker, and moves no money — see [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live#does-marking-a-strategy-live-trade-anything). ## Steps 1. Open the strategy, or find its row on **Strategies**. 2. Press the **Live** key on the strategy's action row — a neutral raised key until you do — or select **Mark Live** in the row's menu. 3. Read the confirmation. It asks "Mark this strategy as Live?" and states what follows: "It'll show in Portfolios and count toward your dashboard." 4. Confirm with **Mark as Live**. **Cancel** backs out and changes nothing. ## What you should see The key turns bright green with the rising line moving, still reading **Live**, and the strategy appears on the **Portfolios** page as one row of your [live book](/glossary/live-book). Its star turns on and locks while it stays Live, its numbers start being kept current for you as new market data arrives, and it begins counting toward the book summary panel on the page. Reading what it now holds is [Read your order plan](/docs/portfolio-holdings/read-your-order-plan); keeping the whole book healthy is [Keep your live book in order](/docs/portfolio-holdings/keep-your-live-book-in-order). Marking a strategy Live is not a prediction that it will perform, and Fincanva never suggests which strategy to follow — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What changes once a strategy is Live? Four things, and none of them involve money — [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live#what-changes-when-a-strategy-is-live) lists them. The one that surprises people is what does *not* change: editing a Live strategy does not re-run it by itself, so an edited strategy sits with a stale result until you run it, exactly as it would if it were not Live. ## How do I stop following a strategy? Press the same key again, or select **Unfollow** in the row menu. Fincanva asks "Stop following this strategy?" and tells you what that costs — "It'll leave Portfolios and stop counting toward your dashboard." — and commits with **Stop following**. Nothing about the strategy itself changes: its settings and its whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest) history are untouched, its star unlocks, and you can mark it Live again whenever you want. ## Common problems ### The strategy I want to follow has no Live key It is a Public strategy, which cannot be followed because it is not yours. Make your own copy first with **Copy to Mine**, then mark the copy Live. A copy never starts Live: **Duplicate** and **Copy to Mine** both produce a strategy whose Live key starts off. ### A toast says "Couldn't update Live status. Try again." The change did not go through, so the strategy is still in whatever state it was before. Nothing is half-applied — try the key again. ### The Live key is refused with a message naming your plan This is not the generic toast above — it is your plan talking. Your account is already at the number of strategies your plan follows Live, so this one has nowhere to go: the refusal states the plan and how many it allows, and offers the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that would raise the number, named on its own button rather than a generic "Upgrade". This is the [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) check, and it answers the same way whether you press the key on the strategy's action row or pick **Mark Live** from the row's menu on **Strategies**. ### I marked a strategy Live but Portfolios shows nothing to act on That is the healthy state, not a fault. Until the strategy has a completed run there is no target book to show, and the Positions view says so directly: "Backtest this strategy to see its target portfolio." 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/portfolio-holdings/keep-your-live-book-in-order # Keep your live book in order The **Portfolios** page tells you which of your live-followed strategies need attention and what each one is waiting for, so you can clear them one at a time. It does so in the **To do** section of the panel beside the list: a **Needs attention** list of every flagged portfolio with its reason, worst first, the **Next rebalances** below it, and, last, **Controls** for any live portfolio whose only open item is a [strategy control](/glossary/strategy-alerts) left to decide. ↗ See this in Fincanva — the Portfolios page ## Before you start You need at least one [strategy](/glossary/strategy) marked Live — with none, the page reads "No live strategies yet" and "Mark a strategy Live to start following it here." Following one is covered in [Follow a strategy live](/docs/portfolio-holdings/follow-a-strategy-live). ## Steps 1. Open **Portfolios**. With no row selected, the panel on the right summarises your whole book; **To do** is its last section. 2. Read **Needs attention**. Each row names a portfolio, carries a red dot for a failure or an amber dot for anything softer, and gives its reason underneath — a run status such as `Failed` or `Needs re-run`, or `Add one more strategy`. The worst sits at the top. 3. Select a row to open that portfolio's Positions view and see what it is actually waiting for. 4. Clear it from the portfolio's row on the list, whose action follows its state: **Run** for one that has never run, **Re-run** for one whose result is stale, **Retry** for one that failed. 5. Check **Next rebalances**, under Needs attention: up to five portfolios whose [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) falls soonest, each with how many days remain (`in {days}d`), and `+{count} more upcoming` when there are more. 6. Check **Controls**, below Next rebalances: every live portfolio whose run is otherwise fine but still has an open [strategy control](/glossary/strategy-alerts) — one left to review or one blocking — with its section strip and the count in words, linking to that strategy's Settings. ## What you should see Each portfolio you clear leaves **Needs attention**, and the next-worst one moves to the top. Once nothing is flagged the heading disappears and only **Next rebalances** remains; with nothing flagged and no rebalance scheduled, the section reads "Nothing needs you right now" above "No upcoming rebalances". **Controls** behaves the same way: it shows only while at least one live portfolio has an open strategy control, and disappears once the last one clears. Related information reaches you on **Home** under **Needs you** too, but folded together rather than split into groups: a portfolio with an open strategy control and an otherwise healthy run appears there with a violet **Review** chip, or a red **Fix** chip when one of its controls blocks the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — the same colours as the section strip — alongside every other reason. Every other row carries a one-word chip — **Fix**, **Re-run**, **Run** or **Finish** — naming what that portfolio wants. The list triages your Fincanva setup, not the market: it says a result needs re-running or a setting needs review, never that a position should be bought or sold — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Which portfolios appear under Needs attention? A live portfolio appears under **Needs attention** when its [run status](/glossary/run-status) is anything other than `Up to date` or `Computing`. Only a failed run is red; every other case is amber, and red always sorts first — so a single failed portfolio sits above every stale one until you clear it. A portfolio whose run is otherwise fine but still carries an open [strategy control](/glossary/strategy-alerts) is not listed here — see [Which portfolios appear under Controls?](#which-portfolios-appear-under-controls) below. | What Fincanva finds | Dot | Reason shown | |---|---|---| | Run status `Failed` | red | `Failed` | | Run status `Needs re-run` | amber | `Needs re-run` | | Run status `To run` | amber | `To run` | | A Combined holding fewer than two strategies | amber | `Add one more strategy` | | Run status `Incomplete` for any other reason | amber | `Incomplete` | | Run status `Set aside` | amber | `Set aside` | | Run status `Up to date` or `Computing`, and nothing open | — | not listed: the portfolio is in order | A [Combined](/glossary/combined) holding a single strategy is an [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined): it cannot be backtested at all until a second strategy is added, so its reason names the missing piece rather than a status, and on Home its chip reads **Finish**. ## Which portfolios appear under Controls? A live portfolio appears under **Controls** when its [run status](/glossary/run-status) is `Up to date` or `Computing` — otherwise fine — but a strategy behind it still carries an open [strategy control](/glossary/strategy-alerts): one to review or one blocking. It carries no red or amber dot; instead its row shows the strategy's own section strip and the count in words — `{count} to review` or `{count} blocking` — linking to that strategy's Settings. A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s controls are counted per [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), so two member strategies carrying the same control count as two, not one. **Controls** is placed after **Next rebalances**, and the group disappears once nothing is left open. ## Which statuses count as in order? Two: **Up to date** and **Computing**. A portfolio actively recomputing is not a problem to solve, so it is left off the list rather than flagged. [Run status](/glossary/run-status) covers each state and how a portfolio moves between them. ## Common problems ### Where did my portfolio's open controls go from Needs attention? They moved to the **Controls** group, below Next rebalances: a portfolio whose run is otherwise healthy but still carries an open strategy control no longer lists under Needs attention — see [Which portfolios appear under Controls?](#which-portfolios-appear-under-controls) above. ### A Combined says "Add one more strategy to run this Combined." It holds a single strategy, and a Combined needs at least two before it can run. Add a second one from its Settings; until then it stays **Incomplete**, and its reason under Needs attention reads `Add one more strategy`. ### The list shows portfolios I do not think of as live It counts every strategy you have marked Live, and only those. A strategy you have merely backtested never appears — and one you no longer want counted leaves the list as soon as you stop following it, covered in [Follow a strategy live](/docs/portfolio-holdings/follow-a-strategy-live#how-do-i-stop-following-a-strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/portfolio-holdings/read-your-order-plan # Read your order plan The **Positions** view shows what a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) would hold at a chosen [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date, and the **Order plan** card lists what would change to get there. ↗ See this in Fincanva — a strategy's Positions, under Order plan ## Before you start You need a strategy that has completed at least one run. With none, the view reads "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to see its target portfolio." **Nothing here is ever placed.** Fincanva has no broker connection and no way to mark an order as executed — the [order plan](/glossary/order-plan) is a list on paper, and any trade on it is yours to place yourself, with your own broker, entirely at your own discretion. ## Steps 1. Open the strategy and go to **Positions**. 2. Choose which rebalance to look at with the **Date** control. It opens on the most recent date, tagged **Most recent**; typing filters the list. 3. Set **Capital** to the amount you want the plan sized for. It opens at 100,000 in your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency). 4. Read the four figures across the top: **Target notional**, **Cash**, **Positions**, and **Accuracy**. 5. Read the **Order plan** card — the count of moves to execute, the **est. turnover** figure, and the three groups **Entering**, **Exiting**, and **Adjusted**. Selecting a group opens the full list of instruments in it. 6. Read **Target allocation** for the resulting weights, and **Target positions & exits** for the position-by-position detail. ## What you should see **Entering** means instruments being added, **Exiting** instruments being dropped, and **Adjusted** instruments kept but re-sized. On a strategy's first rebalance it reads "Everything enters — this is the portfolio's first buy-in", because there is no previous book to differ from. With nothing due it reads "No changes this rebalance" and "There are no trades to place." The **Target positions & exits** sheet lists every position under **Symbol**, **Asset type**, **Side**, **Last**, **Quantity**, **Target value**, **Deployed**, and **Exits**, with a **Total** row at the foot. The picture beside each **Symbol** is [its own logo, or a flag for its recorded origin](/glossary/instrument-logo). These are paper figures describing what a strategy's rules imply, never advice to buy or sell anything — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Does changing Capital change my strategy? No. **Capital** is an input to this view only: it re-sizes the target figures and the share counts, and it moves no weight, re-runs nothing, and is not saved with the strategy. It is a different thing from [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital), which is a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) setting belonging to the strategy itself and does flip the last run to **Needs re-run** when changed. [Capital](/glossary/capital#how-is-capital-different-from-starting-capital) covers the distinction. ## Why is the Deployed amount lower than the Target value? Because you can only buy whole shares, so the target is rounded down to a whole number of them and the remainder stays as cash rather than becoming a trade. [Target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed) carries the arithmetic and the size of the gap; [accuracy](/glossary/accuracy) averages how close each holding lands, with every holding counting equally, and it is the fourth number across the top of this view. ## Why does the allocation show "Others (N)"? Because the treemap draws the largest cells individually and folds the tail into one. Cash gets its own cell whenever the book is not fully invested, and on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the cells are its strategies until you select one to drill into it. [The target allocation treemap](/glossary/target-allocation-treemap) covers both the fold and the drill-down. ## Common problems ### A warning says I'm not viewing the latest rebalance The line reads `You’re viewing {date} — not the latest rebalance`. You have selected an older rebalance date. Nothing is wrong and nothing was changed — you are reading history. Pick the date tagged **Most recent** to get back to the current plan. ### A toast says "Couldn't update — reverted to the last result." A re-fetch after a Date or Capital change failed, so the view put the last working value back rather than showing figures it could not stand behind. Try the change again. ### There is no way to mark the plan as done There is none to find. The card is reporting, not a task list: it will describe the same rebalance until the underlying run or the date you are viewing changes. ### The card says "No changes this rebalance" The strategy's target book at this date is the same as the book it already implies, so there is nothing to place. This is a normal outcome between rebalances, not an error or an empty result. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/how-cookie-consent-works-on-fincanva # How cookie consent works on Fincanva Fincanva asks for your consent to optional cookies and similar tracking technologies through a banner run by Iubenda, a consent-management service, and it asks the same way everywhere: every optional purpose starts switched off, for every visitor in every country, so no optional cookie is set until you switch its purpose on. You can accept all purposes, reject them, or choose one purpose at a time — and change or withdraw that choice whenever you like, from **Cookie preferences** in the website footer or **Manage cookie preferences** in the app's security settings. ## Before you start No prerequisites. The banner appears on its own, on the website and in the app, until you answer it. Changing your answer later from the website footer needs no account; the app's route needs you to be signed in. ## Steps 1. When the banner appears, accept all purposes, reject them, or open the preferences to decide purpose by purpose. 2. In the preferences, switch each optional purpose — **Functionality**, **Experience**, **Measurement**, **Marketing** — on or off. **Necessary** stays on. 3. To change your answer later, open **Cookie preferences** in the website footer, or **Manage cookie preferences** under **Settings** → **Privacy and data** in the app — see [How do I change or withdraw my cookie consent?](#how-do-i-change-or-withdraw-my-cookie-consent). ## What you should see The banner goes away once you have answered it, and only the purposes you switched on set cookies. Your answer is stored in the browser you gave it in, so the banner comes back in a different browser or device, in a private window, after you clear your cookies, or when Fincanva updates its [Cookie Policy](/cookie-policy). ## What does the cookie banner ask? The cookie banner asks which purposes you allow Fincanva to use cookies and similar technologies for. It lists the purposes and offers three answers: accept, reject, or open the preferences and decide purpose by purpose. The banner has no close button, so it stays until you give one of those answers. ## What are the five cookie purposes? The banner groups every optional cookie under one of five purposes, named in the banner as follows: | Purpose | What it covers | Can you switch it off? | |---|---|---| | **Necessary** | What the website and the app need in order to work at all | No — always on | | **Functionality** | Basic interactions and features | Yes | | **Experience** | Improvements to how pages look and behave | Yes | | **Measurement** | Measuring traffic and how the site is used | Yes | | **Marketing** | Advertising, and measuring whether advertising works | Yes | **Necessary** is shown already ticked and cannot be unticked, because nothing in it is optional. The other four are independent: allowing **Measurement** does not allow **Marketing**, and the reverse. ## Are optional cookies on before I choose? No. Every purpose except **Necessary** starts switched off and stays off until you switch it on, so no optional cookie is set before you choose. That default is the same for every visitor, wherever they are: Fincanva applies the strictest standard — opt-in — to everyone, rather than a different rule per country. One thing does run before you choose: Google's tag loads for every visitor in a cookieless mode. Until you allow **Measurement** or **Marketing**, it sets no cookies, and the pings it sends Google carry none. The one thing geography changes is which extra controls you see. A visitor covered by US state privacy law also gets a sale-and-sharing opt-out and a notice at the point of sign-up, described under [Your Privacy Choices and Notice at Collection](/glossary/your-privacy-choices-and-notice-at-collection). The consent rules themselves do not change. ## How do I change or withdraw my cookie consent? Reopen your cookie preferences and change your answer — withdrawing is as quick as giving consent was. Two places open them: - **On the website**, including every page of these docs: **Cookie preferences**, in the **Company** column of the footer. For a visitor covered by US state privacy law, the same link reads "Your Privacy Choices" instead. - **In the app**: open **Settings**, then **Privacy and data**, and press **Manage cookie preferences** in the **Cookie consent** section. It is there for every signed-in user, in every country. Either one opens your cookie preferences, where you can switch any optional purpose on or off. ## Will Fincanva ask me again? Yes. Fincanva's banner is set to ask for your consent again when Fincanva updates its [Cookie Policy](/cookie-policy). And because your choice is stored in the browser you made it in, a different browser, a different device, a private window, or clearing your cookies starts you from the banner again. Cookie consent is separate from accepting the Terms: answering the banner does not accept the Terms, and accepting the Terms does not answer the banner — see [why Fincanva asks you to accept the Terms](/docs/account-security/why-fincanva-asks-you-to-accept-the-terms). ## Where do I read which cookies Fincanva uses? In the [Cookie Policy](/cookie-policy), on Fincanva's website. It is the full document behind the banner; this page explains how the banner and your choices work, not the individual cookies. ## Common problems ### "We could not open your cookie preferences. Please reload the page and try again." The app could not reach the consent service that shows your preferences. The usual cause is a content or ad blocker in your browser that stops that service from loading: allow Fincanva in the blocker, reload the page, and press **Manage cookie preferences** again. If nothing is blocking it, reloading the page is usually enough. ### The banner no longer appears You have already answered it, and your choice is stored in this browser. To change it, use **Cookie preferences** in the website footer or **Manage cookie preferences** in the app instead of waiting for the banner. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/how-to-get-an-invoice-with-your-tax-details # How to get an invoice with your tax details Tick **I need an invoice with my tax details** under **Tax details** on **Settings → Payments and invoices**, then fill in the fields that appear: a **VAT number** wherever your address country has one, and for an Italian address also the **Codice fiscale** and how the invoice is delivered. In Italy the electronic invoice then reaches you through the Sistema di Interscambio; in every country your invoices are also listed under **Invoices** on the same page, each with a PDF. ## Before you start Billing details exist once you have started a subscription. Until then, **Billing address** and **Tax details** each show `Your billing details are not ready yet. Start a subscription to set them up.` in place of their fields. The fields **Tax details** asks for follow the **Country** of your billing address, so the address comes first. ## Steps 1. Open the account menu, select **Settings**, then **Payments and invoices**. 2. In **Billing address**, check the address your invoices should carry, **Country** included. For an Italian address the province is required. If you changed anything, select **Save** in that section. 3. In **Tax details**, tick **I need an invoice with my tax details**. 4. Enter your **VAT number**, if the form asks for one. 5. With an Italian address, check **Codice fiscale** and choose how the invoice is delivered under **Delivery**: **SDI code**, then type the code, or **PEC**. 6. Select **Save** in **Tax details**. Each of the two sections has its own **Save**. When a change in one needs the other — moving your address into Italy with the box ticked, say — the **Save** you press saves both. ## What you should see `Billing details saved` confirms the save. The `How you appear on invoices` panel at the bottom of **Tax details**, shown while the box is ticked, which follows what you type in both sections, lists your VAT number and, for an Italian address, your codice fiscale and SDI code under your name and address. ## Where do I enter my VAT number for the invoice? The **VAT number** field appears in **Tax details** on **Settings → Payments and invoices** once **I need an invoice with my tax details** is ticked, for any address country that has a VAT number. Its format follows that country, and there is no type to choose. An EU VAT number carries its country's prefix, such as `DE…` for a German address: if you type the number alone the prefix is added for you, and a number with another country's prefix is refused. For a country with no VAT number, no field appears. ## What does the line under the checkbox mean? The line under **I need an invoice with my tax details** says what you will receive, and it depends on the country of your billing address: - **Italy:** "You will receive the electronic invoice through the Sistema di Interscambio." - **A country where a VAT number is asked:** "You will find the invoice, with your VAT number, under «Invoices»." - **A country with no VAT number:** "The invoice will carry your name and your address." - **No country yet:** "First choose the country in Billing address: the details asked for depend on it." Select **Billing address** in that line to go to the **Country** field; until a country is set, no tax field appears. ## What does an Italian address need for the electronic invoice? An Italian electronic invoice needs an Italian VAT number, a codice fiscale, a recipient and a complete address, province included. With an Italian address and **I need an invoice with my tax details** ticked, the form asks for each of them: - **VAT number** — `IT` followed by 11 digits; the 11 digits alone are accepted too. A wrong check digit is refused as you type. - **Codice fiscale** — filled in for you with your VAT number's 11 digits, and editable. The form explains why: "For a company it is the VAT number's digits. Sole trader or freelancer? Enter your personal codice fiscale." A personal codice fiscale has 16 characters. - **Delivery** — **SDI code** or **PEC**. An SDI code has 7 letters or digits. **PEC** asks for no address of its own: see the next section. - **The address** — **Billed to**, the first address line, the postal code, the city and the province. ## What happens if I choose PEC instead of an SDI code? Choosing **PEC** sends the electronic invoice to the PEC address you already registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate, so Fincanva does not ask you for one. The form says so under **Delivery**: "The invoice goes to the PEC address you registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate. If you have not registered one, you will find it in your cassetto fiscale." ## Can I get an electronic invoice without an Italian VAT number? No, not for now. With an Italian address, **I need an invoice with my tax details** ticked and no VAT number, the details cannot be saved, and the **VAT number** field shows "For now the electronic invoice needs an Italian VAT number." ## How do I receive my invoices? With an Italian address, the electronic invoice arrives through the Sistema di Interscambio at your SDI code, or — if you chose **PEC** — at the PEC address registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate, or else in your cassetto fiscale. In every country, each invoice is also listed under **Invoices** on **Settings → Payments and invoices**, every one downloadable as a PDF. ## How does Fincanva tell me something is missing for the electronic invoice? When your Italian electronic invoice is missing a detail it needs, Fincanva shows it in three places until the detail is filled in: - **Your account avatar** carries a small dot, and the account menu adds a **Payments and invoices** row reading "Something is missing for the electronic invoice". - **The list of settings** shows a dot beside **Payments and invoices**. - **The top of Settings → Payments and invoices** shows "Your electronic invoice is missing: …", naming the missing details, with a **Complete the details** button that takes you to the billing details sections, **Billing address** and **Tax details**, where the missing details are already marked. They go away by themselves once the details are complete and saved. There is nothing to dismiss. ## How do I correct my billing details or an invoice? Change the details in **Billing address** or **Tax details** and select that section's **Save**: the change applies to the invoices issued after you save it. An invoice already issued is not rewritten. To correct one, contact Fincanva support. ## Common problems ### "This VAT number is not valid: check the digits." The last digit of the Italian VAT number does not match the other ten. Check the number against your VAT registration and type it again. ### "Enter a valid VAT number" The number does not have the format of the VAT number for your address country, or it carries another country's prefix. Check that **Country** is the country the VAT number belongs to, then the number itself. ### The SDI code "is reserved for customers abroad." The code made of seven letters X is the SDI code for customers outside Italy, so it is refused with an Italian VAT number: the message repeats the code, followed by "is reserved for customers abroad." Enter your own 7-character SDI code, or choose **PEC**. ### "The SDI code has 7 letters or digits." The code you typed is not 7 letters or digits long. Check the code and type it again, or choose **PEC**. ### "The codice fiscale has 11 digits or 16 characters." A company's codice fiscale is its VAT number's 11 digits; a personal one has 16 characters. Check the length, then the characters, against your tax documents. ### "This codice fiscale is not valid: check the characters." The codice fiscale has the right length, but its check digit or check character does not match the rest. Check it against your tax documents and type it again. ### "Enter the province." An Italian billing address needs its province. Fill in **Province** and save again. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/how-to-manage-your-account-security-settings # How to manage your account security settings How you sign in to your Fincanva account lives on one page: open **Settings**, then **Access and security**. It opens with an **Account protection** readout, then holds your sign-in methods under **Access** (password and two-factor authentication), **Connected accounts**, and **Active sessions** — the list of signed-in browsers, explained under [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions). **Cookie consent**, a **Privacy** section shown only to visitors covered by US state privacy law, and **Delete account** are on a separate page, **Settings** → **Privacy and data**. Each section below says where it is, what you can do there, and links the page that explains it in full. ## Before you start You need to be signed in. Changing your password asks for your current one, and turning two-factor authentication on or off asks you to confirm it's you first — with your password, or by an emailed link if your account has none. ## Steps 1. Open **Settings**, then **Access and security** — or **Privacy and data** for cookie consent, the US privacy choices and account deletion. 2. Go to the section for what you want to change — each one is described below, in the order the pages show them. ## What you should see The **Access and security** page, with the **Account protection** readout at the top and its sections below it: **Access**, **Connected accounts**, and **Active sessions**. The **Privacy and data** page holds, from top to bottom: **Cookie consent**, **Privacy** (only for a visitor covered by US state privacy law), and **Delete account**. ## What does "Account protection" count? The readout at the top of **Access and security** counts two checks and reads `Account protection: {done} of {total}` — "Account protection: 2 of 2" when both are met: - **Two-factor authentication** — `Two-factor authentication on`, or `Two-factor authentication off` while it is not. - **A way in that does not hang on one external account** — met when your account has a password, or more than one external account linked: `You don't depend on a single external account`. With neither, it reads `You sign in only with an external account`. While a check is missing, the readout carries one button for the step to take, and it takes you to **Access**: `Turn on two-factor authentication` when two-factor authentication is off — that one comes first — otherwise `Set a password`. ## Where do I change my password? Under **Access**, on the **Password** row: **Change password** asks for your **Current password** and the new one twice. An account that has never had a password — whether it was created with Google or with an emailed link or code — shows "You signed in with Google. We'll email you a link to set a password." with a **Send reset link** button instead; the sentence names Google even when you signed up by email. Open the emailed link and choose a password. What a password must contain, and how resets and emailed sign-in links work, is on [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in). Changing your password also signs out every other browser signed in to your account — see [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions). ## Where do I turn on two-factor authentication? Under **Access**, on the **Two-factor authentication** row: **Enable 2FA** starts a three-step setup that pairs an authenticator app and hands you your backup codes. Once it is on, the same row offers **Generate new backup codes** and **Disable 2FA**. How the second step works at sign-in, and what to do if you lose your phone: [two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication). ## How do I disconnect my Google account? In **Connected accounts**, press **Disconnect** on the **Google** row. With no Google account linked, the section reads "You haven't connected any external accounts." An account always keeps at least one way in, so the last one cannot be disconnected. When Google is the only sign-in method on your account, its row shows no **Disconnect** button: it reads "It's your only way in. Set a password to be able to disconnect it." Set a password first, on the **Password** row under **Access**, and the **Disconnect** button appears on the **Google** row. Signing in with Google in the first place is covered under [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in). ## How are my devices named in Active sessions? Each signed-in browser is named by its browser and operating system, in your interface language — `{browser} on {os}` in English, so "Chrome on macOS". The browser and system names themselves are never translated. A browser Fincanva cannot recognise is listed as "Unknown device". **Sign out** ends one session, and **Sign out all other sessions** ends every one except the device you are using, which is marked **This device**. What a session is: [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions). ## Where do I change my cookie consent? On the **Privacy and data** page, in **Cookie consent**, press **Manage cookie preferences**. It opens your cookie preferences, where you can switch any optional purpose on or off, and it is there for every signed-in user in every country. What each purpose covers: [how cookie consent works](/docs/account-security/how-cookie-consent-works-on-fincanva). ## How do I delete my account? In **Delete account**, at the bottom of the **Privacy and data** page. Deletion is scheduled 14 days ahead rather than immediate, and during that window you can cancel it with **Keep my account** — signing back in alone does not cancel it. What is deleted, what is anonymized, and how to cancel: [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion). ## Common problems ### Why is there no Privacy section on my Privacy and data page? The **Privacy** section appears only for a visitor covered by US state privacy law, and holds the "Your Privacy Choices" opt-out that law grants. Anyone else never sees it — not even an empty heading. Who sees it and why: [Your Privacy Choices and Notice at Collection](/glossary/your-privacy-choices-and-notice-at-collection). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/how-to-manage-your-notification-settings # How to manage your notification settings Which emails Fincanva sends you is set on one page: open **Settings**, then **Notifications**. It holds three sections, from top to bottom: **Where they arrive** — the email address notifications go to, which is the one on your profile; **Your choice** — two kinds of email you switch on or off, **Your strategies** and **Fincanva news**; and **Always on** — the emails that protect your account or concern your trial, which cannot be switched off. ## Before you start You need to be signed in. Notifications arrive only by email, at your profile's address; there is no other channel to set up. ## Steps 1. Open **Settings**, then **Notifications**. 2. Under **Your choice**, switch **Your strategies** or **Fincanva news** on or off. Each switch applies at once — there is no Save button. 3. To change the address they arrive at, select **Change in Profile** under **Where they arrive**. ## What you should see The **Notifications** page, with **Where they arrive**, **Your choice** and **Always on** from top to bottom. When you flip a switch, a message names what was saved — `Strategy notifications saved` or `Product news notifications saved`. The settings **Overview** reflects the same two choices on its Notifications tile, as **On** or **Off**. ## Where do my notifications arrive? At the email address on your profile. **Where they arrive** reads "Notifications arrive by email today. It's the address on your profile." and shows that address under **Email**. It cannot be edited here: **Change in Profile** takes you to **Settings → Profile**, where a new address is confirmed through a link sent to your current one. Once it changes, notifications follow it. ## What can I switch on or off? Two kinds of email, under **Your choice**, each with its own switch that applies the moment you flip it: - **Your strategies** — "Alerts about the strategies you created or follow live." It is on for a new account. - **Fincanva news** — "Occasional emails with product news and promotions. You can opt out anytime." It is marketing, so where it starts depends on when your account was created. An account created since the sign-up screen began asking starts with the answer you gave there: on only if you ticked the optional box "Subscribe to occasional product news and promotional emails. You can opt out anytime.", which always starts unticked, and with the moment you agreed recorded from Fincanva's own clock — see [the sign-up boxes](/docs/account-security/why-fincanva-asks-you-to-accept-the-terms#why-do-i-have-to-accept-the-terms-to-sign-up). An account that existed before the sign-up screen asked had it switched on by Fincanva in October 2026. Either way, this switch changes it whenever you like. Today Fincanva sends no email in either category, so a switch records your choice and changes nothing you receive today. Either can be switched back whenever you like. ## Why can't I turn some notifications off? Because they protect your account or concern your subscription. **Always on** lists two kinds, each marked **Always on** in place of a switch: - **Access and security** — "Sign-in codes, email verification, password and email changes, account deletion." These are the emails that let you sign in, confirm a change, and learn that a deletion was scheduled or completed — see [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion). - **Subscription and payments** — "Trial-ending reminders." That is the one email Fincanva itself sends about your subscription: the reminder 7 days and 1 day before a trial ends with no card on file — see [the 30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial#will-i-be-reminded-before-the-trial-ends). They are shown rather than hidden so you know they exist and why they keep arriving. ## Common problems ### "Couldn't save the strategy notifications. Try again." The switch could not be saved, and it has gone back to what it was before — nothing changed. Flip it again. The same applies to "Couldn't save the product news notifications. Try again." for **Fincanva news**. ### I still get emails after turning everything off The emails that keep arriving are the ones under **Always on** — sign-in codes, verification and change confirmations, account-deletion notices and trial-ending reminders. They cannot be switched off, because each one either protects access to your account or concerns your subscription. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan # How to read your plan Your plan lives on **Settings → Plan and usage**: the plan pass at the top names the plan you hold and its price, and the **Your subscription** section says in one dated sentence where your subscription stands, with the actions to change, cancel or restore it. The account menu opens that page as **Plan and usage**, and the profile header shows the plan you hold under **Plan**. ## Before you start No prerequisites. Settings → Plan and usage is available to every account, including one with no active subscription. ## What does Settings → Plan and usage say about my subscription? Your plan's name on the pass (Starter, Advanced or Ultimate — a Free account reads **Free**, and a Professional subscriber reads **Custom**, since Professional has no entry in Fincanva's own price catalogue), its price with the billing interval you pay on (billed monthly, every 3 months or annually), and, in **Your subscription**, one dated sentence that names exactly where your subscription stands: | Sentence | What it means | |---|---| | `Your trial ends on {date}`, or `You’ll be billed for {plan} on {date}` | Running on the 30-day trial; the first charge has not happened yet. See [the 30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial). | | `Renews on {date}` | Active and will renew automatically at the date shown. | | `A renewal payment didn’t go through` | A renewal payment was declined; you keep your plan while it retries. See [what happens if a payment fails](/docs/account-security/what-happens-if-a-payment-fails). | | `We haven’t received your first payment yet` | A first payment has not been collected yet; some methods take a few days to clear. | | `Ends on {date}` | Cancelled: your plan stays active until that date, then stops. Nothing is charged again. | | `Switching to {plan} {interval} on {date}` | A plan switch is queued and will take effect at the date shown. | | `Your {plan} plan ended on {date}` | The subscription is over and paid access has stopped; everything you built is still there. The pass itself then reads Free — see [what Settings → Plan and usage shows once the subscription has ended](/docs/account-security/what-happens-if-a-payment-fails#what-does-settings-plan-and-usage-show-once-the-subscription-has-ended). | The same sentence is the dated line on the plan pass, so the two always agree. What the rest of the page shows — the ladder of plans and what you are using — is in [what Settings → Plan and usage tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you). ## Steps to cancel your plan 1. Open **Settings** → **Plan and usage**. 2. In **Your subscription**, open the menu beside **Change plan** (`More plan actions`) and select **Cancel plan**. 3. Confirm in the dialog: `Cancel your plan? Your subscription will end on {date}. You will keep access until then.` Your plan stays active until that date; nothing is charged again after you confirm. Cancelling does not delete anything you built — see [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) for exactly what happens to a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) that ends up beyond your (now lower) plan. ## What you should see The sentence reads `Ends on {date}`, and a **Restore plan** button takes the place of **Change plan**. A cancellation toast confirms it in one line: `Access until {date}.` ## Steps to undo a cancellation 1. Open **Settings** → **Plan and usage**. 2. Select **Restore plan** in **Your subscription**. 3. Confirm: `Restore your plan? Your subscription will continue and renew on {date}.` This is available for as long as your access has not yet ended. Once the sentence reads `Ends on {date}` and that date has passed, there is nothing left to restore — subscribing again starts a fresh subscription instead. ## What's the difference between "Upgrade now" and "Switch at renewal"? Two different moments a plan change can take effect, offered side by side whenever a paying subscriber chooses a different plan: **Upgrade now** changes it immediately, prorated against what you have already paid this period; **Switch at renewal** queues the change for your next billing date instead, so today's plan runs out its paid period first. A queued switch shows as `Switching to {plan} {interval} on {date}` in **Your subscription** until it lands, and can itself be cancelled with **Cancel scheduled change** before then, which leaves you on your current plan. During a trial, the **Change plan** dialog offers neither: it moves the trial itself, to Starter, Advanced or Ultimate on any billing interval, as often as you like. Each move takes effect immediately, charges nothing, and does not change the trial's end date. With no card on file the dialog is titled `Which plan do you want to try?` and each other plan carries `Try {plan}`; with a card on file it is titled `Change plan` and each other plan carries `Switch to {plan}`, with `Starts now. Still free until {date}.` What each version says in full is in [the 30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial#how-do-i-change-the-plan-of-my-trial). ## Does the account menu point me at a specific plan? No. The account menu's **Plan and usage** entry opens Settings → Plan and usage for every account, whatever plan it holds, and every link in the app that offers a plan change opens that same page with **Change plan** already open. On the ladder of plans, the plan one step above yours is highlighted because it is the next in Fincanva's order of plans — on Ultimate there is none and no offer appears. Neither is Fincanva suggesting which plan you should be on. ## Where are my billing details and active sessions? Your billing details — the name and address that appear on your invoices, under **Billing address**, and the VAT/tax ID under **Tax details**, plus, for an Italian electronic invoice, the codice fiscale and the recipient ([how to get an invoice with your tax details](/docs/account-security/how-to-get-an-invoice-with-your-tax-details)) — are on the neighbouring page, **Settings → Payments and invoices**. That page opens with your payment method — drawn as a card, a bank debit or an account, with an **Update** button that opens Stripe's secure page (**Manage on Stripe** for any other kind of method) — beside a `Next charge · {date}` panel when a charge is coming. Below them, **Billing address** and **Tax details** each save on their own, with their own **Save**; **Tax details** shows `How you appear on invoices` as you type in either; and **Invoices** lists your invoices grouped by year, each with its status and a PDF. **Active sessions** is a different page entirely: it lives under **Settings → Access and security**, and lists the devices signed in to your account rather than anything about your plan. ## Can I cancel anytime? Yes. There is no minimum term and no cancellation fee on any plan: while your subscription is active, **Cancel plan** is in the menu beside **Change plan** on Settings → Plan and usage, takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and can itself be undone with **Restore plan** for as long as that period has not yet ended. Fincanva does not tell you which plan to be on, and this page is not a recommendation to subscribe — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## Common problems ### "To change plan during your trial, add a payment method first." This appears when a plan switch is queued for the end of a trial with no payment method on file (toast: `Add a payment method to change plan`), and nothing about your subscription changes. It is not the way to change plan during a trial: the trial's **Change plan** dialog does not queue anything, it moves the trial immediately, with or without a card — see [how do I change the plan of my trial?](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial#how-do-i-change-the-plan-of-my-trial). To stay on a plan after the trial ends, add a card. ### There is no Restore plan button Your access has already ended: once the `Ends on {date}` date has passed there is nothing left to restore, and subscribing again starts a fresh subscription. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial # The 30-day trial Every Fincanva account gets a 30-day trial of a paid plan, once, and it starts by itself: the first time a new account opens the app, after its email is confirmed, it is already on the trial — no checkout, no card. The trial runs on Advanced, or on the plan you chose on the website's pricing page before signing up; you can move it to another plan as often as you like, and on day 31 you go back to Free and pay nothing, unless you have added a card. ## How does the trial work? The trial starts by itself the first time your account opens the app, once its email is confirmed: there is no "start the trial" step and no checkout to go through, and nothing asks for a card. It lasts 30 days in total, from that day. It applies once per account — an account that has already held a subscription does not get a second trial. A checkout that never went through is not "having held a subscription": see [my first checkout didn't go through — do I still get the trial?](#my-first-checkout-didnt-go-through-do-i-still-get-the-trial) below. Checkout is where you **buy** a plan, not where a trial begins. ## Which plan does the trial start on? The trial starts on **Advanced** by default. If you chose Starter, Advanced or Ultimate on the website's pricing page before signing up, it starts on that plan instead. Either way it is only the starting point: you can [move the trial to another plan](#how-do-i-change-the-plan-of-my-trial) at any time during the 30 days. ## What does the trial include? The plan the trial is on, at that plan's own limits, from day 1 — there is no separate trial-only level. A trial on Starter runs at Starter's limits, a trial on Advanced at Advanced's, a trial on Ultimate at Ultimate's; the figures for each are in [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). The [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) named on the plan pass in **Settings → Plan and usage** is that same plan, and it is the one being enforced. Move the trial to another plan and that plan's limits apply from the moment you move it. ## How do I change the plan of my trial? Open **Settings → Plan and usage** and select **Change plan** in **Your subscription**: during a trial, that dialog moves the trial itself. You can move it to Starter, Advanced or Ultimate, on any billing interval, as often as you like. Each move takes effect immediately, charges nothing, and does not change the trial's end date — the trial is 30 days in total, whichever plans it spends them on. **With no card on file**, the dialog is titled `Which plan do you want to try?` and reads `Change whenever you like, no card needed. The trial still ends on {date}: after that you stay on Free, unless you add a card.` The plan you are trying now is marked `On trial now`, and every other plan carries `Try {plan}`. At the foot it asks `Want to stay on {plan} after {date}?`, with the button `Add a card`. **With a card on file**, the dialog is titled `Change plan` and reads `It's free until {date}. From that day we charge the plan you choose here.` Every other plan carries `Switch to {plan}`, with the line `Starts now. Still free until {date}.` **Upgrade now** and **Switch at renewal** are what a paying subscriber sees in that dialog — see [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan#whats-the-difference-between-upgrade-now-and-switch-at-renewal). Inside a trial, the dialog moves the trial instead. ## What do I see when the trial starts? **A new account** is greeted on Home by a panel that shows once: `Welcome: you have 30 days of {plan}, free`, then `Your trial runs until {date}.` and `No card: at the end you pay nothing and go back to Free, unless you choose a plan.` Its button is `Create your first strategy`, and the link `Rather try another plan?` opens the dialog that [moves the trial](#how-do-i-change-the-plan-of-my-trial). **An account that existed before and never had a subscription** gets the same 30-day trial, once, the next time it opens the app, announced by a one-time dialog: `We've turned on 30 days of {plan} for you`, then `Free until {date}, no card needed. At the end you go back to Free, unless you choose a plan.`, followed by what that plan gives you. Its buttons are `Start` and `Choose another plan`. ## Where do I see how many days of the trial are left? In the plan tile in the sidebar. During the trial it names the plan as `{plan} · trial`, in lime — the mark every plan your account holds wears, trial or paid — and on the right it shows the days left: `{n} days left`, and `1 day left` on the last day. More on the tile itself is in [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance#where-do-you-see-how-much-of-your-plan-you-are-using). ## Will I be reminded before the trial ends? Yes, when no card is on file: Fincanva reminds you 7 days and 1 day before the trial ends. In the app, a one-time dialog reads `Your {plan} trial ends in 7 days` (or `Your {plan} trial ends tomorrow`), then `On {date} you go back to Free. Nothing is charged: there is no card on file.` It lists the strategies that will be locked on that day — kept, not deleted, and reopened as soon as you choose a plan. Its buttons are `Stay on {plan}`, which adds a card, and `See the other plans`. An email with the same content is sent at the same two moments, with the subject `Your {plan} trial ends in 7 days` or `Your {plan} trial ends tomorrow`. That email cannot be switched off: **Settings → Notifications** lists it under **Always on**, as the one email about your subscription — see [how to manage your notification settings](/docs/account-security/how-to-manage-your-notification-settings). With a card on file there is no reminder, because nothing is lost on day 31: billing simply starts. ## When am I charged? On day 31, on the plan and billing interval the trial is on that day — **only if you have added a card.** Without one, nothing is ever charged. The **Your subscription** section of **Settings → Plan and usage** states in advance what day 31 will do. With a payment method on file — the default one, which is where the charge goes — it reads `You’ll be billed for {plan} on {date}`, and below it `When your trial ends, the payment method on file is charged. Cancel before then and nothing is charged.` With none on file, it reads `Your trial ends on {date}`, and below it `No payment method is set to be charged, so nothing is charged and your subscription ends with the trial.` When Fincanva cannot load your payment details, or when you have already cancelled the trial, the row shows only `Your trial ends on {date}`, with no sentence about a charge. Before Fincanva has a date to show, it reads `Your trial is running`. Either way, you are never charged without a card already on file to charge. ## What happens when the trial ends? **With a card on file:** billing starts on the plan the trial is on, and nothing else changes — your account was already running at that plan, so day 31 adds a charge rather than a change of limits. If something you hold exceeds what the plan allows, that was already true during the trial, and the rule that governs any downgrade applies: nothing is deleted, and what exceeds the plan stops running until it fits again — see [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). **With no card:** nothing is charged. The subscription ends, your account is on Free, and the strategies beyond what Free allows are locked — kept, not deleted — under the same [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) rule a downgrade uses. A one-time notice says so: `Your trial has ended: you're on Free`, with how many strategies are locked, and the button `Choose a plan`. ## What happens after a trial that ended without a card? You are on Free, and choosing a plan reopens what was locked — but it is a purchase, not a second trial: the trial does not repeat, and a plan bought after it is charged from today, with a card. **Settings → Plan and usage → Change plan** then reads `Choose a plan`, with `Your trial ended on {date}. {n} strategies are locked: they reopen as soon as you choose a plan. You pay from today; the trial doesn't repeat.` Each plan card says how many locked strategies it reopens — `Reopens {n} strategies` — and the plan you tried is marked `Tried`. That is different from an account whose **paid** plan ended: its dialog reads `Welcome back: choose a plan`, and marks the previous plan `Your previous plan`. ## Can I cancel during the trial? Yes, and nothing is charged if you do. Cancelling before the trial's end date stops the subscription before the first payment is ever attempted. With a card on file, the trial sentence in **Your subscription** says so itself: "Cancel before then and nothing is charged." With none on file it says nothing about cancelling, because without a card nothing is charged on day 31 either way. See [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan) for the Cancel action itself. ## Limits and edge cases ### I subscribed again and didn't get a new trial The trial applies once per account. An account that already held a subscription — even one that ended, including a trial that ended without a card — does not get another, and choosing a plan starts billing from today. That is different from a checkout that never ran a subscription at all — see [my first checkout didn't go through](#my-first-checkout-didnt-go-through-do-i-still-get-the-trial) below. ### My first checkout didn't go through — do I still get the trial? Yes. Only a subscription that actually ran counts — one that ran, even for a day, uses up the trial (see [I subscribed again and didn't get a new trial](#i-subscribed-again-and-didnt-get-a-new-trial)), but a checkout that never went through never ran one. That covers an earlier attempt that never completed, such as a declined card or a bank verification (3-D Secure) you didn't finish: nothing was charged and nothing was served, so the account still counts as never having had a subscription, and the 30-day trial starts by itself the next time you open the app, with the [one-time dialog](#what-do-i-see-when-the-trial-starts) that announces it. A trial today cannot leave you in that state, because [it starts with no checkout and no card](#how-does-the-trial-work) — there is no payment to fail. Fincanva does not tell you which plan to be on, and this page is not a recommendation to subscribe — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes # What each plan includes Fincanva has five plans — Free, Starter, Advanced, Ultimate and Professional — and this page lists what each includes. Every figure, tick and price below is read at build time from the same source the app enforces and the website's pricing page prints, so the three can never disagree. ## How do Fincanva's plans work? Each plan grants a fixed set of [strategy](/glossary/strategy), [screener](/glossary/screener), Live and backtest-realism limits. The narrower scale the plan pass on Settings → Plan and usage counts — [plan level](/glossary/plan-level), the three plans a subscription can actually be — is a different reading of the same order; how a strategy's own setup is checked against your plan is a separate question again, covered in [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). The tables on this page have one column per plan you can subscribe to. **Professional has no column and no published price**: it is a contact path rather than a plan on this list — reach it by writing to [hello@fincanva.com](mailto:hello@fincanva.com). ## What does the Free plan include? Free needs no card and has no time limit. What it includes is the **Free** column of every table below; a cell marked not included there is something a paid plan adds. The [30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial) is the way to try a paid plan at that plan's own limits before paying for it: it starts by itself, with no card, on Advanced — or on the plan you chose on the website's pricing page before signing up — and you can move it to another plan as often as you like during the 30 days. **On every plan, Free included:** - The screener, over the whole [universe](/glossary/universe) — unlimited saved screeners, 10 filters each. - Backtesting on real market data, with the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), portfolio metrics and monthly returns. - Profit reinvestment in every simulation. ## What do the paid plans cost? Prices are in EUR, from Fincanva's live price list. Each figure is the total charged for that period — a quarterly or yearly price is one charge for the whole period, not a monthly rate: | Plan | Monthly | Quarterly | Yearly | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | EUR 29 | EUR 78 | EUR 276 | | Advanced | EUR 79 | EUR 213 | EUR 756 | | Ultimate | EUR 149 | EUR 402 | EUR 1,428 | ## Do backtests differ by plan? Yes, in two ways: how much a strategy can hold, and how realistic its results are. **What a strategy can hold** — how many allocation methods, covariance estimators and saved strategies, how many instruments and screeners one strategy takes, and how many strategies a [Combined](/glossary/combined) may hold: | Build | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Allocation methods — Of the 23 methods available today | 2 | 7 | 15 | 23 | | Allocation methods for a Combined — 15 methods of the 23 available also work at the portfolio tier | Not included | Not included | 7 | 15 | | [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) options — Of 2, inside MPT | Not included | Not included | Not included | 2 | | Covariance estimators — Of 8 — how a method estimates the covariance matrix | Not included | Not included | 5 | 8 | | Correlation estimators — Of 6 — how [Min Correlation](/glossary/min-correlation) estimates the [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) | Not included | 5 | 5 | 6 | | Saved strategies | 2 | No limit | No limit | No limit | | Instruments per strategy — Rises with every plan | 5 | 10 | 25 | 50 | | Screeners per strategy — Attach a screener to a strategy | Not included | 1 | 2 | 8 | | Combined strategies — Components inside one Combined | Not included | Not included | 5 | 10 | **Strategies inside one Combined counts the ones in use.** A strategy switched off inside a Combined does not count toward it, and whatever is switched on or off, a Combined holds at most 20 [strategies in total](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), on every plan. **No limit means your plan does not cap it.** Behind **No limit** on saved strategies and saved screeners there is still a technical safety maximum, which exists to stop runaway creation, and no plan level raises it because it is not a plan lever. The app is where you will meet that number: your usage panel counts against it, so the figure you see there is the safety maximum, not an allowance you bought. **How realistic the results are** — which risk rules a strategy can switch on, how far it may be leveraged, and whether trading costs and taxes are counted: | Protect | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Risk-on/off rules — Of 5 kinds — when a strategy switches to Risk-Off | Not included | Not included | 4 | 5 | | [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) — Free is unlevered; every paid plan reaches the same ceiling | 1× | 3× | 3× | 3× | | Simulation realism | Not included | costs | costs + taxes | costs + taxes | Inside a strategy you can choose from 23 [allocation methods](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) today, and across the strategies inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) from 15. Which of them your plan includes: | Allocation methods | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights) | Included | Included | Included | Included | | [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights) | Included | Included | Included | Included | | Market cap | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | Min correlation | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | [Floating](/glossary/floating) | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | MPT (Markowitz) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [HRP](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity) · Hierarchical risk parity | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [HERC](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) · Hierarchical equal risk contribution | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [NCO](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization) · Nested clustered optimization | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [CDaR](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk) · Conditional drawdown at risk | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [EVaR](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk) · Entropic value at risk | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Scenario CVaR | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | Across the strategies inside a Combined the choice is narrower, and a Combined itself needs the first plan that includes one, so that is where this choice starts: | Allocation methods for a Combined | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Equal weights | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Risk parity | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Inverse volatility | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Ranking-based | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | MPT (Markowitz) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Black-Litterman | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Fixed weights | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Max diversification | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Min MAD | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Min CVaR | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | CDaR · Conditional drawdown at risk | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | EVaR · Entropic value at risk | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Scenario CVaR | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Robust worst case | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Stochastic programming | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | A method's own theory is covered on its own page; this page states only which plan unlocks it. MPT's options follow MPT: an option is included only on a plan that includes MPT itself. | MPT (Markowitz) options | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Resampled | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Weight limits | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | The [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) setting — how a method that reads one estimates it — follows the method for its basic estimators: wherever a method that reads one is included, so are they. The advanced estimators have a plan of their own: | Covariance estimators | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Sample | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Ledoit-Wolf · identity | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Manual shrinkage | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Marchenko-Pastur | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Regime-conditional (HMM) | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | ## Which risk rules and analysis tools does each plan include? Risk rules, the settings that size a Combined's exposure, and the analysis pages each start at a plan of their own: | Risk-on/off rules | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Single series | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Double series](/glossary/condition-types) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Hidden regimes (Markov) | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Clustering | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Strategy's own performance | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included | | Leverage | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Leverage | 1× | 3× | 3× | 3× | | Volatility target | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | A setting that lives on a Combined is included only where a Combined is. That is why the [volatility target](/glossary/volatility-target) and an [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion#how-does-fincanva-handle-it) above 100% — borrowed money on top of the Combined's own capital, bounded by the leverage ceiling — start at the first plan that includes a Combined, even where a cheaper plan's leverage ceiling is already above 1×. The same holds for [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics), which sits on a Combined's **Components** page. | Analyse | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Analysis tabs — Of the 10 tabs in Analysis | 4 | 6 | 10 | 10 | | Advanced analyses — Of 3, inside the Analysis tabs | Not included | Not included | 3 | 3 | | [Screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) — Re-screen the market month by month over history | Included | Included | Included | Included | | [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) history from — The earliest year a backtest may start | 2020 | 2010 | 2000 | All history | | Analysis tabs | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Capital Growth | Included | Included | Included | Included | | Trade History | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | Performance Metrics | Included | Included | Included | Included | | Monthly Returns | Included | Included | Included | Included | | Strategy Weights | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Components | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Correlations | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | [Start-Date Sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | Projection | Included | Included | Included | Included | | Robustness | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Advanced analyses | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Strategies: where the result comes from | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Regime timeline | Not included | Not included | Included | Included | | Backtest reliability | Not included | Not included | 100 | 1,000 | | Project | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | [Monte Carlo projection](/glossary/projection-cone) cone — On every plan; the ceilings change | Included | Included | Included | Included | What each of these is, on its own page: [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off), [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov), [Clustering](/glossary/clustering), [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance), the [regime timeline](/glossary/regime-timeline) (drawn wherever a quantitative risk rule is active), the [Projection tab](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab) (whose guide states [how far ahead each plan projects](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab#how-far-ahead-does-my-plan-let-me-project)), and the [Robustness tab](/docs/analysis/test-how-much-to-trust-a-backtest-with-the-robustness-tab) — [backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability) and the [stress test](/glossary/stress-test). The worst-days rows of [Performance Metrics](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means#what-do-the-worst-days-rows-show) — historical and Gaussian [value at risk](/glossary/value-at-risk), and [conditional value at risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk) — are on every plan. ## How much compute power does each plan include? Compute power is how much of one simulation Fincanva computes at the same time, and it is the one plan difference that is about waiting rather than about what a strategy may do. It does not rise at every plan level. Set by your plan: 4 on Free and Starter, 8 on Advanced and 16 on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). A higher figure runs more of the same work at once: it buys no extra data, no further allocation method and no longer history, so nothing about the strategy or the period behind the result changes with the plan. What it does and does not say about the wait is on [compute time](/glossary/compute-time), the page that owns how long a run takes. The table below prints the same figures under the label **Compute power**. ## What about Live strategies, leverage, and benchmarks? Following a strategy Live, the Positions page, compute power and support are the limits that are not about what a strategy can hold. Leverage is in the realism table above. | Follow & help | Free | Starter | Advanced | Ultimate | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Strategies followed Live | Not included | 1 | 5 | No limit | | Positions page — What to buy today, ticker by ticker | Not included | Included | Included | Included | | Compute power — How much of one simulation computes at the same time — Starter matches Free | 4 | 4 | 8 | 16 | | Support | Standard | Standard | Standard | Priority | Every plan benchmarks against the market benchmarks; from Advanced your own live portfolios can serve as benchmarks too. A strategy already pointed at one of yours keeps it and keeps running on a plan that does not include them — see [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark). ## Limits and edge cases ### What sets the backtest's starting year? Your plan sets the earliest year a backtest may start from — the **Backtest history from** row above — and **Fincanva applies it**. A plan whose cell reads **All history** has no floor and reaches every year there is data for; how far that is depends on the series, see [data coverage](/docs/data-methodology/what-fincanva-s-data-coverage-figures-count). The floor is applied in three places: - **The starting-year calendar** greys out every year before your plan's floor. Where a higher plan reaches further back, the calendar's footer says from which year your plan starts and the plan's mark beside it names the higher plan; opening it says from which year your plan starts and from which year that plan does. - **Saving** a start year before the floor is refused, and the message names the year you chose, the year your plan starts from and the plan that reaches it. When you duplicate, copy, combine or extract a strategy that starts earlier, the copy is still created, but it starts at your plan's floor — a message tells you at once which year it moved from and which plan keeps the full history. The original is not changed. - **A strategy that already starts earlier** — because you moved to a plan with a later floor — is not moved and not deleted. It is set aside like any strategy your plan does not cover: its settings stay editable, and moving its start to your plan's floor or later, or moving to a plan that reaches its year, makes it runnable again. See [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). A new strategy starts at 2000 by default, or at your plan's floor where that is later. See [what Settings → Plan and usage tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you#backtests-start-from) for how your own floor is shown. ### How do these limits show up while I work? A strategy that exceeds one of these limits does not lose what it holds — it stops running until it fits the plan again, or the plan changes to cover it. That check, and everything it does and does not do, is [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). To see where you personally stand against these numbers right now, see [what Settings → Plan and usage tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you); to see how your plan itself is displayed and changed, see [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan). Fincanva does not tell you which plan to be on, and this page is not a recommendation to subscribe — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/what-happens-if-a-payment-fails # What happens if a payment fails Your access does not stop: Fincanva keeps everything your plan covers available while the payment is retried, and shows a notice on every page until it clears. You resolve it by updating your payment method. ↗ See this in Fincanva — Settings, on the Payments and invoices page, under Payment method ## Before you start No prerequisites. The notice appears on its own when a payment Fincanva expected has not been collected, and it disappears on its own once the payment clears or the subscription ends — there is nothing to switch on, and no way to dismiss it. ## What does the notice on every page mean? It means a payment Fincanva expected has not been collected — and its wording tells you which of two different situations you are in. It appears as a warning strip above whatever page you are on, everywhere in the app. - **A renewal was refused.** "A payment for your subscription didn't go through. Update your payment method to keep your access." The payment method on file was declined — commonly an expired card, a block by the bank, or insufficient funds. - **A first payment has not arrived yet.** "We haven't received your first subscription payment yet. Check your payment method if nothing arrives." Nothing has necessarily gone wrong here: a payment method that settles over several days can leave a brand-new subscription uncollected while it completes. Neither case changes the plan you are on. On **Settings → Plan and usage** the plan pass still names that plan — Advanced, or whichever one you hold — and **Your subscription** describes the payment: a refused renewal as `A renewal payment didn’t go through`, a first payment that has not arrived yet as `We haven’t received your first payment yet`. ## What can I still use while this is happening? Everything your plan covers, exactly as before. A failed payment changes what Fincanva *says*, not what you can do: your strategies still run, your screeners still return matches, your live portfolios still update. **Your subscription** states the same thing — "You keep Advanced while we retry." This is deliberate. The first refused charge is not a decision to stop serving you, and treating it as one would cut off someone whose card simply expired. ## Steps 1. Select **Update payment method**. The button sits on the notice strip itself, and again in **Your subscription** on **Settings** → **Plan and usage**. On **Settings** → **Payments and invoices**, the payment method's own **Update** button opens the same Stripe page. 2. Wait while the button reads "Opening payment settings…". Fincanva does not handle card details itself — it hands you to Stripe, the payment provider that holds them. 3. Add or replace the payment method in the Stripe page that opens, and confirm it there. If your bank asks for an extra confirmation, complete it in the same place. 4. Return to Fincanva. ## What you should see The notice strip is gone from every page, and **Your subscription** no longer says that a renewal payment didn't go through. Nothing else has to be re-done: the notice clears once Stripe reports the payment to Fincanva, normally within seconds of the payment provider accepting it. ## How long do I have before this becomes a problem? Fincanva does not set that deadline, and deliberately does not publish one. The retry schedule belongs to Stripe: it decides how many times to re-attempt the charge, how far apart, and when to give up. Any countdown shown here would be a number Fincanva does not control and could not keep true. What you can rely on is the notice itself. It stays for exactly as long as the payment is uncollected, and it disappears by itself as soon as Stripe reports that change — in either direction. ## What happens if the payment never goes through? Your subscription ends, and paid access ends with it. **Your subscription** states the consequence in advance: "Update your payment method — if the retries don't go through, the plan ends." **Nothing you have built is deleted.** Strategies, screeners, portfolios and their results all remain. What changes is what a plan covers: work beyond the reach of your current plan stops running rather than disappearing, and trying to run it is refused in words that name the plan — `This strategy is outside your {currentPlan} plan, so it cannot run.` Subscribing again restores the access; it does not have to restore the work, because the work was never removed. Removing an account and its contents is a separate, deliberate action you take yourself — see [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion). A failed payment never triggers it. Fincanva does not tell you which plan to be on, and this page is not a recommendation to subscribe — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What does Settings → Plan and usage show once the subscription has ended? It stops naming the plan you held. Once access actually stops, the plan pass on **Settings** → **Plan and usage** reads **Free** — the same name shown to an account that never subscribed — and the line under it reads **"No active subscription."** instead of a price. Its level indicator reads **Level 0 of 3**: Free is not missing from Fincanva's plan scale, it sits on it unheld — see [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) for what the scale counts. **Your subscription** still names what happened, so the change is not silent. It reads `Your {plan} plan ended on {date}`, naming the plan you held and the day it ended, or, when the subscription closed because the retries described above ran out rather than because you cancelled it, `Your {plan} plan ended — the payment was never collected`. Either sentence is followed by the same line: "Everything you built is still here. Subscribing again restores access to it." The action beneath depends on which of the two endings you are in: after a cancellation it reads **Choose a plan** and opens the same plan picker as a first subscription, while a subscription that ended because the retries ran out reads **Update payment method** instead — that ending is a payment that never arrived, so the section offers the payment page rather than the plan picker. ## Common problems ### The strip is still there after I updated my card Open a page again. The billing state is read fresh each time a page loads, so the strip clears on the next load rather than the instant the Stripe page closes. If it persists, the new method has not been accepted yet — the Stripe page shows the payment's own status. ### "Couldn't open the payment portal. Try again." The handover to Stripe did not complete. Select **Update payment method** again; the same button in **Your subscription** on **Settings** → **Plan and usage**, or **Update** on **Settings** → **Payments and invoices**, opens the same place if the notice strip's one keeps failing. ### I never subscribed, and I'm seeing a payment notice The notice only appears for an account with a subscription whose payment is uncollected. If you are on the free plan you will not see it — check which account you are signed in with on **Settings**. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you # What Settings → Usage tells you Settings → Plan and usage is where your plan lives: it shows the plan you hold and where it sits among Fincanva's plans, what your account is using against the ceilings that plan really sets, your subscription with the actions to change or cancel it, and what each plan includes. The account menu opens it as **Plan and usage**, every link that offers to change plan leads here, and a Stripe Checkout returns here when it ends. ## How does Settings → Plan and usage work? The page opens with two objects side by side — the **plan pass**, which names the plan you hold, and the **ladder** of the four plans on sale — and then has three sections, from top to bottom: - **What you're using** — the counts your plan caps, your strategies followed Live as seats, your maximum [leverage](/glossary/leverage) and your [Fin](/glossary/fin) AI suggestions. - **Your subscription** — the dated sentence that says where your subscription stands, with **Change plan** and, in the menu beside it, **Cancel plan**. - **What each plan includes** — the full list of plan lines, collapsed until you open it. What you pay — the payment method, the next charge, your billing details and your invoices — is on the neighbouring page, **Settings → Payments and invoices**. ## What do the plan pass and the ladder show? The plan pass shows the plan you hold, in your plan's lime: the caption `Your plan` (`On trial` during a trial), the plan's bars, its name, its price, and one dated line. The name reads Starter, Advanced or Ultimate; a Free account reads `Free` and the line `No active subscription.`; a Professional subscriber reads `Custom`, with no bars and no price, because Professional has no entry in Fincanva's own price catalogue. The dated line is the first sentence of **Your subscription** below — `Renews on {date}`, `Your trial ends on {date}` or `Ends on {date}` — so the pass and the section cannot tell two stories. During a trial the price reads `Free`. What each of those sentences means: [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan). The ladder draws Free, Starter, Advanced and Ultimate as four blocks rising left to right. Each block carries how many strategies you can follow Live on that plan — 0, 1, 5 and `∞` — with the plan's name and its monthly price under it, and the caption says so: `In the blocks: how many strategies you follow live on that plan.` `You are here` sits above the plan you hold. The plan one step above yours is highlighted, and beside the ladder `The next step · {plan}` lists the main lines it adds, followed by how many more it adds in **What each plan includes**. On Ultimate there is no step above, so no offer appears and the ladder reads `The highest plan: you have everything Fincanva does.` A Professional subscriber, or an account whose plan could not be read, stands on no block: no `You are here` and no next step. ## What does "What you're using" show? "What you're using" shows a row for each count your plan really caps, with the same counter the list itself shows beside its header, and then your maximum leverage and your Fin AI suggestions. In practice: - On **Free**, the capped count is saved strategies, capped at two, with a row of cells — one per unit of the ceiling, filled for each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) you hold. - On **Starter** and **Advanced**, it is strategies followed Live, capped at one and five, drawn as **seats**. Each taken seat names the strategy that holds it and is marked `Live`; an empty one reads `Free seat`. Under the seats: `When every seat is taken, stop following one to follow another.` - On **Ultimate** and **Professional** there is no ceiling on following, so the seats show only the strategies you follow, and the counter says there is no limit. With none followed, the row reads `No strategy is Live yet. Turn Live on from a strategy's page.` **Maximum leverage** shows your plan's highest leverage as `{value} · your maximum`, on a scale that runs from the lowest to the highest maximum any plan on sale allows. **Fin AI suggestions** shows what your plan allows for them. The figures for every plan are on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Why saved strategies and saved screeners usually have no row:** on the plans where they read "no limit", the figure behind them is a technical safety maximum of 999 that stops runaway creation. No plan raises it, because it is not a plan lever, so the page reads it as no limit and shows no row. **A zero ceiling is not shown here either:** following strategies Live on Free is not a count Free caps but a feature Free does not include, so Free's block on the ladder shows it as a zero, and it is listed under **What each plan includes**, in the plan that opens it. Each counter reads one of a few ways, depending on where you stand: - `{held} of {allowed}` — within the ceiling, for example "4 of 5" for strategies followed Live on Advanced. - `{held} of {allowed} · {beyond} set aside` — over the ceiling; the surplus is what reads **Set aside**, per [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). - `{held} of {allowed} · {beyond} not followed` — specific to Live: strategies past the Live ceiling stay open and readable, they simply stop being followed, and they take no seat. ## What does "Your subscription" show? "Your subscription" states where your subscription stands in one dated sentence — for example `Renews on {date}`, followed by what will be charged and how many days are left — and carries the action that fits that state: - **Change plan** opens the plan comparison, where you choose a plan and billing interval and when the change applies. A Free account, or one whose subscription has ended, sees **Choose a plan** instead. - **Cancel plan** sits in the menu beside **Change plan** (`More plan actions`), and asks you to confirm before anything changes. - **Restore plan** replaces them while a cancellation is scheduled, and **Cancel scheduled change** while a plan switch is queued. - **Update payment method** replaces them when a renewal payment failed — see [what happens if a payment fails](/docs/account-security/what-happens-if-a-payment-fails). - **Retry** appears when Fincanva could not reach billing; nothing on your account has changed. When the state asks you to act — a failed payment, for instance — the sentence appears as a panel of its own rather than a plain row. Every sentence and every dialog is described in [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan). A link elsewhere in the app that offers a plan change — a plan chip, a "switch to" button, a trial reminder — opens this page with **Change plan** already open. When you come back from Stripe Checkout, a message says how it went: `Subscription active` with "Payment was successful. Your new plan is now active.", or `Checkout cancelled` with "You can try again from Change plan, in Plan and usage." ## What does "What each plan includes" show? "What each plan includes" is collapsed at first: one row lists the groups — Build · Protect · Analyse · Project · Follow & support — with a **Show** button, and **Hide** folds it again. Opened, it shows what your plan gives you, and what each plan above yours adds, in two columns built from the same lines as the plan comparison on the public pricing page — one shared derivation, so the figures always match what each plan includes. - **What you have** lists every line of the comparison that your plan includes, grouped under Build, Protect, Analyse, Project and Follow & support. Each line carries your plan's value: a number, "No limit", a year or "All history", or a tick where the line is simply included. This is where the limits inside a single strategy show — for example "Instruments per strategy", "Screeners per strategy", "Strategies in a Combined", "Leverage" and "Backtests start from". "Strategies in a Combined" counts the strategies a [Combined](/glossary/combined) holds in use; a switched-off one does not count. - **Still to unlock** has one group for every plan above yours, cheapest first. Each group is headed by a button that names the plan — for example "Switch to Advanced" — that opens **Change plan** on this page, with a count of what it adds ("N more things"), and lists the lines that plan adds, each with the value it brings. On Ultimate there is nothing above to unlock, so this column does not appear and "What you have" stands alone, centred. On **Professional** the section shows no columns, only "Your plan is not one of the plans on sale, so there is no comparison with the others here. The ceilings above are its own." ## Does this page show my trial's limits? Yes, the same way it shows any plan's: this page reads your account's live enforced capability level, and during a 30-day trial that level is the plan the trial is on — a trial has no limits of its own, so "What you're using" and "What each plan includes" show your plan's figures, from day 1. The plan pass names the trial: its caption reads `On trial`, its price `Free`, and **Your subscription** gives the trial's end date and what day 31 will do. See [the 30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial) for what the trial actually grants and what that sentence says. ## Why do the pass and "What you're using" ever disagree? In one case, and a trial is not it — during a trial the two agree, because the trial runs at the plan the pass names (the section above). The case that remains is **a paying customer on Professional**: the pass names your plan from Fincanva's own price catalogue, which has no entry for Professional, so a Professional subscriber sees a generic **Custom** label there, stands on no block of the ladder, and is offered no next step. "What you're using" reads your account's actual enforced capability level instead, so it still counts against Professional's own ceilings. "What each plan includes" draws no comparison for it, because Professional is not one of the plans on sale. See [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan) for what the subscription sentence shows and why. ## Limits and edge cases ### Backtests start from Your plan's earliest [backtest](/glossary/backtest) start year shows as the "Backtests start from" line in **What you have**, under **What each plan includes** — a year, or "All history" where the plan has no floor — and where a plan above yours reaches further back, its year shows under **Still to unlock**. Fincanva applies that floor: the starting-year calendar greys out every earlier year, a save that asks for one is refused with a message naming the plan that reaches it, and a strategy that already starts earlier — after a move to a plan with a later floor — is set aside rather than moved, with its settings still editable. The floor for each plan, and the three places it is applied, are on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes#what-sets-the-backtests-starting-year). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/account-security/why-fincanva-asks-you-to-accept-the-terms # Why Fincanva asks you to accept the Terms Fincanva asks you to accept its Terms and Privacy Policy because it does not create an account, or let an account into the app, without a recorded acceptance of the current version of the Terms. You give that acceptance once, by ticking one box when you sign up, and you are asked again only when Fincanva publishes a new version — that second request is the screen headed **One more step**. ## Before you start No prerequisites. The acceptance step appears on its own: on the sign-up screen when you create an account, on the sign-in screen under **One step to finish** when you sign in with an address or a Google account that has no Fincanva account yet, and on the **One more step** screen when an existing account's recorded acceptance is out of date. ## Steps 1. On the sign-up screen, tick "I accept the Terms and Privacy Policy." — the box always starts unticked. 2. Sign up the way you prefer: the emailed link or code, a password, or **Continue with Google**. If you press one before ticking the box, nothing is sent: the box is marked, the cursor moves to it, and it reads "Please accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to continue." 3. If the **One more step** screen appears later, tick the same box and select **Agree and continue**. ## What you should see Fincanva creates your account and records the date and the version of the Terms you accepted. After **One more step**, you go on into the app, and the screen does not come back until Fincanva publishes a new version of the Terms. ## Why do I have to accept the Terms to sign up? Because Fincanva does not create an account without that acceptance. The sign-up screen carries one required checkbox — "I accept the Terms and Privacy Policy." — and every way of signing up checks for it before doing anything: the emailed link or code, a password, and **Continue with Google**. Press one without the tick and nothing is sent — the box is marked, the cursor moves to it, and it reads "Please accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to continue." The box always starts unticked. The rule is not only on the screen: the server itself refuses to create an account whose request does not carry the acceptance. When you accept, Fincanva records the date and the version of the Terms you accepted. Both come from Fincanva's own clock and its own current version, never from your browser. Starting from the sign-in screen instead adds one step. If you sign in with **Continue with Google**, or with the link or code Fincanva emails you, and there is no Fincanva account for you yet, the sign-in screen asks for the same acceptance under the heading **One step to finish** before it creates one — see [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in). Starting from the sign-up screen, where you have already ticked the box, you never see it, and neither does anyone who already has an account. The sign-up screen also shows a second box, which is optional and separate from the Terms: directly under "I accept the Terms and Privacy Policy." it reads "Subscribe to occasional product news and promotional emails. You can opt out anytime." It always starts unticked, no button waits for it, and leaving it empty creates your account exactly the same way. It appears wherever the Terms box does when an account is being created: the sign-up screen and the sign-in screen's **One step to finish**, but not **One more step**, whose account already exists. Ticking it switches on **Fincanva news** for your new account; what that setting does, and how to switch it off later, is under [notification settings](/docs/account-security/how-to-manage-your-notification-settings#what-can-i-switch-on-or-off). ## Is there a minimum age to use Fincanva? Yes: the Terms restrict Fincanva to adults. In the Terms' own words: "Usage of Fincanva and the Service is age restricted: to access and use Fincanva and its Service the User must be an adult under applicable law." There is no separate age checkbox. The requirement lives inside the Terms, so ticking the box that accepts the Terms accepts it too. ## What does the "One more step" screen mean? The **One more step** screen means your account has no recorded acceptance of the current Terms — either because you accepted an earlier version, or because no acceptance was ever recorded for it — and Fincanva needs you to accept the current version before you carry on. It reads "Please review and accept to keep using Fincanva.", shows the same checkbox as sign-up, and a button, **Agree and continue**. Pressing it before ticking the box saves nothing: the box is marked and reads "Please accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to continue." Accepting records the new version and takes you on into the app. There is no way past the screen without accepting: until you accept the current version, every page of the app you open sends you back to it. Signing out and in again does not skip it either, because the check reads the version recorded on your account, not anything stored in your browser. ## Why am I being asked to accept the Terms again? Because Fincanva has published a new version of its Terms since you last accepted. Every acceptance is stored with the version it was given for; once the current version moves on, an acceptance recorded against an earlier one no longer counts, and the next page you open in the app shows **One more step**. It happens once per new version. After you accept, the screen does not come back until the Terms change again. An account with no recorded acceptance at all meets the same screen once, for the same reason. ## Where do I read the Terms and the Privacy Policy? On Fincanva's website: [the Terms](/terms), [the Privacy Policy](/privacy), and [the addendum to the Terms](/terms/addendum). The two links inside the checkbox's sentence open the Terms and the Privacy Policy in a new tab, so reading them does not lose your place on the sign-up screen. Cookies are a separate consent, with its own banner and its own way to change your mind later — see [how cookie consent works](/docs/account-security/how-cookie-consent-works-on-fincanva). A visitor covered by US state privacy law also sees a "Notice at Collection" link beside the checkbox, explained under [Your Privacy Choices and Notice at Collection](/glossary/your-privacy-choices-and-notice-at-collection). What happens to your record of accepting the Terms if you later delete your account is covered under [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion). ## Common problems ### "Please accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to continue." You pressed a button — **Continue with email →**, a password sign-up, **Continue with Google**, or **Agree and continue** — before ticking the box. Nothing was sent and nothing was saved. Tick "I accept the Terms and Privacy Policy." and press the same button again. The buttons are never greyed out by the box: the line under it is how the screen tells you what is missing. ### "One step to finish" after signing in with an emailed link or code You chose **Sign in**, but there is no Fincanva account for that address yet, so after you opened the link or typed the code, the sign-in screen asks to create one: "This email doesn't have an account yet. Accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to create it." Check the address shown (type it if the field is empty), tick the box and press **Continue**: Fincanva creates your account and signs you in straight away, with no second email — opening the link or typing the code has already proved the address is yours. That proof lasts 5 minutes, only in the browser where you opened the link or typed the code, and it ends as soon as you press **← Back to sign in** or sign in any other way. If it has run out, or you reached the step in another browser, the screen says so — "This step has expired or was opened in another browser. Enter your email and we'll send you a new link — it creates your account." — and **Continue with email →** sends that new email. If an account was created for the address in the meantime, the screen reads "You already have an account with this email — sign in to continue." and offers **Sign in** instead. The link or code from the first email cannot be used again. Until you open that first email, the sign-in screen looks the same whether or not an account exists, so nobody who types your address can learn whether you have one. ### "Something went wrong. Try again." Your acceptance on the **One more step** screen was not saved. Press **Agree and continue** again. If your session expired while the screen was open, Fincanva sends you to the sign-in screen instead; sign in and the **One more step** screen comes back, because the acceptance was never recorded. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # A plan refusal now says what's wrong **2026-09-25** · billing · 2026.09 A refusal that names a plan limit — on Backtest, Copy, Clone, Combine or Save — now names what's wrong: the limit itself, your strategy's value and your plan's, for example "it starts in 1990, Advanced starts from 2000" or "it has 6 strategies, Advanced allows 5", followed by which plan would cover it ("Switch to Ultimate"). The padlock tooltip on a strategy row and the set-aside panel list every breach this way, not only the first. See [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Choose which strategies keep running when your plan shrinks **2026-09-11** · billing · 2026.09 When a plan change means your plan no longer covers every [live](/glossary/mark-live) strategy you follow, you are asked which ones to keep — at the moment it happens, not after. The dialog states how many live strategies you follow against how many your plan covers, and pre-selects the strategies you used most recently; the rest stop being followed but stay in your library with their history, and go live again once your plan covers them. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Old-platform customers sign in with the same account **2026-09-21** · account-auth · 2026.09 If you had an account on Fincanva's earlier platform, you sign in with that same account today — there is nothing new to create. On sign-in you find the subscription you were already paying for, and your strategies, portfolios and screeners are where you left them. See [get started with Fincanva](/docs/getting-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps) and [how to read your plan](/docs/account-security/how-to-read-your-plan). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # The Free plan keeps more saved strategies **2026-09-25** · billing · 2026.09 The Free plan now lets you keep more saved strategies: Set by your plan: 2 on Free and 999 on Starter, Advanced, Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/whats-new # Usage and Change plan are redesigned **2026-09-25** · billing · 2026.09 Settings → Usage now leads with what your plan gives you and what each plan above yours adds: **What you have** lists what's already unlocked, **Still to unlock** lists what a higher plan would add, both read from the same ledger the pricing page reads. See [what your Usage page tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you). Billing's **Change plan** dialog is now three plan cards, each with its price and what it includes, instead of one long comparison, with a line under each button saying when you'd be charged. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice # Is this financial advice? No. Fincanva is a research and simulation tool: it lets you build, [backtest](/glossary/backtest), and follow strategies. Nothing in the app or these docs is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any [instrument](/glossary/instrument). 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) ## What Fincanva does and does not tell you Fincanva shows you what a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) would have done on historical data and how its rules behave; it does not tell you what to invest in or what will happen to your money. Decisions about your money are yours, and you are responsible for them. ## Does a good backtest mean the strategy will make money? No. A backtest shows what would have happened over a past period, not what will happen next. A strong historical result is not a promise of future gains — Fincanva will not tell you whether a strategy is a good investment, because that is advice and Fincanva gives none. ## Related For a headline result metric that describes the shape of a backtest, see [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/aagr # AAGR AAGR, the arithmetic annual growth rate, is a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [total return](/glossary/total-return) divided by the number of years in the [backtest](/glossary/backtest), with no compounding applied. It is the reinvest-off counterpart to [CAGR](/glossary/cagr): the two share one row on the metrics view, and the **Reinvest profits** toggle decides which one is shown. Because AAGR ignores compounding, it usually reads higher than CAGR over multi-year gains. **Also seen as:** arithmetic annual growth rate, simple annualised return, non-compounded annual return ## How is AAGR calculated? AAGR spreads the whole-period return evenly across the years, as a simple average with no year-on-year compounding. $$ \text{AAGR} = \frac{\text{total return}}{\text{years}} $$ where: total return is the whole-period gain as a fraction, and years is the length of the backtest in calendar years. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - AAGR fills the annualised-return slot on the metrics view when **Reinvest profits** is off; with it on, the same slot shows CAGR. - It is a plain arithmetic mean — the same total return over the same length always gives the same AAGR, regardless of the path taken to get there. - It is expressed as a percentage and can be negative when a strategy loses money over the period. ## What does it look like in practice? Take the same run that grows 10,000 into 16,100 over 5 years — a total return of +61%. AAGR divides that evenly: 61% ÷ 5 = 12.2% per year. CAGR on the same run is about 10% per year. The gap — 12.2% versus 10% — is the effect of compounding: AAGR counts each year's gain against the original stake, while CAGR compounds it on the growing balance. *No annual growth rate is a rate you can expect to repeat.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/account-deletion # Account deletion Account deletion in Fincanva is a scheduled request rather than an immediate erase: you confirm it, and the account is set to be deleted **14 days later**. Those 14 days are a grace period you control — sign in at any point during them and **Keep my account** cancels the request outright. When the date arrives, your private content is deleted and your account identity is anonymized. The dialog states it plainly: "Deletion is scheduled for 14 days from now, not immediate. You can sign back in any time during that window and cancel." **Also seen as:** delete account, close account, right to erasure ## What happens the moment I request deletion? Fincanva schedules the deletion, signs out the browser you did it in, and emails you the date. Nothing is deleted yet. Three things stand between a stray click and a scheduled deletion: 1. **A recent sign-in.** If your session is more than 15 minutes old, Fincanva refuses and says "For your security, please sign in again, then return here to delete your account." with a **Sign in again** button. This action cannot run off a session left open on someone else's machine. 2. **Typing your own address.** The dialog asks you to type your email in full — `Type {email} to confirm` — and the confirm button stays disabled until it matches. 3. **A written summary first.** Under "What happens after the grace period", the dialog lists exactly what goes and what stays before you can act. Once confirmed, you land back on the sign-in screen, and an email arrives titled "Your Fincanva account is scheduled for deletion" carrying the exact date. ## How do I cancel a scheduled deletion? Sign back in. While a deletion is scheduled, a banner sits at the top of every page — `Your account is scheduled for deletion on {date}.` — with a **Keep my account** button beside it, and pressing it cancels the request. Your security settings show the same thing as `Your account will be deleted on {date}. You can still keep it until then.` Nothing is degraded while you wait: during the grace period the account works exactly as before, your strategies and screeners run, and the scheduled date is the only difference. The scheduled-deletion email spells the route out: "You have until then to change your mind: just sign in to Fincanva and click *Keep my account* on the banner at the top of any page." The window closes when the date arrives. Once Fincanva has begun finalizing the deletion it cannot be called back, because the removals it performs are irreversible. ## What is deleted, and what is anonymized? Two different fates, and the distinction is the point: your content is deleted, while the account record itself survives in a stripped form that identifies nobody. | What | Fate | |---|---| | Strategies and [strategy](/glossary/strategy) folders you own, including their saved run history | deleted | | Screeners and [screener](/glossary/screener) folders you own | deleted | | Your personal preferences | deleted | | Your sign-in methods, connected accounts, and active sessions | deleted | | Your two-factor secret and backup codes | deleted | | Your account identity — email address, name, profile picture | **anonymized**: the address is replaced with a non-deliverable placeholder and the name becomes "Deleted user" | | Your record of accepting the Terms | **kept**, with the IP address it was recorded from removed | | Public and shared data | not deleted | Anonymization rather than row-removal is deliberate: keeping a nameless account record keeps historical references intact while stripping everything that points at a person. In the app's own words: "Your account identity is anonymized." and "Public and shared data are not deleted." Read that second sentence precisely: **Public** means the catalogue Fincanva publishes, not something you made visible — see [Mine / Public](/glossary/mine-public). Public items were never yours, so deleting your account leaves them untouched; every item that *is* yours is deleted no matter who else could see it. The record of your acceptance of the Terms is kept for the same reason the account row is: it is what keeps "did this account accept version N, and when" answerable once the account itself is gone, and the IP address stored beside it is removed because that part points at a person. Any active subscription is cancelled as part of finalizing the deletion. ## Does deletion sign my other devices out? No — not on the day you ask. Scheduling the deletion signs out only the browser you requested it from; every other signed-in browser stays signed in, because the account keeps working normally throughout the grace period. Your sign-in methods and every remaining session are removed when the deletion actually runs on day 14. If you want the other browsers out now, that is a separate action: press **Sign out** on each row, or **Sign out all other sessions**, under [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions). And if you cancel with **Keep my account**, you simply sign in again as normal. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The grace period is 14 days, counted from the moment you confirm. - Confirmation requires typing your own email address, and a sign-in newer than 15 minutes. - Requesting deletion signs out the browser you did it in — other sessions are untouched until day 14 — and the account still works normally if you sign back in. - **Keep my account** cancels the request at any time before the date, from the banner or from **Delete account** in **Settings** → **Privacy and data**. - Two emails are sent: one confirming the schedule and its date, one confirming completion. - After the date: private strategies, screeners, folders, preferences, sign-in methods, sessions, and two-factor data are deleted; the account identity is anonymized; public and shared data are untouched. - There is no "delete right now" option — the 14-day path is the only one. ## What is the difference between day 1 and day 15? **Day 1.** You type your email into the confirmation field and press **Delete my account**. Fincanva signs you out and emails you the date — say 8 August. Nothing has been deleted. That evening you sign in to check something: everything is there, every strategy runs, and a banner at the top reads "Your account is scheduled for deletion on 8 August." next to **Keep my account**. Had you pressed it, the schedule would have been cancelled on the spot and the account would carry on as if you had never asked. **Day 15.** You didn't press it. On 8 August the deletion runs. Your strategies, strategy folders, screeners, screener folders and their saved run history are gone; so are your preferences, your sign-in methods, your sessions, and your two-factor secret and backup codes. Your account row survives with its email replaced by an undeliverable placeholder and its name set to "Deleted user" — nothing in it points to you. A final email arrives: "Your Fincanva account has been deleted as scheduled. We've removed your sign-in methods, your private strategies and screeners, and your preferences." Signing in on day 15 is not possible, and there is no undo. Coming back means creating a new account, which starts empty — the old one is not recoverable, by you or by anyone at Fincanva. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/accuracy # Accuracy Accuracy is the average, across your holdings, of how much of each holding's target value its whole-share position actually covers. Each holding's own figure is its deployed amount divided by its target value, so it measures only what rounding down to whole shares left behind; the KPI then averages those figures with every holding counting equally, whatever its size. Fincanva shows it as the "Accuracy" KPI on the Positions view for the book at the selected [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date. ## How is accuracy calculated? Accuracy is the plain average of the holdings' individual accuracies, and each holding's accuracy is its deployed amount divided by its target value. $$ \text{Accuracy} = \frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{\text{deployed}_i}{\text{target value}_i} $$ where $N$ is the number of holdings that hold at least one share, $\text{deployed}_i$ is holding $i$'s whole-share quantity times its price, and $\text{target value}_i$ is the amount the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) aims to hold in it before any rounding (see [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed)). In words: only rounding moves each holding's ratio — the deployed amount is rounded to whole shares and the target value is not, so the shortfall from 100% is exactly what rounding left behind. The average then gives every holding the same say. A holding worth 2% of the book moves Accuracy as much as one worth 40%, so a single small or high-priced holding that rounds badly can pull the figure down while almost all of the money is deployed, and a large holding that rounds badly counts for no more than any other. A holding too small to buy even one share takes no position at all, so it is left out of the average rather than counted as 0% — and so is a holding in a [Combined](/glossary/combined) whose strategies' whole-share positions cancel out to zero shares, even when its net target is not zero. Accuracy therefore does not register a holding that ends up with no shares. ## What counts as good accuracy? A figure near 100% is good: in the typical holding, rounding down to whole shares left almost nothing behind. A lower figure means that at least some holdings lost a noticeable share of their target to rounding — often one or two small or high-priced ones, because every holding counts equally. Each holding's own figure sits under its "Deployed" amount in the "Target positions & exits" sheet, which is where to look to see which ones pull the average down. **Shorts behave the same way as longs here.** Rounding moves a short's share count toward zero just as it does a long's, so a short's deployed amount is normally no larger than its target either. **A reading above 100% is possible.** A holding whose quantity falls within a hair of a whole share is counted as that whole share, which can put it over its target by a fraction of a point. A Combined can move a holding much further, in either direction: when two of its strategies hold the same [instrument](/glossary/instrument) on opposite sides, each side is rounded to whole shares on its own before they are netted, and the net that remains can sit well above or well below the net target. At a price of 100, a long target of 12.01 shares rounds to 12 and a short one of 10.99 rounds to 10, so 2 shares — 200 — are deployed against a net target of 102, and that holding reads 196%. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Accuracy is shown as a percentage KPI on the Positions view, to one decimal place, and reflects the book at the selected rebalance date. - It is an unweighted average: every holding with at least one share counts once, whatever its size. A holding that ends up with no shares — too small to buy one, or a Combined whose sides cancel out — is not in the average. - It tends to rise with more capital, because the whole-share leftover on each holding becomes a smaller fraction of that holding's target. - It measures how faithfully the targets were filled — it is not a rating or ranking of the strategy's quality or its expected return. ## What does it look like in practice? Suppose a book of 10,000 holds two instruments. Holding A has a target value of 9,000 at a price of 100: that is exactly 90 shares, so 9,000 is deployed and its accuracy is 100%. Holding B has a target value of 1,000 at a price of 300: 3.33 shares round down to 3, so 900 is deployed and its accuracy is 90%. The Accuracy KPI shows 95.0%, the plain average of 100% and 90% — even though 9,900 of the 10,000 target, or 99%, is deployed. The small holding pulls the figure down exactly as much as the large one holds it up, which is what averaging with every holding counting equally means. *Accuracy measures how closely a paper target book was filled, never real orders, and no reading of it is a reason to put money behind a strategy.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/active-sessions # Active sessions Active sessions is the list of browsers that are currently signed in to your Fincanva account, one row per browser, with the ability to end any of them remotely. Ending a session signs that browser out and forces a fresh sign-in there; it changes nothing else about your account and does not touch your password. The list is the answer to "am I still signed in somewhere I shouldn't be?" — and the fix for it. **Also seen as:** signed-in devices, logged-in devices ## What does the Active sessions list show? Each row is one signed-in browser, labelled in the form "Chrome on macOS" — browser and operating system, read from the browser's own identification — falling back to "Unknown device" when that identification is missing or unreadable. Under the label sits a freshness line: | Row state | What you see | What it means | |---|---|---| | The browser you are reading this in | "Active now" plus a **This device** badge | the current session; it has no Sign out button | | Any other signed-in browser | `Last active {relative}` — for example "Last active 2 hours ago" | when that session last made a request | The rows are sessions, not machines: two browsers on one laptop are two rows, and tabs inside one browser share a single row. ## How do I sign out a device I'm not using? Press **Sign out** on that row. The session ends immediately, the row disappears from the list, and the next time anyone opens Fincanva in that browser they meet the sign-in screen. Your own session is untouched — the row you are sitting in offers no **Sign out**, only the **This device** badge. To clear everything else at once, **Sign out all other sessions** sits below the list and asks for confirmation first: "Sign out from all other devices?" — "You'll need to sign in again from those devices. This session stays signed in." Confirm with **Sign out others**. The button only appears when there is in fact another session to end. ## How long does a session last if I do nothing? A session ends on its own in two ways, whichever comes first: **2 hours of inactivity**, or **30 days** from when it was created. Activity refreshes the idle clock but not the 30-day one, so even a browser you use daily eventually asks you to sign in again. When either limit fires, the session is gone rather than merely idle, and Fincanva says so: "Session expired" — "Your session expired — please sign in again." Nothing in your account changes; you simply sign in and carry on. When you hit that expiry from inside the app, signing back in returns you to the page you were on rather than to a generic starting page — the exact view you were looking at, not just the section it lived in. ## Why did an old device disappear from the list on its own? Fincanva keeps at most **10 active sessions per account**. When a new sign-in would push you past that, the least recently active session is dropped to make room. Signing in again on the same browser also replaces that browser's own earlier row rather than stacking a second one, which is why a much-used device shows one entry and not a history. So a row vanishing without you pressing anything means one of three ordinary things: the session hit its 2-hour idle limit, it hit its 30-day limit, or it was the oldest of eleven. ## Does changing my password sign my other devices out? Yes. Changing your password from your account settings ends every other session on your account, leaving only the browser you changed it in signed in. That makes a password change the blunt [instrument](/glossary/instrument) for "get everyone else out", and it is worth knowing that the reverse is not true: signing a session out does not change your password, so anyone who knows the password can sign back in. If you suspect the password itself is known, change it — see [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in) — and consider turning on [two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - One row per signed-in browser; the current one carries the **This device** badge and cannot sign itself out from the list. - Other rows show `Last active {relative}`; the current row shows "Active now". - A session expires after 2 hours of inactivity, and in all cases 30 days after it was created. - Signing back in after an expiry from inside the app returns you to the page you were on, not to a generic starting page. - At most 10 sessions are kept per account; beyond that the least recently active one is dropped. - **Sign out all other sessions** appears only when another session exists, and always asks for confirmation. - Changing your password signs all other sessions out. Scheduling [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion) signs out only the browser you requested it from; the rest are removed when the deletion runs. ## What does it look like in practice? You finished a session on a hotel computer last night and cannot remember whether you signed out. This morning, from your own laptop, you open your security settings. Two rows are listed. The top one reads **This device** with "Active now" — that is the laptop you are on. The second reads "Chrome on Windows" with "Last active 14 hours ago" and a **Sign out** button, which matches the hotel machine. You press **Sign out** on the second row. It disappears, and the hotel browser now holds a dead cookie: whoever opens Fincanva there gets the sign-in screen, with no access to your strategies. Your laptop session is unaffected — you never had to reset your password to close that door. Had there been four unfamiliar rows instead of one, **Sign out all other sessions** would have cleared them in a single confirmed action, leaving only the laptop signed in. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/adjusted-beta # Adjusted beta Adjusted beta is a [beta](/glossary/beta) estimate that has been pulled part of the way toward 1.0 before it is used. It measures the same thing as beta — how much one series moves for each unit move in a reference series — but because a beta fitted on a finite stretch of past returns is measured with error, and because betas far from 1 have historically drifted back toward 1 in later periods, the adjustment treats an extreme estimate as partly noise and shrinks it toward the market. An adjusted beta is therefore always closer to 1.0 than the raw estimate it came from, and never further away. Fincanva applies the standard **Blume adjustment**: 0.67 of the fitted beta plus 0.33 of 1.0. **Also seen as:** shrunk beta, shrinkage-adjusted beta, Blume beta ## Why is a raw beta estimate adjusted? A raw beta is adjusted because it is a *statistical estimate*, not a measured constant, and it carries two problems the adjustment addresses at once. The first is sampling error: fit a beta on a short window and the figure partly reflects which weeks happened to fall inside the window. The second is mean reversion: an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) whose measured beta was 1.8 over one period has, on average, come in lower than 1.8 over the next — the market's beta is 1.0 by definition, and estimates far from it tend to move back toward it. Shrinkage handles both by taking a weighted blend of the fitted beta and 1.0: $$ \beta_{\text{adj}} = w \cdot \beta_{\text{raw}} + (1 - w) \cdot 1.0 $$ where: $\beta_{\text{raw}}$ is the beta fitted on historical returns, $w$ is a weight between 0 and 1 deciding how much of the fitted estimate is kept, and 1.0 is the market's beta by definition. A $w$ near 1 keeps almost all of the raw estimate; a smaller $w$ pulls harder toward the market. The shorter and noisier the estimation window, the stronger the case for a smaller $w$. ## Which adjustment does Fincanva use? Fincanva uses the **Blume adjustment** — the standard shrinkage that keeps 0.67 of the fitted beta and puts the remaining 0.33 on the market's 1.0. $$ \beta_{\text{adj}} = 0.67 \cdot \beta_{\text{raw}} + 0.33 \cdot 1.0 $$ It is named after Marshall Blume, who measured in the early 1970s that betas estimated in one period drifted toward 1 in the next, and proposed a fixed blend as the correction; Fincanva's weights are 0.67 on the fitted beta and 0.33 on 1.0. The weights are constants: they do not change with the instrument, the window, or how noisy the fit was. That is the trade the Blume adjustment makes — a fixed, predictable correction instead of one tuned per estimate. ## How does a raw beta of 1.6 become about 1.4? Suppose a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s returns, regressed on a reference market, give a raw beta of 1.6 — the strategy moved about 1.6% for each 1% move in the market over the window measured. Applying the 0.67/0.33 blend: $$ 0.67 \times 1.6 + 0.33 \times 1.0 \approx 1.4 $$ So a raw 1.6 becomes an adjusted 1.4. Note what the adjustment does and does not change: the ranking survives (a raw 1.6 still ends up above a raw 1.1, which becomes about 1.07), but the spread narrows — every estimate moves toward the middle, and the most extreme ones move most. A raw beta already at 1.0 is unchanged. ## Where does adjusted beta appear in Fincanva? Adjusted beta appears in Fincanva as a toggle on the **Beta neutral** allocation method, labelled **Adjusted beta** (and **Use Adjusted Beta** in the editor's compact layout), and it is on by default. Its hint states that it "Shrinks the OLS beta estimate toward 1.0" and "Stabilises estimates on short windows" — OLS being ordinary least squares, the standard regression fit. With the toggle on, the method works from adjusted betas; with it off, it works from the raw fitted betas. The same pull has a cost, and the hint names it: because every beta is pulled toward 1.0, a genuinely negative or near-zero beta — an inverse ETF, or gold in some periods — can come out positive, so the hint says to turn the toggle off for instruments like those. That matters because [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) builds its book against a **Target beta** you set — its hint reads "0.00 = market-neutral. Positive = net long exposure; negative = net short exposure." — measured with a **Benchmark instrument** whose hint reads "The portfolio's beta is computed against this instrument." The toggle decides which beta estimates that comparison rests on, adjusted or raw, so turning it off can change the allocation the method produces from the same instruments and the same target. Fincanva does not display the individual beta figures involved, only the resulting allocation. The term also belongs to the [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix), where an adjusted beta sits beside each pair of series — though Fincanva does not ship a correlation view today, so that is where the concept applies rather than a surface you can open. ## How do you read an adjusted beta? Read an adjusted beta the same way as a beta — above 1.0 means amplified moves relative to the reference, below 1.0 means dampened, negative means moving the other way — but read it as a *deliberately conservative* version of the raw figure. Two consequences follow. Extreme readings are rarer, so an adjusted beta of 1.5 implies a raw estimate that was higher still. And two instruments whose raw betas differed sharply look more alike after adjustment, so an adjusted beta is a weaker tool for separating a very high-beta holding from a merely high-beta one. Neither figure is a forecast: both describe a past window, and both change with the window and the reference series chosen. Fincanva does not tell you what beta to hold — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/aggregate-comparisons # Aggregate comparisons An aggregate comparison tests an [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s metric against a population figure rather than a fixed number — the **vs Aggregate** relation on a [screener](/glossary/screener) filter. You choose a **Scope** (Market or Sector) and an **Aggregate** statistic (Index, Average, Median, 75th percentile, or 25th percentile), and the filter keeps instruments on your chosen side of that figure. It lets you screen relative to peers instead of against an absolute threshold. It is not the same thing as the **Market & Sector** filter category: those filters *read* a market or sector figure instead of the instrument's, while an aggregate comparison reads the instrument's own metric and only borrows a market or sector figure as the threshold (see [filter taxonomy](/glossary/filter-taxonomy)). **Also seen as:** vs Aggregate, peer-relative screening ## How an aggregate comparison is built You set two things. The **Scope** names the group the figure is drawn from — **Market** or **Sector**. The **Aggregate** sets how that group is summarised into one number: - **Index** — the index-level figure for the chosen scope. - **Average** — the mean across the group. - **Median** — the middle value of the group. - **75th percentile** — the value three-quarters of the way up the group. - **25th percentile** — the value one-quarter of the way up the group. The filter then keeps instruments above or below that figure, according to the direction you set. Because the reference is a population statistic, the pass/fail line moves with the group as data updates, unlike a fixed value that stays put. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The scopes available today are **Market** and **Sector**; no other scope is offered on any filter. - The aggregate statistic is one of Index, Average, Median, 75th percentile, or 25th percentile. - The comparison is relative — the threshold is recomputed from the population rather than typed in as a number. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener over technology stocks adds a Price/Earnings filter in **vs Aggregate** mode, sets **Scope = Sector** and **Aggregate = Median**, and keeps instruments below that figure. The filter now passes only technology names whose P/E sits under the sector's median P/E — a peer-relative screen that shifts as valuations move, where a fixed `P/E < 15` would not. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/all-at-once # All at once **All at once** is Fincanva's single-page strategy editing view: every settings card of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) sits on one page, so you can change any part in any order instead of following a sequence of chapters. It edits the same strategy as [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step); only how much is on screen at once differs. All at once and Step by step are the product's official pair of views. A strategy opens in All at once when your preference under **How you build strategies** is **All at once**, or while you have not chosen one. ## How does Fincanva handle it? All at once shows each part of a strategy as its own card — here the Allocation card, naming its method (Risk parity, with its goal, Balance risk, and its description) and, beneath it, the method the strategy uses in Risk-Off. - Every card edits the live strategy in the page's own state, so a change is visible immediately — but it only persists once you save. - Changing a setting that feeds the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) leaves the last result standing and flips its [run status](/glossary/run-status) to **Needs re-run** until you re-run. - Switching the **Strategy type** card changes which cards the strategy uses, so it is confirmed first: the confirmation names the cards the new type requires, and any card the new type does not require that is currently configured is reset to its defaults. - The **⋯** menu's first item, **Open step by step**, opens the same strategy in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) for this visit only (offered to someone who can edit it, not on a Combined member's page): it changes no preference, and nothing is lost either way. The old icon that switched between the two views is gone. - A public strategy opens in All at once read-only — it cannot be saved directly; see [Mine / Public](/glossary/mine-public). ## What does All at once show? All at once lays out one card per part of the strategy, each editing that part directly: | Card | What it controls | |---|---| | **Strategy type** | which [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) the strategy is, and therefore which cards apply | | **Rebalance** | the strategy's [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) cadence | | **Asset selection** | the instruments the strategy may hold — see [asset-selection modes](/glossary/asset-selection-modes) | | **Allocation** | the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that weights capital across those instruments | | **Risk** | the [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation | | **Position exits** | the [take-profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop-loss](/glossary/stop-loss) rules applied to each position | A part that does not apply to the strategy's type is not shown; a part that is optional for that type appears as an **Add** row until you set it up, and then becomes a full card. ## How does All at once differ from Step by step? The difference is exposure and explanation, not capability: All at once shows every applicable card together, while Step by step shows one chapter at a time, with an explanation beside the choices that need one, and lets you skip the optional chapters. Neither view can set something the other cannot, and neither holds a private copy of the strategy — a change made in one is the same change in the other. Step by step is the better fit for a first build, where the order of decisions is itself the help; All at once is the better fit for changing two or three unrelated settings, because you do not walk past the chapters in between. ## What does All at once add for a Combined? For a [Combined](/glossary/combined), All at once adds the Combined's own layer on top of the per-strategy cards: a section listing the strategies it holds, and a [Combined-level](/glossary/combined-level) allocation that splits capital between them. Each [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) keeps its own set of cards, edited scoped to that strategy. A Combined holding fewer than two strategies is an [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined) and cannot run. ## What does it look like in practice? You have a **Full setup** strategy and want to change three unrelated things: the rebalance cadence, the allocation method, and the stop-loss level. In [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) that is three chapters — **Rebalance**, **Allocation** and **Risk and exits** — reached in the map's order, with the chapters in between on the way. In All at once all three cards — **Rebalance**, **Allocation**, and **Position exits** — are on the same page: you edit each in place, save once, and re-run once. The strategy that results is identical either way; only the number of screens you passed through differs. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method # Allocation and allocation method Allocation is how a strategy divides its capital among the things it holds, and the allocation method is the rule that sets each share: it turns a list of candidates into **weights**, one percentage per item, which the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) buys. Fincanva applies it at two levels: a [Combined](/glossary/combined) across its strategies, and each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) across its instruments. **Also seen as:** weighting, position sizing, capital split ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Allocation card names the method in use, with its goal and a line describing it, and beneath it the method the strategy uses in Risk-Off. - **Equal weights** is the starting method at both levels, so a new strategy or Combined splits capital evenly until you change it. How to pick another is [Choose an allocation method](/docs/strategies/choose-an-allocation-method). - The In-sample calculation window defaults to **12 months**, and Leverage to **1.00** — no leverage. - Each level holds an allocation profile per risk regime: **Risk-On**, used while no risk condition is firing, and **Risk-Off**, used while one is, each with its own method. A strategy with no active [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) has only the one profile, and the Allocation card's header says **Risk-On only**; with a risk condition active it says **Risk-Off set up**. - With a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) there is nothing to divide: "With one instrument and no Risk-Off split, 100% of capital goes to that instrument." ## Why does allocation happen at two levels? Because a Combined and a strategy allocate across different things. The [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) decides how much of the total capital each [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) receives; the strategy level then splits that slice across its instruments, which come from its [universe](/glossary/universe) — a hand-picked basket, or what a [screener](/glossary/screener) returns from its [seed universe](/glossary/seed-universe). Fincanva applies both layers in order and never flattens them into one list of instrument weights. A standalone strategy uses only the strategy level. ### What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds A, B, C and D. Under **Equal weights** each gets 25%. Switch it to **Fixed weights** and enter 40, 30, 20, 10: now A gets four times what D gets — same instruments, dates and rebalance cadence, a different split and different results. Put that strategy in a Combined with two others, on Equal weights: each strategy gets one third of the capital, and inside its third ours still splits 40 / 30 / 20 / 10. A ends up with 40% of one third — about 13.3% of the Combined's capital. That is the two levels, applied in order. ## Which allocation methods can I choose? These work at both levels — inside a strategy and when a Combined splits capital across its member strategies: [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights), [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights), [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility), [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based), [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity), [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz), [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman), [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification), [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad), [Min CVaR and Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), [CDaR · Conditional drawdown at risk](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk), [EVaR · Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk), [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) and [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming). These work only inside a strategy, across its instruments: [Market cap](/glossary/market-cap), [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation), [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral), [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking), [Floating](/glossary/floating), [HRP · Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), [HERC · Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) and [NCO · Nested clustered optimization](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization). Each method's page states the plan that includes it, compared across plans in [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). Which methods read history is set out in [Calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window); how a Combined's split differs from a strategy's, in [Combined weighting](/glossary/combined-weighting). ## How does the method picker help you find a method? The picker ("Choose allocation method") lists every method; its **Filter by goal** chips start on **All**, and each other chip keeps the methods serving that goal — a method serving two appears under both. A Combined's picker shows only its methods and their goals. ### What does the Simple rules goal mean? **Simple rules**: "Weights set by a rule you can read at a glance." Equal weights, Market cap, Ranking-based, Fixed weights and Floating. ### What does the Balance risk goal mean? **Balance risk**: "No instrument or group dominates the portfolio's risk." Risk parity, Inverse volatility, HRP and HERC. ### What does the Diversify goal mean? **Diversify**: "Makes use of how differently the instruments move." Min correlation, Max diversification, HRP, HERC and NCO. ### What does the Limit losses goal mean? **Limit losses**: "Looks at the worst days and periods, not at the average." Min CVaR, CDaR, EVaR, Scenario CVaR, Robust worst case and Stochastic programming. ### What does the Optimize goal mean? **Optimize**: "Looks for the best mix for a risk and return objective." MPT (Markowitz), Black-Litterman, NCO, Min MAD and Stochastic programming. ### What does the Follow a reference goal mean? **Follow a reference**: "Tracks or neutralises an index or an instrument." Market cap, which weights the way most broad indices do, and Mimicking and Beta neutral, which work against a reference instrument you choose. None is available to a Combined, so its picker does not show this goal. ## What do all allocation methods have in common? Every method, at either level, shares the same vocabulary. - **Weights.** One weight per item, as a share of the capital being allocated. Weights are relative: raw numbers that do not add up to 100 are standardized so the capital is fully used. A negative weight is a short position, which only some methods produce — see [Direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only). - **Rebalance interaction.** The method recomputes its weights at each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) and the strategy trades back to them; in between they [drift](/glossary/weight-drift) with prices. [Floating](/glossary/floating) is the deliberate exception. - **Calculation window.** Methods that read history read it over the window the app calls **In-sample**: "Historical window used by the active method for volatility, correlation, beta, and similar calculations. Default 12." Equal weights, Fixed weights, Market cap and Floating do not use it — see [Calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window). - **Covariance matrix.** Methods built on volatilities and correlations — Risk parity, MPT, Max diversification, and inside a strategy HRP, HERC and NCO — carry a **Covariance matrix** choice — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). Apart from the method, each level has one dial for *how much* capital works: [**Leverage**](/glossary/leverage) inside a strategy, the [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) at the Combined level. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/allocations-chart # Allocations chart The allocations chart is the view on a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s **Strategy Weights** page that plots one series per [strategy](/glossary/strategy) across the whole simulated period, showing how the capital was divided and which strategy produced which part of the result. It answers "which strategy carried the year?" — which the Combined's single [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), being the total, hides. **Also seen as:** strategy weights chart, allocation history, the allocations view Each piece inside a Combined is a **strategy**; the app's table column for them is headed **Strategy**. ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - The page reads a Combined, so it is reached only on a plan that includes Combined strategies. - The view opens on **Capital**, and switching view is a display change over data already fetched: it does not re-run anything. - Series colours are fixed per strategy and shared with the table's swatches, so a strategy keeps the same colour across all three views. - A period selector above the chart narrows the visible date range. - The three [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** and **Reinvest profits** — change which set of figures the page reads. - The page fills in only after a completed run; before that it reads "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to generate its strategy weights." ## What do the three views show? One segmented control switches between three readings of the same already-computed data. The chart's title changes to match the active view. - **Capital** stacks each strategy's capital in your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), so the stack's outline is the Combined's own value and each band inside it is one strategy's share of that money. The axis is titled **Capital**. This is the "where is my money" reading. - **Weights** stacks each strategy's target weight as a percentage, normalised so the stack always fills 100%. The axis is titled **Weight (%)**. It is drawn as steps rather than a smooth line, because a weight holds flat between rebalances and then snaps to its new value on the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date — the step edges are the rebalances. Before the first rebalance the weights are zero, so the area starts empty. - **Net profit** drops the stacking and draws one line per strategy of its cumulative net profit, with the Combined's own profit line — labelled **Combined** — overlaid on top. The axis is titled **Net profit**. This is the "who earned it" reading. Because **Weights** is normalised to 100% it shows *shape* and says nothing about size: a Combined that halved in value looks identical in **Weights** and very different in **Capital**. Read the two together, or read **Capital** when the question involves amounts. ## What is the Current allocation panel? Beside the chart sits a table titled **Current allocation** — the latest state rather than the history — with a row per [strategy inside the Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) and four columns: **Strategy**, **Weight**, **Capital** and **Profit**. Each row carries a small colour square matching that strategy's series in the chart, and hovering a row lights up its series while dimming the others; hovering a series in the chart lights up its table row the same way. The **Profit** column is coloured by sign and is a money figure, in the same sense as [total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l) on the Trade History tables. Four KPIs sit above: **Combined value**, **Net profit**, **Largest allocation** — which names the strategy and its weight — and **Last rebalance**. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds three strategies, each targeting a third of the capital. Open **Weights** and the three bands sit at roughly 33% each, each band's edge stepping slightly at every rebalance date as the weights are pulled back to target after drifting. Now switch to **Net profit** to find out which one carried the year. The **Combined** line ends at +42,000 for the period. Below it, one strategy's line ends at +38,000, the second at +9,000, and the third at −5,000. So nearly all of the Combined's profit came from a single strategy, while another lost money — a fact that is completely invisible in **Weights**, where all three look nearly identical, and invisible again on the Combined's own equity curve, which only shows the +42,000. Finally check **Capital**: because the Combined rebalances back to equal thirds, the winning strategy's band is *not* three times the size of the others at the end. Rebalancing keeps taking money out of the strategy that grew and putting it into the ones that did not, which is why weight and profit tell two different stories. ## What counts as a good split? The chart reports what the Combined's own allocation rules produced; it does not rank the strategies inside it. A strategy contributing most of the profit is not thereby the "right" one to hold more of, and one contributing a loss is not thereby the wrong one — a Combined is assembled so that its pieces behave differently from each other, so a piece that lags in one period is often the piece that behaves differently in another. What the chart does tell you cleanly is **concentration of outcome**: whether a result rested on one strategy or was spread across them. A result that came from one strategy is a result whose repeat depends on that strategy alone. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/alpha # Alpha Alpha is the part of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s return that its market exposure does not explain: what is left after subtracting the return the strategy's [beta](/glossary/beta) alone would be expected to produce in the market that period. Positive alpha means the strategy returned more than its market exposure accounts for; negative alpha means less. **Fincanva does not currently display an alpha metric anywhere in the app** — the term is documented here as standard finance vocabulary you may meet elsewhere, not as a number you can read off a Fincanva result. **Also seen as:** Jensen's alpha, risk-adjusted outperformance ## How is alpha calculated? Alpha is a strategy's realised return minus the return its beta and the market's return imply it should have earned. $$ \alpha = R_p - \left[\, R_f + \beta \cdot (R_m - R_f) \,\right] $$ where: $R_p$ is the strategy's return over the period, $R_f$ is the [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) over the same period, $R_m$ is the market's (or [benchmark's](/glossary/benchmark)) return, and $\beta$ is the strategy's beta measured against that market. The bracket is the *expected* return given the exposure taken; alpha is the residual. Every input is an estimate over a chosen window, so alpha inherits the sensitivity of all of them — most of all beta's. ## How is alpha different from excess return? Alpha subtracts a *beta-scaled* benchmark return; [excess return](/glossary/excess-return) subtracts the benchmark return itself. That difference matters whenever a strategy's market exposure is not one-for-one with its benchmark. Take a strategy with a beta of 1.5 in a year when the market returned +10% and the risk-free rate was 0%: its exposure alone implies +15%. If it returned +13%, its excess return is +3pp — it beat the benchmark — while its alpha is −2pp, because it beat the benchmark by less than its extra market exposure accounts for. Excess return asks "did it beat the benchmark?"; alpha asks "did it beat what its exposure explains?". ## What counts as a good value? Positive alpha over a period means the strategy's return exceeded what its market exposure explains for that period, on that benchmark, with beta estimated over that window — and every one of those qualifiers can flip the sign. Change the benchmark and alpha changes; measure beta over a different window and it changes again; a stretch long enough to look convincing can still be chance, since alpha carries all the estimation error of the inputs it is built from. Alpha describes a past window and is not a forecast of a future one. Fincanva does not tell you whether a strategy's figures are good enough to act on — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). ## Does Fincanva show alpha? No. Fincanva does not report alpha in **Performance Metrics**, in a strategy's list row, or anywhere else in the app today. The comparison-to-benchmark figures Fincanva does report are [excess return](/glossary/excess-return) (the plain difference in returns) and, for a strategy inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) and [information ratio](/glossary/information-ratio) against its parent Combined. See [What every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) for the metrics that do exist. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/annualization # Annualization Annualization converts a return earned over a whole period into an equivalent per-year rate, so results measured over different lengths of time can be compared on one yearly scale. A +30% gain means very different things over one year versus over ten; annualizing restates each as "per year" so the two are directly comparable. This page covers the *operation* and the conventions Fincanva applies to it, including how [volatility](/glossary/volatility) is annualized; the annualized return figure it produces for a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), or [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when profits are not reinvested. **Also seen as:** annualisation ## How is a return annualized? The standard method is geometric: find the constant yearly rate that, compounded over the number of years in the period, reproduces the whole-period return. $$ \text{annualized rate} = (1 + \text{total return})^{1/\text{years}} - 1 $$ where: [total return](/glossary/total-return) is the whole-period gain as a fraction, and years is that period's length in calendar years. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Fincanva annualizes a strategy's return geometrically over the calendar years of the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — this is the [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) figure. - With **Reinvest profits** off, the annualised-return slot instead uses the simple arithmetic form, total return ÷ years — the [AAGR](/glossary/aagr). - Volatility is annualized separately, using the standard 252-trading-day convention (×√252), so a per-period dispersion becomes a per-year figure. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy gains +10% over 18 months. Because 18 months is 1.5 years, the annualized rate is (1 + 0.10)^(1/1.5) − 1 ≈ 0.066, or about 6.6% per year. Compounding 6.6% a year for a year and a half does produce roughly the same +10%, which is what annualization restates as a comparable yearly number. *A per-year rate is not a rate you can expect to repeat.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/asset-subtypes # Asset subtypes Asset subtypes are the abbreviations Fincanva uses to label the specific kind of [instrument](/glossary/instrument) within a broader [asset type](/glossary/asset-type) — the **Asset subtype** field in a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets). For exchange-traded products they read ETF, ETN, ETC, CEF, ETD, and ETMF; for stocks they read Common, Common (secondary), Preferred, and Unit. Each is a narrower class inside the asset type, so filtering on a subtype keeps only instruments of that exact kind. **Also seen as:** security type ## What each asset-subtype abbreviation means Each abbreviation names a specific instrument structure inside the ETP (exchange-traded product) family: | Abbreviation | Full name | What it is | |---|---|---| | ETF | Exchange-Traded Fund | A fund holding a basket of assets that trades on an exchange like a share. | | ETN | Exchange-Traded Note | An unsecured debt note whose return tracks an index — you carry the issuer's credit risk, not a basket. | | ETC | Exchange-Traded Commodity | An exchange-traded security that tracks a commodity or commodity index. | | CEF | Closed-End Fund | A fund with a fixed share count that trades on an exchange, often at a premium or discount to its net asset value. | | ETD | Exchange-Traded Derivative | A derivative contract standardised and traded on an exchange. | | ETMF | Exchange-Traded Managed Fund | An actively managed fund in an exchange-traded wrapper. | The stock subtypes are plain English — Common and Preferred shares, a Common (secondary) listing, and Unit — so they aren't abbreviated. Note that **ETP** itself is not a subtype but the parent asset type these six sit under, and **ADR** and **OTC** are separate universe facets (the Country and Exchange fields), not asset subtypes. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Asset subtype is a universe facet: it narrows a screener to instruments of that exact kind before any metric filter runs. - The subtypes offered depend on the asset type — stocks expose Common / Common (secondary) / Preferred / Unit; ETPs expose ETF / ETN / ETC / CEF / ETD / ETMF. - The same subtype also appears as a column in a screener's results, labelled **Asset subtype**. ## What does it look like in practice? Three instruments can track the same gold price yet be different subtypes. A gold **ETF** holds the metal (or gold-linked assets) in a fund and trades as shares. A gold **ETN** is a bank's debt note promising the index's return — if the issuer fails, the note can too, regardless of where gold is trading. A gold **ETC** is an exchange-traded security backed by the commodity itself. Filtering **Asset subtype = ETF** keeps the first and drops the other two. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/asset-type # Asset type Asset type is the market family an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) belongs to. In a [screener](/glossary/screener) it is the widest cut of the [universe](/glossary/universe) — **Stocks**, **ETPs**, or **Crypto** — exactly one active at a time, and it decides which other [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) exist. Next to an individual instrument the field is wider: Fincanva recognises nine asset types there. **Also seen as:** Asset class Because only one is active, a screener set to Stocks can never return an ETP, and a screener set to ETPs can never return an individual company's shares. The industry usually calls this field asset class — which is also the label of one of the nine asset types. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Exactly one asset type is active at a time — picking a new one replaces the current one rather than adding to it. - Switching asset type hides the current type's universe filters but does not discard them: the app confirms with "Switching to `{target}` hides these universe filters: `{filters}`. You can restore them by switching back", and switching back restores what you had selected. - Each asset type carries its own default selections, so Stocks and ETPs remember their filters independently. - Asset type is also a column in a screener's results, labelled **Asset type** and explained in-app as "Stock, ETF, crypto, and so on." ## What are the three asset types? The screener's universe selector offers three, and each covers a different family of instruments and brings its own set of universe filters: | Asset type | What it covers | Universe filters it exposes | |---|---|---| | Stocks | Shares in individual companies | Country · Exchange · Asset subtype · Index · Sector | | ETPs | Exchange-traded products — funds and notes that trade like shares | Country · Currency · Exchange · Asset subtype | | Crypto | Cryptocurrencies | none | Crypto has no further universe filters, so choosing it narrows the universe to crypto and nothing else. Stocks is the type a new screener starts on. ### How is asset type different from asset subtype? Asset type is the family; **asset subtype** is the specific instrument kind inside it. Choosing the ETPs asset type gets you every exchange-traded product; the asset subtype filter then narrows that to ETFs, ETNs, ETCs, and so on — see [Asset subtypes](/glossary/asset-subtypes) for what each abbreviation means. Three labels that look like they belong in this taxonomy do not: - **ETP** is an asset *type*, not a subtype — it is the parent of ETF, ETN, ETC, and the rest. - **ADR** is a value of the **Country** filter, not a type or a subtype. - **OTC** is a value of the **Exchange** filter, not a type or a subtype. ## Why do some instruments show an asset type the screener never offers? Because two different fields carry the name **Asset type**, and only one of them is limited to three values: - **A screener's asset type** is the universe choice, made with the first button in the screener's filter strip — the one that shows Stocks, ETPs or Crypto. It offers three values — Stocks, ETPs, Crypto — and exactly one is active. - **An instrument's asset type** belongs to the instrument itself and comes from Fincanva's reference data. It can take nine values. It is what the **Asset type** column shows in Trade History (the **By symbol** table), in Positions (the **Target positions & exits** sheet) and in a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s selected-instruments table, and what the instrument picker shows beside an instrument's ticker. The **Asset type** column of a screener's results shows the instrument's own asset type too, but there it always matches the screener's active type, because a screener returns nothing else. ## What are the nine asset types an instrument can carry? The nine values an instrument's asset type can take, as the app labels them: | Label in the app | Selectable in a screener? | |---|---| | Stocks | Yes | | ETPs | Yes | | Crypto | Yes | | Currencies | No | | Funds | No | | Futures | No | | Indices | No | | Macro indicators | No | | Asset class | No | The six the screener never offers are not something you screen for: they reach a strategy as a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) or a reference series rather than as something the screener returns. Two of the nine are not self-explanatory: - **Macro indicators** — a market or [macro series](/glossary/special-data-series) rather than a tradable instrument: the Shiller PE, the S&P 500 dividend yield, and their kind. - **Asset class** — a long-history return series for a whole asset class, going back further than any individual instrument does. "US Large Cap Value Investment Class 1926" is one. Neither is something you buy. Both exist so a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) can be measured against a long history, which is why they show up beside instruments you do hold. ## What does it look like in practice? You want exposure to semiconductors, and there are two ways to get it. A chipmaker's ordinary shares are an instrument of asset type **Stocks**: with Stocks active you can narrow by Sector, so a screener can look for the companies themselves. A semiconductor ETF that holds those same companies is an instrument of asset type **ETPs**: switch to ETPs and the Sector filter disappears (ETPs have no Sector filter) while a Currency filter appears instead. The two never mix in one screener. A screener set to Stocks returns the chipmaker and never the ETF; set it to ETPs and it returns the ETF and never the chipmaker — even though both give you exposure to the same companies. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/asset-selection-modes # Asset-selection modes Asset-selection modes are the three ways a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) decides which instruments it may hold: **Basket**, where you name the instruments yourself; **Screen**, where one screener picks them by rule at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance); and **Compose**, where a basket and screener pools work together. They are peer modes on the strategy's **Asset selection** card, and the mode you are in is what the card's controls edit. The set of instruments that survives the mode is the strategy's [universe](/glossary/universe). **Also seen as:** Easy and Pro, Build a screen ## What do Basket, Screen, and Compose do? Each mode answers "what may this strategy hold?" a different way. | Mode | How instruments are decided | What you edit | |---|---|---| | **Basket** | you name them — the instruments you add are the whole universe | a search field plus the table of instruments you have added (on a Single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) strategy, one slot and a **Change** affordance) | | **Screen** | one [screener](/glossary/screener) selects them by rule, re-evaluated at every rebalance | that screener's [filters](/glossary/filter) and its universe | | **Compose** | a basket sets the scope, then screener pools qualify and reject inside it | the basket, the **Qualify** and **Reject** pools, and the selection rules | An empty Basket with no entry screener buys nothing: with nothing named and nothing to choose by rule, the strategy has no candidate, the instrument list says **No instruments**, and the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) does not start. With an entry screener an empty basket is a real state — the screener searches its own whole universe — and the list says **All instruments**. ## How do Easy and Pro relate to the three modes? **Easy** and **Pro** are the two screening modes the three asset-selection modes are built on, and they are underlying state rather than a control you operate: no surface shows an Easy/Pro toggle. The mapping is exact: **Basket** is Easy applied to instruments you name, **Screen** is Easy applied to a screener, and **Compose** is Pro. That is why Pro-only settings survive a trip through Easy — they belong to the same strategy, just to controls Easy does not show, and it is why the confirmation you get when leaving Compose still names both. [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) and [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) present these three states the same way, as one **Basket · Screen · Compose** control — and only on a Full setup strategy, as the next section explains. ## Which modes does each strategy type offer? The card only offers the modes the [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) supports — there is no greyed-out placeholder for one it does not. | Strategy type | Modes offered | |---|---| | **Single instrument** | Basket | | **Multiple instruments** | Basket | | **Screener** | Screen | | **Full setup** | Basket · Screen · Compose | The strategy type is a constraint on the card, not a starting preset: three of the four types have exactly one mode, so for them the **Basket · Screen · Compose** control is not shown at all — there is nothing to switch between. Only **Full setup** shows it, in Step by step exactly as in All at once. **Compose is therefore reachable from Full setup alone**, and with it the Qualify and Reject [screener pools](/glossary/screener-attach); a Screener strategy that needs a rejecting pool becomes a Full setup one. Two consequences follow inside Basket. On **Single instrument** the mode is a single slot with a **Change** affordance rather than a list you add to — picking another instrument replaces the one held instead of extending a basket. And the Basket's **Filters** strip exists only under **Full setup**; on the two instrument types the mode names instruments and nothing else. Changing type is not how an existing strategy loses a mode. A saved strategy whose content needs a wider surface than its type offers — instruments and a screener together, a second qualifying screener, a rejecting pool — is read as the wider type instead, so the card can still show everything the strategy holds. Nothing is trimmed to fit, and the widening never runs the other way: a Full setup strategy holding a single instrument stays Full setup. ## What is the working scope in Compose? In Compose the basket is the working scope — the set of instruments the attached screeners are evaluated against. With instruments in the basket the screeners are evaluated against those instruments alone; with an empty basket each screener searches its own whole universe. This is the one mode where naming instruments and screening by rule are not alternatives: the basket bounds the search, and the [screener pools](/glossary/screener-attach) decide who inside it is held. Compose also groups the strategy's **Selection rules** beside the pools — [**Max positions**](/glossary/max-positions), the cap on how many instruments are held at once; [**Max hold**](/glossary/max-hold-months), how long a position may be held; and [**Reinvest delay**](/glossary/reinvest-delay), how long an instrument stays out of the strategy's choices after its position closes. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The card prints no count or readout beside its title. An empty basket is said by the list's own line — **All instruments** with an entry screener, **No instruments** without one — and the body shows the same sections in every mode — **Assets** (called **Universe** in Screen), **Filters** and **Selection rules** — each only where the mode has it. - On the Free plan, which includes no screeners inside strategies, **Screen** and **Compose** stay visible with the plan's bars after their names; choosing one opens it as a switched-off preview instead of switching, and pressing its bars opens the plan dialog, and the Basket's **Filters** are hidden unless the strategy already holds a screener — see [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#how-does-fincanva-handle-it). - Switching mode is non-destructive until you save. What the new mode does not use leaves the strategy at the switch, and comes back if you switch back before saving. Mode switching applies to Full setup, the only type that offers more than one mode. - Switching to **Screen** sets aside the instruments you picked, together with an allocation built on them: [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights), which cannot run on a universe a screener alone chooses, and a [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking) or [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) reference that was one of your picked instruments. Each is replaced by the method a new Screen strategy starts with. **Max positions** on Screen is the value you last gave it on Screen or in Compose — never the basket's count; a strategy that has only been on Basket since you opened it starts Screen from the default Max positions. - Switching to **Basket** sets aside a screener the Basket cannot show: one without filter rows, and any beyond the one the **Filters** strip shows. - Changing the [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) sets settings aside the same way, at the switch, and changing back before saving restores them; the type-change dialog counts what the save will not carry. - Saving, discarding your changes, or opening another strategy ends this: whatever is set aside and not back in the strategy is not saved. Until then, the alerts, notes and cards always describe exactly what the save will send. - The screener Screen shows is the one the strategy holds. Arriving on Screen — switching to it, changing the type to **Screener**, or creating a Screener strategy — gives the strategy the screener the card displays: the default universe, with no filters of your own yet, so what you see is what runs. Leave Screen before changing that screener and it goes with you: the strategy is back to exactly what it held. Once you edit it — a filter, the universe, a screener from your library — it is yours and stays. Removing an attached screener on Screen puts that default back, and opening a stored Screener strategy that has no screener shows it holding that default as an unsaved change: **Save** is offered, and until you save, the backtest is judged on the strategy as stored. On a plan that includes no screeners inside strategies, nothing is added. - On Basket the strategy holds what you picked: **Max positions** follows the number of instruments in the basket, updated with every pick and removal, rather than left as a control, so nothing you named is dropped for being over a cap. It stays a control on Screen and in Compose. A basket over the most your plan holds in one strategy is kept whole and raises a [blocking alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts#which-controls-belong-to-the-selection-section) instead. - Leaving Compose can leave settings that Basket and Screen have no control for. Fincanva confirms first and keeps them for a return to Compose, and the confirmation names the underlying screening modes rather than the three: "Easy mode hides these Pro settings. They're kept and restored if you switch back to Pro:" — and it lists them: the extra qualifying screeners beyond the first, any rejecting screeners, custom hold and reinvest-delay timings, and the [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) on the screener it keeps. - The strategy needs at least one instrument or one attached screener before it can be saved and run, whichever mode it is in. ## What does it look like in practice? Take the same ten US large caps and build the same idea three ways. - **Basket** — you add all ten by name. The strategy's universe is exactly those ten, every rebalance, whatever the market does. - **Screen** — you name nothing and instead write one screener whose filters describe the ten. The strategy holds whatever matches at each rebalance: nine of them one quarter, thirteen names the next, because membership is recomputed rather than fixed. - **Compose** — you put the ten in the basket and attach one screener to **Qualify**. The candidate set never grows beyond your ten, but only the ones that qualify at that rebalance are held — six of ten in a quiet quarter, all ten in a strong one. Same idea, three different answers to "what may this hold?": a fixed list, an open rule, and a rule applied inside a fixed list. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip # Auto-rebalance on flip Auto-rebalance on flip is the per-condition toggle that makes a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) the moment a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) flips, instead of waiting for its next scheduled rebalance. It decides *when* a switch between Risk-On and Risk-Off reaches your holdings — never *what* the strategy switches to. **Also seen as:** Auto-rebalance, Triggers rebalance, off-schedule rebalance ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Risk card lists its two conditions joined by Or: the first, on the VIX, acts immediately and carries no rebalance mark, so its flip waits for the scheduled rebalance; the second, on the S&P 500 against its 200-day average, waits two weeks of confirmation and is marked rebalance, so its flip rebalances the strategy at once. - The control is **Auto-rebalance**, with the note "Trigger a rebalance when the condition flips."; in the risk list a condition set this way is marked "Triggers rebalance". - It is set per condition: each of a strategy's up-to-two conditions has its own toggle. A flip rebalances at once when a condition that changed state has it on, so the wait is certain only when every active condition has it off. - Every built-in [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) arrives with it off. - A forced rebalance is extra to the schedule: the **Next rebalance** date stays the scheduled one, and it trades with the costs the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) apply to any rebalance. - What it changes, and how it follows the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay), is in [how a flip forces an off-schedule rebalance](#how-can-a-risk-off-flip-force-an-off-schedule-rebalance). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy rebalances every 6 months. Its last rebalance was 1 March, so the next scheduled one is 1 September. On 10 May — four months into the cycle — its risk condition flips, with the **Confirmation delay (weeks)** at 0. With **Auto-rebalance** on, the strategy rebalances on 10 May: the incoming allocation profile is applied that day and the holdings change mid-cycle. With **Auto-rebalance** off, the flip is recorded on 10 May but nothing trades; the strategy carries the outgoing profile's holdings for nearly four more months and only switches on 1 September. Same condition, same thresholds, same destination — a four-month difference in when your holdings reflect it. Shorten the cadence to **Rebalance every** 1 month and the gap narrows to weeks, which is why the toggle matters most on long cadences. ## How can a Risk-Off flip force an off-schedule rebalance? With **Auto-rebalance** on, a flip forces a rebalance the instant it happens, so the incoming allocation profile is applied off-schedule. With it off, the flip changes which profile is active, but the holdings do not change until the strategy's next scheduled rebalance — until then the strategy keeps the outgoing profile's mix. The destination is the same either way: the strategy ends up in the profile the condition asked for. Two per-condition settings pace a flip in sequence. The [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay#what-does-the-confirmation-delay-change) first makes the condition wait a set number of weeks after it flips — 0 to 12, its hint reading "0 = act immediately." — so a brief flip sets off nothing; Auto-rebalance then decides whether acting means an off-schedule rebalance or a wait for the scheduled one. ## When does Risk-Off act on your normal rebalance schedule? When Auto-rebalance is off on every active condition, a flip takes effect at the strategy's next scheduled rebalance. The rebalance frequency, set in **Rebalance every**, is the master clock the flip rides — see [How do risk conditions and exits interact with the frequency?](/glossary/rebalance#how-do-risk-conditions-and-exits-interact-with-the-frequency). The Risk card says when the switch reaches your holdings. At a cadence of 1 month the grey note "When the risk triggers, the portfolio changes at the rebalance" reads "A change of regime changes the portfolio at the next rebalance, the first Friday of the month, unless you turn on “Auto-rebalance”." At a longer interval it becomes the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review "When the risk triggers, the portfolio changes late"; at a 3-month cadence the card adds "The portfolio changes only at the rebalance, up to 3 months later: turn on “Auto-rebalance”", and the alert's full explanation reads "When the rule triggers, the portfolio changes only at the next rebalance, up to 3 months later, and a shorter dip passes with no effect; turn on “Auto-rebalance” if you want it to act the same day." A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s own risk conditions read the same, naming the Combined and its own rebalance interval. ## What are the limits and edge cases of a Risk-Off flip? - **Per condition, never per strategy.** Each condition carries its own **Auto-rebalance** toggle and its own **Confirmation delay (weeks)**, capped at 12 weeks. - **Nothing to switch to.** If the Risk-Off profile is configured identically to Risk-On, a forced rebalance changes nothing — see [Risk-Off canonicalization](/glossary/risk-off-canonicalization). - **Between two scheduled dates.** A risk-triggered rebalance can fall anywhere between the previous scheduled rebalance and the next one shown. - **Exits run on their own terms.** Position-level exits such as a [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) act between rebalances by their own rule — see [Position exits](/docs/strategies/position-exits). - **No notification.** The app sends no alert, push or email on a flip; you see the regime by opening the strategy — [how you find out](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off#how-do-you-find-out-your-strategy-has-gone-risk-off). - **Whether to use it at all** is a trade-off covered in [When to use risk management](/docs/strategies/when-risk-management-changes-a-strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/average-momentum # Average momentum Average momentum is a smoothed trend reading: the average of an [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s percent price change over 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, in percent. One signed number says how strongly, and in which direction, the instrument has been trending. Fincanva uses it as an **Indicator** on a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) and as a ranking metric of the [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method). **Also seen as:** momentum, trend strength ## How is average momentum calculated? $$ \text{average momentum} = \frac{{c_{1}} + {c_{3}} + {c_{6}} + {c_{12}}}{4} $$ where: - the percent change of the adjusted close over the last month - the percent change over the last 3 months - the percent change over the last 6 months - the percent change over the last 12 months In words: measure how far the price has moved over the past month, three months, six months and year, then average the four [percent changes](/glossary/percent-change). *Adjusted* means the closes are corrected for [dividends and splits](/glossary/dividends-and-splits), so a payout or a split does not read as a price move. All four spans carry the same weight, so no single horizon dominates — and one sharp month moves the average by only a quarter of its own size. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - On a risk condition it is the **Indicator** "Average momentum": it only transforms the watched series, and the switch between [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) is decided by the condition's [thresholds](/glossary/condition-types). The **Period** field is not shown and any value already entered is cleared — the four spans are fixed. - In a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) using Ranking-based allocation it is the metric "Average Momentum", and the hint reads "Instruments are ranked by their average momentum — highest first." It decides the order only; how many instruments are held is capped separately by [max positions](/glossary/max-positions). - The other **Indicator** options are [raw price](/glossary/raw-price), [Simple moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma) and Percent change. ## What does it look like in practice? An instrument closes today at 110 (adjusted). A month ago it closed at 105, three months ago at 100, six months ago at 95 and twelve months ago at 88. The four percent changes are +4.76%, +10.00%, +15.79% and +25.00%, so average momentum is (4.76 + 10.00 + 15.79 + 25.00) ÷ 4 = **+13.89%**. Now suppose the last month reversed hard and today's close is 96 instead. The four readings become −8.57%, −4.00%, +1.05% and +9.09%, and average momentum is **−0.61%** — barely negative, even though the instrument now sits 8.6% below where it stood a month ago, because two of the longer spans are still positive and each span carries a quarter of the weight. That damping is the point of averaging four horizons, and it is why the reading turns later than the price does. ## Why does an instrument have no momentum reading at first? Because one of the four spans reaches back further than its history goes. If any one of the 1-, 3-, 6- or 12-month readings cannot be computed, that day is skipped entirely — average momentum produces no value rather than averaging the three spans that do exist. In practice that means the first year: nothing is ranked or compared on average momentum until the instrument has a full 12 months of prices behind it, because the 12-month span is the last of the four to become available. Once the history is long enough, a missing day inside it does not skip anything — a span that lands on a date with no bar reads the most recent bar before it, so holidays and suspensions are covered rather than blanking the reading. ## How do you read a high or low average momentum? A higher reading means a stronger recent uptrend in the series, and a lower one a weaker trend or an outright downtrend. The reading is signed: a positive number describes a series above where it stood across the four spans on average, a negative number one below, and a reading near zero a series with no clear direction. Fincanva's own preset copy reads it that way — the shipped TIPS [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) reads "Risk-Off when momentum turns sharply negative", and the Ranking-based hint ranks the highest readings first. Because three of the four spans are long, average momentum reacts to a turn later than the price itself does. That is the usual trade-off of any smoothed trend measure: fewer reactions to one-off moves, and a later reaction to a real turn. This page describes how a reading is interpreted, not what to do about it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/average-pain # Average pain Average pain is the average, across the start months a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is tested from, of the deepest it fell below the value it had on each start date. Where [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) measures the drop from a running peak, pain is anchored to the day you began — how far underwater the strategy went relative to the value it started that run with. Averaging that across every start month tested gives a single figure for the typical worst pain a start date put you through. **Also seen as:** Avg pain ## How is average pain calculated? For one start month, its pain is the deepest fall from the value the strategy held on that start date to the lowest value it reached before the holding window ended. $$ \text{pain} = \frac{\text{lowest value in the window} - \text{value at the start date}}{\text{value at the start date}} $$ where: the lowest value is the deepest point reached between the start date and the end of that holding window, and the figure is zero when the strategy never closed below where it began. Average pain is the mean of this figure across every start month tested for a given window length. ## What counts as a good value? A pain closer to zero is generally preferable: it means a typical start date left the strategy less far below the value it began with. It describes the depth of the worst dip per start date, not how long the strategy stayed underwater, so read it next to a duration measure such as [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown) for the fuller picture. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Average pain appears on the [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view as the **Avg pain** row of the summary-statistics table, alongside the [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) rows for the same set of start months, one column per holding window. - It is anchored to the value the strategy held on each start date, so unlike [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) — which is measured from a running peak — the two figures are not comparable. - It is reported as a negative percentage, and it is zero only when no start month ever closed below where it began. - It is a depth measure only — it says nothing about how long the strategy stayed below its start value. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is started at the beginning of one month and, before that holding window ends, its value falls as low as 28% below where it began. That start month's pain is −28%. Average pain takes that start-anchored figure for every start month tested at the same window length and averages them, so one unlucky start's deep dip is balanced against the shallow dips of the others. *No pain figure is a limit on future losses.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/backtest # Backtest A backtest is a historical simulation that replays a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s rules over past market data to show what it would have done. It applies the strategy's own allocation, rebalancing, and exit rules [step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) across history and produces an equity curve plus performance metrics. **Also seen as:** Run, Re-run In Fincanva, "backtest" means this historical simulation for every [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) — there is no separate "backtest" kind of strategy. ## What does a backtest measure? A backtest measures what a strategy's own rules would have produced over historical market data, reported as an [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) plus the metrics that summarise it — [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), [Max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) and the rest of the metrics view. It measures the whole path, not only the end point: two strategies can finish at the same value having taken very different routes there, and the curve is what shows the difference. What it does not measure is anything outside the rules you saved — it makes no judgement about whether a strategy is suitable for you, and it says nothing about periods the chosen instruments have no data for. See [What happens when you run a backtest?](#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for the step-by-step mechanics. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A backtest runs from the earliest year your chosen instruments and plan allow, through the latest available market close; its end date follows the newest data, not today's calendar date. - Results are cached. Strategies you follow [Live](/glossary/mark-live) are recomputed by the [daily warm](/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies) on your first visit of the day — except any parked awaiting a manual run — so their numbers can shift from one day to the next with no change to their settings; a strategy you have only saved shows **Needs re-run** until you run it again — see [run status](/glossary/run-status). - Identical strategies share one computed result, so a backtest may already be running because someone else requested the same configuration. - Saving and running is the reliable way to (re)compute today — it applies your latest settings and starts a fresh run. ## How does backtesting work? A backtest takes your strategy's saved rules and replays them across real market history — buying, selling and rebalancing exactly as those rules say — to produce an equity curve and the metrics that summarise it. It reads the strategy and changes nothing in it, and it covers history up to the latest available market close. A backtest is evidence about what those rules would have done in the past, never a forecast of what they will do next. ### What does a backtest actually produce? A backtest produces two things you read directly: an equity curve, and a record of how the holdings moved between rebalance dates. The [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) is drawn against its [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), so the shape of the result is visible and not only its final figure. Falls below a previous peak show up as dips in the line — the same falls the [Max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) figure reports as a single number. Figure — equity-curve: an equity curve rising across a historical period with a flatter benchmark line beside it; each stretch where the line sits below its previous high is a drawdown. The second output is what happens to the holdings between one [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) and the next. Between rebalances the actual weights pull away from the target weights — [weight drift](/glossary/weight-drift). On each scheduled rebalance date they snap back to target. Nothing corrects drift in between, so a mid-period portfolio is a drifted one, not the target mix. ## What happens when you run a backtest? A backtest runs in four steps: your rules go in, Fincanva replays them through history, the replay produces an equity curve, and the curve is distilled into metrics. 1. **Rules.** The strategy you saved — its [universe](/glossary/universe), its allocation, its risk conditions, its exit rules. A run only reads them, so running a strategy never changes it. 2. **Historical replay.** Fincanva steps forward through real market history and applies those rules date by date, resetting holdings to their targets on the cadence you set. See [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). 3. **Equity curve.** The strategy's value on every simulated date, plotted as one line — the whole path it would have taken, not only where it ended. See [Equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve). 4. **Metrics.** The curve distilled into numbers: [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio), [Max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) and the rest. See [What every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). ### What does it look like in practice? A two-asset strategy holds 60% in a stock ETP and 40% in a bond ETP, rebalancing back to 60/40 twice a year. The backtest starts both sleeves from the same capital and replays every trading day; at each rebalance date it trims whichever sleeve has grown past its target and tops the other back up to weight. After two rebalances, the equity curve reflects both the market's moves and the two corrections back to 60/40, and the metrics summarise that whole path. ## What biases does a backtest remove? A backtest removes one of the classic research biases outright, reduces several more, and leaves the rest to the person building the strategy. Each bias's own page says how Fincanva handles it; the four below bear most directly on a single run. - **[Survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) — removed.** [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments are retained and [index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) is resolved as of the simulated date, so a run is measured against the market as it stood on each historical date. The choice of universe and period stays yours — see [how Fincanva's data handles delisted companies](/glossary/survivorship-bias#how-does-fincanvas-data-handle-delisted-companies). - **[Overfitting](/glossary/overfitting) — still yours.** It comes from how you build the strategy, not from the computation, so no engine removes it. See [how Fincanva handles overfitting](/glossary/overfitting#how-does-fincanva-handle-it). - **[Look-ahead bias](/glossary/look-ahead-bias)** — see [how Fincanva handles it](/glossary/look-ahead-bias#how-does-fincanva-handle-it). - **[Cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias)** — see [how a backtest accounts for trading costs and taxes](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias#how-does-fincanva-handle-it) and [Simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions). ## What are the limits and edge cases of a backtest? - **A backtest covers history up to the latest available market close.** New market days keep arriving, so a finished run ages. A strategy you have marked Live is re-run for you as new data lands; one you have only saved is not — its [run status](/glossary/run-status) turns **Needs re-run** after a data refresh and stays there until you run it again. - **A short history shortens the run.** A backtest can only cover the period for which the chosen instruments have data, so one [instrument](/glossary/instrument) with a short history limits how far back the whole run can go. - **Rebalance dates are discrete.** Weights are reset only on the cadence you set, never continuously, so drift between two rebalance dates is part of the result rather than a flaw in it. - **A run can end early.** If a strategy's value collapses far enough, the run stops trading — see [Bankruptcy rules](/glossary/bankruptcy-rules). - **Evidence is not a promise.** Removing a bias makes the past more honest; it does not make the future more certain. Read every result as "what these rules would have done", never as "what these rules will do". 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/backtest-reliability # Backtest reliability Backtest reliability is the **Robustness** tab panel that asks how much of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s result could be chance. Resampling the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s daily returns, it reports how often an edgeless strategy would look this good ("Could it be luck?"), how widely return, Sharpe and maximum drawdown could have varied, and how many years were in profit — the past, never the future. **Also seen as:** bootstrap test, p-value, backtest significance, bootstrap confidence interval ## How does Fincanva handle it? - It runs on request, from the **Robustness** tab: choose a method and a number of resamples — 100 or 1,000 — and press **Calculate**. Nothing is computed before that. - **Years in profit** counts how many of the years in the **Year by year** table had an average daily return, scaled to a year, above zero — "7 of 10", say. In a very volatile year that can disagree with the sign the same year shows on Monthly Returns, which compounds. - The **Year by year** table gives each calendar year's days, average annual return, Sharpe and maximum drawdown. Each year's Sharpe uses that year's own [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). A year needs at least 40 trading days to appear; if none has, the table is replaced by a note saying so. - The figures follow the tab's **Simulation settings**: with **Costs & interests** or **Taxes** on, the check runs on the net returns. - A simulation stored before the panel existed has to be run again first; until then the panel says it isn't available. - The same request on the same backtest always returns the same result. How many resamples one calculation may use is set by your plan, and a plan that allows none does not include the panel: Set by your plan: 0 on Free and Starter, 100 on Advanced and 1000 on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). A number of resamples beyond your plan stays in the list, marked with the plan that includes it, and choosing it opens a window instead of calculating. ## What does "Could it be luck?" measure? The verdict answers one question: if this strategy had no edge at all over cash, how often would its history still produce a [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) as high as the one the backtest shows? That share is a p-value, printed as "p = …", and the sentence under it says it in words: "A strategy with no edge over cash and the same volatility would look this good in … of cases." The verdict reads that share on three rungs: | Share of no-edge histories that look this good | Verdict | |---|---| | below 5% | **Probably not** | | 5–20% | **Uncertain** | | 20% and above | **It could be luck** | In prose: a low share means a no-edge strategy rarely matches this result, so luck is an unlikely explanation; a high share means an edgeless strategy often does, so the result proves little. The p-value is never exactly zero. ## How does resampling show how much the figures could have varied? Resampling rebuilds the backtest's history many times by drawing its own days again, with replacement, and recomputes the figures on each rebuilt history. The spread of those recomputed figures is what the panel draws under **How much they could have varied · 5–95% band**: for **Average annual return (arithmetic)**, **Sharpe** and **Maximum drawdown**, a band from the 5th to the 95th percentile of the resampled values, with a dot for the backtest's own value. This is the textbook bootstrap confidence interval. The dot can fall outside the band — the app notes it — and does so most often for the maximum drawdown, because drawing days again breaks up the long losing runs a drawdown is made of. The return is the **arithmetic** average annual return, the average daily return scaled to a year, so it does not match the compound growth rate, [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), on Performance Metrics. Two methods decide how days are drawn: **Blocks of days** draws runs of consecutive days, keeping calm and turbulent spells together; **Single days** draws each day on its own. More resamples make the band's edges steadier; they do not make the backtest more trustworthy. ## What is the average annual return (arithmetic)? The **Average annual return (arithmetic)** is the average daily return of the strategy multiplied by 252, the trading days in a year. It is the return the Robustness tab and [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics) use, and it is a different figure from both the compound growth rate, [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), and the [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) on Performance Metrics. $$ {\text{average annual return (arithmetic)}} = {252} \times {\text{average daily return}} $$ where: - the figure the Robustness tab and contribution analytics report - the trading days in a year - the plain mean of the backtest's daily returns Because it averages returns instead of compounding them, it ignores the drag [volatility](/glossary/volatility) puts on growth: a day at −10% followed by a day at +10% averages to 0%, yet leaves the capital 1% lower. The higher the volatility, the wider that gap, so on a very volatile strategy the arithmetic figure can be **positive while the strategy lost money** over the period. Read it as the strength of the average day, not as what the capital did. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's backtest shows a Sharpe of 0.9 over twelve years. The panel returns p = 0.03 — "Probably not": only 3 in 100 no-edge histories reach a Sharpe of 0.9. The band for the average annual return runs from 4% to 14% around a backtest value of 9%, and **Years in profit** reads 9 of 12. Read together: the result is unlikely to be pure chance, but the same days could plausibly have produced anything from a modest 4% to a strong 14% a year. Now suppose the strategy was the best of thirty variants: the 3% no longer means much, because among thirty edgeless tries it is more likely than not that at least one lands at 3% or below. ### What does the verdict leave out? It tests **one** strategy, as if it were the only one you ever tried. Tried twenty variants and kept the best? Among twenty strategies with no edge, one will often clear the 5% rung by chance alone, and this verdict cannot see the other nineteen — the app says so under it: "It speaks about the past, not about what the strategy will do, and it does not account for how many variants you tried before this one." That is [data-snooping bias](/glossary/data-snooping-bias), and its cousin [overfitting](/glossary/overfitting) is the reason a strong verdict on a heavily tuned strategy deserves less weight than the same verdict on a strategy set up once. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/bankruptcy-rules # Bankruptcy rules Bankruptcy rules are the thresholds at which a simulated run is treated as wiped out: when the tracked value falls below 10% of the capital it started from — a loss of more than 90% — every position is closed and no further trading happens. It applies to the whole run and to each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) inside a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), which then behave differently. **Also seen as:** 10% floor, total loss ## When is a run treated as bankrupt? When its value crosses below one tenth of its reference capital, checked at each daily close. Both levels use the same test on a different reference. $$ \frac{{V_t}}{{V_0}} - 1 < -0.9 $$ where: - the value at the close of day t - the reference capital: the starting capital for the whole run, or the capital last allocated to that strategy inside a Combined Reaching it is the same thing as a [total return](/glossary/total-return) worse than −90% against that reference. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The threshold is fixed at 10% of the reference capital; it is not a setting you can change or switch off. - It is evaluated at each daily close, so a level breached and recovered within one day is not what the test reads. - The whole-run case is permanent for that run; the case for a strategy inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) is restartable at a later rebalance. - A bankrupt run is a completed run: the flat curve, the drawdown and the metrics are all reported. A rarer case — a jump straight past the floor into negative capital — ends the run as **Failed** instead. - The rule is a stopping condition inside the simulation: it describes what the backtest does when the floor is crossed, not what a broker or an exchange would do. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy starts with \$100,000 and holds a leveraged position. During a sharp decline its value falls to \$9,500 at a daily close — below the \$10,000 line that is 10% of the [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) — so the run is treated as bankrupt: every position is closed that day and the [capital curve](/glossary/equity-curve) is flat to the end of the backtest, even though the market recovered afterwards. The result is still served in full, showing a maximum [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) of about 90% and a flat tail. Now one level down. A Combined allocates \$10,000 to one of its strategies at the January rebalance; that strategy falls to \$900 by March — below 10% of the \$10,000 it was given — so it is closed while the Combined's other strategies continue. At the July rebalance the Combined allocates to it again, \$8,000 this time; its reference capital is now \$8,000, and it resumes trading from there. The same strategy has been bankrupt and active within one backtest, which the whole-run case can never be. ## What happens after the whole run goes bankrupt? Everything closes and the curve stays flat. All positions are liquidated on the day the floor is crossed, no new positions are opened, and the capital curve runs flat from that day to the end of the [backtest](/glossary/backtest). It is permanent for that run: the whole-run test measures against the original starting capital and is never re-armed, so a later market recovery cannot restart it. The run still completes and its results are served normally — the flat line and the metrics that follow from it **are** the result, not an error, and the [run status](/glossary/run-status) reads **Up to date** like any other finished run. ## What happens after one strategy inside a Combined goes bankrupt? That strategy is closed, and it can come back. The same 90% test is applied to each strategy inside a Combined against the capital last allocated to it; a strategy that crosses the floor has its positions closed and stops trading, while the rest of the Combined carries on. Because its reference capital is reset every time capital is routed to it, a later [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) that allocates to that strategy starts it again from the new amount. So a strategy's bankruptcy inside a Combined is a gap in its participation, not the end of it. ## What is a sudden move to negative capital? A gap large enough to skip the floor entirely. If a price move takes the value straight from above the threshold to below zero — rare, and associated with leveraged exposure — there is no valid state left to continue from, and the simulation is marked **Failed** rather than flatlined. A **Failed** run has no results to read; the distinction matters because the ordinary bankruptcy case does produce a full, readable result. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/base-currency # Base currency Base currency is the currency your simulation results are reported in — the one currency every portfolio-level figure is converted into and labelled with. It is set in Settings under "Simulation defaults" as **Base currency** ("Currency in which simulation results are reported."). It is deliberately separate from an [instrument's](/glossary/instrument) own **asset currency**, the currency that instrument trades and is quoted in: a base currency of EUR can hold a US stock quoted in USD, and Fincanva converts that holding into EUR for every portfolio figure while still showing the stock's own price in USD. **Also seen as:** reporting currency, account currency ## What is the difference between base currency and asset currency? Base currency is yours; asset currency belongs to the instrument. - **Base currency** is a single choice you make once. Portfolio value, [target notional](/glossary/target-notional), deployed amounts, cash, and every band of the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) are expressed in it, so totals across a mixed-currency portfolio are addable. - **Asset currency** is a property of the instrument and cannot be changed. A share price, a dividend per share, and an execution price are quoted in the currency the instrument actually trades in. Amounts in an asset currency are converted into your base currency at the exchange rate for the date in question, so a foreign holding's contribution reflects both the instrument's own move and the currency's move over the period. ## Which currencies can I choose? Six base currencies are selectable today: **USD** (the default), **EUR**, **GBP**, **CHF**, **CAD**, and **AUD**. Asset currencies are a wider set, because they follow the market an instrument is listed on rather than your preference. Fincanva's price data carries thirteen currency codes: USD, EUR, GBP, GBX, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD, JPY, SEK, NOK, DKK, and PLN. GBX is pence sterling — one hundredth of a pound — the quoting convention some London listings use, so a GBX price looks a hundred times larger than the same price in GBP. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - On the Positions view's "Target positions & exits" sheet, the **"Last"** column is the instrument's own last price, shown in its **asset** currency and at that instrument's own precision. This is the column that surprises people: in a EUR account, a US holding's "Last" is still a dollar figure. - The same sheet's **"Target value"** column is the base-currency amount, with the asset-currency amount underneath it as a second line — and that second line appears only when the two currencies differ, so a same-currency holding shows one figure rather than the same number twice. - Base currency is part of what identifies a simulation, so changing it means the results for your own strategies are recomputed in the new currency rather than converted after the fact. - A public [strategy](/glossary/strategy) you do not own is always reported in USD, whatever your own base currency is, so that every viewer sees the same figures. - The [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) options are displayed in whichever base currency you have selected — the amount is the same number, denominated in that currency. ## What does it look like in practice? Your base currency is EUR and your strategy holds Apple, which trades on NASDAQ in USD. On the Positions sheet, Apple's "Last" reads as a dollar price, because that is the currency it is quoted in. Its "Target value" reads as a euro amount — the amount of your euro capital assigned to it — with the equivalent dollar amount as a second line beneath, because the two currencies differ. The portfolio's "Target notional" KPI, its cash, and every total on the page are euro figures, so they add up. If the euro strengthens against the dollar over a period, the euro value of that Apple holding falls even when its dollar price has not moved — the currency is part of the result, not separate from it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/benchmark # Benchmark A benchmark is a reference series a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is compared against, run as a full simulation of its own with the same [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) and the same period. Comparing a strategy to its benchmark shows whether its returns and its risk came from the wider market or from the strategy's own choices. **Also seen as:** Bench, vs bmk It is not just a line drawn on a chart. You pick one benchmark per strategy, either from a set of market-benchmark presets or — on the plans that include it — from any of your own live portfolios, and Fincanva runs it as its own [backtest](/glossary/backtest). ## How does Fincanva handle it? A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark — the gap to the benchmark over the same period — Max drawdown and CAGR. - A benchmark is computed as its own simulation with the same status states as any backtest — Computing while it runs, Ready when it finishes, Failed if it cannot complete. - Changing the benchmark starts a new benchmark simulation; the comparison waits until that benchmark reaches Ready. - The benchmark uses the same starting capital and date range as the strategy it is measured against, so any difference reflects the holdings rather than a different setup. - **Which portfolios you may choose from is set by your plan: the market benchmarks are open to every plan, and your own live portfolios become benchmarks too from Advanced upwards.** A plan that does not include them still picks any market benchmark, and a strategy that was already pointed at one of your own portfolios keeps that benchmark and keeps running — what changes is that you cannot point one at a portfolio of yours again, whether by picking it or by duplicating a strategy that already uses it. Picking a benchmark, saving your simulation settings, duplicating a strategy and detaching a component into a strategy of its own are each checked against your plan. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? You compare a strategy against SPY, an ETP that tracks the S&P 500. Both start from the same capital on the same date, and Fincanva runs SPY as its own backtest, drawing the two equity curves together. Where your strategy's line sits above SPY it is ahead; where it dips below, it is behind. If your strategy ends higher but with deeper falls along the way, the side-by-side makes plain that the extra return came with more risk. What each comparison number means is covered in [the metrics guide](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). *Beating a benchmark is not a reason to expect the same ahead.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month # Best month and worst month Best month and worst month are the highest and lowest single-month returns a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) recorded over the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) period. The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) lists them as two separate rows, "Best month" and "Worst month", in the **Monthly performance** group. Each is one month out of the run — the single strongest and the single weakest — so together they mark the extremes of the monthly return series without you having to scan every month. **Also seen as:** biggest monthly gain, biggest monthly loss, monthly extremes ## How are best month and worst month measured? Both are read off the same month-by-month return series: best month is the largest value in that series and worst month is the smallest. No averaging or smoothing is involved, and neither figure is combined with its neighbours — a month that gained 12% is the best month even if the months either side of it lost ground. ## Is the worst month the same as max drawdown? No — the worst month is one calendar month's return, while [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) is the largest peak-to-trough fall of the [capital curve](/glossary/equity-curve). A drawdown can start mid-month, run across several months, and end mid-month, so it is usually deeper than the worst single month and always measured from a peak rather than from a month boundary. A strategy can have a mild worst month and a severe max drawdown if the losses were spread out; how long such a decline lasted is [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown). ## What counts as a good value? The pair is read as a range rather than as two separate scores: a narrow gap between best and worst means month-to-month outcomes clustered together, and a wide gap means they were spread far apart, which is the same behaviour [volatility](/glossary/volatility) puts into a single annualized number. A high best month is not evidence of a better strategy on its own — a single outsized month can lift a whole run's [total return](/glossary/total-return) while the other months contributed little, and the [monthly average](/glossary/monthly-and-yearly-average) beside it is what shows whether the rest of the period pulled its weight. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Both appear as rows in the **Monthly performance** group of the metrics table, labelled "Best month" and "Worst month", as percentages to one decimal place and coloured by sign. - The monthly returns view repeats them as KPIs using the same two labels. - They come from the same month-by-month series the [monthly returns heatmap](/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap) displays, so you can find the two months on the grid. - Each is a single calendar month of the simulated period — never a rolling 30-day window and never a run of consecutive months. ## What does it look like in practice? A ten-year backtest reports Best month +12.0% and Worst month −18.0%. Those are two individual months out of roughly 120, and the 30-percentage-point spread between them tells you monthly outcomes ranged widely. The −18.0% month is not the run's max drawdown: if the strategy also fell in the month before and the month after, the peak-to-trough decline around that month is deeper than 18%. Equally, the +12.0% month may be the reason the run's total return looks strong, which is why the monthly average is worth reading next to it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/beta # Beta Beta measures how strongly an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) or a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) moves relative to the overall market: a beta of 1 moves in line with the market, a beta above 1 amplifies the market's swings, and a beta below 1 dampens them. Beta describes **exposure**, not quality — it says how much of the market's movement you carry, never whether the outcome was good. A negative beta means the instrument tends to move in the opposite direction to the market. The risk beta measures is called systematic risk, or market risk. **Also seen as:** market beta ## Why does Fincanva show two different things called "Beta"? Two unrelated meanings share the word "Beta" in the app, and telling them apart is the first thing to get right. - **Beta the metric** — the market-sensitivity number described on this page. It appears as the **Beta** column in [screener](/glossary/screener) results and as the quantity the **Beta neutral** allocation method targets. - **The "Beta" badge** — a small badge reading "Beta" sitting next to the **Fincanva score** card title. It marks that feature as being at a beta stage of development. It is a maturity label, not a number, and it carries no beta value at all. See [Fincanva score](/glossary/fincanva-score). There is no standalone beta row in the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table): **Performance Metrics** reports volatility and drawdown-based risk measures instead, and beta lives on the screener, on the allocation methods, and on a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s correlation tables. See [what every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) for what that table does report. ## How is beta calculated? Beta is the covariance between the asset's returns and the market's returns, divided by the variance of the market's returns. $$ \beta = \frac{\operatorname{Cov}(r_a,\; r_m)}{\operatorname{Var}(r_m)} $$ where: $r_a$ is the asset's (or strategy's) return over each period, $r_m$ is the market's return over the same periods, $\operatorname{Cov}$ is covariance and $\operatorname{Var}$ is variance. Equivalently, beta is the slope of a regression line fitted to the asset's returns against the market's returns — which is why a beta of 1.5 reads as "1.5 units of movement for every 1 unit of market movement". Because beta is a slope and not a spread, it is a different measure from [volatility](/glossary/volatility): volatility says how much something moves, beta says how much of that movement tracks the market. ## Where does Fincanva use beta? - **Screener results** carry a **Beta** column, so you can sort or read a candidate instrument's market sensitivity alongside its other figures. - **Beta neutral** is an allocation method whose description reads "Long + short legs sized to target a portfolio beta". Its **Target beta** field carries the hint "0.00 = market-neutral. Positive = net long exposure; negative = net short exposure." — so the method uses beta as an input you set, not as a result it reports. See [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral). - Beta is measured against a **Benchmark instrument** you choose rather than a fixed index. That field's hint reads "The portfolio's beta is computed against this instrument." - A **Use Adjusted Beta** switch is available on the same method, with the hint "Shrinks the OLS beta estimate toward 1.0 (Blume adjustment — Bloomberg's \"Adjusted Beta\"). Stabilises estimates on short windows, but pulls every beta toward 1.0, so a negative or near-zero beta can turn positive — turn it off for inverse ETFs or gold." [Adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) is also the second reading offered beside a Combined's [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix), where each strategy carries one against each market factor. - The **In-sample** field, in the **Leverage & calculation window** section, sets how much history the estimate reads. Its hint reads "Historical window used by the active method for volatility, correlation, beta, and similar calculations. Default 12." ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Beta is always relative to something, and what it is relative to depends on the surface: the reference instrument the allocation method is pointed at, or the market factor whose column you are reading in a correlation table — never a universal "the market". - The screener's **Beta** column is a per-instrument figure, not a figure for your strategy. - The metrics table has no beta row today: a strategy-level beta is not a performance metric. It is reported elsewhere — the tables beside a Combined's [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) carry an [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) for each strategy, and for the Combined itself, against each market factor. - [Adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) is a separate variant — an estimate pulled toward 1.0 to steady it on short histories — and on the Beta neutral method its toggle is on by default; turn it off to work from the raw fitted beta. ## What does it look like in practice? Take an instrument with a beta of 1.5 against its reference. On a day the market rises 1%, the instrument would be expected to rise roughly 1.5%; on a day the market falls 1%, it would be expected to fall roughly 1.5%. Across a −20% market fall, a beta of 1.5 points to roughly −30%. Now compare an instrument with a beta of 0.5: the same −20% market fall points to roughly −10%. Both figures are averages fitted over past returns, not per-day promises — a high-beta instrument can rise on a day the market drops, and beta says nothing at all about the part of the return that is unrelated to the market, which is what [alpha](/glossary/alpha) describes. ## What counts as a good value? There is no good or bad beta, because beta is not a score. A beta near 1 means the position essentially rides the market; well above 1 means market moves reach you magnified in both directions; well below 1, or negative, means you are less exposed to the market's direction and more exposed to whatever else drives that instrument. What beta does tell you is where a result came from: a strategy with high market exposure that gained in a rising market got much of that gain from the market itself, which is why beta is usually read next to a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) comparison rather than on its own. *Beta is estimated from historical returns and describes past sensitivity, not future movement.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/beta-neutral # Beta neutral Beta neutral is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that holds a long book and a short book at once, sized so the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s overall [beta](/glossary/beta) — its sensitivity to a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) — lands on a target you set. At 0.00 the two sides' market sensitivities cancel, so the outcome depends on the longs against the shorts, not on the market's direction. **Also seen as:** market-neutral, beta-hedged book, beta hedging, long/short market-neutral ## What is beta measured against? Beta is measured against the **Benchmark instrument** you pick inside the method, not against a fixed market index. The app states it directly: "The portfolio's beta is computed against this instrument." Change that [instrument](/glossary/instrument) and every beta in the calculation changes with it, along with what "neutral" means for the strategy. Choosing one is required — with none chosen, the app shows "Select a benchmark instrument", with the note "Required for Beta neutral". ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - It is a **single-strategy method**: a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) splits capital across whole strategies rather than building a long-and-short book of instruments, so it does not offer it. - There is no default benchmark instrument: you must choose one before the strategy will run. - Two separate windows are in play: the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**) feeds the beta estimates, and the **Ranking window** feeds the ranking signal. Both default to 12 months and are set independently. - The books are rebuilt at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), because both the rankings and the beta estimates are re-read from the window ending at that date. ## How does a target beta of zero work? A portfolio's beta is the weighted sum of its holdings' betas, where a short position carries a negative weight; setting a target beta means choosing weights whose weighted sum equals that target, and neutrality is the case where it equals zero. $$ {\beta_p} = \sum_i {w_i}\,{\beta_i} $$ where: - the strategy's overall beta - the weight of position i — positive for a long, negative for a short - that instrument's own beta against the chosen benchmark The part that surprises people is that **equal long and short exposure does not give a beta of zero.** Neutrality depends on the betas, not on the money: shorting the same amount you are long only cancels out if both sides have the same average beta. When the two sides have different betas, the two books have to be different sizes. ## Which settings does Beta neutral have? | Control | What you set | Starts on | |---|---|---| | **Benchmark instrument** | what beta is measured against (required) | none | | **Target beta** | from −2 to 2: "0.00 = market-neutral. Positive = net long exposure; negative = net short exposure." | 0.00 | | **Use adjusted beta** | pulls each beta estimate part of the way toward 1.0 before the books are sized | on | | **Position side** | **Long-only**, **Long/short** or **Short-only**: "Long-only and Short-only relax the neutral constraint to a single-sided book." | Long-only | | **Instruments to use** | 2 to 100: "Total long + short positions held at any time." | 10 | | **Ranking direction** | "Standard goes long the top-ranked instruments and short the bottom. Contrarian inverts." | Standard | | **Ranking metric** | [Price Change](/glossary/percent-change), [Average Momentum](/glossary/average-momentum), [Volatility](/glossary/volatility), [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) or P/E Ratio — each described in [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) | Price Change | | **Ranking window** | months the metric reads — "distinct from the Calculation window above, which controls the beta-estimation window"; with **Volatility**, a choice of 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, the only lengths the engine accepts ([window lengths](/glossary/calculation-window#which-window-lengths-can-you-choose)) | 12 months | With [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) on, an extreme fitted beta is treated as part noise: a raw 1.8 counts as something nearer 1.5, a raw 0.2 as nearer 0.5. The gap between the two sides' average betas narrows, so the books come out closer in size; off, the raw estimates are used as fitted, spread and all. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is set to hold 4 positions with a target beta of 0.00. Its two highest-ranked instruments have betas of 1.4 and 1.2, an average of **1.30**; its two lowest-ranked have betas of 0.5 and 0.4, an average of **0.65**. Equal books would not be neutral: 50% long at beta 1.30 and 50% short at beta 0.65 leaves a beta of (0.5 × 1.30) − (0.5 × 0.65) = **+0.325**, still meaningfully exposed to the market. Because the long side's average beta is twice the short side's, the short book has to be twice the size of the long book: - long book = one third of the exposure: (1/3) × 1.30 = 0.433 - short book = two thirds of the exposure: (2/3) × 0.65 = 0.433 - net beta = 0.433 − 0.433 = **0.00** The same arithmetic run with a target of +0.5 rather than 0.00 leaves a deliberate slice of market exposure in place, which is what a positive target beta means. ## What does a beta-neutral strategy still risk? Neutralising beta removes sensitivity to the chosen benchmark; it does not remove risk. The strategy still carries whatever is left after the market factor is stripped out — the relative performance of its longs against its shorts, the residual return [alpha](/glossary/alpha) names — and shorting brings its own costs, since a short position accrues a borrowing charge whenever cost assumptions are switched on — see [Interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups). Beta is also an estimate from a historical window, so a strategy that was neutral on the estimation window will not be exactly neutral going forward. Fincanva describes how this method works; it does not recommend it or any target beta. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/black-litterman # Black-Litterman Black-Litterman is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) built on Markowitz's [Modern Portfolio Theory](/glossary/mpt-markowitz): the same mean-variance optimisation, but the noisy historical averages it uses as expected returns are replaced by a steadier estimate — an equilibrium tilted toward "views". In Fincanva the views are each [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s momentum, computed for you at every rebalance; you enter no forecast. **Also seen as:** Black-Litterman model, BL, Bayesian mean-variance, momentum views The method picker lists it as **"Black-Litterman"**, right after MPT (Markowitz), and describes it as "Markowitz with corrected expected returns: a stable equilibrium tilted by momentum views". It is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) offered both inside a single [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and inside a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Black-Litterman is included wherever MPT is**: it has no [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) of its own, so any plan that includes MPT (Markowitz) includes it, at the strategy level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **Optimization target** defaults to **Optimal**; **Max return** is the other choice. - **Momentum months** defaults to 12 and **View confidence** to 1. - **Every other setting is MPT's own** and behaves as described on [Modern Portfolio Theory](/glossary/mpt-markowitz): [position direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only) (strategy level only), weight limits, force diversification, the **Covariance matrix** choice and the **Resampled** option, with the plan levels stated there. With Resampled on, the Black-Litterman estimate is computed once and every resample reuses it. - The [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**) supplies the risk and momentum inputs, and weights are recomputed at every rebalance, so a Black-Litterman weighting moves over the life of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). ## How does Black-Litterman correct the expected returns? Black-Litterman blends two estimates of each instrument's expected return — an equilibrium, which is stable, and a set of views — weighting each by how much it is trusted. In its textbook form the blended ("posterior") expected returns are: $$ \mu_{BL} = \left[({\tau}{\Sigma})^{-1} + {P}^{\top}{\Omega}^{-1}{P}\right]^{-1}\left[({\tau}{\Sigma})^{-1}{\Pi} + {P}^{\top}{\Omega}^{-1}{Q}\right] $$ where: - the vector of equilibrium returns - the returns the views expect - which instruments each view is about - the uncertainty of the views - the covariance matrix of the instruments - the scale of the equilibrium's uncertainty Its [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) term carries the instruments' risk. The result is a weighted average of the equilibrium and the views, where the more certain a source is, the more it pulls the estimate toward itself. The optimiser then works on $\mu_{BL}$ exactly as MPT works on the historical averages. The app describes the method's momentum views as "Starts from a stable equilibrium and tilts it toward the instruments with momentum. The views are computed for you: you don't enter any forecast." The equilibrium it starts from is built from the instruments' risk, not from their market capitalisation. ## Which optimization targets can Black-Litterman aim at? Black-Litterman offers two of MPT's three targets: **Optimal** (the default) and **Max return**. The app describes them as "Optimal = best risk-adjusted return. Max return = highest expected return regardless of risk." **Min volatility** is not offered, because the lowest-risk portfolio is chosen from the covariance matrix alone and does not use expected returns — the one input Black-Litterman changes. On Min volatility it would make (almost) no difference, so the target stays with [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz). **Moving between MPT (Markowitz) and Black-Litterman keeps your settings.** Choosing Black-Litterman on an MPT strategy keeps every MPT setting and moves a **Min volatility** target to **Optimal**; choosing MPT (Markowitz) again keeps them too and drops the momentum views. **A strategy saved before Black-Litterman became its own method keeps running exactly as saved.** If it had the Black-Litterman switch on with the **Min volatility** target, it is now shown as MPT (Markowitz), because that combination uses (almost) no expected returns; the first time you edit its MPT settings, it is saved without the switch. ## What are the momentum views, and which settings control them? The views are each instrument's recent momentum measured against the others, recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the data available on that date, so a backtest never uses information from after the date it is simulating. The **Momentum views** section of the method has two settings: - **Momentum months** — how far back momentum is measured; from 1 to 24, 12 by default. - **View confidence** — "Higher = momentum weighs more against the equilibrium." From 0.1 to 10, 1 by default. Momentum can reverse sharply, and a Black-Litterman tilt reverses with it: a higher view confidence makes the weights follow recent winners more closely, for better and for worse. ## What does it look like in practice? Take one instrument whose equilibrium return is 6% and whose momentum view says 12%. In the textbook blend, if the equilibrium and the view are trusted equally, the expected return used is halfway between them: (6% + 12%) / 2 = **9%**. If the view is trusted twice as much as the equilibrium, it counts twice: (6% + 2 × 12%) / 3 = **10%**. Plain MPT would have used the historical average of the window directly — which, after a strong run, can be far above either number and pile the portfolio into that one instrument. Black-Litterman's estimate moves toward momentum only as far as its confidence allows, which is why its weights change more gradually. The numbers here illustrate the textbook blend; they are not the exact figures Fincanva computes for a given confidence setting. Choosing the momentum months or the view confidence that made a past backtest look best is [overfitting](/glossary/overfitting), and searching many combinations for that best one is [data snooping](/glossary/data-snooping-bias). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/cagr # CAGR CAGR, the compound annual growth rate, is the single constant yearly rate that would grow a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) from its starting value to its [final value](/glossary/final-value) over the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) period. It expresses a whole run's return as one annualised percentage, so runs of different lengths can be compared on the same yearly scale. **Also seen as:** compound annual growth rate, annualised return, geometric return ## How is CAGR calculated? CAGR takes the [whole-period return](/glossary/total-return) and finds the constant yearly rate that, compounded over the number of years in the period, reproduces it. It is the *compounded* view of annualised return — it accounts for growth building on growth, unlike [AAGR](/glossary/aagr), which averages yearly returns as if each restarted from scratch. Because it is a ratio, CAGR does not depend on how much [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) you used. $$ \text{CAGR} = (1 + {\text{total return}})^{1/{\text{years}}} - 1 $$ where: - the whole-period gain, as a fraction - the length of the backtest in calendar years ## How does Fincanva handle it? A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR. - Fincanva computes CAGR geometrically over the calendar years of the backtest, carried to decimal months. - CAGR fills the annualised-return slot on the metrics view when **Reinvest profits** is on; with it off, the same slot shows [AAGR](/glossary/aagr), the arithmetic version. - It is expressed as a percentage and can be negative when a strategy loses money over the period. ## What does CAGR mean on my result? The CAGR on a result is the single yearly rate that would have carried that run from its starting value to its final value — it restates the whole backtest as one annualised percentage. It is a summary of the period, not a rate any individual year achieved: a run that gained 40% one year and lost 15% the next still reports one CAGR, and no year in it looked like that number. It also says nothing about the path — two runs with the same CAGR can have had very different [drawdowns](/glossary/max-drawdown) along the way, which is why the metrics view shows both. Compare CAGRs only across runs of comparable length and over the same period; a 3-year run and a 20-year run annualise very different amounts of market history. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy grows 10,000 into 16,100 over 5 years — a total return of +61%. Its CAGR is the yearly rate that compounds to that gain: (1 + 0.61)^(1/5) − 1 ≈ 0.10, or about 10% per year. Growing at a steady 10% a year for five years does turn 10,000 into roughly 16,100, which is exactly what CAGR states in one number. *No CAGR is a rate you can expect to repeat.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/calculation-window # Calculation window The calculation window is how many months of past data an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) reads when it computes weights — the lookback that feeds its volatility, correlation, [beta](/glossary/beta) and ranking calculations at each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). History older than the window has no influence on the weights. In the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) editor the field is labelled **In-sample**. **Also seen as:** In-sample, lookback, lookback window, in-sample period, estimation window ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The default is **12 months**. The field takes whole months with a minimum of 1 — limited to the seven values above for the methods that read annualised volatility — and the unit shown beside it is "mo". - The window belongs to the allocation profile, so a strategy that has a Risk-Off allocation can read one window in Risk-On and a different one in Risk-Off. - [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) carries a second, separate window — its **Ranking calculation window** — for the metric it ranks on, while the profile's calculation window controls its beta estimation. The app spells the split out: "How far back the ranking metric reads — distinct from the Calculation window above, which controls the beta-estimation window." - Changing the window changes a strategy's inputs, so the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) has to be run again before the results reflect it. ## What does the calculation window change? The calculation window changes the weights a method produces without changing the method itself, because it changes the span of history the method measures over. The app's own note reads: "Historical window used by the active method for volatility, correlation, beta, and similar calculations. Default 12." A short window makes the weights react quickly to recent conditions and shift noticeably from one rebalance to the next; a long window averages across more market regimes and produces steadier weights that respond slowly. Neither is more correct than the other — they answer different questions about the same instruments. The window is measured backwards from each rebalance date *inside* the backtest, not from today, so a method using a 12-month window at a rebalance in March 2015 reads 2014–2015 data, not recent data. ## Which allocation methods read the calculation window? | Reads the window | Ignores the window | |---|---| | Inverse volatility · [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) · [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) · [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation) · [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking) · Beta neutral · [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification) · [HRP](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity) · [HERC](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) · [NCO](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization) · [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad) · [Min CVaR and Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) · [CDaR](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk) · [EVaR](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk) · [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) · [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming) | [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights) · [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights) · [Floating](/glossary/floating) · [Market cap](/glossary/market-cap) | [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) is the conditional case: it reads the window when its ranking metric is [Price Change](/glossary/percent-change), Volatility or [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio), and ignores it for [Average Momentum](/glossary/average-momentum) and P/E Ratio. When the active method does not read the window, the **In-sample** field is not displayed at all — there is nothing for it to set. ## Which window lengths can you choose? A method that reads annualised [volatility](/glossary/volatility) over the window accepts only **1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months**; every other method takes any whole number of months from 1 upward. The seven-value case covers: - [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) with the risk measure **Annualized volatility**, in a strategy and in a [Combined](/glossary/combined); - [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation), always; - [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) with the ranking metric **Volatility**, in a strategy and in a Combined; - [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) ranked by **Volatility**, for its **Ranking window**. For those methods the field is a menu of the seven values rather than a number you type. A strategy saved earlier with another value still opens and still saves — the menu shows that value as the current, greyed-out item — but its backtest does not start: the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "The strategy does not run with this in-sample period" blocks it until you pick one of the seven. On a strategy holding a single picked [instrument](/glossary/instrument), Inverse volatility and Min correlation have nothing to weigh and never read the window, so the alert stays silent there. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds five ETFs and uses [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility), which gives each holding a weight inversely proportional to its risk. With the calculation window at 6 months, the weights are set from the last six months of returns: an ETF that was turbulent through that half-year but calm before it measures as high-risk and receives a small weight. Change the window to 24 and that same turbulent half-year is averaged against eighteen quieter months, so its measured [volatility](/glossary/volatility) falls and its weight rises. Same method, same five ETFs, same rebalance date — a different allocation, purely because the method was shown a different span of history. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/capital # Capital Capital is the amount of money you enter on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [Positions](/glossary/positions) view so Fincanva can size that strategy's target orders. It is a view input rather than a strategy setting: change it and every money figure on the page — the target notional, each holding's target value, the deployed amount, and the share quantities — is rebuilt for the new amount, while the target weights stay exactly as they were. It is a different thing from [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital), which is a backtest input belonging to the strategy itself. **Also seen as:** investment amount, account size ## What does changing Capital do? Changing Capital re-sizes the order plan and nothing else. The strategy's rules, its allocation, and its saved backtest results are untouched; what changes is how much money those weights are applied to. Because weights are ratios, doubling the capital doubles every [target notional](/glossary/target-notional) and roughly doubles every share count — it never changes *what* the strategy wants to hold, only how much of it. The page re-requests its figures at the new amount, dimming briefly while they are rebuilt. ## How is Capital different from starting capital? Capital sizes today's target orders; [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) sizes the historical simulation. Starting capital is the amount a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) begins with at the start of the simulated period and then compounds forward, so it lives in the strategy's settings and changing it flips the last run to **Needs re-run**. Capital on the Positions view answers "what would this portfolio look like at this much money, right now" — it re-runs nothing, and it is not saved with the strategy. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The field is labelled `Capital`, prefixed with your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency)'s symbol, and opens at 100,000. - The amount is a view parameter: it is not stored with the strategy and does not trigger a new backtest. - While the page is refreshing the field is disabled; if the refresh fails, the field reverts to the last working amount and the page shows `Couldn't update — reverted to the last result.` - A larger capital usually raises [accuracy](/glossary/accuracy). - [Cash % and capital invested](/glossary/cash-and-capital-invested) are percentages of whatever Capital you set, so scaling the amount moves the money behind them far more than it moves the split itself. - These are paper figures. Fincanva monitors a live-followed strategy without trading, so no [order plan](/glossary/order-plan) it produces ever reaches a broker (see [Portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). ## What does it look like in practice? A target portfolio holds four instruments at weights of 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10%. With Capital at 100,000 their target values are 40,000 / 30,000 / 20,000 / 10,000. Type 25,000 instead and the weights do not move, but every target value scales to a quarter — 10,000 / 7,500 / 5,000 / 2,500 — and each share count is recomputed at the [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s own price. The strategy is unchanged; you have only asked what the same portfolio looks like on a quarter of the money. Accuracy typically dips a little at the smaller figure, because one unbuyable fraction of a share now weighs more against a smaller book. *Capital only rescales the target figures this page displays. It is not a suggested amount to invest, and Fincanva does not recommend how much money to put behind any strategy.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/capital-chart # Capital chart The capital chart is the money view of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Capital Growth** page: a chart titled **Growth** that plots the strategy's total value over the simulated period, with the part in cash drawn inside it, the benchmark behind it and a drawdown panel below. It shows what the strategy held while it made its return. **Also seen as:** the Growth chart, the capital growth view. ## What else is on the Capital Growth page? A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR. - A **Summary** card beside the chart: **Current value** as its headline, then **Invested** and **Profit**, plus the [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and max drawdown, closing with the dated span of the run. **Invested** here means the capital that was put in at the start of the run — not the amount currently in positions, which is what the chart's cash band describes. - A **P&L breakdown** chart, which splits the same result into its gain and cost components. See [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown). - A KPI strip above them: **Final value**, **Vs benchmark**, **Max drawdown** and **CAGR**. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Total value** and **Cash capital** are money figures in your account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency); **Growth** and **Drawdown** are percentages. - The chart, the **P&L breakdown** and the range selector share one date range, so narrowing the period narrows all of them together. - Three display switches — **Inflation-adj.**, **Benchmark** and **Log scale** — change how the chart is drawn without re-running the backtest. See [chart toggles](/glossary/chart-toggles). - The chart appears only after a completed run; before that the page reads "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to generate its capital analysis." ## What are the series on the capital chart? Read in money, the **Growth** chart carries four series and two vertical axes. - **Total value** is the filled area covering everything the strategy is worth on that date — positions plus cash together. Its axis is titled **Value**. - **Cash capital** is a second area drawn inside the first, showing the part of that total which is *not* in positions. The distance between the two areas is therefore the invested part, so the split reads off the gap rather than off a separate line. - **Benchmark** is a dashed line on the same axis, the [benchmark's](/glossary/benchmark) own money curve over the same dates from the same [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital). - **Drawdown** is the shorter panel underneath, on its own **Drawdown** axis: an area hanging down from zero showing how far below its previous peak the strategy was on each date. See [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). A toggle in the chart header switches the whole chart between money — labelled with your account's base-currency code — and **%**, which redraws the same result as [cumulative return](/glossary/total-return). In the **%** reading the single line is **Growth** and there is no cash series, because a share of a total has no cash component; the **Drawdown** panel stays. See [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) for how to read the curve itself. ## Why does the cash band matter? Because the gap between **Total value** and **Cash capital** is the plainest available answer to "how much of my capital was actually working?". A strategy that holds a cash reserve, or that stops holding positions for a stretch, shows that as a thicker cash band in exactly the dates it happened — which is something no single metric in **Performance Metrics** reports. The Positions view reports the same split for a single date, as [Cash % and capital invested](/glossary/cash-and-capital-invested). Two settings move that band. A strategy's invested share decides how much capital is put to work in the first place, with the remainder held as a cash reserve; see [Invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion). And a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) switches the strategy to its [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) allocation profile, which typically holds a lower invested share — so on the chart a Risk-Off stretch reads as the cash band widening. ### What should the cash band look like? There is no shape it should have — the band simply reports what the strategy's own rules produced. A permanently thick band means most of the capital sat idle for the period, and a band that appears only in specific stretches means something in the strategy moved it there on those dates. A wide band is neither a gain nor a loss in itself; it is exposure you did not take, in both directions — what the reserve itself earns while it sits there is a separate matter, covered on [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy starts with 100,000 and is set to invest 90% of it, so from the first date the chart shows a **Total value** area of 100,000 with a **Cash capital** band of 10,000 held underneath — the strategy is running with 90,000 at work. Three years in, the strategy's risk condition turns on and it switches to a Risk-Off allocation that invests only 40%. On the chart the **Cash capital** band jumps from roughly a tenth of the total to well over half of it, and stays there for as long as the condition is active. The **Total value** area barely moves in that moment, because switching to cash does not by itself gain or lose money — it changes the exposure, not the value. What you then see is the **Total value** line flattening out while the market moves, and the **Drawdown** panel below staying shallower than it would have been fully invested. When the condition clears, the cash band narrows again and the total resumes tracking the market. That whole sequence is invisible on a percentage-return chart, which would only show a flat stretch with no explanation for it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/capital-gains-tax # Capital-gains tax Capital-gains tax is the tax charged on a **realized gain** — the profit you make when you sell a position for more than you paid for it. It applies only to gains you have actually locked in by closing a position, not to paper gains on holdings you still own. Crucially, it is charged on your **net** result rather than on each winning trade in isolation: realized losses are set against realized gains, and what is left over carries forward to later years. Fincanva can model the tax with two rates, a short-term and a long-term one chosen by how long the position was held, but whether that split exists at all is decided by your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) — Italy taxes a realized gain at one rate however long it was held. **Also seen as:** CGT, tax on realized gains ## How is capital-gains tax calculated? Capital-gains tax is the applicable rate multiplied by the **taxable gain** — and the taxable gain is your realized gains after realized losses have been set against them, not each winning position on its own. $$ \text{taxable gain} = \text{realized gains} - \text{realized losses set against them} $$ $$ \text{tax} = \text{applicable rate} \times \text{taxable gain} $$ where: **realized gains** and **realized losses** are the profits and losses locked in by positions closed during the year, and the losses that may be set against a gain include losses carried forward from earlier years, under the limits in the next section. The **applicable rate** is the short-term or the long-term rate, decided by your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) and by how long the position was held. A year whose losses exceed its gains has a taxable gain of zero and carries the remainder forward; it is never a negative tax. This is the difference that changes what a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) shows you. A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) that closed one position for +1,000 and another for −400 in the same year is taxed on 600, not on 1,000. Reading the rate against gross gains overstates the drag that taxes put on a strategy — often substantially, for a strategy that trades a lot. Where the residency has both rates, a position sold after only a brief holding period meets the short-term rate and one held longer meets the long-term rate. The app labels the two fields "Short-term capital gains" and "Long-term capital gains". ## How long must a position be held to count as long-term? **More than one year — more than 365 days between opening and closing the position.** A position held for exactly 365 days is still short-term; it has to pass the threshold, not merely reach it. The clock starts when the position is **first** opened. Buying more of an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) you already hold does not restart it, and selling part of a position is measured from that same first purchase — the clock only resets once the position has been closed completely. The threshold only does anything under the residencies that have two rates: **United States** and **Other**. Under **Italy** there is no short/long split at all, so the holding period does not change the rate — see [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) for which rates each residency starts from and which of them you can edit. ## What happens to a realized loss? A realized loss reduces the gains you are taxed on, and any part of it you cannot use this year is carried forward. **How long it stays usable, and against what, depends on your residency** — and the Italian rules carry an asymmetry that is easy to be caught by. **Under United States and Other residency:** - A loss is first set against gains realized in the same year — and within the year the character does not matter: a short-term loss can reduce a long-term gain, and a long-term loss a short-term gain. - Whatever is left over at the end of the year carries forward with **no time limit** — it stays available for as many years as the backtest runs. - A carried loss **keeps its short-term or long-term character**: a carried short-term loss reduces short-term gains, and a carried long-term loss reduces long-term gains. It does not cross over. - Fincanva does not model the annual deduction of net capital losses against ordinary income that US tax law allows. In a simulation, a loss is only ever useful against capital gains. **Under Italy residency:** - Losses stay usable for **five years**, after which an unused loss simply stops being available. The [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime) you select decides how that window is counted: - **Declarative** — the year is settled as a whole: the year's losses are first set against the same year's gains, and a net loss for the year can reduce net gains in the **five years that follow**. - **Administered** — each gain is settled as it is realized: a loss can reduce gains realized **after** it, in the year it was realized and the **four years that follow**. A gain already taxed before the loss happened is not revisited. - There is a **single rate**, so there is no character to preserve — a carried loss reduces any compensable gain. - **A gain on an ETF cannot be reduced by any loss — from the same year or carried forward — but a loss on an ETF can be used to reduce other gains.** The asymmetry runs one way only. ### Why the Italian ETF rule matters to your results If you are modelling a portfolio built mainly of ETFs under Italian residency, **your losses help you and your gains do not.** Every ETF gain is taxed in full, whatever losses you have realized that year or are carrying; every ETF loss still goes into the pool that reduces your other, non-ETF gains. A portfolio of nothing but ETFs therefore gets no benefit from netting at all on the gains side, even in a year that also produced large losses. This applies to instruments Fincanva classifies as **ETFs**. Other exchange-traded products — ETNs, ETCs, closed-end funds — are treated as ordinary compensable instruments in the model, so their gains *can* be reduced by carried losses. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The rates are percentages of the gain and are seeded from your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency), which is also what decides whether a short/long split exists at all — that page carries the per-residency table and says which fields you can still edit. - Tax is charged only on realized gains, and only when taxes are switched on in your [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions); with taxes off it is zero. With taxes on, the value a run reports each day also sets aside the tax its still-open gains would owe if sold that day — see [taxes toggle](/glossary/taxes-toggle#what-does-turning-taxes-on-change). - The rate is applied in full: the tax charged is the applicable rate on the taxable gain. - When the tax leaves the account follows the [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime): once a year, on the year's net result, under **United States**, **Other** and the Italian **Declarative** regime; as each gain is realized under the Italian **Administered** regime. - For Italian residency the rates are set by tax law for the selected [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime) and shown as "Auto-updated" rather than edited by hand. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy closes two positions in the same year: one for a **1,000 gain**, held eighteen months, and one for a **400 loss**. Under **United States** residency the loss is set against the gain first, so the taxable gain is 1,000 − 400 = **600**, not 1,000. The winner was held more than a year, so it is long-term and meets the 20% rate: 20% × 600 = **120 of tax**. Close the same winner at eleven months instead and nothing about the netting changes — the taxable gain is still 600 — but it is now short-term and meets the 35% rate: 35% × 600 = **210 of tax**. The holding period moved the bill by 90 on an unchanged pair of trades. Now give the strategy a **1,400 loss**, on a position held only a few months, instead of a 400 one. Losses exceed gains, so the taxable gain is zero and the tax is **0**. The short-term loss has wiped out the long-term gain within the year, and the unused 400 carries forward as a **short-term** loss — the character of the loss it came from — still available against short-term gains in any later year of the run. Run the same pair under **Italy** residency, on the default **Declarative** regime, and two things change. The single 26% rate applies whatever the holding period was, so both versions give 26% × 600 = **156 of tax**. And if the winner was an **ETF**, the netting does not happen on that side at all: the 1,000 ETF gain is taxed in full, 26% × 1,000 = **260 of tax**, while the 400 loss is not wasted — it stays available against any non-ETF gains the strategy made. Same two trades, same rate, 104 more tax, purely because of what the winner was. Under the **Administered** regime the order of the two trades matters too: if the winner closed first, its 1,000 was taxed when it was realized, and the later 400 loss is carried forward for future gains instead. *These figures describe the tax base Fincanva models in a simulation, not tax advice for your own situation — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/cash-and-capital-invested # Cash % and capital invested Cash % and capital invested are two readings of one split on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [Positions](/glossary/positions) view: **Cash** is the share of your capital that the target portfolio does not aim to hold, and **capital invested** is the share that it does. They always add to 100%, and both are measured against the [Capital](/glossary/capital) figure you entered — not against the positions alone. The `Cash` KPI at the top of the page and the headline percentage on the `Target allocation` card read the same split, so the two can never disagree. **Also seen as:** idle cash, uninvested capital, effective exposure (capital invested, shown as a KPI on Positions) ## How are Cash % and capital invested calculated? Both come from one sum: add up what every target position is meant to be worth, express it as a share of your capital, and whatever is missing is cash. $$ \text{capital invested} = \sum_i \frac{\text{target value}_i}{\text{capital}} \times 100 \qquad \text{Cash} = 100 - \text{capital invested} $$ where $\text{target value}_i$ is holding *i*'s [target notional](/glossary/target-notional) in your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), capital is the amount entered on the Positions view, and both results are percentages. Note which figure that sum uses: the **target** value, before each position is rounded to whole shares. The extra sliver left over by rounding is measured separately, by [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed) and [accuracy](/glossary/accuracy) — it is not part of Cash %. ## What is effective exposure? Effective exposure is the Positions page's own name for capital invested: the `Effective exposure` KPI at the top of the page states the same percentage as `capital invested` on the `Target allocation` card — Σ of the target positions' notional value, as a percentage of capital. It is **unclamped**: it reads above 100% exactly when [leverage](/glossary/leverage) or an [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) above 1.00× pushes a strategy past its capital, and Cash % goes negative for the same reason (see [why is my cash negative?](#why-is-my-cash-negative) below). ## Why do the allocation weights and the Cash % seem to disagree? Because the two are normalised against different totals, and that is the single most confusing thing on the page. - **Shares of a strategy's own slice.** A strategy's allocation weights divide up whatever that strategy was given. They add to 100% of its slice no matter how much of the slice it actually deploys. - **Shares of your whole capital.** Cash %, capital invested, and every tile in the [target allocation treemap](/glossary/target-allocation-treemap) are expressed against the capital you entered, so cash shows up as a visible remainder. So a strategy whose asset weights read 60/40 can still leave a quarter of its slice in cash: the 60/40 describes how the *invested* part is divided, not how much is invested. Read the weights when you want the mix; read Cash % when you want to know how much of the money is at work. For the same split across a whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than at one date, see the [capital chart](/glossary/capital-chart). ## What leaves capital in cash? Two settings put capital in cash rather than into positions, and they stack: - **Leverage below 1.** [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) is a multiplier on position sizes — `1.00 = no leverage`, with a range of `0.00 – 3.00` and presets from `Cash only` to `Max`. At `0.50` a strategy targets half the money it was allocated and the other half sits idle. This is the case that surprises people, because the asset weights still read as a full 100% split of the invested part. - **A deliberate cash reserve.** A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s [Invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) setting — `Share of capital this profile deploys` — holds back a slice on purpose. Leverage above `1.00` works the other way: target positions add up to more than your capital, and Cash % goes **negative** rather than to zero — see [why is my cash negative?](#why-is-my-cash-negative) below. ## Why is my cash negative? Cash % (and the Cash amount) goes negative when the target positions add up to more than your capital: the difference is borrowed, and Fincanva calls it margin debt. Two settings can push a strategy or Combined there, and they work the same way in reverse of the two above: - **A single strategy's [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) above 1.00×.** At 1.50× a strategy targets 150% of its capital; 50% is borrowed and Cash % reads −50%. - **A Combined's [Invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) above 100%.** The same borrowing happens at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) — see invested portion's own worked example. On the Positions page, negative cash relabels the `Cash` KPI to `Cash · margin debt` and switches its tone to negative — the figure itself is never clamped to zero, it reads the actual debt. The `Target allocation` card's exposure bar draws the same debt as a segment to the left of zero, captioned `Debt {amount} · {pct}`, with the positions laid out to the right of it; an unlevered book draws the same axis with no debt segment at all. Margin debt is financed the same way leverage is — only when the **Costs & interests** [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) is on — see [what leverage costs](/glossary/leverage#what-does-leverage-cost). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The Positions view's tray states capital invested as the `Effective exposure` KPI (a percentage) and cash as the `Cash` KPI (a money amount, `Cash · margin debt` and negative-toned once it goes below zero). The `Target allocation` card states the same split again: capital invested as its large percentage, captioned `capital invested`, plus a muted `Cash` tile inside the treemap and — only once the book is levered — the signed exposure bar's `Debt` and `Positions` segments (see [why is my cash negative?](#why-is-my-cash-negative) above). - All of these read for the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date selected on the page and the capital entered there — change either and every figure recomputes. - Cash is capital the plan does not deploy, not a holding you can size or a position you can see in the table. - If the strategy's last run reads **Needs re-run**, these figures come from that older run; the Portfolios page lists such a portfolio under [Needs attention](/docs/portfolio-holdings/keep-your-live-book-in-order#which-portfolios-appear-under-needs-attention). - Nothing is traded. This is the split of a paper portfolio Fincanva monitors, never an instruction to move money (see [Portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). ## What does it look like in practice? A portfolio shows `92%` capital invested with `Cash 8%`, on 100,000 of capital: 92,000 is targeted by positions and 8,000 is not. The cause is the strategy's Leverage setting of `0.92` — it deliberately targets 92% of what it was given. Now decode the allocation beside it. The strategy's four holdings carry weights of 40 / 30 / 20 / 10 within its own slice, so their target values are 36,800 / 27,600 / 18,400 / 9,200 — 40% of 92,000, and so on. The treemap tiles read `36.8%`, `27.6%`, `18.4%`, `9.2%` and a muted `Cash 8%`, because tiles are shares of your capital and must total 100%. Both readings are correct at the same time: 40% of the strategy's slice is 36.8% of your capital. Set Leverage to `1.00` and Cash drops to 0% while the 40 / 30 / 20 / 10 mix does not change at all. *These are the split of a paper target portfolio. Neither figure is a recommended amount to hold in cash or to put to work, and Fincanva does not tell you what leverage or cash reserve to set.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/cash-drag # Cash drag Cash drag is the market return a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) gives up because part of its capital sits in cash instead of being invested. It is not a loss — the cash is still there — it is an opportunity cost: over a window in which the market rose, the uninvested share earned none of that rise. The more capital held back, and the stronger the market's move, the larger the drag. **Also seen as:** drag, opportunity cost of cash ## How is cash drag calculated? Cash drag over a window is approximately the cash share of capital multiplied by the market's return over the same window. $$ \text{cash drag} \approx (1 - w) \times r_{\text{market}} $$ where: $w$ is the [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) (the share of capital the allocation profile puts to work), $(1 - w)$ is the cash reserve, and $r_{\text{market}}$ is the market's return over the same dates. It is an approximation because it ignores compounding within the window and whatever the idle cash itself earns. ## What counts as a good value? Cash drag has no target value — it is the price of holding a reserve, and it is only measurable after the fact. Read it against the reason the cash was held: over a window in which the market fell, the same reserve that "dragged" in a rally is what limited the fall. A strategy carrying a large permanent reserve shows drag in most rising windows; a strategy that only holds cash defensively shows it in bursts. Fincanva reports what happened; it does not tell you how much cash to hold. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The cash reserve is whatever the [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) does not deploy: an invested portion of 75% leaves a 25% reserve — see [Invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion). - A Risk-Off allocation profile commonly deploys less than its Risk-On twin, so drag typically appears in bursts, lasting as long as the strategy stays defensive — see [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition). A condition that flips in and out repeatedly turns those bursts into a recurring cost — see [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw). - [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) is the other dial on how much capital is at work: a multiplier below 1.00× leaves part of the capital uninvested, which is the same drag reached from the opposite end. - Idle cash accrues interest only when the **Costs & interests** [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) is on, and that assumption is off by default: on the figures you meet first the cash earns nothing and the drag is the whole forgone market return. Switch costs on and the drag becomes that return net of what the cash earned — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). - The near-riskless short-term return that a cash-like holding is judged against is the [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy switches to a defensive profile set to **Lightly invested** — 25% of capital deployed, 75% held as cash. Over the six months it stays defensive the market rises 12%. The invested quarter captures its share of that rise; the three-quarters in cash captures none of it, so the forgone market return is roughly (1 − 0.25) × 12% = 9 percentage points. Had the market instead fallen 12% over the same six months, the same 75% reserve would have avoided roughly 9 percentage points of the decline. The arithmetic is symmetric — only the market's direction decides which side of it you land on. *Fincanva does not tell you how much cash to hold.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/chart-toggles # Chart toggles Chart toggles are the three display switches above the **Growth** chart on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Capital Growth** page — **Inflation-adj.**, **Benchmark** and **Log scale** — which change how an already-computed [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is drawn, not the backtest. Unlike the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions), which change *which figures* a page shows, they change only *how* the same figures are plotted. **Also seen as:** display toggles, chart display switches. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - All three toggles start in the same state on every visit: **Inflation-adj.** off, **Benchmark** on, **Log scale** off. They are not saved with the strategy. - They are a different kind of control from the simulation assumptions: **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** and **Reinvest profits** change *which figures* a page shows. - No toggle re-runs the backtest. The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) has no equivalent controls of its own, and nothing you switch here changes a figure in it. - The toggles live on the **Capital Growth** page's **Growth** chart. The other analysis pages have their own controls, not these. - The period buttons and zoom bar beside them narrow the visible date range; they are also display-only. - With **Log scale** on: if the total value is positive throughout but the **Cash capital** series touches zero at some point — which happens whenever a strategy is fully invested — then **Log scale** stays available and the **Cash capital** band is hidden while log is active, because zero cash has no place on a log axis. Switch log back off and the cash band returns. - **Log scale** applies to the money reading of the **Growth** chart. The **%** reading is drawn on a linear axis, since it is already a percentage. ## What does Inflation-adj. do? **Inflation-adj.** redraws the curve in *real* terms instead of nominal ones — the value restated in the purchasing power of the start of the period, so a rise on the chart means the strategy grew faster than prices rose rather than simply that the number got bigger. $$ {V^{\text{real}}_t} = {V_t} \times \frac{{P_0}}{{P_t}} $$ where: - the value on date t in start-of-period purchasing power - the nominal value the account held on date t - the price level from the inflation series, at the start and on date t The adjustment uses a real historical monthly inflation series rather than a fixed assumption, so the correction is larger across high-inflation stretches and small across quiet ones. Where a requested date falls outside that series — before it begins or after its last reading — a fixed fallback assumption stands in for it; see [special data series](/glossary/special-data-series). Because both series are pre-computed when the backtest runs, flipping the switch is immediate and nothing is re-simulated. The switch applies to both readings of the **Growth** chart — the money one and the **%** one — at the same time. ### What does the Benchmark toggle do? **Benchmark** shows or hides the dashed [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) line on the chart. It is on by default and is purely visual: hiding the line does not remove the benchmark from the run, and the metrics table's **Benchmark** column keeps reporting it either way. ## What does Log scale do, and why is it sometimes greyed out? **Log scale** replaces the chart's linear value axis with a logarithmic one, so **equal vertical distances mean equal percentage changes** instead of equal amounts of money. On a linear axis, a curve that compounds looks like it accelerates — the later years are drawn far taller than the early ones purely because the amounts are larger. On a log axis, a constant growth rate is a straight line, which makes it possible to compare the pace of an early stretch against a late one by eye. **Log scale switches itself off and becomes unavailable when the chart contains values that a logarithmic axis cannot plot.** A log axis has no position for zero or for a negative number, so the toggle is only offered when the whole visible history stays above zero: every date's total value must be positive, and the benchmark's curve must be positive too. If either fails anywhere in the run, the switch appears off and greyed out rather than silently dropping the offending points. Turning **Inflation-adj.** on or off is re-checked the same way, because the two series can differ — a run can be log-capable in nominal terms and not in real terms. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy runs 20 years, from 10,000 to 40,000 — a nominal [total return](/glossary/total-return) of +300%. Leave every toggle off and the curve rises fourfold, steepening towards the right because each later year adds more money than an early one did. Turn **Log scale** on and the same curve straightens out: the four-fold rise now reads as a roughly even climb, and you can see that the strategy grew at a similar percentage pace early and late. Nothing about the result changed — only the axis. Now turn **Inflation-adj.** on. Across those 20 years prices roughly doubled, so the real [ending value](/glossary/final-value) is around 20,000 in start-of-period money and the real total return is closer to +100% than +300%. The final figure on the chart drops by half even though the strategy's nominal result is untouched: the nominal number is what the account held, the real number is what it could buy. The gap between the two readings is one of the largest single differences a long backtest can show, which is why the toggle exists. ## What should you read on which setting? Each setting answers a different question, so there is no "correct" one to leave on. Nominal is what the account balance actually was, and it is the basis of every figure in the metrics table. Real answers what the result was worth, which matters most over long windows and much less over short ones. A linear axis shows amounts of money; a log axis shows rates of change and is the setting on which a long compounding curve is honest about its early years. The one thing to avoid is comparing two curves drawn on different settings — a real curve and a nominal curve of the same strategy are not the same chart, and neither figure is more "true" than the other. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/cherry-picking-bias # Cherry-picking bias Cherry-picking bias is quoting only the periods, instruments, or runs that flattered a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) while leaving the rest out, so every number reported is true and the picture they add up to is not. It is an error of **reporting**: the underlying test can be entirely correct, and the distortion enters only when its results are described. **Also seen as:** Cherry picking, selective reporting Nothing has to be falsified — a good year really was a good year — but the reader is shown a slice of the evidence chosen *because* it was favorable, and has no way to see what was left out. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A Fincanva [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reports the whole period it ran, not a chosen stretch of it, and reports the falls alongside the gains: the run that produces the return also produces its worst peak-to-trough [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), so the bad part of the history arrives attached to the good part. Because the run is a [walk-forward replay](/glossary/walk-forward-replay) of the full span, no version of the result covers only the years that worked. A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles side by side: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR — the deepest fall next to the gain. [Start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) answers the window form directly: it re-runs the same strategy across many entry dates and holding windows and reports the *range* of outcomes — the best start against the worst, and the share of start dates that ended positive. A claim that holds for one entry month shows up as a wide range. What the product cannot do is decide what you tell other people, or yourself: one favorable screenshot from a full run is still available to anyone. Turned inwards, that is [confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias); when the numbers themselves are wrong, it is [data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias). ## What gets cherry-picked in a backtest? Four things are usually picked, and each is picked the same way — after the results are already known: - **The window.** A start and end date chosen because the stretch between them went well. This is the most common form, because a backtest makes any window one setting away. - **The instruments.** The names in the report are the ones that contributed; the ones that dragged get described as "not really part of the idea". - **The metric.** The return is quoted and the worst [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) is not, or the [gross](/glossary/gross-vs-net) curve is shown while the net-of-costs one — the number a real account would have kept — is not (see [cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias)). - **The run.** One configuration out of many tried is presented as *the* strategy, with no mention of the others. One test catches all four: could someone reproduce the claim without knowing which slice you chose? If the claim only holds on your slice, the slice is doing the work, not the strategy. ## What changes when you report 2019 and omit 2022? A strategy is backtested over the ten calendar years 2015–2024. Two of those years stand out: **2019 returned +31%** and **2022 returned −29%**. A report built around 2019 — the year label, the rising curve, the +31% — states a fact. Here is what the same run also says: | Figure from the same run | Value | |---|---| | 2019 calendar year | +31% | | 2022 calendar year | −29% | | Full period, [total return](/glossary/total-return) | +72% | | Full period, annualized ([CAGR](/glossary/cagr)) | 5.6% a year | | Worst peak-to-trough fall in the period | −34% | Quoting 2019 alone invites the reader to treat +31% as what the strategy does in a year; the run's own annualized figure is about a fifth of that. Put the omitted year back and the pair alone leaves the strategy below where it started: 1.31 × 0.71 = 0.93, or −7% across the two years together. None of those five numbers contradicts the others — they all come from one run. The distortion is entirely in which of them got quoted. ## How is cherry-picking bias different from selection bias and data-snooping bias? The three differ by **which step goes wrong**: cherry-picking bias is about what you *report*, [selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias) is about what you *tested*, and [data-snooping bias](/glossary/data-snooping-bias) is about *how many* things you tested before something looked good. They also stack, in that order. A researcher who tries fifty variants (data-snooping), keeps the one with the most flattering [instrument](/glossary/instrument) list (selection), and then presents its best three years (cherry-picking) has committed all three, and the final report shows no trace of the first two. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/clustering # Clustering Clustering is a quantitative risk rule that sorts days into groups according to how one series has moved over a recent window, and switches the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) to its Risk-Off allocation on every day that falls in the most volatile group. It gives no probability: each day either is in the turbulent group or is not. **Also seen as:** k-means clustering, regime clustering, k-means regimes $$ {c(t)} = \arg\min_{k}\; \lVert {x_t} - {\mu_k} \rVert \qquad\qquad \text{Risk-Off when}\quad {c(t)} = {k_{\text{turbulent}}} $$ where: - how much and in which direction the series moved over the window ending on day t - the centre of group k - the group day t is assigned to — the one whose centre is closest - the group with the highest volatility In words: the strategy runs Risk-Off on exactly the days that look most like the most volatile stretch of the series' history. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - It is one of three rules under **Quantitative regimes** in the [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) builder, described as "Groups days by how the market has moved recently. It decides yes or no, with no probability: if the day falls in the turbulent group, you move to Risk-Off." - **The series** is any [instrument](/glossary/instrument) you pick in the rule's sentence; a new rule starts on the S&P 500. There is no indicator, operator or pair of thresholds — see [condition types](/glossary/condition-types). - **Observation window (trading days)** runs from 10 to 63, default 21 ("How many days to look at to describe each day. 21 ≈ 1 month."). **Number of regimes** is 2 or 3, default 2 ("How many groups of days the model looks for."); only the most volatile group is Risk-Off, so with 3 the middle group stays Risk-On. - **One decision, no hysteresis**: the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) is the brake against [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw) — "This rule has a single threshold: the delay is your brake against switching too often. 0 = immediate." **Auto-rebalance** works as on any condition. - **Clustering is included from the Advanced plan**, at the strategy level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike; Free and Starter do not offer it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? You add a Clustering rule on a broad equity index with the default 21-day window and 2 regimes. Most days of the index's history sit in a calm group — small daily moves, drifting up — and a minority sit in a turbulent group of large moves, mostly down. For months each new day lands in the calm group and the strategy stays Risk-On. A sell-off starts: over three weeks the 21-day window fills with large down days, and on the day its description moves closer to the turbulent group's centre than to the calm one's, the rule asks for Risk-Off. When the window has rolled past the sell-off and new days land back in the calm group, it asks for Risk-On again. With a 10-day window the same sell-off would register sooner, and brief shocks would register too; with 63 days it would register later and hold longer. The figures are illustrative, not a suggested setting. ## How does a clustering rule decide which days are turbulent? A clustering rule describes each day by a small set of numbers measured over the observation window, then lets a k-means algorithm find the groups those days naturally form; each day belongs to the group whose centre it sits closest to. The rule uses only history available on each day: the groups are recalibrated as the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) moves forward, and a day is never assigned using data from after it. It stays Risk-On until it has enough history to learn from, and when the groups it finds are too alike in [volatility](/glossary/volatility) to tell apart. In the list of risk conditions a saved rule shows "Clustering" with its series, "turbulent group" as its comparison, and its regime count and window, such as "2 regimes" and "21-day window". ## How is clustering different from Hidden regimes (Markov)? Both rules learn regimes from one series, and they answer differently. [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov) gives a probability and lets you set how sure it must be; Clustering gives a yes or no, so there is no threshold to set. Clustering also has no notion of how long a regime tends to last — each day is judged on its own window — so on a series that swings in and out of volatility it can switch more often, and the confirmation delay matters more. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/combined # Combined A Combined is a strategy built from other strategies: it holds two or more of your strategies and splits capital across them instead of holding instruments directly. Each member keeps its own instruments, allocation, and rules; the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) above them decides how much capital each member receives. **Also seen as:** Combined strategy, multi-strategy portfolio It is what you build when one idea is not the whole book. Earlier versions of Fincanva called a Combined a *portfolio*. That word now means something else entirely — a strategy you follow live, listed on the [Portfolios](/glossary/portfolio) page. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Combined strategies start at the Advanced plan.** On Free and Starter the Combined tile is still shown and still clickable — pressing it answers with a plan wall naming the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) you need, rather than creating anything; a Combined holds up to 5 strategies in use on Advanced, 10 on Ultimate and 20 on Professional — a strategy switched off inside it does not count, and no Combined holds more than 20 in total. Creating, copying or duplicating a Combined that would hold more strategies in use than your plan allows is refused with a message naming the plan that allows it — your own strategy included. An Advanced-or-above account can still be refused later, on the count, the same way any other creation is — see [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Two or more members are required to run. A one-member Combined is a valid saved object, just not a runnable one. - A strategy joins as a snapshot copy taken when it is added, so later edits to the standalone original leave the copy inside untouched — see [strategy in a Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - The Combined carries its own [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), allocation, and risk settings at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level), separate from every member's own. - Combineds are listed under **Strategies** in the **Combined** section; you create one from the "Build a combined strategy" screen with **Combine**. - A Combined is backtested and can be followed live exactly like any other strategy. ## Why does a Combined need at least two strategies? A Combined needs at least two member strategies because its whole job is to split capital between strategies, which one member cannot do — with only one it is an [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined) and cannot run. ## What do you need before you can create a Combined? You need one strategy of your own before the **Create new** dialog will make you a Combined, and it checks before the Combined exists. One is enough: the **Combined strategy** tile creates the Combined and opens it, and you choose the strategies inside it. While you own none, the tile creates nothing — it opens a screen inside the Combined flow that reads "A Combined blends your own strategies — you have none yet. Create one to start." and offers a **Create a strategy first** button, which takes you on to the strategy-type tiles; a **Back** control on that step returns you to the screen you came from. The **+** in the strategy explorer's Combined section answers exactly the same way. The threshold is one rather than two because a Combined may hold a member you have not filled in yet: a single strategy's own **Combine** button has always started a Combined from it with the second member left empty, so a tile asking for two would refuse the same person that button serves. At zero the refusal stays, because a Combined with none of your strategies in it has nothing to blend. **This is not the number a Combined needs to run:** running still takes two member strategies (see [why](#why-does-a-combined-need-at-least-two-strategies)). Owning one lets you *start* a Combined, not backtest it. What counts is your own strategies that are not themselves Combineds. A Combined cannot be a member of another Combined, so one never counts. ## How is a Combined different from a strategy? A Combined holds strategies; a plain [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds instruments. Both are strategies in the app's vocabulary, which is why they share one editor, one [backtest](/glossary/backtest), and one [run status](/glossary/run-status) model. Where both levels appear together the whole is always called the Combined, and destructive actions say which level they mean: "Remove this strategy from the Combined" removes one member, while "Delete Combined" deletes the whole thing. ## What does it look like in practice? You have two strategies: a momentum strategy on US large caps and a defensive strategy on bond ETPs. You combine them into one Combined with 50,000 of [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) and **Equal weights** at the Combined level, so each member is handed 25,000. Inside the momentum strategy, its own allocation divides that 25,000 across the stocks it selected; inside the defensive strategy, its own allocation divides the other 25,000 across its ETPs. One backtest covers the whole thing, and the Combined's result is the two members' paths held side by side in one book. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/combined-level # Combined level The Combined level is the tier of settings that belongs to a [Combined](/glossary/combined) itself rather than to any strategy inside it — the layer that decides how capital is split across member strategies, how often that split is reset, and how the whole Combined de-risks. Every [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) keeps its own settings one level below. **Also seen as:** Combined-level allocation, Combined-level risk, Combined-level rebalance The app names its controls after it: **Combined rebalance**, **Combined allocation**, and **Combined risk**, grouped under "Combined — splits capital across strategies". ## How does Fincanva handle it? - [Combined allocation](/glossary/combined-weighting) offers the methods the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) table marks for a Combined — among them [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights), Fixed weights, [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based), Inverse volatility, Risk parity, [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) and the risk-focused methods such as [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar). Methods that exist only inside a single strategy, such as Market cap or [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), are not offered at the Combined level. - With [**Fixed weights**](/glossary/fixed-weights) you type a weight per member in the table of the **Strategies** card, and the Allocation card shows them read-only under "Strategy weights"; the raw weights need not add up to 100, because they are normalized. - [**Invested portion**](/glossary/invested-portion) sets the share of capital the Combined deploys; whatever is not deployed stays as cash. - **Combined risk** switches the whole Combined to its [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) allocation when its conditions are met — it does not pause or stop the Combined. See [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition). - The Combined level has no instruments and no position exits of its own; those exist only inside member strategies. ## What settings live at the Combined level? Four groups live at the Combined level, and only these four: **Strategies** (which strategies are members, and their weights), **Combined rebalance** (how often the capital split is reset — see [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance)), **Combined allocation** ("How capital is split across strategies"), and **Combined risk** ("De-risk the whole Combined when markets turn"). Everything else — the instruments, the per-instrument weighting, the position exits — belongs to each member [strategy](/glossary/strategy), not to the Combined. ## How do the Combined level and the strategy level differ? They are two independent layers, applied one after the other: the Combined level splits capital *across* member strategies, and each member's own allocation then weights instruments *inside* its share. Fincanva applies both and never collapses them into one. So changing a member's own allocation does not change how much capital that member receives, and changing the Combined allocation does not change what any member holds. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds three member strategies and starts from 30,000. Its Combined allocation is **Equal weights**, so the Combined level hands each member an equal third — 10,000 each. What happens to each 10,000 is decided one level down: the first member weights its five stocks equally at 2,000 apiece, the second uses [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) across its holdings, and the third holds a single ETP for its whole 10,000. Switch the Combined allocation to [**Risk parity**](/glossary/risk-parity) and the three shares stop being equal, but each member's internal weighting is untouched — the two levels moved independently. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/combined-weighting # Combined weighting Combined weighting is how a [Combined](/glossary/combined) splits its capital across the strategies inside it — a layer of allocation that sits above, and is independent of, how each of those strategies weights its own instruments. The editor titles it **Combined allocation** and describes it as "How capital is split across strategies". **Also seen as:** Combined allocation, strategy-level allocation, multi-strategy weighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The Combined's default method is [**Equal weights**](/glossary/equal-weights): capital split evenly across the member strategies. - Every weight you type across a Combined — a Fixed weights weight, a Static weight or a rotation weight — accepts any number from 0 to 999, decimals included. A negative is not accepted: a Combined cannot be short one of its own strategies. - If the weights invest nothing — every Fixed weights weight at 0 or, under Ranking-based, every static weight of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) that does not rotate and every rotation weight at 0 — the allocation still saves, the totals line reads "Invests nothing" in place of a number, and the yellow "invests nothing" warning is raised as it is for a single strategy. It clears as soon as any [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) in use gets a non-zero weight. - Weighting belongs to the allocation profile, so a Combined with a Risk-Off allocation can weight its strategies one way in Risk-On and another way in Risk-Off. - How the two layers are combined into the final positions is part of the engine and is not published; what is documented is that both layers apply and neither overrides the other. ## What are the two independent weighting layers? A Combined applies two allocation layers and never merges them into one. The Combined layer decides what share of capital each member strategy receives. Inside each member strategy, that strategy's own [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) then decides how its share is spread across instruments. The layers do not interact: a member strategy keeps exactly the same internal weighting whether the Combined hands it 10% of capital or 40%, and changing a member's internal method leaves the Combined's split untouched. ## Which weighting schemes can a Combined use? Every [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) marked for a Combined: Equal weights, Fixed weights, [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based), [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility), [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity), [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz), [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification), [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad), [Min CVaR and Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), [Conditional drawdown at risk](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk), [Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk), [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) and [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming). Not offered here: [Floating](/glossary/floating), [Market cap](/glossary/market-cap), [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation), [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking) and [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral), which weight instruments rather than strategies, and the three group-based methods — [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) and [Nested clustered optimization](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization). Two of them produce the schemes people usually mean by "combined weighting": - [**Fixed weights**](/glossary/fixed-weights) — you set a weight per strategy in the Strategies table and it stays there, whatever the strategies do. - **Ranking-based** — the member strategies are ranked each period and paid by rank position, with fixed exceptions you nominate. Its ranking metric defaults to **Price Change**, from four: [Price Change](/glossary/percent-change), [Average Momentum](/glossary/average-momentum), [Volatility](/glossary/volatility) and [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio). **P/E Ratio is not available at this level**; it exists only inside a single strategy. ## What are strategy roles, static weight and rank weight? Under Ranking-based, every member strategy takes one of two roles, set per strategy in the Strategies table: - **static** — **Rotate** is off. The strategy is held every period at the fixed **Static weight** you gave it, whatever its rank. A newly added strategy starts static with a weight of 1. - **rotating** — **Rotate** is on. The strategy joins the ranking pool, and its weight comes from where it ranks that period. The editor summarises the split under **Strategy roles** as "`{rotating}` rotating · `{staticCount}` static", noting "Rotate and static weights are configured per strategy". Switching Rotate on and back off keeps the Static weight you typed: while a strategy rotates it is simply not used — nor checked against the 0 to 999 range, so a value you cannot see never stops a save. The rotating strategies share one **Rotation weights** curve — "Relative weight given to each rotating rank, top to bottom — any number from 0 to 999, decimals allowed." — labelled Rank 1, Rank 2 and so on, normalised to 100% like the rank-tier weights inside a strategy. There is one slot per rotating strategy, and a newly opened slot starts at 1. A rotating strategy's rank weight is whichever slot matches its rank that period: the slots stay put while the strategies move between them. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds three strategies — A, B and C — and rebalances monthly. Under **Equal weights**, each receives a third of capital every period. Under **Fixed weights**, you type 50, 30 and 20, and those shares hold whatever the three strategies do. Under **Ranking-based**, you mark A as static with a **Static weight** of 20 and switch **Rotate** on for B and C. That leaves two rotation slots: you give Rank 1 a weight of 60 and Rank 2 a weight of 20. The raw total is 100, so A is held at 20% every period, whichever of B and C ranks higher on the chosen metric takes 60%, and the other takes 20%. Next month the ranking flips: B and C swap slots, their weights swap with them, and A's 20% does not move. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/comparison-modes # Comparison modes Comparison modes are the ways a [screener](/glossary/screener) filter can test an [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s metric — what the reading is measured *against*. The choices are **vs Value** (against a fixed number), **Between** (inside a range), **vs Lagged Self** (against the metric's own earlier reading), **Highest / Lowest** (a rank within the results), and **vs Aggregate** (against a market or sector figure, covered on its own page). Each mode changes what the filter's threshold means, not which metric it reads — the symbol that does the testing inside a mode is a separate choice, covered in [standard operators](/glossary/standard-operators). **Also seen as:** filter relation ## How each comparison mode works - **vs Value** — passes instruments whose metric sits on the chosen side of one fixed number, for example `P/E < 15`. - **Between** — passes instruments whose metric falls inside a low–high range, for example `P/E between 10 and 20`. - **vs Lagged Self** — compares the metric to its own value at an earlier point you set (a [lag](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier)), so you screen on change rather than level. - **Highest / Lowest** — ranks instruments on the metric and keeps only the top or bottom N; the pool it ranks is whatever is still passing at that point, so its position in the strip is part of the rule (see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking)). - **vs Aggregate** — compares the metric to a market or sector statistic such as the median; see [aggregate comparisons](/glossary/aggregate-comparisons). A handful of filters replace these modes entirely with pattern tests — crossings and valuation bands — which are [special relations](/glossary/special-relations) rather than comparison modes. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The mode is chosen per filter in the filter editor; the resolved sentence under **You're saying** restates it in plain language. - Not every mode is available for every filter — the editor shows only the relations that filter supports. - Switching mode keeps the metric but changes the inputs: a single value, a range, a lag, a rank, or a scope plus a statistic. ## What does it look like in practice? Take a Price/Earnings filter. In **vs Value** mode you set `P/E < 15`, so any instrument trading below 15× earnings passes. Switch the same filter to **vs Lagged Self** and set the lag to 12 months: now it compares each instrument's current P/E to its own P/E a year earlier, passing those whose P/E has fallen — a completely different screen built from the same metric. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/compute-time # Compute time Compute time is the computation time shown for a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — how long the engine took to produce its latest result — in the **Compute** column of your strategies list. It is a read on how much work a backtest needed, not a quality or performance metric: a setup that has already been computed returns in a fraction of a second. **Also seen as:** computation time, run time ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The **Compute** column shows the time of the last backtest, or a dash (`—`) when a strategy has not been run yet. - The value is dimmed when the strategy's [run status](/glossary/run-status) reads **Needs re-run**: a dimmed compute time comes from a superseded backtest. - One result is computed per distinct setup and reused ([shared compute](/glossary/shared-compute)), so a strategy whose exact setup has already been calculated returns almost at once instead of running from scratch. - A result is reused only while it is still current, so a strategy that was instant yesterday may compute in full today, once new market data has advanced the [data frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## What does it look like in practice? You duplicate a strategy without changing anything and run the copy. Because its configuration is identical to the original — which has already been computed — Fincanva serves that existing result rather than recomputing it, and the **Compute** column shows a near-instant time. Change a single setting on the copy, such as its [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) frequency, and it no longer matches any existing result: the next backtest computes fresh, and its compute time reflects the full work. ## Does a higher plan compute faster? Up to a point, and it is about waiting rather than about what a strategy may do. Compute power is how much of one simulation Fincanva computes at the same time, and your plan sets it. Set by your plan: 4 on Free and Starter, 8 on Advanced and 16 on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). A larger share runs more of the same work at once: it buys no extra data, no further [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) and no longer history, so nothing about the strategy or the period behind the result changes with your plan. It is not a promise about how long a backtest takes, either: the strategy, the period covered and how busy the service is decide that — and a setup that has already been computed comes back from shared compute in a fraction of a second whatever your plan. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/condition-types # Condition types Condition types are the shapes a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) can take, chosen from the builder's **Signal** menu. Under **Custom**, "Single series" compares one [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s indicator with two thresholds you type, and "Double series" compares two series through an **Operator**. Under **Quantitative regimes**, three more rules decide from a model instead of a comparison. **Also seen as:** dual thresholds, hysteresis band, Double series $$ \text{Single series:}\quad {s_t} \;{\square}\; {\theta} \qquad\qquad \text{Double series:}\quad {s^{(1)}_t} \;{\square}\; {s^{(2)}_t} $$ where: - the reading the chosen Indicator produces from the watched series on the day checked - the Operator: is above, or is below - a threshold you type — one in the Risk-Off comparison, another in the Risk-On comparison - the second series' own reading, with its own instrument, Indicator and Period The two Custom types differ only in the right-hand side: a number you type, or a second series. The three quantitative rules — [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov), [Clustering](/glossary/clustering) and, on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) only, [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance) — each state their own test on their own page. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Risk card shows a Single series condition — the VIX above 25, back to Risk-On below 20 — and a Double series condition — the S&P 500 below its own 200-day moving average — joined by Or. - Thresholds accept −1000 to 1000; outside that the app reports "Risk threshold must be between -1000 and 1000." A threshold is read in the indicator's own units — an index level, a percentage for a percent change, percentage points for a yield spread. - The **Operator** offers "is above" and "is below", and nothing else. A rule reads which side of the line the series is on, so it switches when the series crosses and holds that state while the series stays there. A rule saved earlier with "crosses above" or "crosses below" opens, and runs in the [backtest](/glossary/backtest), as "is above" or "is below". - Fincanva does not publish each indicator's engine formula or its shipped default window — engine internals — and does not suggest a threshold, a series or a type. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What does it look like in practice? Take a Single series condition on a market index you choose, with the **Indicator** set to "Percent change" and a **Period** of 6, so the condition reads the index's percent change over six months — the sentence says "6-month change". In the Risk-Off comparison you set the operator to "is below" and the value to −5%; in the Risk-On comparison, "is above" and 2%. Risk-Off is now requested when the six-month change drops below −5%, and Risk-On only once it has climbed back above +2%. A reading of −1% satisfies neither test, so an index that fell 6% and then recovered to −1% is not yet asked back into Risk-On — it has to clear +2% first. Had you set both thresholds to 0, an index oscillating around flat would ask for a switch at every crossing. The −5 and +2 are illustrative numbers that show the asymmetry, not a suggested setting; the overlap that must be avoided is on [the two thresholds](/glossary/risk-condition#how-do-the-risk-off-and-risk-on-thresholds-work). ## What condition types are there? There are five, in two groups: the two **Custom** shapes differ only in what the watched series is measured against, and the three **Quantitative regimes** rules replace the comparison with a model. | Condition type | Group | Measured against | Values its sentence holds | |---|---|---|---| | **Single series** | Custom | two numbers you type | the instrument, its **Indicator** (with a **Period** where needed), a **Risk-Off** and a **Risk-On** comparison | | **Double series** | Custom | a second series | **Series 1**, an **Operator**, a **Comparison series** | | **Hidden regimes (Markov)** | Quantitative regimes | a probability threshold on the turbulent state | **Instrument**, **Number of states**, **Probability threshold** | | **Clustering** | Quantitative regimes | membership of the most volatile group of days | **Instrument**, **Observation window (trading days)**, **Number of regimes** | | **Strategy's own performance** | Quantitative regimes, Combined only | the Combined's own [volatility](/glossary/volatility), drawdown or trend | **Metric**, a window where the metric uses one, a threshold | Switching between the two Custom types swaps those fields and keeps everything else you set; switching to Hidden regimes (Markov) or Clustering keeps the instrument, the **Confirmation delay (weeks)** and **Auto-rebalance**, and drops the indicator, which those rules do not use. ## Why does a Single series condition have two thresholds instead of one? Because one line would make the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) flip every time the series wobbled across it. A series hovering at a single threshold crosses it repeatedly, and each crossing would swap the whole allocation profile — turnover for no lasting change, which is [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw). Two thresholds separate the point where Risk-Off is requested from the point where Risk-On is requested, leaving a band between them where neither test is satisfied and nothing is asked for. That asymmetry is the point: the return threshold sits on the far side of the entry threshold, so the series has to travel a real distance back before the strategy is asked to return to Risk-On. Engineers call this **hysteresis** — the state depends on which threshold was crossed last, not on a single value. Fincanva exposes both thresholds and both operators; how the engine resolves a reading inside the band is internal. The [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) works on the same problem from the other side: patience in time, where the two thresholds add distance in value. ## What do Indicator and Period set? The **Indicator** sets how the series is transformed before the comparison, and the **Period** field under it sets how many periods that transformation covers. The four options are [Raw price](/glossary/raw-price), [Simple moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma), [Percent change](/glossary/percent-change) and [Average momentum](/glossary/average-momentum). In a **Double series** condition each side has its own Indicator, which is how a series is compared with a transformed version of itself — the S&P 500 [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) reads "Risk-Off when the S&P 500 is below its 200-day simple moving average." 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk # Conditional drawdown at risk Conditional drawdown at risk (CDaR) is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that chooses the weights whose worst stretches below a previous peak are, on average, as shallow as possible. Instead of single bad days, it follows the portfolio's path through the whole window, measures how far below its running high it sits each day, and minimises the average of the deepest readings. **Also seen as:** CDaR, conditional drawdown, drawdown optimisation ## What does Conditional drawdown at risk minimise? It minimises the average of the worst share of [drawdowns](/glossary/max-drawdown) along the path — the idea of [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), applied to under-water depth instead of daily loss. Every day the portfolio spends under water contributes its depth, and the method pushes down the average of the deepest 5%. $$ {\text{CDaR}_\alpha} = \text{average of the worst } {\alpha} \text{ of } {D_t}, \qquad {D_t} = \max_{s \le t} {V_s} - {V_t} $$ where: - the value the method minimises - the Tail share — the share of the path's days that is averaged - how far the portfolio sits below its highest value so far, on day t - the portfolio's value on a given day Because a drawdown persists until the portfolio recovers, a mix that heals slowly racks up many deep readings, and one that bounces back within days racks up few — which is the difference variance cannot see. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"CDaR · Conditional drawdown at risk"** and describes it as "Reduces the longest and deepest stretches below the peak". - It is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - Its one setting is the **Tail share**, from 1% to 25% and 5% by default. - It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and does not read the **Covariance matrix** choice. - The picker marks it "slow to compute": each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) solves an optimisation over the whole path. ## What happens when the window is too short for the tail share? When the window times the tail share comes to less than one day, the average becomes the single deepest day, and the app shows the same "Too little data for this tail share" warning as Min CVaR, offering to lengthen the in-sample period or switch to [Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk). The drawdown path is measured on log returns, so its depths sit a hair away from the drawdowns of the compounded [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) shown in the results. ## Which plan includes Conditional drawdown at risk? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? Two mixes have the same [volatility](/glossary/volatility) over a 12-month window of about 252 days, and both suffer the same −10% drop at some point. - **Mix A** recovers its peak within a week. Across the year it spends about 20 days under water, and only a handful of them deeper than −5%. - **Mix B** takes three months to recover. It spends about 70 days under water, dozens of them deeper than −5%. At a 5% tail share the method averages the deepest 252 × 5% ≈ 13 under-water readings. For A they include its short dip and some shallow ones; for B all 13 come from its long slump. B's average is far deeper, so Conditional drawdown at risk prefers A — while a variance-based method, seeing equal volatility, would call the two equal. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk # Conditional Value at Risk Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) is the average loss across a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s worst days: at the 95% level Fincanva uses, it is the mean daily loss over the worst 5% of trading days. Where [Value at Risk](/glossary/value-at-risk) marks the threshold those days start from, CVaR measures how deep they go once past it, so two strategies with the same VaR can have very different CVaRs when one of them has rare, much deeper falls. **Also seen as:** CVaR, expected shortfall, ES, CVaR 95%, tail loss ## How is Conditional Value at Risk calculated? CVaR averages every loss at or beyond the VaR: $$ \text{CVaR}_{95\%} = \mathbb{E}\left[\,L \mid L \ge \text{VaR}_{95\%}\,\right] $$ where: $L$ is the strategy's loss on one day and $\text{VaR}_{95\%}$ is the loss that only the worst 5% of days reach. In words: line up every day of the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) from worst to best, keep the worst 5%, and average their losses. Because it is an average of the days beyond the VaR, it can never be smaller than the VaR itself. ## How is CVaR different from VaR? VaR answers "where do the bad days begin?" and CVaR answers "how bad are they on average?". VaR is blind to what happens past its threshold: a strategy whose worst days are all just past the VaR and one whose worst days include a collapse can share the same VaR. CVaR sees the difference, because the collapse pulls its average down. That sensitivity to the far tail is why CVaR is the measure risk managers prefer when losses have fat tails, and why the [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) allocation method uses it as its objective. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Daily, at 95%, historical.** The CVaR in Performance Metrics is read straight off the backtest's daily returns and written as a positive loss: "3.0%" is an average loss of 3.0% on the worst days. - **Performance Metrics** shows it in the **Worst days · 95%** group as **Daily CVaR · historical** — see [what every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). - The **Stress test** sets the **Daily CVaR 95%** of the strategy's historical days beside the same figure under the scenario. When the worst 5% of days shrinks to a single day, the row is marked "· a single day": the VaR and the CVaR are then equal and say little — see [stress test](/glossary/stress-test). - A simulation computed before the row existed shows "n/a", never 0%. ## What does it look like in practice? Two strategies both read **Daily VaR · historical** 2.0%. The first reads **Daily CVaR · historical** 2.6%: past the threshold its bad days stay close to it. The second reads 4.1%: among its worst days are a few very deep ones, and they drag the average far past the threshold. The VaR alone would call them equally risky on a bad day; the CVaR shows the second one's tail is much heavier. ## What counts as a good value? Lower means shallower bad days. The gap between CVaR and VaR is often more telling than either figure: a CVaR only a little above the VaR means the tail is thin, a CVaR far above it means the worst days hide much deeper ones. Like VaR, it describes the history that was tested — a period with a crash in it carries a higher CVaR than one without — and it is not a cap on what a future day can lose. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/confirmation-bias # Confirmation bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to read evidence in favor of a conclusion you already hold — accepting the results that agree with your idea at face value while finding reasons to discount the ones that disagree. It is an error of **interpretation**, so it survives every fix applied to the data and the rules. **Also seen as:** Confirmatory bias, my-side bias It is the most human of the backtesting biases, because it needs no bad data, no broken test, and no intent to mislead: the same person can run a technically flawless backtest and still come away believing something the run did not say. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A [backtest](/glossary/backtest) applies your rules mechanically across the whole history regardless of what you hoped would happen, and reports the result whole — the return and headline figures like [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), the worst peak-to-trough [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), the losing months, and the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) run over the identical period beside it. That gives the rules a standing chance to disagree with you, and puts the disagreeing evidence on the same screen as the agreeing evidence rather than one search away. A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles side by side: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR — the gap to the benchmark and the deepest fall on the same row as the gain. It cannot make you read it. Nothing in a backtest stops you from dismissing an inconvenient run, and no tool can supply the intent to be proved wrong. ## How does confirmation bias show up when you read a backtest? It rarely feels like bias from the inside. It feels like judgment. The recognizable patterns are: - **Stopping when it agrees.** The first run that supports the idea ends the investigation; a run that contradicted it would have prompted three more. - **Asymmetric scrutiny.** A confirming result is accepted as-is. A disagreeing one gets audited — wrong universe, wrong period, "something's off with the data" — and the audit stops as soon as a reason is found. - **Reasons produced after the result.** The objection to a run is invented once its number is known. If a disagreeing run had come out well, the same objection would never have been raised. - **Reading only the flattering metric.** The return is read and the worst [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) is skipped, or the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s own figure is read without the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) beside it. - **Remembering the run that agreed.** Weeks later the memory is "it worked" — the version of the test that agreed, not the version that didn't. A useful check is a single question asked *before* a run finishes: what result would make me abandon this idea? An idea with no such result is not being tested. ## How do the run you kept and the run you explained away compare? You believe a twelve-month momentum rule works, and you test it over 2015–2024. - **Run 1** applies the rule to twenty large, familiar companies. It returns **9.1% a year**. This matches what you expected, so you save it. - **Run 2** applies the identical rule to a broad four-hundred-name [universe](/glossary/universe). It returns **3.4% a year**. You conclude the wider universe has too many low-quality names in it, and you set the run aside. Now put the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) next to both. Over the same period it returned **7.8% a year**, so run 1's [excess return](/glossary/excess-return) is +1.3pp and run 2's is −4.4pp. Two things follow. First, even the run you kept beat its benchmark by a much thinner margin than "9.1%" suggested on its own. Second, and more important: the reason you gave for discarding run 2 was produced *after* you saw its number. Had run 2 returned 12%, the four-hundred-name universe would not have been "too junky" — it would have been "a broader, fairer test". That asymmetry, not the numbers, is the bias. ## What separates confirmation bias from cherry-picking bias? The difference is the audience. [Cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) is selective reporting **outwards** — you have the full result and you show someone else a favorable part of it. Confirmation bias is the same selection turned **inwards** — you show it to yourself, usually without noticing, and there is no moment of deciding to omit anything. The two feed each other. Confirmation bias decides which run you believe; cherry-picking decides which run you present. And a disagreeing result blamed on "bad data" without anyone checking the data is confirmation bias borrowing the language of [data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias) — as is switching costs off because the net curve "looks wrong" (see [cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias)). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/confirmation-delay # Confirmation delay Confirmation delay is the number of weeks a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) waits after it flips before the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) acts on it, so a brief move that reverses inside the window never changes the allocation. The longer the delay, the more short-lived signals it filters out — and the later a lasting change is acted on. **Also seen as:** weeks delay ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Risk card lists two conditions joined by Or: the first acts immediately, while the second waits for two weeks of confirmation, shown as confirm 2w, before the strategy switches. - The field is **Confirmation delay (weeks)**, with the hint "0 = act immediately." The risk list shows a configured delay as "2-week delay", and the condition's row as "confirm 2w". - It is a whole number of weeks from 0 to 12; outside that range the app reports "Confirmation delay must be between 0 and 12 weeks." - Every built-in [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) arrives with the delay at 0: patience is something you add. - It is set per condition, and there is one delay per condition — not one for going Risk-Off and another for coming back. - It is counted in weeks whatever the strategy's [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) cadence, which **Rebalance every** sets in months. ## What does it look like in practice? A condition watches an index and its **Confirmation delay (weeks)** is set to 2. On a Monday the index dips past the **Risk-Off** threshold; by Wednesday it has recovered above it. The two weeks never elapsed, so the strategy stayed in Risk-On the whole time and the condition generated no trade at all — the dip is invisible in the results. Now set that same condition's delay to 0. The Monday dip is enough to ask for Risk-Off, and Wednesday's recovery is enough to ask for Risk-On again, so a two-day wobble produces two switches of the allocation profile and the turnover that comes with them. The cost of the delay shows up in the other case: had the index kept falling instead of recovering, the 2-week setting would have put the strategy into Risk-Off two weeks later than the 0 setting would. ## What does the confirmation delay change? It changes *when* a flip is acted on, never *what* the flip does. A condition with a delay of 0 asks for the switch as soon as its comparison is satisfied; with a delay of 2 the flip must stand for two weeks before the strategy acts. Once the delay has elapsed, the strategy switches to the profile the condition asked for, exactly as it would have at 0 — only the timing moved. Whether acting then means an off-schedule rebalance or a wait for the next scheduled one is decided separately, by [Auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip#how-can-a-risk-off-flip-force-an-off-schedule-rebalance). The delay cuts both ways. It filters out the brief moves you did not want to react to, and it delays the lasting moves you did — it is the time-domain answer to [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw), a trade-off covered in [When risk management changes a strategy](/docs/strategies/when-risk-management-changes-a-strategy#whats-the-trade-off-between-reacting-fast-and-whipsaw). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/contracts # Contracts Contracts is the quantity of an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) a position holds — its number of units, shares or contracts — and **Max contracts** is the largest quantity that position held at any point in its life. It is a count of how much is held, not the money value of the holding. **Also seen as:** units, shares, quantity. $$ \text{Max contracts} = \max_t {q_t} $$ where: - the quantity the position holds at time t Max contracts is the peak of the held quantity over the position's life. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Contracts appears per trade in the **Executions** table (Italian "Contratti"); Max contracts appears per position in the **Positions** table (Italian "Contratti max"). - The value is a count of units, shares or contracts — distinct from the position's money value in the "Gross" and "Net" columns. - It is distinct from [max positions](/glossary/max-positions), which caps how many different instruments are held at once, not the quantity of any single one. ## What does it look like in practice? A position opens with 10 shares. A later [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) adds 5, taking it to 15, and a partial exit then sells 7, leaving 8. Its Contracts change trade by trade — 10, then 15, then 8 — while Max contracts records the high-water mark of 15, the most it ever held. *A quantity records what a simulation held on historical data, never a real order, and it is not a position size to take in any instrument.* ## What do Contracts and Max contracts measure? Contracts is a count of how much of one instrument is held: a position of 10 shares holds 10 contracts, regardless of the price. Max contracts is the peak of that count over the position's life — if a position was built up to 15 shares and later trimmed to 8, its Max contracts is 15. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/contribution-analytics # Contribution analytics Contribution analytics is the card at the top of a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s **Components** tab, titled "Strategies: where the result comes from", that splits the Combined's return, risk, [Sharpe](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) and [daily VaR](/glossary/value-at-risk) among its strategies, with a **Residual** row for what belongs to no [strategy](/glossary/strategy). Every column adds up to the Combined's own figure, so the parts explain the whole. **Also seen as:** return attribution, risk attribution, risk contribution, performance attribution ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The card is for a Combined only: a single strategy has one part, and nothing to split. It sits above the rest of [strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) on the **Components** tab and needs no plan of its own — it is included wherever that tab is. - The return here is the [**arithmetic** average annual return](/glossary/backtest-reliability#what-is-the-average-annual-return-arithmetic) — the average daily return scaled to a year — so it does not match the compound growth rate, [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), on Performance Metrics; the card says so beside it ("different from Metrics' CAGR"). - The daily VaR is the Gaussian one: it assumes daily returns follow a normal distribution with the period's own average and [volatility](/glossary/volatility). The historical VaR on [Performance Metrics](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) makes no such assumption, so the two can differ. - A period selector narrows the card to one calendar year. If a year has too few trading days to split, the card says so and shows the whole period. - It follows the tab's **Simulation settings**: switching **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** or **Reinvest profits** recomputes it, and brings the period back to the whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest). ## What does each column of contribution analytics show? One row per strategy, then **Residual**, and the Combined's totals in the header above the table. | Column | What it says about the strategy | |---|---| | **Average weight** | the share of the Combined's capital it held, on average over the period | | **Return contribution** | how much of the Combined's average annual return it produced | | **Risk share** | how much of the Combined's volatility it is responsible for, shown as a bar | | **Sharpe contribution** | how much of the Combined's Sharpe it accounts for, in Sharpe points | | **VaR 95% contribution** | how much of the Combined's daily VaR at 95% it accounts for | In prose: the first column is how big each piece was, and the other four are how much of the result it made. The header gives the totals the columns add up to — **Average annual return (arithmetic)**, **Annual volatility**, **Sharpe** with the [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) it used, and **Daily VaR 95% · Gaussian**. ## How can the parts add up exactly to the whole? Because each column splits the Combined's own figure rather than measuring the strategies one by one. A strategy's return contribution is its weight times its return, day by day, averaged and scaled to a year; those add up to the Combined's return. Volatilities do not add — two strategies of 10% volatility make less than 20% together when they do not move in step — so the risk share uses the standard Euler allocation: $$ {RC_i} = {w_i} \times {\frac{\partial \sigma}{\partial w_i}} \qquad \sum_i {RC_i} = \sigma $$ where: - strategy i's contribution to the volatility σ; divided by σ, its Risk share - strategy i's weight - how much the Combined's volatility would rise if that weight grew a little Charged that way, the shares always add up to 100%, and a strategy that moves against the others can take a **negative** share: it lowers the Combined's risk. **VaR 95% contribution** follows the risk share: the Combined's daily Gaussian VaR is its volatility term less its average return, and each strategy is charged its risk share of the first and its return contribution of the second. **Sharpe contribution** is each strategy's return contribution above the risk-free rate — charged to each row in proportion to its average weight — divided by the Combined's volatility, so the rows sum to the Combined's Sharpe. The table is rounded to four decimals, so a column can miss its total by a hair; the whole is still exact. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds two strategies, an equity strategy at 60% of the capital and a bond strategy at 40%, and returns 7.0% a year with 10% volatility. The equity strategy's row shows a return contribution of 5.8% and a risk share of 94%; the bond strategy's shows 1.5% and 6%; **Residual** shows −0.3% of return — costs outweighing cash interest — and no share of the risk. Return: 5.8 + 1.5 − 0.3 = 7.0%. Risk: 94 + 6 = 100%. Read the risk column and the picture is clear: the bonds hold 40% of the money and account for about a sixteenth of the risk, and nearly all of the Combined's ups and downs come from the equities. ### What is the Residual row? **Residual** holds everything in the Combined's result that belongs to no single strategy: interest on the cash the Combined held, its costs, and its taxes — the app's own note under it reads "interest on cash, costs, taxes". It is what makes every column add up, so it is always shown, never hidden. Its **Average weight** is the average share of the Combined held in no strategy at all, which is cash. It can be **negative**: a Combined investing more than its capital, with [leverage](/glossary/leverage), holds less than no cash — it has borrowed. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/correlation-matrix # Correlation matrix A correlation matrix is a pair-by-pair table of how closely return series moved together over a period: each cell holds a correlation between −1 and +1, where +1 means lockstep, 0 no linear relationship and −1 opposite directions. Fincanva shows one for a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), computed on daily returns, on the **Correlations** page of its analysis. **Also seen as:** correlation table; pairwise correlations. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s analysis has a **Correlations** page, and the matrix is the table it opens with, **How they move together**: the lower triangle of every strategy-against-strategy pair, plus a column for each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) against the Combined itself, all computed on daily returns. Only the lower triangle is drawn, because the upper half repeats every cell and the diagonal is 1 by definition, so neither is data. Beside it, **Against the big markets** sets each strategy — and the Combined — against six of the [factor roster](/glossary/factor-roster), switching between two readings of the same pair, **Correlation** and **Adjusted beta** — the second of which is the [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta). A period selector above both scopes them to the whole run or to a single calendar year; a year the engine has no correlations for falls back to the whole period rather than emptying the tables. **r² is deliberately not a column.** On Fincanva's figures r² is exactly the square of the correlation printed beside it, so a column of it would restate its neighbour rather than add anything — the reading [what r² adds](#what-does-r²-add-to-a-correlation) describes is done from the correlation itself. A [rolling correlation](/glossary/rolling-correlation), the through-time form of the same measure, is not shown either. The page is included from the Advanced plan, the same [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) as [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics): Free and Starter meet a refusal drawn over a sample strategy rather than their own figures. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## How is correlation calculated? Correlation is the covariance of two return series divided by the product of their standard deviations, which rescales the relationship into the fixed −1 to +1 range so any two pairs can be compared. $$ {\rho_{AB}} = \frac{{\operatorname{Cov}(A, B)}}{{\sigma_A \, \sigma_B}} \qquad\qquad {r^2} = {\rho_{AB}}^{\,2} $$ where: - the correlation coefficient - the covariance of the two return series - the product of their standard deviations - r², the coefficient squared ### What does r² add to a correlation? r² is the correlation squared, and it says how much of one series' variation is explained by the other. A correlation of 0.9 gives an r² of 0.81 — a strong shared story; a correlation of 0.3 gives an r² of 0.09, so roughly nine tenths of the movement is unexplained by the pair. Its practical job in a matrix is to flag which cells deserve attention: a low r² means the pair's relationship is weak, so any [beta](/glossary/beta)-style figure reported beside it would rest on that weak relationship and should be read as noise rather than as a reliable sensitivity. In a matrix that carries them, [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) figures run in both directions — A on B and B on A — because a sensitivity is not symmetric even though the correlation is. How that adjustment is defined is documented on its own page. ## How do you read a correlation matrix? A matrix is read as a grid of pairs, and three habits make it useful: - **The diagonal is always 1** — every series is perfectly correlated with itself, so those cells carry no information. - **The matrix is symmetric**, so each pair appears once: the cell for A-and-B is the cell for B-and-A. - **Where the cells are colour-graded, the intensity tracks the size of the correlation**, not its usefulness — a block of deeply-shaded cells is a cluster of things that move together, and the faint cells, easy to skip past, are the ones that behave independently. [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) answers a neighbouring question one strategy at a time: [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) says how differently a strategy moved from its parent Combined, where the matrix says how differently the strategies moved from *each other*. The **Correlation matrix** setting of [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation#which-correlation-estimate-does-min-correlation-use) is a different thing: it chooses how that allocation method estimates the correlations it weighs on inside a single strategy, and it does not change this page. ## What counts as a good value? Low correlation is what makes a group of holdings behave differently from each other; high correlation means they are, in effect, expressing the same bet in different clothing. Two cautions come with reading the number: correlation only captures the *linear* relationship between two series, and it is not stable — pairs that look independent in calm periods often move together in a market shock, which is precisely when their independence was supposed to help — see [rolling correlation](/glossary/rolling-correlation) for the through-time reading of the same pair. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds three strategies. Strategies A and B show a correlation of 0.9: an r² of 0.81, so most of what one did the other did too — holding both bought roughly one exposure twice, and the Combined's risk is more concentrated than the count of strategies suggests. Strategy C pairs with A at 0.2, an r² of 0.04: their paths are almost unrelated, so C is the strategy actually doing something different inside the Combined. Then read the same row for a market factor: if A also correlates 0.9 with the broad market, most of A's story is the market's story, not A's. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias # Cost-ignoring bias Cost-ignoring bias is judging a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) on returns that leave out what trading costs — commissions, the bid-ask spread, [slippage](/glossary/slippage), financing, and tax — so a strategy that loses money once those are paid can look like a winner before them. The gross figure answers a different question from the one an investor asks, which is what an account would have *kept*. **Also seen as:** Cost blindness, gross-only reporting Cost-ignoring bias grows with how often a strategy trades, so it hits the most active strategies hardest — exactly the strategies whose gross results tend to look most impressive. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Costs and tax are two of the three [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) you switch on under **Include**: **[Costs & interests](/glossary/costs-toggle)** covers trading costs, financing, and interest; **[Taxes](/glossary/taxes-toggle)** covers [tax on dividends](/glossary/dividend-tax) and realized gains; the third is **Reinvest profits**. - By default a result is shown with **Costs & interests** and **Taxes** off, so the figures you first see are gross of both — a cost-blind view by construction, which is why it is worth knowing which view you are reading. Turning them on brings a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) closer to what a real account would have kept after costs and tax. - Switching **Costs & interests** on applies modelled trading costs including [slippage](/glossary/slippage) to every fill; with it off, modelled costs and slippage are zero. - The costs actually paid appear in the result's [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown), so the drag is readable as an amount rather than inferred from the gap between two curves. Which plans include each switch: **Costs & interests** Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Taxes** Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## Which costs does a cost-blind backtest leave out? Five separate charges are all missing from a gross figure, and they are missing for different reasons: - **Commissions and fees** — a per-trade or per-value charge paid on entry and again on exit; see [transaction cost](/glossary/transaction-cost) for how the charge itself is defined. - **The bid-ask spread** — you buy at the higher quote and sell at the lower one, so a round trip pays the spread even if the price never moves. - **[Slippage](/glossary/slippage)** — the gap between the price an order is quoted at and the price it actually fills at, which widens for larger orders and thinner instruments. - **Financing and interest** — the cost of borrowed money and the [markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups) applied to interest rates, which apply to leveraged and short positions. - **Tax** — withholding on dividends and tax on realized [capital gains](/glossary/capital-gains-tax), which depends on your [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime). The first three are paid per trade. That is what makes turnover, not cost per trade, the dominant term. ## How does turnover multiply a small cost into a large one? The drag a strategy pays each year is its all-in cost per round trip multiplied by how many round trips it makes — so a cost too small to notice on one trade becomes a large annual number for a strategy that trades often. $$ {r_{\text{net}}} \approx {r_{\text{gross}}} - {T} \times {c} $$ where: - the annual return after costs - the annual return before costs - annual turnover — how many times a year the portfolio's value is fully traded - the all-in cost of one round trip, as a fraction of the value traded The relation is an approximation — it ignores compounding within the year and any tax — but it is the right first estimate, and it shows the shape of the problem: halving $c$ helps once, while halving $T$ helps every year. A [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) is the main source of turnover. A strategy that rebalances annually has $T$ near 1; one that rebalances fortnightly has $T$ in the twenties. ## How can a gross winner be a net loser? A strategy rotates its whole portfolio roughly every two weeks — about **24 full rotations a year**, so $T = 24$. Its all-in round-trip cost is **0.30%** of the value traded, combining commission, spread, and slippage. Before costs it compounds at **+6.0% a year**. | | Calculation | Result | |---|---|---| | Annual cost drag | 24 × 0.30% | **7.2% a year** | | Net annual return | 6.0% − 7.2% | **−1.2% a year** | | \$10,000 over 10 years, gross | 10,000 × 1.060¹⁰ | **\$17,908** | | \$10,000 over 10 years, net | 10,000 × 0.988¹⁰ | **\$8,863** | The gross curve nearly doubles the [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) while the net curve ends below it — a difference of about \$9,000 on a \$10,000 start, produced entirely by a cost of three tenths of one percent per round trip. Tax would land on top of this for a strategy that did finish in profit, since it applies to realized gains and a strategy that rotates fortnightly realizes them constantly. Cut $T$ from 24 to 2 and the same 0.30% cost produces a 0.6% drag instead of 7.2%, turning the same gross 6.0% into roughly 5.4% net. Nothing about the strategy's ideas changed — only how often it acted on them. ## How do you read the gap between the gross and net figures? The gap is a measure of how much the conclusion depends on the cost assumptions rather than on the strategy. A strategy whose [gross and net](/glossary/gross-vs-net) figures sit close together is largely insensitive to those assumptions, so its result stands or falls on its own rules; one whose figures diverge sharply is telling you that most of the gross result is being consumed on the way through, and that its conclusion changes with any change to turnover, [instrument](/glossary/instrument) liquidity, or fee schedule. Reading only the gross figure is a metric-level [cherry-pick](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias), and reaching for the gross figure because the net one contradicts an idea you already hold is [confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias). Neither is a statement about which figure is correct — both are correct answers to different questions. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/costs-toggle # Costs toggle The costs toggle is the [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) that decides whether a [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s results include trading costs and financing, or are shown gross of them. In the app it is the switch labelled **Costs & interests**, described as "Trading costs, financing & interest" and shortened to "Costs" in the assumptions summary. It changes what the *same run* is showing, not the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) itself. **Also seen as:** Costs & interests, Costs ## What does turning costs on change? Turning **Costs & interests** on deducts every modelled cost of trading and financing from the run you are looking at. Three components get wired in: - **[Transaction cost](/glossary/transaction-cost)** — a flat fee charged once per trade execution. - **[Slippage](/glossary/slippage)** — a proportional cost on each fill, for the gap between the quoted and the filled price. - **[Interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups)** — the financing cost of borrowing for [leverage](/glossary/leverage) or for shorting, charged as a spread over a reference rate. The same switch turns on the interest credited to idle cash — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). With the toggle off, all three are zero: the results assume trading and financing were free. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Trading costs are not included on the Free plan.** On Free the assumption stays off and the toggle cannot be turned on, so a Free backtest is always a costless one; Starter, Advanced, Ultimate and Professional all include it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **Costs & interests is off by default**, so the figures you meet first are gross of costs and financing. - Flipping it switches the displayed result immediately, with no new run — every combination is pre-computed when the strategy runs (see [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions)). - It moves every number derived from the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), not only the cost lines: [total return](/glossary/total-return), annualized return, the monthly figures and the risk metrics all change. - What it deducts shows up as its own bands in the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) — "Costs" and "Interest paid". - The two [interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups) are saved settings you can edit, separate from the toggle that switches them in or out; the per-trade fee and the slippage fraction are fixed platform assumptions with no setting in the app. - The Positions view does not follow this toggle: it always reports with costs off, one of its [Positions forced assumptions](/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions). ## What does it look like in practice? One run, viewed twice. With **Costs & interests** off the run shows a total return of +42.0%. Flip it on and the same run shows +38.6%: the 3.4pp difference is the trading fees, slippage and financing the strategy would have paid over the period. Nothing about the strategy changed and no new backtest ran — you switched from the gross view to the after-cost view of the identical run. How wide the gap is depends on how much the strategy trades: one that rebalances monthly pays the per-trade fee far more often than one that holds for years. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/covariance-matrix # Covariance matrix The covariance matrix holds how much each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) moves (its [volatility](/glossary/volatility)) and how much each pair moves together (their correlation); methods such as [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) and [MPT](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) are built on it. An [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) estimates it from past returns, and the **Covariance matrix** setting chooses how: the classic **Sample** estimate or one of seven corrected ones. **Also seen as:** covariance estimator, covariance estimation, risk estimation, shrinkage estimator ## Why does the sample covariance matrix need correcting? Because it is noisy when there are many instruments and not much history. With 30 instruments the matrix holds 465 separate numbers — 30 volatilities and 435 correlations — and a 12-month window gives about 252 days to estimate them from. Some correlations then come out unusually low by pure chance, and an optimiser leans hard on exactly those. A corrected estimate pulls such accidents back toward something more plausible, which makes the weights steadier from one [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) to the next, at the price of a small, deliberate bias. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The control is labelled **Covariance matrix**, with the hint "The covariance matrix (volatilities and correlations) the method estimates from history." How to change it, when an estimator has no effect and why a flat-priced instrument can stop the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) are in [Choose how a method estimates risk](/docs/strategies/choose-how-a-method-estimates-risk). - **A method you choose now starts on Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation**, marked **Recommended**. A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) saved before this choice existed keeps **Sample**, so its results do not change by themselves. - **Marchenko-Pastur, Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf and Regime-conditional (HMM) start at Ultimate**: on a lower plan they stay in the list tagged with the plan that includes them, and choosing one opens a dialog naming it and leaves the current estimator in place. The five basic estimators come with the method. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - The [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) profiles each keep their own estimator. - The estimate is taken over the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**), so the window and the estimator work together. - **Decay factor** (EWMA only) accepts 0.90 to 0.99 and starts at 0.94; **Shrinkage intensity** (Manual shrinkage only) is required and accepts 0 to 1. ## Which estimators can you choose? The list names each one in the app's own words; the first five are the basic estimators, the last three sit in its **Advanced** group. | Estimator | What it does | |---|---| | **Sample** | "The classic estimate, with no corrections." | | **Ledoit-Wolf · identity** | "Reduces noise more firmly, treating every instrument the same way." | | **Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation** (Recommended) | "Reduces noise by pulling correlations toward their average." | | **Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)** | "Gives more weight to recent days: reacts sooner when volatility changes." | | **Manual shrinkage** | "You choose how much to correct, from 0 to 1." | | **Marchenko-Pastur** | "Separates the signal from the noise and keeps only the signal." | | **Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf** | "A tailored correction for each part of the estimate." | | **Regime-conditional (HMM)** | "Uses crisis correlations when the market is in crisis." | - **Ledoit-Wolf** blends the sample estimate with a simple target, the amount worked out from the data. *Identity* treats every instrument alike; *constant correlation* keeps each instrument's volatility and pulls every pairwise correlation toward the average — suited to similar instruments such as stocks, less to a deliberately mixed basket (stocks, bonds and gold), where two very different correlation levels are real. - **EWMA** weighs recent days more, so the estimate follows a change in volatility within weeks — and reacts to noise too, which can raise trading. - **Manual shrinkage** is the constant-correlation blend with the amount set by you. ## Which methods use the covariance matrix? Only methods built on one show the **Covariance matrix** control: inside a strategy, [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity), [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz), [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution), [Nested clustered optimization](/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization) and [Max diversification](/glossary/max-diversification); inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), Risk parity, MPT (Markowitz) and Max diversification. The tail-focused methods — [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), [Min MAD](/glossary/min-mad), [Conditional drawdown at risk](/glossary/conditional-drawdown-at-risk), [Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk), [Robust worst case](/glossary/robust-worst-case) and [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming) — work on the returns themselves. In MPT the choice affects the risk side only: expected returns are the window's plain averages, and [Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman) replaces them with its own estimate. ### What do the advanced estimators do? - **Marchenko-Pastur** uses random-matrix theory to tell which parts of the correlation structure are indistinguishable from noise, flattens those, and keeps the rest — market-wide and sector-wide co-movement. It can discard weak structure that was real. - **Nonlinear Ledoit-Wolf** corrects each part of the estimate by its own amount. It helps most with large baskets and short windows, and adds almost nothing when history is long compared with the number of instruments. - **Regime-conditional (HMM)** estimates one covariance from calm periods and one from turbulent ones, and leans on the turbulent one when the market looks turbulent today, so the method sees crisis-level correlations while a crisis lasts. ## How do shrinkage and EWMA work? Shrinkage blends two estimates; Ledoit-Wolf works the blend out from the data, and **Manual shrinkage** lets you set it as **Shrinkage intensity** — "0 = no correction, 1 = all correlations equal." $$ \hat{\Sigma} = {\delta} \, {F} + (1 - {\delta}) \, {S} $$ where: - the blend, between 0 and 1 - the target — for constant correlation, each instrument keeps its own volatility and every pair gets the average correlation - the sample covariance EWMA updates each variance with a **Decay factor** — "The closer to 1, the more distant data counts." $$ {\sigma^2_t} = {\lambda} \, \sigma^2_{t-1} + (1 - {\lambda}) \, {r^2_{t-1}} $$ where: - today's variance estimate - the decay factor — how much of the old estimate survives each day - yesterday's return, squared At the default 0.94 the estimate's memory is about 1 ÷ (1 − 0.94) ≈ 17 trading days. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds 25 stocks on a 12-month window. Most pairs show a correlation around 0.5, but the sample estimate puts one pair at 0.05 — very likely an accident of this particular year. - **Sample** keeps the 0.05, and MPT leans on that pair as if it were a near-perfect diversifier. - **Manual shrinkage at 0.4** moves it to 0.6 × 0.05 + 0.4 × 0.5 = **0.23**: still below the crowd, but no longer an outlier worth betting the portfolio on. Every other pair moves toward 0.5 in the same proportion, and each stock's own volatility is left as measured. - **Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation** does the same blend but picks the amount from the data — more when the estimate is noisier, for example with more stocks or a shorter window. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/coverage-window # Coverage window A coverage window is the span of dates for which Fincanva has price data for a given [instrument](/glossary/instrument), running from its first available price date to its most recent one. It is the only history that instrument can contribute to a [backtest](/glossary/backtest): no [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can read prices from before an instrument existed, however early the run starts. An ETF launched three years ago therefore has three years of coverage, even inside a run that reaches back to 2000. **Also seen as:** first price date, last price date, price history depth ## Why can one recent instrument shorten a whole backtest? Because an instrument has no prices to contribute on the dates before its coverage window begins. Nothing about the run is invalid, but only the stretch that sits inside *every* instrument's coverage window tests the full set you designed on real prices for all of them. The shortest coverage window among your instruments is therefore the real limit on any strategy that depends on all of them. This is easy to miss because Fincanva does not move your chosen [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) forward to match a short coverage window — the year you enter is the year the run starts, so the mismatch is not announced at the moment you choose it. Metrics are still computed across the whole window you asked for, which is exactly why a long-history headline figure can belong to a strategy that could only have existed for part of it. Check the first price date of anything recent before reading a long-history result. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Every instrument carries a first price date and a last price date; together they are its coverage window. - A backtest's end date follows the newest available market data rather than today's calendar date, so the catalogue's latest price date — not the clock — closes a run. See [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). - A [delisted](/glossary/delisted) instrument's coverage window ends at its last traded date. The instrument stays in the catalogue and stays usable for the period it did trade. - A run only reads an instrument from its own simulation start year onward, so history deeper than the year you pick sits outside the run — the setting defaults to 2000 but reaches back further; see [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy pairs a broad US equity ETP whose prices reach back to 1993 with a thematic ETF that launched in March 2021, and the start year is set to 2000. Inside the run the equity ETP has 26 years of coverage; the thematic ETF has just over five, all of it after March 2021. Roughly four-fifths of the backtest's calendar therefore predates the second instrument's coverage window entirely, and only the stretch from 2021 onward tests the pair as designed. The headline [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and max [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) are still reported over the full window, so a reader who does not check the ETF's first price date will attribute two decades of behavior to a combination that could only have run for five years of it. Reading the coverage windows first tells you which figure you are actually looking at. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies # Daily warm of Live strategies The daily warm is the once-a-day sweep that asks the [compute engine](/glossary/simulation-engine) to recompute every [strategy](/glossary/strategy) in your [live book](/glossary/live-book), so those results are already finished when you open them. It runs because results are tied to the market data behind them: when the daily data refresh advances, yesterday's results are no longer current. **Also seen as:** pre-warm, warm-up ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The warm runs once per UTC day, on your first visit of that day — opening Fincanva while signed in triggers it; revisiting later the same UTC day costs nothing and starts nothing. - It does not block anything: the app renders while the warm proceeds in the background, and a warm that cannot complete leaves your last-known statuses untouched. - It never places an order or changes a strategy — following a strategy Live is paper monitoring only (see [portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). - Warming a strategy whose results are already current changes nothing about it, and because identical setups reuse one result ([shared compute](/glossary/shared-compute)), a strategy you follow may already be current before your own warm reaches it. ## What does it look like in practice? You follow six strategies Live from London (UTC+0 in winter). Overnight, new market data lands and the [data frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier) advances by one trading day, which makes yesterday's six results stale. At 8:05 you open Fincanva: the daily warm fires once and recomputes the ones that need it. By the time you reach the Portfolios page the fastest are already **Up to date** and the rest show **Computing** with a progress percentage. You come back at 14:00 — still the same UTC day, so today's warm has already run, so nothing starts again, and the results you see are the ones computed this morning, now with one more day of history than yesterday. ## When does the daily warm run? On your first visit of the UTC day, not overnight. The sweep covers every *runnable* strategy in your live book: strategies whose results are already current are left alone, only the ones the data refresh made stale are recomputed, and any Live strategy parked awaiting a manual run is skipped entirely. That last one is deliberate — a strategy you edited and did not re-run is waiting for **you** to run it, and the warm never recomputes an edited strategy on your behalf. Public strategies are not part of it: they are kept warm by a separate server-side sweep of Fincanva's own, which is why a public strategy you have never touched can also open with finished results. ## Which strategies are warmed? Your daily warm covers the strategies you have marked Live — the ones that make up your live book — minus any of them parked awaiting a manual run. A strategy you have merely backtested and saved is not part of the sweep: it computes when you run it, and its [run status](/glossary/run-status) goes to **Needs re-run** as soon as a new market day arrives, until you re-run it. Marking a strategy Live is therefore what enrols it in the daily warm; choosing "Stop following" takes it back out. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier # Data freshness and frontier The data frontier is the most recent market date Fincanva has price data for, and it is where every [backtest](/glossary/backtest) ends — not at today's date. On an ordinary weekday that is yesterday's close; on a Monday, the previous Friday's. Data freshness is the matching question about a result: whether it was computed against the current frontier or an older one. **Also seen as:** data frontier, "data as of" ## How does Fincanva handle it? The run status chips in the order the Strategies list sorts them: Up to date in green, Computing in violet, Stalled and Needs re-run in amber, To run in grey, Failed in red, Incomplete outlined, and last Set aside, which is not a chip but the mark of the plan that would bring the strategy back. A result computed against an older frontier reads Needs re-run until it is recomputed. - Every backtest and every [screener](/glossary/screener) run uses the frontier as its end date — the wall-clock date is never used. The frontier is the upper edge of every [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window). - Market data is refreshed daily; while a refresh is in progress the [simulation engine](/glossary/simulation-engine) reports "Engine updating data" and already-computed results stay visible. - A frontier that has moved invalidates results computed against the previous one, which is what the [daily warm](/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies) recomputes for the strategies you follow Live. - No result ever mixes two frontiers ([shared compute](/glossary/shared-compute)): a backtest is entirely on one side of a refresh or the other. ## What does it look like in practice? On Tuesday evening a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) shows **Up to date**, a [total return](/glossary/total-return) computed to Monday's close, and a [Compute time](/glossary/compute-time) from that backtest. Overnight, Tuesday's market data is loaded and the frontier advances from Monday to Tuesday. On Wednesday morning you open the same strategy without editing anything: the saved result was computed to Monday, the current frontier is Tuesday, so the result is no longer current — the status reads **Needs re-run**, and a re-run settles it back to **Up to date** with one more trading day included. The total return has moved slightly, and so has every metric that ends at the frontier. Open it again on Wednesday afternoon and nothing changes: the frontier is still Tuesday, because Wednesday's close has not been published yet. ## Why does my backtest end yesterday and not today? Because today's close does not exist yet. A backtest ends at the frontier — the last trading day whose data has actually landed, since prices arrive as one bar per trading day — so one you start on Wednesday morning ends at Tuesday's close, and one you start on Monday ends at Friday's. Nothing is truncated by this: the replay covers everything from your [start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) up to the frontier, and every figure on the results page ends on that same date, including the month-to-date and year-to-date windows. Intraday prices are not part of the model at all — the smallest step Fincanva works in is one [trading day](/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment). ## Why do my numbers change when I did not touch anything? Because the frontier moved. When new market data is loaded, the frontier advances by a trading day and every result computed against the old frontier is no longer current — so the same strategy, unedited, recomputes and comes back with one more day of history and slightly different figures. That is why a strategy can read **Up to date** in the evening and, without you touching it, read **Needs re-run** or **Computing** the next morning before settling back (see [run status](/glossary/run-status)). Day-to-day drift of this kind is expected behaviour, not a defect. It is also distinct from [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance): "up to date" is about the data, "compliant" is about what your account is allowed to run. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/data-quality-bias # Data-quality bias Data-quality bias is a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) conclusion driven by errors, gaps, or unadjusted events in the underlying data rather than by the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s own rules. It is the hardest bias to notice, because nothing in the result looks broken: the metrics and the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) are computed correctly — on the wrong numbers. **Also seen as:** Bad-data bias, data-error bias A single mishandled corporate action can produce a price move that never happened, and every rule and metric downstream will treat that move as real. ## How does Fincanva handle it? Fincanva runs backtests on broad market and fundamental data from **multiple established data providers**, covering many asset classes and regions and updated daily; a run goes to the latest available market close rather than to today's calendar date. - Corporate actions such as splits and dividends are reflected in the price history a backtest reads, so a split does not appear as a price fall and dividends are not silently dropped from returns. - Instruments that were [delisted](/glossary/delisted) stay in the catalogue and remain searchable, so a strategy can include names that later failed instead of them disappearing from the [universe](/glossary/universe). - Each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) carries a [permanent identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier) separate from its ticker symbol, so a price history stays joined when the symbol changes rather than splitting into two unrelated series. - An instrument's [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window) — the span between its first and last available price dates — is the only history a backtest holding it can use, so a strategy's earliest usable date can be later than the [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) you set. Check it before reading a long backtest. None of this removes the need to know what the data behind a particular run covers, and none of it prevents the two neighbouring failures: correct data reported selectively — [cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) — and correct data leaking through its timing, which [walk-forward replay](/glossary/walk-forward-replay) addresses. ## What kinds of data problems distort a backtest? Six problems account for most of it, and they fail in different directions: - **Unadjusted corporate actions.** A split, reverse split, spin-off, or dividend changes the quoted price without changing what a holder owns. An unadjusted series reads that as a return. - **Missing or stale prices.** A gap filled by repeating the last price makes an instrument look motionless, which understates its [volatility](/glossary/volatility) and hides any fall that happened inside the gap. - **Currency mismatches.** A price quoted in one currency compared with a value in another produces a difference that is an exchange rate, not a return. - **Coverage that starts later than you assumed.** An instrument whose history begins part-way through the tested period contributes nothing before that point, so the early years of the test quietly describe a smaller portfolio than you specified. - **An instrument list that has already dropped the failures.** This is [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) reaching the test through the data rather than through your choices. - **Revised or restated figures.** A value corrected after its first release, used as though the corrected version had been known on the original date, is [look-ahead bias](/glossary/look-ahead-bias) with a data cause. For a backtest to mean anything, corporate actions such as [splits and dividends](/glossary/dividends-and-splits) have to be handled correctly, because they are the events where the quoted price and the holder's actual wealth come apart. ## Why do splits and dividends have to be adjusted? A **split** multiplies the number of shares and divides the price by the same factor. A holder's position is worth exactly what it was worth a moment before, so the correct return across a split is zero — which the data can only show if every price before the split is restated onto the post-split scale. A **dividend** takes cash out of the company and hands it to the holder, so the price typically drops by roughly the dividend on the ex-dividend date. A price-only series records that drop as a loss and never records the cash, which systematically understates [total return](/glossary/total-return). The size of the omission compounds: on a stock yielding about 3% a year, reinvested dividends multiply the outcome by roughly 1.03²⁰ ≈ 1.8× over twenty years, so the dividend component accounts for something like 45% of the [ending value](/glossary/final-value) (1 − 1/1.8) — the part a price-only series leaves out entirely. Not every surprising number is a data error, though. A dividend that appears as a **cost** rather than income is the expected behavior on a short position, not a defect — see [negative dividends](/glossary/negative-dividends). ## How can a stock split look like a 50% crash? A stock trades at **\$200**. It carries out a **2-for-1 split**, and the next session's quote prints at **\$100**. | | Before the split | After the split | |---|---|---| | Shares held | 100 | 200 | | Price | \$200 | \$100 | | Position value | \$20,000 | \$20,000 | | True return | — | **0%** | | Return an unadjusted price series reports | — | **−50%** | The holder lost nothing. But a series that keeps the \$200 next to the \$100 hands every downstream rule a one-day −50% move, and each of them reacts as designed: - A 10% [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) fires and sells a position that never lost money — and the strategy's history now contains a trade that would never have happened. - The [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) records a −50% peak-to-trough fall that did not occur, making the strategy look far riskier than it was. - A momentum or trend rule ranks the stock at the bottom of the [universe](/glossary/universe) and rotates out of it. Correcting the data fixes all three at once, which is the point: the errors here are not in the rules. Reverse splits do the same thing in the other direction, and are worse, because a fabricated one-day gain attracts no suspicion at all. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/data-snooping-bias # Data-snooping bias Data-snooping bias is testing many [strategy](/glossary/strategy) variants against the same data until one of them looks good, then reporting that winner as though it were a genuine finding. The winner's figures are real; what is lost is the information needed to judge them, because the best of many looks impressive even when nothing at all is there. **Also seen as:** Data mining bias, multiple-testing bias, p-hacking Data-snooping bias is a property of the *search that produced a result*, not of the result itself — which is why it is invisible in the report and can only be assessed by knowing how many candidates were tried. ## How does Fincanva handle it? Fincanva does not prevent data-snooping, and no backtesting tool can: the app lets you run as many variants as you like, and a completed [backtest](/glossary/backtest) carries no record of how many other variants you tried before it. Keeping count of your own search — and treating a result that only appeared after many tries with caution — is the discipline this leaves to you. That count is the only input that makes a winner interpretable, and it has to survive [confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias), the pull to remember the runs that agreed with the idea and quietly discount the rest. Two product behaviors bear on it. A backtest reports the full-period result with its [drawdowns](/glossary/max-drawdown), not only the favorable stretch, so a lucky winner is at least shown in full. And the [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view re-runs one strategy across many entry dates and reports the spread of outcomes, which tends to expose a result that survived only one particular window. ## Why does testing many ideas produce a false winner? Testing many ideas produces a false winner because each individual test carries its own chance of looking good purely by luck, and those chances accumulate across the search. If every test has a probability $\alpha$ of appearing significant when there is no real effect, then the chance that *at least one* of $N$ independent tests does so is: $$ {P(\text{at least one false positive})} = 1 - (1 - {\alpha})^{{N}} $$ where: - the familywise error rate — the chance the search produces at least one apparently significant result from pure noise - the false-positive rate of a single test - the number of independent tests run The consequence is that the meaning of a threshold depends on how many times it was applied. A result that would be notable as the outcome of one pre-registered test is unremarkable as the best of two hundred, and the same numbers on the page therefore support very different conclusions depending on a fact the page does not contain. In quantitative finance the standard corrections either raise the bar for significance as the number of trials grows (as the Bonferroni correction does) or test the surviving candidate on data it has never seen. ## How do 100 ideas produce one winner? Take $\alpha = 0.05$ — a one-in-twenty chance that any single test looks good on noise alone. | Ideas tested ($N$) | Chance at least one looks good by luck | |---|---| | 1 | 5% | | 14 | 51% | | 100 | 99.4% | Run 100 unrelated strategy variants and it is effectively certain — 99.4% — that at least one clears the bar for no reason at all. Report only that variant and you have a page of strong figures produced by a coin-flipping exercise. The arithmetic also shows how quickly this arrives: by the fourteenth variant the odds are already worse than even. Note what is *not* recorded anywhere in the winner's own results: the other 99 runs. A reader given only the winner cannot compute the row of this table that applies. ## How is data-snooping bias different from overfitting? Data-snooping bias and [overfitting](/glossary/overfitting) are the same problem approached from opposite directions. Overfitting is about the *strategy* — it has enough degrees of freedom to absorb noise, so it describes one sample too precisely. Data-snooping is about the *search* — many candidates were evaluated and only the survivor is shown, so the survivor's quality partly measures the size of the search. A single hand-tuned twelve-parameter strategy is overfitted with no search at all; a one-parameter strategy picked as the best of 500 tests is data-snooped without being complex. It is also distinct from its reporting-stage neighbour: [cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) is quoting the favorable part of *one* result, while data-snooping is quoting the favorable *result* out of many. And it differs from [selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias), which is about an unrepresentative sample of instruments or periods rather than a repeated search. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/data-tier-gating # Data-tier gating Data-tier gating is the rule that ties the market data a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can reach to the plan attached to your account: Fincanva's catalogue records, for each [instrument](/glossary/instrument), the data level required in order to use it, and your plan determines which levels are available to you. It governs what a run can *reach* — which instruments, and how much history — and is separate from what a run can *do*. The history half is applied: your plan sets the earliest year a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) may start from. The per-instrument half is not applied yet — see below. **Also seen as:** data entitlement, required data product, plan-gated data ## Why is market data gated by level at all? Because market data is licensed from data providers, and depth is the expensive part of it. Broad recent coverage costs far less to supply than decades of deep history across many exchanges, so access is tiered rather than uniform. Gating is how that difference reaches the product, and it is the reason two accounts running byte-identical strategies can be offered different earliest start years. ## What does data-tier gating control today? How far back a run may start. Your plan sets the earliest [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) — Free, Starter and Advanced each have one, Ultimate and Professional have none — and Fincanva applies it: the starting-year calendar greys out every earlier year, a save asking for one is refused, and a strategy that already starts earlier after a plan change is set aside by [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) rather than moved. [What each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes#what-sets-the-backtests-starting-year) owns the details. The per-instrument side of the rule lives in the data rather than in a check you will hit: each instrument records the data level it needs, and no per-account data level is applied against it today. This page therefore describes the concept and where it currently stands — not an entitlement matrix, and not a limit you will meet. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The catalogue records a required data level per instrument. It is a property of the data, not a badge on screen. - 2000 is the setting's default, lifted to your plan's floor where that is later; on a plan with no floor the starting-year calendar reaches back to 1793. - Your plan's earliest-year floor is applied: the calendar, the save and the run all hold a strategy to it, and a strategy that starts earlier is set aside, never moved to the floor for you. - A shorter reachable window changes results: the same rules measured over a shorter period produce different metrics — see [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window). ## What does it look like in practice? Take two accounts whose plans have different floors, one a decade later than the other. A strategy started at the later floor leaves that decade of market history — a major decline included, if one fell inside it — outside its run entirely, while the same strategy on the other plan may start ten years earlier. Every metric is computed only over the years a run actually covers, so the same rules produce a different [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and max [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) from the later start than from the earlier one. Fincanva does not shorten a run for you: a strategy set to start before its plan's floor is set aside until its start moves to the floor or later, or the plan reaches its year. Nothing about the strategy changed between the two cases. Only the data it could reach did — which is why two results that look comparable are not, unless they cover the same window. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/delisted # Delisted Delisted marks an instrument that no longer trades — the company failed, was acquired, or was taken private — but whose price history Fincanva keeps and still lets a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) use. A **Delisted** badge appears on the instrument in search results and the instrument stays selectable, so a strategy can include a security that does not exist any more. Fincanva's historical data includes delisted instruments and point-in-time index membership. **Also seen as:** delisting, dead ticker ## Why does Fincanva keep delisted instruments? Because a backtest that can only pick from instruments still trading today is a backtest of the winners. Every company that went bankrupt, was bought out, or was dropped from an index vanishes from a survivors-only catalogue, and every loss it caused vanishes with it. Keeping the delisted instrument means a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) running through 2008 can hold a bank that did not come out of 2008, and record the damage where it actually happened. The distortion this guards against is called [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias): the results you get when history is judged only through the companies still around to be judged. Instruments leave the market for opposite reasons — some fail, others are acquired at a premium — so a survivors-only dataset does not simply shift results down or up. What it does is quietly remove the outcomes a strategy would have had to live through, which is why a backtest built on one cannot be trusted as a record of what the rules would have done. ## What does point-in-time index membership mean? Point-in-time index membership means an index's constituents are recorded as they stood on each date, not only as they stand today. For each index, Fincanva's data keeps when an instrument joined it and when it left, so reading the same index at 2010 and at 2026 returns two different lists — the earlier one containing companies later removed from the index, and leaving out companies that had not yet joined it. That recorded history is what separates an index as it really was from the index as it looks now, which is the distinction [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) turns on. [Index lists and point-in-time constituents](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) is the full account of how that membership history is kept and why it changes a backtest. ## What happens to a position when its instrument delists mid-backtest? The whole position is closed at the **close** of the last bar of that instrument's own price history, and the trade is dated on that series' own last date, with the [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason) **Price history ended**. It is a full liquidation — there is no partial unwind and no dead ticker left sitting in the portfolio — and it does **not** wait for the next [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance): the exit lands on the day the data ends, wherever that day falls in the strategy's schedule. From that date the proceeds are cash, and the strategy redeploys them under its ordinary rules. This is why a delisted holding never silently freezes at its last known value for the rest of a run. The loss, or the gain, is realized where the history actually stops. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Delisted instruments stay in the catalogue and stay searchable and selectable; the **Delisted** badge is how you tell them apart in search results. - The badge is tinted as a caution rather than an error — it is information about the instrument, not a problem with your strategy. - Delisted is independent of [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable): an instrument can have been perfectly tradable for years and still be delisted now. - The whole-market [universe](/glossary/universe) includes delisted instruments, so a [screener](/glossary/screener) is not silently limited to today's survivors. - A delisted instrument has a [last price date](/glossary/coverage-window), and no data exists after it — its history simply ends there. ## What does it look like in practice? You backtest a US large-cap screen across 2007–2009, and in 2007 the screen picks up a large financial company that meets its rules. That company fails in 2008 and is delisted; its ticker does not exist today. Because Fincanva keeps the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) and its price history, the backtest holds it through the collapse and the loss lands in the results — the drawdown you see includes it. Now imagine the same screen run against a catalogue containing only companies still listed today. The failed bank is simply absent, so the identical rules appear to have produced a smoother, better outcome — not because the strategy was better, but because the loser had been deleted from history. That gap between the two runs is exactly what keeping delisted instruments removes. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only # Direction: Long-only, Long/short, Short-only Direction is whether an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) may hold only long positions, both long and short, or only short — **Long-only**, **Long/short** or **Short-only** in Fincanva. A **long** position owns the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) and gains when its price rises; a **short** position sells an instrument the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) does not own and gains when the price falls. A negative weight is a short. **Also seen as:** Position direction, Position side, long/short, shorting ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Direction is a per-method setting, not one switch for the whole strategy: [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz), [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) and [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) show a direction control. - **Long-only** is the default for Beta neutral, whose "Position side" starts on "Long-only". - **MPT (Markowitz) starts on "Long/short"** at the strategy level, so shorting is allowed unless you switch it to "Long-only". At the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) MPT has no direction control and is positive-only by construction. - When MPT allows shorts, an instrument's weight may range from −1 to 1; restricted to "Long-only" the range is 0 to 1. - A negative weight is how a short position is expressed — its size is the weight's magnitude, its direction the sign. - Every weight you type inside a strategy — a Fixed weights weight or a Ranking-based decile weight — accepts −999 to 999 with decimals, so a negative number is a short; every weight you type across a Combined's member strategies accepts 0 to 999 only. - Short-position financing costs are modelled only when costs are switched on. ## What does going short mean? Going short means selling an instrument the strategy does not own, with the obligation to buy it back later. The instrument is borrowed, sold at today's price, and repurchased at whatever the price is when the position closes; the difference between the two prices is the result. A short position therefore gains when the price falls and loses when the price rises — the reverse of owning the instrument. Two consequences are mechanical facts rather than opinions: - **The loss on a short position has no fixed ceiling.** A long position can fall to zero and no further, so you can lose what you put in; a price can rise without any upper limit, so a short position's loss is not capped in principle. This is why short exposure is never a default: a method goes short only when you choose a direction that allows it, or type a negative weight yourself. - **Shorting has a carrying cost.** Borrowing an instrument to sell it is charged at a rate above the reference rate — modelled in Fincanva as the short-rate markup, see [Interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups). It enters the numbers only when costs are switched on in the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions); with costs off, the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) shorts for free, which real markets do not. Fincanva describes how these settings behave; it never recommends holding short positions or tells you which direction to run. ## Which allocation methods offer a direction setting? Three methods show a direction control, and each names it in its own words. | Method | Control | Choices | |---|---|---| | [MPT (Markowitz)](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) | "Position direction" | "Long-only", "Long/short" | | [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) | "Position side" | "Long-only", "Long/short", "Short-only" | | [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) | "Direction" | "Long-only", "Long/short" | For **MPT (Markowitz)** the app states the rule exactly: "Long-only requires every weight ≥ 0. Long/short allows negative weights (short positions)." For **Beta neutral**, built around a long leg and a short leg, choosing a single side changes what the method does — the hint reads: "Long-only and Short-only relax the neutral constraint to a single-sided book." **Inverse volatility** shows the same "Long-only" / "Long/short" pair, but whether that choice reaches the backtest is not confirmed today: the evidence on the engine side conflicts, so Fincanva does not publish an effect for it yet. [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights) has no direction control, but inside a strategy a negative weight you type is a short position in that instrument. [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) works the same way for its decile weights: a negative decile is held short. Every other method allocates long only. ## Does direction apply inside a Combined? No — direction lives inside a strategy, among its instruments. When a [Combined](/glossary/combined) splits capital across its member strategies, none of the six methods available at that level offers a direction control, and the split across member strategies is always positive: a Combined cannot be "short" one of its own strategies. If short exposure exists at all, it was created by a method inside one of those strategies. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds two instruments, A and B, and runs a method set to "Long/short". The method returns a weight of +0.60 for A and −0.40 for B: 60% of the allocated capital is long A, and the equivalent of 40% is short B. Over the next period A rises 10% and B falls 10%. The long leg contributes 0.60 × (+10%) = +6%. The short leg gains when B falls, so it contributes (−0.40) × (−10%) = +4%. The strategy is up about 10% before costs. Now run the same period with B rising 10% instead. The short leg contributes (−0.40) × (+10%) = −4%, so it loses exactly what it would have gained. And if B had risen 50%, the short leg would have cost 20% — the loss scales with the price move, with no point at which it stops. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/dividend-tax # Dividend tax Dividend tax is the rate applied to dividend income in a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). A dividend a holding pays is credited to the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) as received — after any [withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax) taken at source — and the dividend tax on it is charged afterwards, together with the strategy's other taxes. It is one of the two taxable events Fincanva models — the other is a realized gain, covered by [capital-gains tax](/glossary/capital-gains-tax) — and it is a single rate, with no holding-period distinction: a dividend is taxed the same whether the position is a week old or five years old. In the app it is the "Dividend tax" field, described as "Rate applied to dividend income." **Also seen as:** tax on dividends, dividend income tax. ## How much of a dividend reaches the strategy? All of it, at first — less any withholding at source — and then the dividend tax is charged on that amount. Over the run the strategy keeps the dividend minus both: at a dividend-tax rate of 26% on a dividend with no withholding, 74% of it stays in the strategy. The taxed portion leaves the simulation as tax and shows up in the "Taxes" band of the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) alongside tax on realized gains. Three rules decide how the charge works: - **Withholding comes first.** Dividend tax is applied to the dividend as it reached the account, after any withholding at source — never to the gross amount. - **The charge follows the [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime).** Dividend tax is charged with the capital-gains tax: once a year, on the dividends of the whole year, under **United States**, **Other** and the Italian **Declarative** regime; as dividends arrive under the Italian **Administered** regime. Until then the full dividend is in the account as cash, but the value the run reports already sets aside the pending dividend tax from the day the dividend arrives. - **Losses do not reduce it.** Dividend tax is charged on dividend income on its own; realized [capital losses](/glossary/capital-gains-tax#what-happens-to-a-realized-loss) are set only against capital gains. A dividend-heavy strategy meets this charge on every dividend over a run, while a strategy holding non-distributing instruments may never meet it at all. ## How is dividend tax different from withholding tax? They are two different deductions on the same kind of income, and they are set up differently in Fincanva: | | Dividend tax | [Withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax) | |---|---|---| | Who sets the rate | You, in the tax settings (unless it is locked for your residency) | Nobody — Fincanva applies it automatically | | Where it is taken | In the simulation's tax accounting | At source, before the cash reaches the account | | Visible as | The "Taxes" band in results | The "Withholding tax rate" beside each dividend event | ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The rate is a percentage of dividend income, seeded from your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) — which residency seeds which value, and where the field is read-only rather than yours to set, is on that page. - It applies only when the [Taxes assumption](/glossary/taxes-toggle) is on; with Taxes off, dividends are credited gross. - It is a saved setting, so editing it flips existing runs to **Needs re-run** until they run again. ## What does it look like in practice? A holding pays a **100 gross dividend** with no withholding at source, and the dividend-tax rate is the Italian default of 26%. The strategy is credited 100; the tax on it, 100 × 26% = 26, is charged later — at the start of the next year under the Declarative regime, on the same day under Administered — so over the run 74 stays in the strategy and 26 leaves as tax. Under a United States residency, where the field is seeded at 20%, the same dividend would cost 20 of tax, charged once the year is over. Now suppose the dividend was paid from a market that withholds tax at source — take an illustrative 15%, a round number and not the rate Fincanva applies to any particular holding. The strategy is credited 85, and the 26% dividend tax is charged on that 85: 22.10. Flip the Taxes assumption off and the full 100 is credited with neither deduction — the same run, viewed gross of tax. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/dividends-and-splits # Dividends and splits Dividends and splits are the two corporate events a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) records against a position it holds: a **dividend** is a cash payment per share held, and a **split** changes the number of shares outstanding, rescaling the share count and the price per share. Each is recorded with its date, so a position's history shows everything the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) did while held. **Also seen as:** corporate actions; distributions; stock splits. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Dividends and splits are shown as one merged event stream per position, newest first, under the heading "Dividends & splits", with an "Event" badge marking each row as a "Dividend" or a "Split". - One "Value" column carries both meanings: on a dividend row it is the dividend per share; on a split row it is the split ratio. - A split row leaves the money columns empty — a dash — because a split settles no cash: there is no gross gain, no withholding, and no realized gain to show. - The "Side" column on a dividend or split row shows the **position's** side, not a side belonging to the event itself. - Dividend per share and the price are in the instrument's own currency; gross gain and realized gain are in the account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), so one row can legitimately mix two currencies. - Dividends are counted separately from trading results: a position's dividend income has its own column and its own band on the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown), rather than being folded into its trading profit. ## What does a dividend event record? A dividend event records how much cash the company paid per share and what that came to for the position. The event carries the **dividend per share** in the instrument's own currency, the number of shares held at the time, the price at that date, the **gross gain** the payment produced in the account's base currency, the **withholding tax rate** applied, and the **realized gain** left after that [withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax). Gross gain is the dividend per share multiplied by the shares held; realized gain is what the position actually kept. $$ {\text{realized gain}} = \underbrace{{\text{dividend per share}} \times {\text{shares held}}}_{\text{gross gain}} \times (1 - {\text{withholding tax rate}}) $$ where: - what the position actually kept from the payment - the cash the company paid per share - the shares the position held on the date - the withholding tax rate applied to the payment On a short position the same event runs the other way — the position owes the dividend instead of receiving it — which is why it can appear as a [negative dividend](/glossary/negative-dividends). ## What does a split do to a position? A split rescales the position without changing what it is worth. The **split ratio** says by how much: a 2:1 split (ratio 2) turns every share into two and halves the price per share, so a position that held 100 shares at 80 holds 200 shares at 40 afterwards. **The position's value is unchanged** — that is the whole point of a split. It moves no cash, produces no gain or loss, and is recorded purely so the [share count](/glossary/contracts) and price before and after the event make sense together. A reverse split works the same way in the other direction: fewer shares, a higher price per share, the same value. ## What does it look like in practice? A position holds 100 shares of a stock trading at 80 — a value of 8,000. The stock splits 2:1, so the split row records a ratio of 2: the position now holds 200 shares at 40, and its value is still **8,000**. Nothing was gained or lost; only the units changed. A month later the company pays a dividend of 0.50 per share. With 200 shares held, the gross gain is 200 × 0.50 = **100**. Take an illustrative 15% [withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax): the realized gain is 100 − 15 = **85**, the cash the position actually kept from the payment. The rate that actually applies depends on your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) and on where the dividend was paid from, so read it off the event's own "Withholding tax rate" rather than assuming one. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine # Duplicate and Copy to Mine Duplicate and Copy to Mine are the only two ways to make a copy in Fincanva. **Duplicate** copies an item you already own; **Copy to Mine** copies a Public item into your library so you can edit it. Both produce an independent new item that keeps the original's settings and none of its results, and neither ever changes the original. **Also seen as:** clone Earlier releases labelled Duplicate **Create a copy** or **Save as copy**. Both labels are retired; the app says Duplicate everywhere. ## What does Duplicate do? Duplicate makes an independent copy of an item **you already own** — a variant of your own [strategy](/glossary/strategy), a second screener that starts from the first. It appears as **Duplicate** in the item's title menu, its row menu, and its page header, and it is the only copy action offered on something in your own library. Duplicate is not the same as **Save as new screener**, the button in a [Fin](/glossary/fin) suggestion review — that saves a suggested set of filters as a separate screener instead of overwriting yours. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The suggested name is the original's name with `(copy)` appended, and you can replace it before committing. - A copy uses the last **saved** version of the source, so unsaved edits are excluded — save before copying if you want them in. - On success the app confirms with `Copy created`. - A copy always starts with Live off, whichever way you made it, so it never joins your [live book](/glossary/live-book) by accident (see [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live)). - Any copy's name is auto-adjusted if it would collide with a strategy already in the [folder](/glossary/folder) it lands in: Fincanva appends ` (1)`, ` (2)` and so on. This applies to Duplicate as well as Copy to Mine, and to the name you type yourself in the prompt — two strategies in one folder can never share a name. ## What does a copy keep, and what does it drop? A copy keeps the configuration and drops the history — so it is the same idea with a clean slate: | Kept | Dropped | |---|---| | Every setting (allocation, risk, exits, [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) cadence) | The run history and all [backtest](/glossary/backtest) results | | The [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) | The Live state — a copy is never followed | | The benchmark and the [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) | Its folder placement — the copy lands at the top level of Mine | | The description | — | | For a screener: its filter rows and its [universe](/glossary/universe) | — | Because the results are dropped, a fresh copy has never been run: its [run status](/glossary/run-status) reads **To run** until you back-test it. Nothing you then do to the copy — editing, running, deleting — reaches the original. Which of the two you get depends on who owns the item, not on what you want to do with it. ### What does Copy to Mine do? Copy to Mine copies an item from the [Public](/glossary/mine-public) tab into your own library, and it is the **only** way to get an editable version of a Public item. The Public original is never touched — you are working on your own copy from the moment it lands. It refuses to run on anything else: use it on an item you already own and the app answers `Copy to Mine is only available for Public items.` That refusal is the clean statement of the split — Public items get Copy to Mine, your own items get Duplicate. ## Why does Fincanva sometimes refuse to copy a strategy? **The source holds zero components.** Fincanva never lets you build or save one — you cannot create a zero-component strategy yourself — so only a few older documents that predate that guarantee are in this state. A copy carries the source's components over unchanged, so copying one would produce a strategy that renders but can never be saved or run, with no way to fix it afterwards. Duplicate or Copy to Mine answers: `Nothing to copy: this strategy does not hold the minimum of 1 strategy, so the copy could not be saved or run.` A source with **one** component is not affected — an [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined) copies exactly like any other strategy. **Duplicate meets a benchmark your plan does not include.** A copy is a new strategy and is checked like one, so Duplicate refuses a source benchmarked against one of your own portfolios when your plan does not include that; detaching a component from a [Combined](/glossary/combined) is checked the same way. A public item normally uses a market benchmark, which every plan includes. What a copy keeps and what you may re-point is on [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark). **You are at your plan's strategy limit.** Each copy, by Duplicate or Copy to Mine, adds one to the strategies you hold, so a copy that would take you past what your plan allows is refused: nothing is created and the original is untouched. Deleting a strategy you no longer need, or moving to a plan that allows more, makes room — see [plan limits](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## Why is a screener copy refused when it holds too many filters? A screener copy is refused when the source holds more filter rows than the limit allows. **Duplicate** and **Copy to Mine** are both checked this way, and the app answers `One of the screeners you're copying holds more filters than your Free plan allows, so it can't be copied — nothing was created.`, naming the plan you are on. Nothing is created. **The limit is the same on every plan, and no upgrade raises it.** The sentence names the plan you are on, but changing plan will not let the copy through — there is no higher figure to buy. See [Screener](/glossary/screener) for the figure itself and for what happens to a screener you already hold that is over it. Nothing is trimmed to make it fit, and that is deliberate. A copy that quietly dropped the filters over the limit would screen a different set of instruments from the one you asked to copy, under the same name, with nothing telling you so. The source is never changed by the refusal. A screener you already hold that is over the limit keeps working and keeps its rows — see [plan limits](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) for what your plan allows and what happens to items you already hold. ## What does it look like in practice? You own a strategy called "Momentum EU" and want to try a monthly rebalance without losing the quarterly version. You choose **Duplicate**; the prompt offers "Momentum EU (copy)" and you rename it to "Momentum EU monthly". The copy appears at the top level of Mine with every setting from the last saved "Momentum EU" — same instruments, same allocation, same benchmark — but with no results at all, so its status reads **To run**. You change the cadence to monthly, save, and back-test. You now have two independent strategies with comparable settings and separate result histories. "Momentum EU" never moved, was never re-run, and if it happened to be followed Live, the copy did not inherit that. ### Where does the "Created from" line come from? The muted **`Created from {sources} — {date}`** line is provenance for a **Combined**: it appears when a Combined strategy was built out of existing strategies, and it names them and the date. A plain Duplicate or Copy to Mine does **not** stamp it — a copy carries no recorded link back to what it was copied from, and the only trace is the name the app suggests. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk # Entropic value at risk Entropic value at risk (EVaR) is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that minimises a measure of tail loss built from **every** day in the window, each weighted more heavily the worse its loss. It is at least as prudent as [CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) at the same tail share and, unlike [CVaR](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk), never collapses onto one worst day when the window is short. **Also seen as:** EVaR, entropic VaR ## What is Entropic value at risk? EVaR is the tightest upper bound on the tail loss that can be built from the whole distribution of returns rather than from its worst days alone. $$ \text{EVaR}_{{\alpha}}({L}) = \inf_{{z} > 0} \; {z} \,\ln\!\left( \frac{{\mathbb{E}\left[e^{L/z}\right]}}{{\alpha}} \right) $$ where: - the portfolio's daily loss - the Tail share - every day's loss averaged after an exponential weighting that grows steeply with the size of the loss - the scale that makes the bound tightest Large losses dominate the average without the ordinary days being thrown away, so the answer depends smoothly on the weights and never on one single observation. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"EVaR · Entropic value at risk"** and describes it as "More prudent than CVaR, stable even with little history". - Entropic value at risk is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - Its one setting is the **Tail share**, from 1% to 25% and 5% by default — the same control as Min CVaR. - It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and does not read the **Covariance matrix** choice. - No low-data warning is ever shown for it, whatever the window and tail share. - Weights are never negative. - The picker marks it "slow to compute": each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) solves an optimisation over every day of the window. ## How is EVaR different from Min CVaR? Two differences, and both come from EVaR using every day. - **It is more prudent.** At the same tail share, a portfolio's EVaR is never below its CVaR, so the weights that minimise it come out more conservative. That is the purpose, not a side effect. - **It has no small-sample cliff.** [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) averages the worst tail-share of days; when the window times the tail share falls below one day, it becomes a single-worst-day rule, and the app warns you. EVaR has no such limit, which is why that warning offers "Switch to EVaR" as one of its two fixes. ## Which plan includes Entropic value at risk? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy uses a 1-month in-sample window, about 21 trading days, with a 4% tail share. - **Min CVaR** would average the worst 21 × 4% = 0.84 days — less than one — so it can only look at the single worst day, and the app shows "Too little data for this tail share". - **Entropic value at risk** uses all 21 days, each weighted by how bad it was. The worst day still counts most, but the second- and third-worst days move the answer too, so a small change in the data does not flip the weights. Lengthen the window to 12 months, about 252 days, and both methods have enough data; EVaR then still reads a little more deeply into the tail than CVaR at the same 4%. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/equal-weights # Equal weights Equal weights is the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that gives every item the same share of the capital being allocated: with N items, each receives 1/N — four instruments get 25% each, ten get 10% each. It has no parameters, reads no history, and is the method every new [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and Combined starts on. **Also seen as:** equal weighting, equally weighted, 1/N ## How is an Equal weights allocation calculated? Each item's weight is one divided by the number of items, so every weight is identical and together they use the whole capital being allocated. $$ {w_i} = \frac{1}{{N}} $$ where: - the weight given to item i - the number of items being allocated across — instruments when a strategy allocates, member strategies when a Combined allocates ## How does Fincanva handle it? The app describes the method as "Every instrument receives an equal weight". - Equal weights is the method a new strategy and a new Combined start on, at both levels. - It has no parameters at all: the method's card carries no settings, because 1/N leaves nothing to choose. - It does not use the In-sample [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window), because it reads no price or fundamental history. - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date, so holdings that drifted apart between rebalances are brought back to an even split. - It is available both across a strategy's instruments and across a [Combined's member strategies](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds four instruments: AAPL, MSFT, JNJ, and KO. Under Equal weights, N = 4, so each weight is 1 ÷ 4 = 0.25 — 25% each. On \$100,000 of strategy capital that is \$25,000 per [instrument](/glossary/instrument), regardless of company size, price, or past performance. Three months later AAPL has doubled and KO is flat, so the actual weights have drifted to roughly 40% / 20% / 20% / 20%. At the next rebalance date Equal weights recomputes 1/4 again, and the strategy sells part of AAPL and tops up the rest to return to 25% each. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) holding three strategies works the same way: N = 3, so each strategy receives one third of the Combined's capital. ## What counts as a good value? There is nothing to tune, so the question becomes what an equal split *does*: it spreads capital without any view on which item is more attractive, so no single holding dominates by construction. That evenness cuts both ways — a small, volatile holding carries the same capital as a large, stable one, so an equally weighted strategy can be more exposed to its smallest holdings than a size-based method would be. Read it alongside a risk measure such as [volatility](/glossary/volatility) or [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). Fincanva describes how this method behaves; it never recommends an allocation method or tells you which split to run. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/equity-curve # Equity curve An equity curve is the line that plots a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s value at every date of its [backtest](/glossary/backtest), from the first simulated day to the last, so you can read the whole path a result took rather than only the number it ended on. Two strategies can finish at exactly the same value while their curves look nothing alike — one climbing steadily, the other spiking and collapsing — and the curve is where that difference becomes visible. **Also seen as:** growth chart, capital curve ## What does the Growth chart actually show? Fincanva titles this chart **Growth**, on the **Capital Growth** page of a strategy's analysis. The **Growth** chart draws one curve for your strategy across the whole simulated period, with a dashed **Benchmark** line behind it and a shorter **Drawdown** panel stacked underneath sharing the same dates. A toggle in the chart header switches the curve between two readings of the same result: your account's base-currency code shows it as money, and **%** shows it as cumulative return. In the money reading, the filled area is **Total value** — everything the strategy is worth on that date — with a second **Cash capital** area inside it for the part sitting in cash; the vertical axis is titled **Value**. In the **%** reading the single line is **Growth**, the return accumulated since the start, and the axis is titled **Return**. The lower panel is the same in both: an area titled **Drawdown**, hanging down from zero, showing how far below its previous peak the strategy was on each date. Above the chart sit the period buttons and a zoom bar that narrow the visible date range, and three display switches — **Inflation-adj.**, **Benchmark** and **Log scale** — which change how the same curve is drawn without re-running anything. See [chart toggles](/glossary/chart-toggles) for what each one does. The **Performance Metrics** page carries a second, simpler version of the curve: the strategy's return as a soft filled area behind a headline reading **Overall return**, with the benchmark as a dashed line. It is the same series, presented as a summary rather than as a chart you interrogate. ## How do you read one equity curve? Read it in four places, left to right. 1. **The left edge** is the [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) — where every curve begins, so the strategy and its benchmark start from the same amount and stay directly comparable. 2. **The slope** is the pace. A steep stretch is a period of fast gains; a flat stretch is a period where the strategy went nowhere, which costs nothing but time. 3. **The dips** are the falls from a previous high. The deepest one over the whole period is the [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), and it is exactly the deepest point of the **Drawdown** panel below. 4. **The right edge** is the [final value](/glossary/final-value), and the gap between it and the left edge is the [total return](/glossary/total-return). The [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) is that same gap expressed as a yearly pace. The distance between your curve and the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) line at any date is how far ahead or behind the strategy was at that point — and the shared crosshair labels it "Ahead" or "Behind" as you hover. Because the benchmark is run as its own full simulation over the same dates and the same starting capital, the two lines are always on the same footing. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The curve covers the full simulated period by default; the period buttons and zoom bar change what you see, never what was computed. - The **Benchmark** line is shown unless you switch it off. - The money reading and the **%** reading are the same underlying result — the toggle changes the unit, not the run. - The curve only exists after a backtest has completed. Before that the page reads "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to generate its capital analysis." ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy starts a ten-year backtest with 10,000 and ends at 24,000. The **%** reading of that same curve ends at +140%, its [total return](/glossary/total-return); the [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) works out near 9.1% a year. But the path matters. Suppose the curve climbs to 18,000 in year six, falls back to 12,600 during year seven, and only regains 18,000 in year nine before finishing at 24,000. The fall from 18,000 to 12,600 is −30%, so the **Drawdown** panel dips to −30% at that point and the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) reports −30% as the max drawdown. Reading only the ending — 24,000, +140% — hides two years spent below a level the strategy had already reached. That is the whole reason the curve is shown next to the numbers instead of behind them. ## What does the shape of a curve tell you? The shape tells you how a result was produced, not whether it is worth having. A curve that rises in small steady steps and one that jumps in a few large bursts can end at the same value while having behaved completely differently along the way, and the second one's outcome depended much more heavily on the particular window the backtest covered. A curve whose gains all arrive in one stretch is one worth checking against [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity), which re-runs the same strategy from many different starting months. A curve also cannot be read as a forecast in any form: it is one path through one set of historical dates, and its slope has no predictive claim on the dates after it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/event-time-path # Event-time path An event-time path is a chart that lines up a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest)'s matched instruments by *when they were selected* rather than by calendar date, so day 0 is always the pick date. From that shared starting point it plots the average path of the matches afterwards, letting you read what typically happened to instruments after a [screener](/glossary/screener) would have selected them. Because every match is re-centred on its own selection day, picks made in different years overlay on one timeline. It shows the *shape* of what followed a selection; a [holding horizon](/glossary/holding-horizon) figure, by contrast, condenses one fixed length of hold into a single number. **Also seen as:** event-study plot ## Why day 0 is the selection date Setting day 0 to the selection date is what makes the picks comparable. Calendar-aligned, an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) picked in 2015 and one picked in 2020 can't be averaged meaningfully; event-aligned, both start at their own day 0 and the chart can average "one month after selection", "six months after selection", and so on across every pick. The line to the right of day 0 is the average of those aligned paths, so a single curve summarises many selections at once. ## What the path does and doesn't tell you The path shows the average behaviour after selection — not any single instrument's outcome, and not a forecast. It reads left to right from day 0: a curve that rises after day 0 means the matches, on average, moved up over the window shown, while a fall means the opposite. It is a way to inspect the after-selection behaviour of a screener's picks alongside the [match count](/glossary/matches) and the filters that produced them. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener's event-time path sets day 0 at each instrument's selection date. Reading right from day 0, the average line shows how the picks moved one, three, six, and twelve months after they were selected — a pick from 2016 and one from 2021 both counted from their own day 0. The point at day 0 is the selection moment itself, so the path starts flat there; everything to its right is the average journey afterwards. *The path averages what happened after past selections on historical data, not what will follow the next one, and no shape it takes is a reason to buy or sell anything.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/excess-return # Excess return Excess return is how much a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s return beats or trails its [benchmark's](/glossary/benchmark) return over the same period, measured in percentage points (pp). A positive excess return means the strategy outperformed its benchmark; a negative one means it lagged. It is the *plain* difference between the two returns, with no adjustment for how much market exposure the strategy carried — that adjustment is what [alpha](/glossary/alpha) adds, and it is why the two can disagree about the same result. **Also seen as:** active return, outperformance ## How is excess return calculated? Excess return is simply the strategy's return minus the benchmark's return over the identical period. $$ \text{excess return} = \text{strategy return} - \text{benchmark return} $$ where: both returns cover the same dates, and the result is stated in percentage points (pp) — the plain difference between two percentages. ## What counts as a good value? A positive excess return means the strategy earned more than its benchmark over the period, which is the usual goal of an active strategy. It does not, on its own, say whether that extra return was worth the risk taken — a strategy can beat its benchmark while swinging far more along the way, so read it alongside a risk measure such as [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Excess return is a difference between two percentages, so it is reported in percentage points (pp), not as a relative percentage. - Both sides use the same [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) and date range, because the benchmark is run as its own full [backtest](/glossary/backtest) over the strategy's period. - It can be positive or negative, and it changes if you switch the benchmark the strategy is compared against. ## What does it look like in practice? Over the same period a strategy returns +12% while its benchmark returns +9%. The excess return is 12% − 9% = +3pp. Note that this is 3 percentage points, not "3% more": the strategy's return was three points of return above the benchmark's, a gap you read directly off the two figures. *Beating a benchmark once is not a reason to expect it again.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/execution-time # Execution time Execution time is the point within a trading bar at which a modelled trade fills — at the **Open**, **Intraday** or **Close** — which sets the price the simulation uses for that trade. A trading bar is one period's price range (its open, high, low and close), and where in that range a fill lands changes the price recorded. **Also seen as:** fill time ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Recorded per trade in the "Execution time" column of the **Executions** table (Italian "Orario esecuzione"), next to the "Actual execution price". - [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) trades are modelled to fill at the Open of the first trading day after the rebalance date. - [Stop-loss](/glossary/stop-loss) and [take-profit](/glossary/take-profit) exits do not wait for the next Open: they fill on the bar that reached the threshold, Intraday, at that level — or at the Open when the bar opens already past it, which is the case where the booked price overshoots the threshold. - Open, Intraday and Close each map to a different bar price, so the execution time and the execution price move together. ## What does it look like in practice? The same trade fills very differently depending on its execution time. Take a stock whose bar runs from an Open of 100 to a Close of 104. Filled at the Open, the trade books at 100; filled at the Close, it books at 104. The execution time is what decides which of the two prices the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) records as the Actual execution price for that trade. ## When does a modelled trade fill within a bar? A backtest records, for every trade, whether it filled at the bar's Open, Intraday, or at the Close, because that choice fixes which price the trade books at. Rebalance-driven trades are modelled to fill at the **Open of the first trading day after the rebalance date**, if the needed exchanges are open — so most fills carry an Open execution time. Because the calculation uses the close but execution is assumed at the next open, the booked price can differ from the level that triggered the trade. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/exit-reason # Exit reason Exit reason is the recorded cause of a position being closed, shown in the "Reason" column of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s trade history. There are seven — take profit, stop loss, max hold, [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), Exclude [screener](/glossary/screener), price history ended and bankruptcy — and every closing trade carries exactly one, so you can tell why each position left the [strategy](/glossary/strategy). **Also seen as:** close reason ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Shown in the "Reason" column of the **Executions** table (Italian "Motivo"), per closing trade — one position can open and close more than once, and each close carries its own reason. - It is a record of what the simulation did, not a setting you edit: [take profit](/glossary/take-profit), [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) and [max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months) are the controls that decide *when* a position closes, and the reason tells you afterwards *which* of them closed it. - The reasons do not share one clock. Take profit and stop loss are checked on the position's own price bars, so either can close a position between two rebalances — [execution time](/glossary/execution-time#when-does-a-modelled-trade-fill-within-a-bar) gives the price such a close books at. Max hold and Exclude screener act only at scheduled rebalances, so a rebalance forced off schedule by a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) never produces either. ## What does it look like in practice? Across one backtest, five positions close for five different reasons: a stock up +20% shows **Take profit**; one that fell to its stop level shows **Stop loss**; one dropped at a scheduled reweight shows **Rebalance**; one held to its month cap shows **Max hold**; and one whose company was taken private mid-test, so its prices stop, shows **Price history ended**. Reading the Reason column tells you at a glance which rule ended each position. *An exit reason records what a simulation did on historical data, not what a position will do, and no reason in the column is a suggestion to close or hold anything.* ## What are the exit reasons a backtest records? Each closing trade is tagged with one of a fixed set of seven causes: - **Take profit** — the position reached its take-profit gain. - **Stop loss** — the position reached its stop-loss threshold. - **Max hold** — the position reached its maximum holding period (a time-based exit), acted on at a scheduled rebalance. - **Rebalance** — the position was closed as part of a normal rebalance, when the strategy reweighted and no longer held it (this used to be called a "rotation"). - **Exclude screener** — at a scheduled rebalance the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) matched one of the strategy's [Exclude screeners](/glossary/screener-attach), so it was dropped. - **Price history ended** — the instrument's own price history ran out while the position was open, because it stopped trading. It is a property of that instrument, not of the backtest: a position still open on an instrument that is still trading when the backtest ends is not closed for this reason. - **Bankruptcy** — a [bankruptcy rule](/glossary/bankruptcy-rules) closed the position: the run, or the strategy inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), fell below 10% of its reference capital and everything it held was closed. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/factor-roster # Factor roster The factor roster is the fixed set of 14 reference market series a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s returns can be compared against: the broad equity market, size and style tilts, government and corporate bonds, gold, real estate and volatility indices. A factor is not an investment or a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) you are scored against; it answers *what has this strategy actually behaved like?* **Also seen as:** factors, reference factors, factor set ## How does Fincanva handle it? A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s analysis includes a correlations page whose second table sets each strategy, and the Combined itself, against six of the fourteen factors — Market (S&P 500), 10y Treasury, Investment Grade Corporates, Gold, Real Estate (REIT) and VIX — the ones that disagree with each other. The other eight largely repeat one of the six over a portfolio: the size and style factors move closely with Market, the 3m T-Bill is cash-like and sits near zero against everything, and MOVE and the VIX 1M-3M Spread are second-order volatility gauges beside the VIX. The table reports two readings of each pair — the correlation, and the [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) where one can be read — and is scoped by the same period selector as the [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) beside it, whose page documents the page's shape and the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that includes it. A strategy that correlates strongly with Gold has behaved like a gold position over the period, whatever its tickers and rules — a question its [instrument](/glossary/instrument) list often answers badly. ## Which factors are in the roster? All 14 factors are active, so any of them can appear in a comparison. | Factor | What it stands for | |---|---| | Market (S&P 500) | the broad US large-cap equity market | | Small Cap | smaller-company US equity | | Mid Cap | mid-sized-company US equity | | Large Cap | large-company US equity | | Value | the value style tilt | | Growth | the growth style tilt | | 10y Treasury | ten-year US government bonds | | 3m T-Bill | three-month US government bills, the cash-like short end | | Investment Grade Corporates | investment-grade corporate bonds | | Gold | gold | | Real Estate (REIT) | listed real estate | | VIX | implied volatility of S&P 500 options — the "fear index" | | VIX 1M-3M Spread | the gap between one-month and three-month implied volatility: how front-loaded market stress is | | MOVE | implied volatility of US Treasury options — the bond-market VIX | The series are built from market data supplied by multiple established data providers; Fincanva does not publish which instrument or series stands behind each factor. Like the [special data series](/glossary/special-data-series), factors are reference series a strategy cannot hold. **Market (S&P 500)** and **Large Cap** overlap heavily, because the S&P 500 is predominantly large-cap: read them as closely related, not independent. ## What does a factor correlation tell me? How closely a strategy's period-to-period returns tracked the factor's, from −1 to +1 — the scale a [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) reports pair by pair. A +0.7 with Gold means the strategy tended to rise when gold rose and fall when it fell — worth knowing even if it holds no gold, because what it holds responds to the same forces. Near 0, the two moved largely unrelated; −0.6, it tended to move opposite to gold. Three limits keep that reading honest. Correlation is about *direction, not size*: a +0.9 with the Market says the strategy moved with the market almost every period, not by how much — that is what [beta](/glossary/beta) and [adjusted beta](/glossary/adjusted-beta) measure. Correlation is not causation: a strategy can correlate with Gold because it holds miners, because it reacts to the same interest-rate news, or by coincidence over a short window. And a correlation is only as stable as its period, which is why a [rolling correlation](/glossary/rolling-correlation) says more than a single figure. Fincanva does not tell you which factor exposures to hold or avoid — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). ## Why do the volatility factors read differently? The three volatility factors — VIX, the VIX 1M-3M spread, and MOVE — are index *levels* rather than prices, so a comparison against them reads changes in the level rather than percentage returns. A strategy whose returns correlate negatively with changes in VIX tended to lose ground when market fear rose, which is the ordinary behavior of a long risk position. The other eleven factors are price-like series compared on returns in the normal way. It is also why the comparison table shows no [beta](/glossary/beta) against a volatility factor: a beta measured on a change in a level has no unit anybody can read, so those cells stay empty while the correlation beside them is still reported. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/filter # Filter A filter is one screening rule inside a [screener](/glossary/screener) — a metric, a comparison mode, and the value or values it is tested against. Each filter is a condition an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) passes or fails, and because filters combine with AND, an instrument has to pass every filter to become a [match](/glossary/matches). **Also seen as:** screening rule, screening criterion You add filters from the **Add a filter** panel and edit each one in place. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Filters are ANDed, never ORed, so adding one can only lower the match count or leave it unchanged; removing or loosening one can only raise it. - Each filter applies to the [asset types](/glossary/asset-type) it is defined for. Switching asset type hides the [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) that no longer apply, and switching back restores them. - A filter's Advanced inputs carry the unit the filter counts in — Months Ago, Reports Ago, Quarters, Days, Bars, or Std Devs. You enter the number; the filter fixes the unit. - Deleting a filter changes only the screener you are editing; the filter stays in the catalogue for every other screener. ## What is a filter made of? Three parts, plus an optional fourth. The **metric** is what the filter reads — Market Cap, P/E, a [moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma). The **comparison mode** is the relation it applies: vs Value, Between, vs Lagged Self, Highest / Lowest, or [vs Aggregate](/glossary/aggregate-comparisons) (see [comparison modes](/glossary/comparison-modes)). The **value** is what the metric is tested against — one number, a range, a lag, or a rank, depending on the mode. Optionally the **Advanced** panel shifts or scales the reading with Lag, Period, and Multiplier (see [lag, period, and multiplier](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier)). While you edit, a plain-language restatement appears under "You're saying", so you can read the rule back as a sentence before applying it. ## Where do filters come from? Filters come from a catalogue Fincanva maintains, grouped by category in the **Add a filter** panel. Today that catalogue holds 118 filters — 84 Fundamental, 20 Technical, and 14 Market & Sector — alongside the Universe filters that decide which instruments are eligible in the first place (see [universe](/glossary/universe)). Two categories are visible but not yet available: Macro is marked "Coming soon", and custom filters are "post-V1". Not every filter supports every comparison mode, and the editor offers only the relations the chosen filter supports. ## What does it look like in practice? Take `P/E < 15`. The metric is P/E, the comparison mode is **vs Value**, the operator is `<`, and the value is 15 — read back under "You're saying" as "P/E is less than 15". An instrument passes when its latest P/E reading sits below 15. Switch the same filter to **Between** and the single value becomes a low–high pair, `P/E between 10 and 20`. Switch it to **Highest / Lowest** and the value becomes a rank rather than a threshold, keeping only the top or bottom N. The metric never moved — only the relation, and what that relation needs from you. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/filter-condition-anatomy # Filter condition anatomy A filter condition is one screening rule taken apart into its three parts: the **metric** it reads, the **operator** that tests that metric, and the **value** it is tested against. This page is the part-by-part reading of a single rule — what each piece does, how the editor restates it, and how the finished chip such as `ROE > 15%` is put together; [filter](/glossary/filter) is the page that defines the object itself, and [filter taxonomy](/glossary/filter-taxonomy) is where you find the metric to start from. A [screener](/glossary/screener) keeps only the instruments whose readings satisfy every one of its conditions at once, so each condition you add is one more test an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) has to pass. **Also seen as:** filter chip, filter rule ## What are the three parts of a filter condition? Every condition answers the same question in three pieces — which metric, tested how, against what. | Part | What it is | In `ROE > 15%` | |---|---|---| | Metric | The measurement the [filter](/glossary/filter) reads for each instrument, picked from the filter catalogue. | ROE | | Operator | The comparison applied to that reading. | `>` (greater than) | | Value | The number the reading is compared against, in the metric's own unit. | 15% | The metric comes from the [filter taxonomy](/glossary/filter-taxonomy) — 118 filters grouped into three categories and 20 subcategories. The operator comes from the filter's own operator list: see [standard operators](/glossary/standard-operators) for the comparison set, and [special relations](/glossary/special-relations) for the pattern tests such as crossings that a handful of filters offer instead. The wider shapes a comparison can take — a fixed number, a range, the metric's own earlier reading, a rank, or a market or sector figure — are covered in [comparison modes](/glossary/comparison-modes). ## What does the "You're saying" line show? **You're saying** is the filter editor's plain-language restatement of the condition you have just built, rewritten live as you change the operator or the value. It reads the three parts back as one sentence — "ROE is greater than 15%." — so you can check the rule says what you meant before you apply it. Until you have picked values it reads "Choose values to see what this filter says." The sentence uses words where the dropdown uses glyphs: `<` reads "is less than", `≤` reads "is at most", `=` reads "equals", `≥` reads "is at least", and `>` reads "is greater than". ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A filter arrives with the operator and value its catalogue entry declares, so a condition is valid the moment you add it — the ROE filter opens at `>` 20%. - Values snap to the stops that filter offers. You can type a number freely; on Enter, or when the field loses focus, it moves to the nearest stop. - Each filter offers only the operators and comparison modes it supports; the editor hides the rest rather than showing them disabled. - Conditions combine with AND and run in the order they sit in the filter strip — see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking). - The optional **Advanced** panel adds Lag, Period, and Multiplier, which shift or scale the reading before the comparison; see [lag, period, and multiplier](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier). - The chip is the same condition in compact form: the filter name, then any non-default Advanced settings as `(period) [lag]`, then the operator and the value. - The count of instruments still passing every condition is the [match count](/glossary/matches). ## How do you build "ROE > 15%"? Four moves, each one touching a single part of the condition. 1. **Add the filter.** Open **Add filter**. The flyout has three columns — **Category**, **Subcategory**, **Filter**. Pick **Fundamental**, then **Profitability**, then **ROE**. The condition arrives at its catalogue default, `ROE > 20%`. 2. **Check the operator.** The operator dropdown groups its choices under **Compare**, **Range**, and **Rank**. `>` — labelled "greater than" — is already selected under **Compare**, so there is nothing to change. 3. **Set the value.** Type `15` in the value field. The ROE filter's stops run in one-point steps, so 15 lands exactly on a stop and the field shows 15%. 4. **Read it back.** **You're saying** now shows "ROE is greater than 15%." Apply, and the chip in the strip reads `ROE > 15%`. The condition now keeps every instrument whose most recent return on equity reads above 15% and drops the rest. Because `>` is strict, an instrument sitting at exactly 15% does not pass; switching the operator to `≥` ("at least") includes the boundary. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/filter-impact-lenses # Filter impact lenses Filter impact lenses are the three ways a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) reports what a single [filter](/glossary/filter) contributed: **On its own**, **Added in sequence**, and **If removed**. They appear in the **Which filters earn their place** table — one row per filter, expandable into the full six-[horizon](/glossary/holding-horizon) breakdown. The three lenses answer three different questions and, critically, **are not measured on the same scale**: one is a return, two are differences. Reading one as if it were another is the single most common way to misjudge a filter. **Also seen as:** marginal contribution analysis, leave-one-out ## What each of the three lenses measures | Lens | The question it answers | What the number is | |---|---|---| | On its own | "How did this filter's own picks do?" | an **average annualized return** — a level, shown as a percentage, with no other filter and no [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) subtracted | | Added in sequence | "What did adding this filter change, at its place in the chain?" | a **difference** — the change from the filters *before* it in the screener's order to the same set *with* it, in percentage points (pp) | | If removed | "What would dropping this filter cost?" | a **difference** — the full filter set minus the same set with this one filter taken out, in percentage points (pp) | ## Why the three percentages are not comparable **On its own is a return; the other two are differences.** A filter reading `+14.2%` on its own and `+0.3 pp` added in sequence is not contradicting itself: the first says its own picks averaged a 14.2% annualized return, the second says it moved the [screener](/glossary/screener) 0.3 points when stacked onto the filters above it. Subtracting, ratioing, or ranking across the two columns is meaningless. **The two differences use different baselines.** *Added in sequence* is measured against the filters that come **before** it, so it depends on [filter order](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking) — the same filter can look large in first position and near-zero in last, because whatever it excludes may already have been excluded. *If removed* is measured against the **complete** set, so it does not depend on order; it is the honest "what do I lose by deleting this" figure and it is the one the table leads with, under the header "Removing it would cost you…". **A negative *If removed* means removal would help.** Because the lens is "full set minus set-without-it", a negative value says the screener performed better without that filter over the period. Those rows are tinted in the destructive (red) style so a filter that is actively costing you is visible without reading the number. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The table's lead column is the **If removed** lens, drawn as a bar diverging from a centre line — right for positive, left for negative, widths scaled to the largest magnitude in the table. - One horizon at a time drives the lead column, chosen from the same six horizons; the selector opens on **12 months**. - Expanding a filter's row reveals the full grid: six horizons × the three lenses, so a filter can be strong at one horizon and weak at another. - The **On its own** column carries the sub-label "raw return" precisely because it is not a delta. - A value that cannot be computed shows "—" rather than a zero. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener holds three filters and the third one looks weak. Expanded at the 12-month horizon, its row reads: **On its own `+9.8%`**, **Added in sequence `+0.2 pp`**, **If removed `−1.1 pp`**. Read across the row rather than down a column. On its own, the filter's picks averaged a 9.8% annualized return — respectable in isolation, and it says nothing about the screener. Added in sequence, it moved the screener by only 0.2 points once the two filters above it had already narrowed the field, so most of what it excludes was excluded already. If removed is negative: the full three-filter screener trailed the two-filter version by 1.1 annualized points, meaning this filter cost the screener rather than helping it, and its row is tinted red. Notice that the third figure — not the flattering first one — is the one about *this screener*. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/filter-taxonomy # Filter taxonomy Filter taxonomy is the way Fincanva organises the filters a [screener](/glossary/screener) can use: **118 filters** in three categories — **Fundamental** (84), **Technical** (20), and **Market & Sector** (14) — split across **20 subcategories**. The category tells you what kind of data a filter reads; the subcategory tells you which part of that data. Every filter is reached along that path, so the taxonomy is how you find the metric you want rather than scrolling one long list. **Also seen as:** filter categories, filter families, filter catalogue ## What do the three filter categories read? Each category reads a different subject, and that changes what the filter can tell you about an [instrument](/glossary/instrument). | Category | Filters | What it reads | Example filter | |---|---|---|---| | Fundamental | 84 | The company's own reported financials, and the ratios built from them. | ROE | | Technical | 20 | The instrument's own price and volume history. | RSI | | Market & Sector | 14 | The market index, or the instrument's sector, rather than the instrument itself. | Mkt Median PE | Market & Sector filters behave differently from the other two because their reading does not belong to the instrument. A **market** filter (its name starts with `Mkt`) tests one figure for the whole market, so it is a regime gate: either the condition holds and every instrument still in the running stays, or it fails and the screener returns nothing. A **sector** filter (`Sec`) tests the condition once per sector and keeps the instruments belonging to the sectors that passed. ## What are the 20 subcategories? The subcategory is the second column in the **Add filter** flyout, and it narrows a category to one area of measurement. | Category | Subcategories (filters each) | |---|---| | Fundamental | Profile (3), Income Statement (23), Balance Sheet (16), Cash Flow Statement (12), Operating Margin (3), Profitability (4), Liquidity (2), Solvency (3), Valuation Ratios (9), Dividends (9) | | Technical | Momentum (5), Volatility (2), Relations (4), Risk-Reward (3), Indicators (4), Market Liquidity (2) | | Market & Sector | Market Technical (5), Market Fundamental (2), Sector Technical (6), Sector Fundamental (1) | Ten subcategories under Fundamental, six under Technical, four under Market & Sector — twenty in total. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The **Add filter** flyout lists **Universe** alongside the three categories in its first column. Universe is not a filter category: it restricts which instruments the screener considers at all, before any metric filter runs. See [universe](/glossary/universe); its individual fields are the [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets). - Category names are translated by the app; subcategory names are shown in English in every language, because they come straight from the filter catalogue. - Each [filter](/glossary/filter) carries its own description in the flyout — the catalogue is the source of truth for what an individual filter measures, and this page does not repeat those descriptions. - Which filters a screener can use depends on its [asset type](/glossary/asset-type): some filters apply to stocks only, others to stocks, ETPs, and crypto alike. - Market and sector figures are also available *as comparison targets* on many instrument-level filters, which is a different mechanism from the Market & Sector category; see [aggregate comparisons](/glossary/aggregate-comparisons). ## What does one filter from each category look like? Three conditions, one per category, on the same screener. - **Fundamental → Profitability → ROE.** Reads each company's return on equity from its own financial reports. `ROE > 15%` keeps the companies earning more than 15% on their equity. - **Technical → Indicators → RSI.** Reads each instrument's own price history. It says nothing about the company's accounts — two instruments with identical financials can sit at opposite ends of the RSI range. - **Market & Sector → Market Fundamental → Mkt Median PE.** Reads the market's median price/earnings ratio, not the instrument's. Set a condition on it and the whole screen is gated on the market's valuation level: when the condition fails on a given date, the screener has no matches at all, however cheap the individual companies look. Read together, the three answer three different questions — how profitable the company is, where its price sits in its own recent range, and what the market as a whole is doing. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/fin # Fin Fin is Fincanva's AI assistant, and Fin is its only name. Today Fin does one job: it proposes **screener filters** — improving a [screener](/glossary/screener) you have built, or building one from your current [universe](/glossary/universe) — and shows the proposal beside your own. Nothing Fin suggests is applied until you choose to apply it. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Fin never edits a screener on its own. Every suggestion goes through the review, and applying one arrives as **unsaved** changes you still have to save. - **Improve filters** requires at least one filter; **Suggest new filters** does not. - "Save as new screener" creates a separate screener, so accepting a suggestion never overwrites the one you built. - A failed or cancelled run leaves your screener exactly as it was. ## What can Fin do today? Two actions, both on a screener's Backtest view: - **Improve filters** takes the screener you have and looks for a stronger version of it. It needs something to work from, so it stays disabled until the screener has at least one filter: "Add at least one filter first — there's nothing to improve yet." - **Suggest new filters** starts from your universe instead of your filters — the [asset type](/glossary/asset-type) you have active and the [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) set on it — so it is available even on an empty screener. Fincanva also offers it from a never-run screener's empty state, as "let Fin suggest a stronger one". While Fin works, the app says what it is doing — "Fin is improving your screener…" or "Fin is building a screener…", with "Fin is testing thousands of filter combinations against market history to find a stronger setup." and a progress reading. You can cancel; your screener is untouched either way. ## What does Fin's suggestion review show? When Fin finishes, a review opens titled "Fin's suggestion is ready", with two columns — **Your screener** and **Fin's suggestion** — so you can compare them row by row. Each filter row in the suggestion is tagged **Kept**, **Added**, **Modified**, or **Removed** against your original, so you can see exactly what Fin changed rather than just the outcome. The review reports the suggestion's edge as an average, captioned "Avg annualized outperformance vs benchmark, across all six horizons", and carries its own disclaimer: "Backtested result — past performance doesn't guarantee future returns." From there you choose: **Use these filters** puts the suggestion into your editor as unsaved changes, **Save as new screener** keeps your original and saves the suggestion separately, and **Discard** leaves everything as it was. Fin can also come back with nothing. When it cannot beat what you built, the review reads "This is already a strong screener" and "Fin tested thousands of filter combinations against market history and couldn't improve on it." If the search itself fails, it reads "Fin couldn't finish" and "The search couldn't complete. Your screener is unchanged — try again." *A suggestion from Fin is a filter set that tested well on historical data, not a recommendation to invest.* ## Is there a Fin chat you can ask questions? Not today. The conversational Fin — a panel you open and ask questions in — is not available yet; where its surface would appear the app says "Fin is coming soon." Fin's only working capability right now is the screener suggestion described above. ## What does it look like in practice? You have a screener with four fundamental filters that matches about 80 instruments, and you want to know whether it can be sharpened. You select **Improve filters**. Fin runs, reporting "Fin is improving your screener…" with a progress reading, and comes back with "Fin's suggestion is ready". In the review, two of your filters are tagged **Kept**, one is **Modified** with a tighter threshold, one is **Removed**, and a new one is **Added** — five rows, so you can see the shape of the change and not just its score. You decide you want to keep your original as a reference, so you choose **Save as new screener**. You now have both screeners in your library and can back-test each one and compare the [matches](/glossary/matches) yourself. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/fin-suggestions # Fin suggestions A Fin suggestion is an alternative filter set that [Fin](/glossary/fin) proposes for a [screener](/glossary/screener), presented beside your current one so you can compare the two before anything changes. Fin either improves the filters you already have or builds a set from your [universe](/glossary/universe) when you have none, and it reports the result qualitatively — for example that it found a better-performing variant, or that it could not improve on what you have. Every [filter](/glossary/filter) in the comparison is tagged **Kept**, **Added**, **Modified**, or **Removed**, and your screener is untouched until you explicitly accept the suggestion. **Also seen as:** Improve filters, Suggest new filters ## What Fin can suggest Two actions start a suggestion, both on the **Backtest** sub-view: - **Improve filters** — Fin starts from the filters you already have and looks for a better-performing variant of them. It needs at least one filter; without one it is disabled with the hint "Add at least one filter first — there's nothing to improve yet." - **Suggest new filters** — Fin starts from your universe with no filters and proposes a set from scratch. This one is always available. While it works, the dialog shows Fin's progress and the line "Fin is testing thousands of filter combinations against market history to find a stronger setup." **Cancel** closes the dialog and abandons the suggestion. ## How to read the Kept / Added / Modified / Removed tags The review shows two columns — **Your screener** and **Fin's suggestion** — each listing its own filters in its own order, with a tag on every line that changed: | Tag | Where it appears | What it means | |---|---|---| | Kept | both columns | the filter is identical on both sides — Fin left it exactly as it was (no badge is drawn, since nothing changed) | | Modified | both columns | the same filter, with different settings — compare the two lines to see what moved | | Added | Fin's suggestion | a filter that is not in your screener at all | | Removed | Your screener | a filter Fin dropped, marked in the destructive (red) style | Read the columns as two complete filter sets rather than as paired rows: a screener can hold the same filter twice, so the lists are deliberately not joined line by line. See [filter condition anatomy](/glossary/filter-condition-anatomy) for the parts of a filter a **Modified** tag can refer to. ## What your three choices are Nothing is applied automatically. The review offers: - **Discard** — close and keep your screener exactly as it was. - **Save as new screener** — keep your current screener and store the suggestion as a separate one. - **Use these filters** — load the suggested filters into the editor as **unsaved** changes and immediately re-run the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) on them, so you see the suggestion's own result before deciding whether to save it. ## What happens when Fin finds nothing better When Fin cannot beat the screener you already have, the dialog says so plainly — "This is already a strong screener" and "Fin tested thousands of filter combinations against market history and couldn't improve on it." — and offers only **Close**. There is no comparison and no figure in that case, deliberately: there is no change to review. If the search itself breaks, you get "Fin couldn't finish" and "The search couldn't complete. Your screener is unchanged — try again." ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A suggestion changes **only the filters**. It never changes the screener's [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets) — the universe you set is the universe Fin works inside. - Fin is the only name for the assistant in Fincanva; a suggestion is Fin's output, not a separate product. - Your screener is never modified in place by a suggestion: **Use these filters** stages the change as unsaved, so you can still leave without saving. - A suggestion is a **backtested variant**, and the dialog says so: "Backtested result — past performance doesn't guarantee future returns." - Each launch starts a fresh search, so re-running **Improve filters** on the same screener can return a different suggestion. ## What does it look like in practice? Your screener holds `P/E < 20`, `Sector = Technology`, and `Market cap > $10B`. You press **Improve filters**. Fin works, then reports that it found a better-performing variant. In the comparison, `Sector = Technology` is **Kept** on both sides; `P/E < 20` appears as **Modified** — Fin's column shows a different threshold; `Market cap > $10B` is tagged **Removed** in your column and does not appear in Fin's; and a filter you did not have appears as **Added** in Fin's column. You now have three honest options: **Discard** and keep your three filters, **Save as new screener** to compare both over time, or **Use these filters** to try Fin's set as unsaved changes with a fresh backtest attached. *A suggestion describes what a filter set would have done on historical data. It is not a recommendation.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/final-value # Final value Final value is what a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s capital is worth on the last date of its [backtest](/glossary/backtest): every position it holds plus its cash. It is where the [capital chart](/glossary/capital-chart)'s total-value curve ends, and it answers the plainest question a backtest can — "starting from my capital, what would I have ended up with?" **Also seen as:** ending value, terminal value. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR. - Final value is the first figure on the **Capital Growth** page, and the same figure heads the page's **Summary** card as **Current value**, with the run's total return beside it. The card's **Invested** and **Profit** are the two terms of [the relation behind final value](#how-is-final-value-related-to-profit-and-total-return). - It is shown in whole units of the currency the analysis is shown in — your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency) on a strategy you own, US dollars on a Public strategy, which is shown with default settings. - The last date of the run is the latest market close the data holds, not today's calendar date — see [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). A result that is refreshed later can therefore end on a later date and show a different final value. - It follows the **Simulation assumptions** switches, and **Costs & interests** and **Taxes** are both off by default. With them off, final value is gross of both and the page says so: "These figures are gross of trading costs and taxes." Switching one of them on changes the label to name only the other. See [the costs switch](/glossary/costs-toggle) and [the taxes switch](/glossary/taxes-toggle). ## How is final value related to profit and total return? Final value is the capital you started with plus everything the run gained or lost on the way: $$ {\text{Final value}} = {\text{Invested}} + {\text{Profit}} $$ where: - what the capital is worth on the last date - the capital the run started with — positions plus cash on its first date - the money gained or lost over the whole run, which can be negative Dividing the profit by what was invested gives the [total return](/glossary/total-return), so final value in money and total return in percent are two readings of one result. In words: a final value above the [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) is a gain, one below it is a loss, and the gap between the two is the profit. ## What does "Vs benchmark" compare? **Vs benchmark** is final value minus the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark)'s own final value, shown as a signed amount of money. The benchmark's money curve starts from the same capital on the same date, so the difference is a like-for-like verdict: a positive figure means the strategy ended with more money than the benchmark would have, a negative one means less. The percentage version of the same comparison is [excess return](/glossary/excess-return). ### What is Combined value on Strategy Weights? **Combined value** is the figure the **Strategy Weights** page of a [Combined](/glossary/combined) opens with: the Combined's total worth on the last date of the run, across all the strategies it holds. It answers the same question final value answers, on the page that splits that worth between the strategies — see the [allocations chart](/glossary/allocations-chart) for how the split is read. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy starts with 100,000 in your base currency. On the last date of the run its positions are worth 131,400 and it holds 6,600 in cash, so its final value is 131,400 + 6,600 = **138,000**. The **Summary** card reads the same 138,000 as **Current value**, with **Invested** 100,000 and **Profit** 38,000 — a total return of 38,000 ÷ 100,000 = 38%. The benchmark, started from the same 100,000, ends at 129,500. **Vs benchmark** therefore reads **+8,500**: the strategy ended with 8,500 more than the benchmark would have. ## What counts as a good final value? There is no good final value on its own, because it depends on how much you started with and how long the run lasted. Two strategies with the same final value over ten years and over thirty years have very different results. To compare runs, read the rate — [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) — and set it against the benchmark; to judge what the ride cost, read the drawdown beside it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/fincanva-score # Fincanva score The Fincanva score is a single 0–5 quality score that summarises a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) across several performance dimensions, so you can gauge its overall quality at a glance instead of reading every metric one by one. It is shown with a Strong, Fair or Weak tier — higher is better — and marked "Beta" while the feature is still being refined. The six dimensions it weighs are named on [Which dimensions does the Fincanva score weigh?](#which-dimensions-does-the-fincanva-score-weigh); their weights and the formula that combines them are proprietary and are published on no page. ## What the Strong, Fair and Weak tiers mean The 0–5 score maps to three tiers so you can read it at a glance: **Strong** (3.4 and above), **Fair** (2.0 up to 3.4), and **Weak** (below 2.0). A higher score is better across the board; the tier is the quick summary and the number is the finer reading within it. The tiers describe *how to read* the score — they are not the recipe behind it. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A single 0–5 score, higher is better, summarising a strategy across several dimensions at once. - Shown on the metrics view as one headline figure with its Strong / Fair / Weak tier. - Marked "Beta" while the feature is being refined. - Treat it as an at-a-glance summary, then open the individual metrics to see the detail behind it. ## What does it look like in practice? Two strategies both look reasonable on their headline return. One earns a Fincanva score of 3.8 — Strong — because it holds up across the several dimensions the score weighs together. The other earns 1.6 — Weak — because one or more of those dimensions drags it down. The score flags that the second strategy is worth a closer look before you rely on it; to see what dragged it down, open the individual metrics behind the score. *A Fincanva score is not a rating to buy, hold or follow anything, and no score is a threshold to invest above.* ## What is the Fincanva score and how do you read it? The Fincanva score is a single quality score that rates your strategy on a normalized scale, with its [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) shown alongside for comparison. It appears in **Performance Metrics** as **"Fincanva score"**, carries a **Beta** badge, and is a research signal — not a rating of what will happen to your money. ## How does the Fincanva score work? The Fincanva score rates your [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s overall quality as a single number derived from the strategy's own results — the benchmark is scored the same way and displayed next to it for comparison, but it is not subtracted from your score. Because the scale is normalized, it lets you weigh strategies of different lengths and styles on the same scale. Fincanva does not publish how the score is calculated — the dimensions are named below, but their weighting and the formula that combines them are deliberately not disclosed. ## How do you read the Fincanva score? The score is shown as a gauge on a 0–5 scale, labelled with the score and its maximum — for example "Fincanva score 3.2 out of 5" — with a quality tier of **Strong**, **Fair**, or **Weak**. The card also shows the benchmark's own score, so you can read the two side by side. A higher tier means the backtest scored better than a lower one. ## Which dimensions does the Fincanva score weigh? Six, each shown below the gauge with its own reading on the same 0–5 scale. The labels are the ones the card itself displays: | Dimension | What it looks at | |---|---| | **CAGR / AAGR** | the strategy's growth rate — see [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) | | **Max DD** | the worst peak-to-trough fall — see [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) | | **Std Dev** | how much the returns varied — see [volatility](/glossary/volatility) | | **Sharpe** | return per unit of risk — see [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) | | **Pos Months** | the share of months that ended up rather than down | | **Recovery Speed** | how the strategy came back out of its drawdowns — see [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery) | Naming the six is as far as this goes: **how each dimension is turned into its 0–5 reading, how the six are weighted, and how they combine into the headline score are not published** (see below). Two dimensions are worth reading with their direction in mind — a *high* Max DD or Std Dev reading is a good result, because each dimension is scored so that higher is better, not so that higher is more of the raw metric. ## Why isn't the formula published? The dimensions above are named, but the exact way the Fincanva score is calculated from them is proprietary and intentionally left undocumented — not even support can share it. Reading the tier, the six dimensions and the benchmark comparison is enough to use it. A high score also does not tell you to buy, hold, or sell anything — it summarises historical quality, not a recommendation, and it does not guarantee any future result. ## What are the limits and edge cases of the Fincanva score? The score is marked **Beta**, so its presentation may still change. The **Beta** badge here refers to the feature's beta status — it is unrelated to [beta](/glossary/beta), the finance measure. Before a strategy has enough simulated history to score, the card shows "No score available yet" instead of a gauge. A strong score reflects past, simulated performance only; it is not a promise or forecast of future results. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/fixed-weights # Fixed weights Fixed weights is the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) where you decide each share yourself instead of letting a rule compute it. You type one number per item, and those numbers are **relative**: they do not have to add up to 100, because Fincanva rescales them to 100% before the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) uses them, so only the ratios between them matter. **Also seen as:** fixed allocation, manual weights, custom weights ## What happens if my weights do not add up to 100? Nothing breaks — each number is divided by the total of the numbers' sizes, ignoring their sign, and the result is that item's actual share of capital. $$ {\text{share}_i} = \frac{{x_i}}{{\sum_j \lvert x_j \rvert}} $$ where: - item i's actual share of the capital - the number you typed for item i - the total of every number's size, sign ignored So 50, 30, 20 and 5, 3, 2 produce exactly the same allocation, and 40, 40, 40 is [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights) across three items. The Allocation card shows both figures: each [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s share in the **Share** column, and in the total row 100% beside the raw sum you entered. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The app describes the method as "Set a weight for each instrument manually". - Every item starts at a weight of **1**, so an untouched Fixed weights allocation is an even split — the same result as Equal weights. - Weights accept decimals: from −999 to 999 inside a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), from 0 to 999 inside a Combined. A number outside that range is not changed for you — the field shows "Enter a weight between -999 and 999." (or 0 and 999) until you correct it. - It reads no history, so it does not use the In-sample [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window). - The weights are targets, reapplied at each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date: between rebalances the mix drifts with prices, then snaps back to your numbers. - Inside a strategy with picked instruments the list of weights always matches the list of instruments: an added instrument gets 1, a removed one takes its weight with it, and the rest are renormalized. ## Can a fixed weight be negative? Yes, inside a strategy: a negative weight is a short position in that instrument, its size the weight's magnitude and its direction the sign — the convention [Direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only) describes for every method that can go short. There is no separate switch: typing a negative number is the choice. Because the total counts sizes, entering 50 and −50 gives a raw total of 100 and an allocation of 50% long and 50% short. Inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the weights stay between 0 and 999: a Combined cannot be short one of its own strategies. ### What happens if every weight is zero? The allocation invests nothing: there is no total to normalize over, so no capital goes to any item. Fincanva lets you save it, because an all-cash allocation can be deliberate, but says so: the shares read "—", the total row reads "Invests nothing" instead of 100%, and the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review "Everything stays in cash" appears — "This allocation invests nothing: every weight is zero, so no capital goes anywhere." — which you can fix or leave like any other. **Clear all** produces exactly this state: it sets every weight to 0 rather than removing the weights. ## Where do the weights apply? To whatever the level is allocating across: one weight per instrument inside a strategy, one per [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined). The normalization works identically at both levels. You type the weights in one place only. In a strategy the **Allocation** card shows them as a read-only **Weights** block — one bar for each of the eight largest shares, a line saying how many others there are, then the total. To change a number, use the **Weight** column of the asset list in the **Asset selection** card, or press **Edit in Asset selection** in the Allocation card, which takes you there. In a Combined the weights are typed in the table of the **Strategies** card, and **Edit in Strategies** takes you there. Two shortcuts sit right above those weights: **Equal** sets every weight to 1, and **Clear all** sets every weight to 0. When a strategy splits into [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off), each regime's weight column has its own pair, which changes only that regime's weights. ## Can you use Fixed weights when a screener picks the instruments? No — each weight belongs to a named instrument, so Fixed weights needs instruments you picked by hand. On a strategy whose instruments come only from an entry [screener](/glossary/screener), with nothing picked, the method picker shows **Fixed weights** greyed out with "Needs hand-picked instruments", unless it is already the current method. A strategy that holds it anyway — saved earlier, or left with no picked instrument afterwards — does not start: the screener brings in instruments that have no weight and the backtest would stop, so the blocking [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "The strategy does not run with fixed weights" names the fix — "choose a method that computes the weights itself, for example equal weights." With picked instruments and a screener choosing among them, Fixed weights stays available. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds three instruments and you enter 50, 30, 20. The raw total is 100, so the weights are used as they stand: 50% / 30% / 20%. On \$100,000 that is \$50,000, \$30,000, and \$20,000. Now change the middle number to 40, so you have entered 50, 40, 20. The raw total is 110, and the total row of the Allocation card reads 100% beside 110. Each weight is divided by 110: 50 ÷ 110 = 45.5%, 40 ÷ 110 = 36.4%, 20 ÷ 110 = 18.2%. The first instrument's share fell from 50% to 45.5% even though you never touched its number — because the other numbers grew, and every share is measured against the total. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/floating # Floating Floating is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that lets a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s existing weights [drift](/glossary/weight-drift) with the market instead of resetting them at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), and realigns the whole strategy back to a base method only every so many months. The app's own one-liner is "Weights drift between rebalances and realign periodically". **Also seen as:** drift-and-realign weighting, let-winners-run weighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **Realignment method** defaults to [**Equal weights**](/glossary/equal-weights); the alternative is [**Inverse volatility**](/glossary/inverse-volatility). The app's note reads "When realigning, redistribute equally across instruments OR weight by inverse volatility (less volatile instruments get more)." - **Frequency** defaults to **25** and accepts whole numbers from 1 to 25. - Floating is available inside a single strategy only. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it when it splits capital across its member strategies. - The [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) does not apply to Floating — the field is not shown for this method, because the drift itself reads no history. - Floating changes what a rebalance does to existing weights, not how often rebalances happen: the cadence stays whatever the strategy's own **Rebalance every** setting says. ## How does Floating differ from a normal rebalance? A normal rebalance snaps every holding back to its target weight on each scheduled date; Floating leaves the existing holdings where the market has moved them. A holding that has run keeps the larger share it earned rather than being trimmed back each period, and the relative weights between the existing holdings are preserved: each one's share is its starting share grown by its own return, measured against everything the strategy holds. $$ {w_i(t)} = \frac{{w_i(0)}\,(1 + {R_i})}{\sum_j w_j(0)\,(1 + R_j)} $$ where: - holding i's drifted weight today - holding i's weight at the last realignment - holding i's return since the last realignment A position the strategy opens between realignments is the other half of the rule: a **new** position is sized by the base method — the **Realignment method** you picked — while the existing holdings keep their drifted relative weights. Only a realignment resets everything: every holding is put back on the base method's weights and the drift starts again from there. ## How is the Floating frequency counted? The Floating frequency is counted in **calendar months** since the last realignment — not in number of rebalances. Elapsed months are checked at the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, so the rebalance that first falls on or after the frequency you set is the one that also realigns the strategy. With a frequency of 6, a monthly-rebalancing strategy realigns roughly twice a year and drifts freely in between; the other rebalances still happen, they simply do not reset the existing weights. Be aware that the field's own in-app hint and the unit suffix shown on its input currently describe the count differently, tying the unit to the strategy's rebalance cadence rather than to calendar months, so the two do not agree in the product today. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds four instruments at 25% each, with Equal weights as the realignment method and a Frequency of 12. Over the following year one holding doubles while the other three are flat. Its share drifts from 25% to about 40% (50 out of a total of 125) and the other three fall to roughly 20% each — the winner is left to run, where a monthly rebalance would have trimmed it back to 25% every month. Twelve calendar months after the last realignment, the next scheduled rebalance realigns the strategy: all four holdings go back to 25%, the accumulated drift is given up, and the cycle restarts. Set the Frequency to 25 instead and the same strategy drifts for over two years before anything is reset. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/folder # Folder A folder is a named container in your **Mine** library that groups your own strategies or your own screeners, so a long library can be organised by theme, client or stage of work. Folders only organise: moving an item between folders never changes its settings or its results. **Also seen as:** subfolder, directory. Folders can hold subfolders, each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) or [screener](/glossary/screener) sits in at most one folder, and an item in no folder lives at the top level of the library. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Create a folder with **New folder** in the library, and a folder inside it with **New subfolder** on the folder's menu. The same menu holds **Rename** and **Delete** — on a screener folder the delete item reads **Delete folder**. - Move a strategy or screener with **Move to folder** on its menu, or by dragging it onto a folder; **(No folder)** returns it to the top level. A folder moves by dragging it onto another folder, and cannot be dropped into itself or into one of its own subfolders. - The **Strategies · Single** and **Strategies · Combined** pages can show each strategy's folder in a **Folder** column, with "—" for one at the top level. The column is hidden by default: switch it on from the **Columns** button in the table's toolbar, which lists every column with a checkbox. Their **Folder** filter lets you tick one or more folders, plus **No folder**, and shows only the strategies filed directly in them: a subfolder's strategies are not included when you tick its parent, and only folders that directly hold a strategy are offered — an empty folder, or one that holds only subfolders, is not in the list. - Home names the folder beside each strategy it lists — see [Home](/docs/getting-started/home-the-page-you-land-on-after-signing-in). - Search matches the names of strategies and screeners, not the names of folders, and finds an item wherever it is filed — see [search](/docs/getting-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-search). ## What can a folder hold? A folder holds items of one kind, and its subfolders. Strategy folders and screener folders are separate trees, and strategy folders are shown separately for **Single** and **Combined** strategies — each library lists its own folders, so a [Combined strategy](/glossary/combined) is never filed in a folder of Single ones. Only your own items go in your folders. The folders under the **Public** tab are organised by Fincanva, and the app says so where you would create one: "Public folders are managed by Fincanva — copy items to Mine to organize." A **Copy to Mine** arrives at the top level of Mine, with no folder, so you file it yourself afterwards — see [Mine and Public](/glossary/mine-public). ## Can two folders have the same name? Not side by side. Two folders directly inside the same parent — or two folders at the top level — cannot share a name. For strategies, the top level counts as one place across both libraries: a top-level folder in **Single** and a top-level folder in **Combined** cannot have the same name either. Screener folders are checked only against other screener folders. A subfolder can reuse a name that exists somewhere else in the tree, so *Clients / Momentum* and *Research / Momentum* can both exist. Strategies follow the same rule inside a folder: two strategies in one folder cannot share a name, and a copy that would collide is renamed with a ` (1)` suffix — see [copies and duplicates](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine). ## What happens when you delete a folder? Deleting a folder deletes **everything inside it**: its strategies or screeners and all of its subfolders, not only the folder. The confirmation says so before anything happens. For an empty folder it is a single question. For a folder that holds anything, it names how many items and subfolders will go with it and asks you to type `delete` to confirm, under the warning "This can't be undone." To keep an item, move it out of the folder before you delete the folder. ## What does it look like in practice? You keep two families of strategies in the Single library and create two folders for them, *Income* and *Growth*. Inside *Growth* you add a subfolder, *Tests*, for drafts. A strategy you drag into *Tests* keeps every setting and result it had; only its folder changes, which the Strategies page shows as *Tests* once you switch its **Folder** column on. Months later you delete *Growth*. The confirmation tells you that the strategies in *Growth* and its one subfolder will be deleted with it, and waits for you to type `delete`. If one of those strategies is worth keeping, cancel, move it to *Income* or to **(No folder)** first, then delete *Growth*. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/fundamental-metric-columns # Fundamental metric columns Fundamental metric columns are the measured values a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s results table shows for each match: company financials, growth rates, valuation multiples, dividend figures, and price-derived measures. There are **35 columns in total**, spread across the table's five tabs — **Overview**, **Returns**, **Fundamentals**, **Ratios**, and **Dividend** — and the count includes the identity and classification columns (Symbol, Asset type, Exchange, Country, Sector, Industry) that sit alongside the metrics. A column reports what the instrument reads today; it is not a filter, and showing a column does not screen on it. **Also seen as:** results columns, results-table columns ## What does each results column show? Every column appears on at least one tab, and several appear on more than one. The **Unit line** is the small second line under the header, shown only where the measurement basis needs stating. | Column | Tabs | What it shows | Unit line | |---|---|---|---| | Symbol | all five | The instrument itself — its name, with its exchange and ticker beneath. See [instrument](/glossary/instrument). | — | | Asset type | all five | Stock, ETP, or crypto. See [asset type](/glossary/asset-type). | — | | Asset subtype | Overview | The narrower instrument type inside the asset type. See [asset subtype](/glossary/asset-subtypes). | — | | Market Cap | Overview, Ratios | Total market value of all shares. | — | | 1Y | Overview, Returns | Return over the last 12 months, beside a one-year price sparkline. | — | | Exchange | Overview, Returns | Marketplace where it trades. | — | | Country | Overview | Country the company is based in. | — | | Sector | Overview | Broad industry group. | — | | Industry | Overview | Specific industry. | — | | YTD | Returns | Return since the start of the year. | — | | 1M | Returns | Return over the last month. | — | | MTD | Returns | Return since the start of the month. | — | | Sharpe | Returns | The instrument's own return over the last 12 months per unit of [volatility](/glossary/volatility), with no [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) subtracted. See [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio#does-the-screeners-sharpe-subtract-the-risk-free-rate). | — | | Beta | Returns | How much the instrument moves with the market. See [beta](/glossary/beta). | — | | Sales | Fundamentals | Revenue over the trailing twelve months. | TTM | | Sales growth | Fundamentals | Change in trailing-twelve-month revenue against the year before. | TTM · YoY | | Gross profit growth | Fundamentals | Change in trailing-twelve-month gross profit against the year before. | TTM · YoY | | EBITDA growth | Fundamentals | Change in trailing-twelve-month EBITDA against the year before. | TTM · YoY | | Net income growth | Fundamentals | Change in trailing-twelve-month net income against the year before. | TTM · YoY | | FCF growth | Fundamentals | Change in trailing-twelve-month free cash flow against the year before. | TTM · YoY | | Working capital growth | Fundamentals | Change in working capital against the year before. | YoY | | D/E | Fundamentals | Debt to equity. | — | | Quick ratio | Fundamentals | Short-term liquidity. | — | | ROE | Fundamentals | Return on equity. | — | | EV | Ratios | Enterprise value. | — | | P/E | Ratios | Price to earnings. | — | | P/S | Ratios | Price to sales. | — | | P/FCF | Ratios | Price to free cash flow. | — | | P/BV | Ratios | Price to book value. | — | | EV/EBITDA | Ratios | Enterprise value to EBITDA. | — | | FCF yield | Ratios | Free cash flow yield. | % | | Last Price | Dividend | Most recent closing price. | — | | Div per share | Dividend | Dividend per share. | — | | Div yield | Dividend | Dividend yield. | % | | Payout ratio | Dividend | Share of earnings paid as dividends. | % | The six growth columns all read the same way: a trailing-twelve-month or point-in-time figure compared with the same figure a year earlier. That shared measurement basis is explained in [TTM and YoY](/glossary/ttm-and-yoy). ## Which columns have a page of their own? Four of the 35 have their own concept page, because the same term appears elsewhere in the product and not only as a column header: [instrument](/glossary/instrument) behind Symbol, [asset subtype](/glossary/asset-subtypes), [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio), and [beta](/glossary/beta). A fifth page covers no column of its own: [TTM and YoY](/glossary/ttm-and-yoy) is the shared measurement basis behind the six growth columns. The remaining columns are defined in the table above and in the header hint each one carries in the app; every column in the results table has help on hover today. **Sharpe** and **Beta** here describe the individual instrument's own price history, not a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s. They are not the same figures a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reports for a strategy over a chosen period, and the two should not be read against each other: this Sharpe, unlike a backtest's, subtracts no risk-free rate. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Columns are grouped by tab, and switching tabs changes the columns rather than the instruments — the same matches are shown throughout. - Every tab starts with **Symbol** and **Asset type**, so a row stays identifiable whichever tab you are on. - The **Columns** button hides or shows columns for the tab you are on; the choice is remembered per tab. - Any column header sorts the table, and sorting is applied across the whole result set, not just the rows currently on screen. - A cell with no value available reads as a dash rather than a zero — a missing reading and a reading of zero are not the same thing. - Return and growth columns are colour-tinted, and the 1Y sparkline takes its colour from the sign of its return. - Column values describe the instrument as it reads now. A screener's filters decide which instruments appear; the columns only report on them. ## How do you read one row across the tabs? One match — a mid-size industrial company — read across all five tabs. - **Overview** places it: the Symbol cell names it with its exchange and ticker, Asset type reads Stock, Market Cap puts it in the mid-size band, and Exchange, Country, Sector, and Industry classify it. The 1Y cell shows its twelve-month return beside a sparkline of the path it took to get there. - **Returns** breaks that path down: 1Y, YTD, 1M, and MTD are four different windows on the same price series, so a strong 1Y beside a weak MTD simply means a good year with a soft current month. Sharpe and Beta add how choppy the ride was and how closely it tracked the market. - **Fundamentals** turns to the accounts: Sales gives the trailing-twelve-month revenue level, and the six growth columns beside it give the direction of travel against the year before. D/E, Quick ratio, and ROE describe leverage, short-term liquidity, and profitability. - **Ratios** prices those accounts: EV alongside Market Cap, then P/E, P/S, P/FCF, P/BV, and EV/EBITDA as five different ways of dividing price by a fundamental, plus FCF yield as the inverse view of P/FCF. - **Dividend** covers the payout: Last Price, Div per share, Div yield, and Payout ratio — the last of these showing how much of earnings the dividend consumes. Read in that order the row goes from *what it is*, to *how its price behaved*, to *what the business did*, to *what you pay for it*, to *what it pays you*. No single column answers a question on its own; each tab is one lens on the same instrument. *These figures describe what an instrument reads on historical and current data, not what it will do.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/gross-vs-net # Gross vs net Gross is a result measured **before** costs are deducted; net is the same result **after** them. On a position, gross is the trading profit or loss on price alone, and net is what is left once the trading fees and [slippage](/glossary/slippage) charged on it are taken out — so the gap between the two is exactly what trading cost. **Also seen as:** gross P&L, net P&L ## What is the difference between gross and net? Gross is the raw result and net is the result you actually kept. Both describe the same trades over the same period; only the treatment of costs differs, and one subtraction turns one into the other. $$ {\text{Net}} = {\text{Gross}} - {\text{Costs}} $$ where: - what remains after costs - the trading profit or loss before any cost deduction - the trading fees and slippage charged on those trades Because costs can only ever be a deduction, net is never larger than gross. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reports **Gross**, **Costs** and **Net** next to each other at every level of detail — per [symbol](/glossary/instrument), per position, and per individual trade — so the same three-column reading works whether you are looking at a whole instrument or one fill. - Costs are trading fees plus slippage, in the account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency); the figures are money, not percentages. - Whether costs are charged at all follows the **Costs & interests** [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions), which is off by default. With it off, modelled costs are zero and gross and net read the same; with it on, they separate. - Gross and net describe *trading* results, so dividends are counted separately — a position's dividend income is its own column, and net plus that income is what makes up its [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l). ## What sits inside the Costs figure? Costs on a position are its trading fees plus its [slippage](/glossary/slippage) — the two charges that come from the act of trading. Tax and financing are not in this figure: [tax on dividends](/glossary/dividend-tax) and realized gains, and interest received or paid, are separate results that appear on their own bands of the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) rather than inside a position's Costs. Slippage is not a fee. It is the gap between the price the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) targeted and the price it actually got, so it is a cost of *execution* rather than a charge anyone bills you — but it lands in the same Costs figure, because in both cases the money is gone before the result is measured. ## How do you read the sign of the Costs column? **Costs are shown as a positive deduction** — a cost of 40 appears as 40, not as −40, and you subtract it from Gross to reach Net. The one invariant to read the three columns by is that **Net is never larger than Gross**: costs can only take away, so if the Net cell is above the Gross cell on the same row, you are not reading a cost. One thing that does look wrong but is not: **each cell rounds independently**, so the three displayed figures need not add up to the last decimal. A true Gross of 500.4, Costs of 40.6 and Net of 459.8 print as 500, 41 and 460 — and 500 − 41 is 459, not the 460 on screen. Nothing was lost; the display simply rounded three times instead of once. ## What does it look like in practice? A position is closed with a raw trading gain of 500. It paid 12 in trading fees and 28 in slippage over its life — 40 of cost in all, shown as a positive 40 in the Costs column. Net is 500 − 40 = **460**: the position made 500 on price and kept 460 after the cost of trading. Read the three columns together and that 40 is the whole story of the difference. A gross figure that looks strong can still net poorly when a strategy trades often enough for fees and slippage to accumulate. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov # Hidden regimes (Markov) Hidden regimes (Markov) is a quantitative risk rule: a model learns from one series' returns when the market has been calm and when it has been turbulent, gives each day a probability of being in the turbulent state, and switches the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) to its Risk-Off allocation while that probability is at or above a threshold you choose. **Also seen as:** hidden Markov model, HMM, Markov regime switching, regime-switching model $$ {\Pr\left(S_t = \text{turbulent} \mid r_1, \dots, r_t\right)} \;\ge\; {q} $$ where: - the model's probability that day t is in the turbulent state, given the series' returns up to and including that day - the Probability threshold you set In words: once the model judges the turbulent state at least that likely, given everything seen so far, the strategy runs Risk-Off. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The Hidden regimes (Markov) sheet leads with the rule's description and writes it as one sentence: go Risk-Off when a model with 2 states, reading the returns of the S&P 500, puts the turbulent state's probability at 70% or more. - It is one of three rules under **Quantitative regimes** in the [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) builder, described as "A model learns on its own when the market is calm and when it is turbulent. It gives a probability: you choose the threshold." - **The series** is any [instrument](/glossary/instrument) you pick in the rule's sentence ("The model reads the returns of this series."); a new rule starts on the S&P 500. There is no indicator, operator or pair of thresholds — see [condition types](/glossary/condition-types). - **Number of states** is 2 or 3, default 2; **Probability threshold** runs from 50% to 95%, default 70%. - **One threshold, no built-in hysteresis**: the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) damps [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw) — "This rule has a single threshold: the delay is your brake against switching too often. 0 = immediate." **Auto-rebalance** works as on any condition. - **Hidden regimes (Markov) is included from the Advanced plan**, at the strategy level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike; Free and Starter do not offer it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? You add a Hidden regimes (Markov) rule on the S&P 500 with 2 states, a probability threshold of 70% and a confirmation delay of 1 week. Through a quiet stretch the model puts the turbulent state at 10%–30%, so the strategy stays Risk-On. Returns then turn large and erratic, and the probability climbs to 55%, then 74%. At 74% the rule asks for Risk-Off; one week later, the reading still above 70%, the strategy switches to its Risk-Off allocation. A threshold of 90% on the same history would have waited longer, and might never have switched if the probability peaked at 85%. A threshold of 55% would have switched a step earlier — and would also have fired on more short bursts that faded. The numbers here are illustrative, not a suggested setting. ## What is a hidden-regime model? A hidden-regime model assumes the market moves between a small number of states that you never observe directly — calm and turbulent — each with its own typical behaviour, and that it tends to stay in one state for a while before moving to another. The states are "hidden" because only the returns are visible; the model infers from them how likely each state is on a given day. Moving between states follows a Markov chain: tomorrow's state depends only on today's, which is where the name comes from. The model uses only history available on each day: it is recalibrated as the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) moves forward, and a day's probability never draws on data from after that day. It stays Risk-On until it has enough history to learn from, and when the history shows no clearly distinct calm and turbulent states. ## What do the number of states and the probability threshold change? **Number of states** sets how many regimes the model looks for: 2 (the app labels it "2 · calm / turbulent") or 3. With 3 states the model also finds a middle regime, and only the most turbulent state counts towards Risk-Off — the app's note reads "With 3 states, only the most turbulent one counts." **Probability threshold** sets how sure the model must be. The app puts the trade-off in one line: "Risk-Off when the turbulent state is at least this likely. Higher: fewer false alarms, but it reacts later." A lower threshold switches earlier and more often; a higher one waits for stronger evidence and switches less. In the list of risk conditions a saved rule shows its short name, "Hidden regimes", with its series, its threshold as a comparison such as "≥ 70%", and its state count, such as "2 states". 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution # Hierarchical equal risk contribution Hierarchical equal risk contribution is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that arranges the instruments into a family tree by how alike they move, then splits the capital along the tree's actual branches so both sides of every split contribute the same risk. It builds the tree like [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity), but follows the groups found instead of halving an ordered list. **Also seen as:** HERC, equal risk per group ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"HERC · Hierarchical equal risk contribution"** and describes it as "Like HRP, but follows the real groups and gives each the same risk". - Hierarchical equal risk contribution is offered **inside a single strategy only**, across its instruments; a [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it. - It has no settings of its own. It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and the **Covariance matrix** choice — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). - Weights are never negative. - With most covariance estimators — including the recommended Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation — every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) must have moved in price at some point inside the window: an instrument whose price stayed flat for the whole window, such as a suspended listing, stops the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than receiving a weight. Two estimators are the exception; [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) names them. - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the window ending on that date. ## How does it differ from Hierarchical risk parity? Two things change, and both follow the groups more faithfully. - **Where the cut falls.** Hierarchical risk parity halves a list, so a cut can land in the middle of a real group. Hierarchical equal risk contribution cuts where the tree branches: if 30 instruments split naturally into 22 cyclical stocks and 8 defensive ones, the first split is 22 against 8, not 15 against 15. - **How each split is shared.** Each side gets a share that makes the two sides' risk contributions equal, which for two sides means sharing in inverse proportion to their volatility: $$ {w_{\text{left}}} = \frac{1/{\sigma_{\text{left}}}}{1/{\sigma_{\text{left}}} + 1/{\sigma_{\text{right}}}} \qquad w_{\text{right}} = 1 - {w_{\text{left}}} $$ where: - the left branch's share of the capital above it - the left branch's volatility - the right branch's volatility Each branch is weighted by the inverse of its [volatility](/glossary/volatility). Because $w \times \sigma$ comes out the same on both sides, each branch supplies an equal slice of the risk — the [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) idea applied one split at a time. In universes where the instruments are only loosely correlated, the two methods give similar weights; the difference grows when strong groups exist. ## Which plan includes Hierarchical equal risk contribution? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? Take the same four instruments as on the [Hierarchical risk parity](/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity) page: an equity pair with 20% volatility and a bond pair with 10%, each pair made of two funds of equal risk. - **First split, equities against bonds:** the equity branch receives (1 ÷ 0.20) ÷ (1 ÷ 0.20 + 1 ÷ 0.10) = 5 ÷ 15 = **33.3%**, and the bond branch **66.7%**. Check: 33.3% × 20% = 66.7% × 10% ≈ 6.7% — equal risk on both sides. - **Second split, inside each pair:** two funds of equal risk share their branch evenly, so each equity fund gets 16.7% and each bond fund 33.3%. The result is 16.7% / 16.7% / 33.3% / 33.3%. Hierarchical risk parity, splitting by variance instead of volatility, gave the same tree 10% / 10% / 40% / 40% — a heavier tilt toward the calmer branch. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/hierarchical-risk-parity # Hierarchical risk parity Hierarchical risk parity is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that arranges the instruments into a family tree by how alike they move, lines relatives up side by side, then splits the capital by halving that line again and again, the calmer half receiving more at every cut. Instruments that behave alike share one budget, diversifying across groups rather than names. **Also seen as:** HRP, hierarchical clustering allocation ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"HRP · Hierarchical risk parity"** and describes it as "Groups similar instruments and splits the risk between the groups". - Hierarchical risk parity is offered **inside a single strategy only**, across its instruments; a [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it when it splits capital across strategies. - It has no settings of its own. It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and the **Covariance matrix** choice, which decides how volatilities and correlations are estimated — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). - Weights are never negative: every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) receives a share of the capital, and none is held short. - With most covariance estimators — including the recommended Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation — every instrument must have moved in price at some point inside the window: an instrument whose price stayed flat for the whole window, such as a suspended listing, stops the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than receiving a weight. Two estimators are the exception; [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) names them. - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the window ending on that date. ## How does Hierarchical risk parity build the tree? The tree comes from correlation: two instruments whose returns move closely together sit on neighbouring branches, and groups of such instruments join into larger branches the less alike they are. Six utility stocks that rise and fall together form one branch; a bond fund that moves on its own sits far from them. The instruments are then reordered so that relatives are side by side, and the capital is split by halving that ordered list — first into two halves, then each half into two, and so on down to single instruments. The cut falls at the middle of the list, not necessarily where one group ends and the next begins; following the groups exactly is what [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution) does differently. At each split the capital is divided between the two halves in inverse proportion to their variance, the squared [volatility](/glossary/volatility). $$ {w_{\text{left}}} = \frac{{\sigma^2_{\text{right}}}}{{\sigma^2_{\text{left}}} + {\sigma^2_{\text{right}}}} \qquad w_{\text{right}} = 1 - {w_{\text{left}}} $$ where: - the share of that branch's capital the left half receives - the left half's variance - the right half's variance In words: the riskier half gets the smaller share, and the split repeats inside each half until every instrument has its weight. ## Why use Hierarchical risk parity instead of MPT? Because it never has to invert the covariance matrix, which is where [MPT](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) turns small estimation errors into extreme weights. With many instruments and a short history, MPT can load most of the capital onto the one instrument whose past correlation happened to look low; Hierarchical risk parity cannot, because it only ever compares two halves at a time. The trade-off is that its splits follow a rule rather than an optimisation, so it does not claim to find the portfolio's best risk-and-return mix. ## Which plan includes Hierarchical risk parity? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds four instruments that fall into two pairs: two equity funds that move together, and two bond funds that move together. The equity pair, held as a pair, has a volatility of 20% (variance 0.04); the bond pair has 10% (variance 0.01). - **First split, equities against bonds:** the equity side receives 0.01 ÷ (0.04 + 0.01) = **20%** of the capital and the bond side **80%**. - **Second split, inside each pair:** the same rule shares each pair's slice between its two members by their own variances. With two equity funds of equal risk, each gets 10%; with two bond funds of equal risk, each gets 40%. The result is 10% / 10% / 40% / 40%. Compare [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights), which gives each 25% and so lets the equity pair supply most of the risk, and [Hierarchical equal risk contribution](/glossary/hierarchical-equal-risk-contribution), which splits the same tree by volatility rather than variance. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/holding-horizon # Holding horizon A holding horizon is how long a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) assumes you keep each match after the [screener](/glossary/screener) selects it. Six horizons are measured on every run — **1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months** — and each one gets its own figure, so a single run tells you how the same filters looked over a short hold and over a long one. The horizon is a measurement window, not a setting on your screener: nothing about the filters changes between horizons, only how far forward the outcome is read. ## Why a screener backtest reports six horizons instead of one Filters do not work equally well over every length of hold, and one number would hide that. A screen that catches short-lived moves can look strong at one month and unremarkable at two years; a screen built on slow fundamental change can look flat early and stronger later. Measuring all six horizons on the same run makes that shape visible, and it is what the **Edge by holding horizon** card plots: one column per horizon, the annualized edge against the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), positive above the line and negative below it. ## What "the best horizon" means The best horizon is simply the horizon with the **highest annualized edge over the benchmark** on this run — the one starred in the horizon label band and quoted in the verdict band as "holding picks for `{n}` months — the best horizon". It is a description of the run you just made, over the period it covered, not a holding period Fincanva recommends and not a prediction that the same horizon will lead next time. A run can perfectly well have a best horizon whose figure is still negative: it means every horizon trailed the benchmark and that one trailed least. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The six horizons are fixed at **1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months**; you cannot add, remove, or re-length them. - Every horizon is measured from the same selection dates on the same monthly cadence, so the six figures are directly comparable to each other. - Horizon figures in the verdict band and the **Edge by holding horizon** card are **edges** against [the benchmark](/glossary/screener-backtest-benchmark), so they are quoted in percentage points (pp), not as returns. - The per-filter [impact table](/glossary/filter-impact-lenses) has its own horizon selector over the same six values, and it opens on **12 months**. - A horizon whose benchmark figure is missing shows "—" rather than a number, because an edge without a benchmark side cannot be computed. ## What does it look like in practice? One run of a three-filter screener returns `+4.1 pp` annualized at the 3-month horizon and `+0.6 pp` at 12 months. Read that as: on this history, the matches beat the benchmark by about four annualized points when held for a quarter, and by only about half a point when held for a year — the advantage was concentrated shortly after selection and faded as the hold lengthened. Because 3 months carries the largest edge, it is the starred best horizon, and the verdict band's hero figure is the `+4.1 pp`. Note what the two numbers do *not* say: `+4.1 pp` at 3 months is not four times better than `+0.6 pp` at 12 months in absolute money — both are annualized rates, and each is the average across every selection date the run covered. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/incomplete-combined # Incomplete Combined An Incomplete Combined is a [Combined](/glossary/combined) that holds fewer than two strategies — in practice, one. A Combined's job is to split capital between several strategies, so with one there is nothing to combine: it cannot be backtested, and its results pages show **example results** instead of its own. It is a normal, temporary state. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The threshold is two: at two or more strategies the Combined runs normally; below two it does not run at all, because one [strategy](/glossary/strategy) would receive all the capital and the Combined layer would add nothing. - Its run control is disabled everywhere it appears, with the reason "Add one more strategy to run this Combined." The block applies to every run entry point — the editor's run control and the results page's re-run alike — and reacts to an add or remove immediately, before you save. - Having never run, it has no [run status](/glossary/run-status) history and no result to fall back on. The block is the Combined's own gate, not one of the setup checks [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts) cover. - Adding or removing strategies is still fully allowed; only running is blocked. The library list marks it with an **Incomplete** badge and shows the same reason on its run action. ## What does it look like in practice? You create a Combined and seed it with your momentum strategy. The library list shows it with an **Incomplete** badge, and its run control is disabled: "Add one more strategy to run this Combined." You open its analysis anyway and see a complete-looking results page — an [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), a [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table), a monthly grid — under the eyebrow **Example results** and the headline "This is what a complete Combined shows". None of those numbers are yours; they are the sample's, shown so you can see what you will get. You add a second strategy, a defensive one. The badge disappears, the run control unlocks, and the first real [backtest](/glossary/backtest) replaces the example with numbers computed from your two strategies and the [Combined-level](/glossary/combined-level) split between them. ## Do the Combined-level settings do anything while it is Incomplete? No — nothing you set at the Combined level is used while the Combined holds fewer than two strategies. An Incomplete Combined never runs, and one strategy would receive all the capital anyway, so there is no split to apply. The Combined-level capital split and the Combined risk layer still render, and you can edit and save them as before; they begin applying as soon as a second strategy is added. The app states this above those settings. The notice is titled "The Combined has only one strategy" ("The Combined has no strategies" when it holds none), and reads "Splitting the capital takes at least 2: until then these settings aren't used. Add the missing strategies in the Strategies card." ## What do "Example results" show? The results pages of an Incomplete Combined show a real, fully rendered results layout filled with a **fixed sample Combined's** numbers, faded and non-interactive behind a prompt. The eyebrow reads **Example results**, the headline "This is what a complete Combined shows", and the body "Add one more strategy to run this Combined.", with an **Add a strategy** button. The numbers on screen belong to the sample, not to your strategy — nothing there was computed from your settings, and the page's own controls do nothing while the example is showing. A results section that has no sample to preview falls back to the plain "No results yet" empty state, carrying the same explanation. [Positions](/glossary/positions) behaves the same way as the analysis pages. ## How does a Combined become Incomplete? Two ways, and neither changes what the strategy *is*: - **Created and not yet filled.** **Combine**, on a single strategy's workspace, opens the Combined builder seeded with that strategy, and the Combined it produces starts Incomplete until you add the second. The **Combined strategy** tile in the **Create new** dialog arrives from the other side: it creates a Combined holding one empty member and drops you inside it, so that one starts Incomplete too. It refuses only when you own [no strategies at all](/glossary/combined#what-do-you-need-before-you-can-create-a-combined). - **Reduced to one.** Removing strategies until one is left leaves an Incomplete Combined; it is not converted back into a single strategy. Being a Combined is a property of the strategy itself, not a count. A Combined always keeps at least one strategy inside it, so its last one cannot be removed — the floor is one, which is exactly the Incomplete state. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents # Index lists and point-in-time constituents An index list is Fincanva's record of which [instruments](/glossary/instrument) belonged to a market index, kept as of each historical date rather than only as the index stands today. Its constituents are therefore *point-in-time*: asked who was in the S&P 500 in 2010, an index list answers with the 2010 membership, including companies that have since been acquired, removed, or delisted. A list built from today's membership answers a different question — which companies are in the index *now*, having already survived the intervening years. **Also seen as:** index constituents, index membership, point-in-time constituents ## What makes index membership point-in-time? Point-in-time membership means the membership is stored as a history rather than as a snapshot: for each index, Fincanva records when each instrument joined it and when it left. Reading that history at a date returns the members as of that date, so the same index can be resolved for 2010 and for 2026 and give two different lists. Over a decade the difference is large. Index committees add and remove names continuously — a company leaves when it is acquired, when it falls below the index's size or liquidity criteria, or when it delists after failing — so a decade-old membership list contains dozens of names absent from today's, and today's contains dozens that were not in the old one. ## Why does point-in-time membership matter for a backtest? Because a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) that draws its instruments from *today's* index membership has been handed a list of names selected partly for having survived, which is exactly [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias). Point-in-time membership removes that particular shortcut: a run can hold what the index actually held on each date, including the names that later left it. Point-in-time data does not make a test unbiased on its own. The universe and the period you choose still decide what a run can hold, and a hand-typed list of names you know today reintroduces the bias regardless of what the underlying data contains. Nor does it address distortions in the data itself — see [data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias) for those, and [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) for the distortion this page is about. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Fincanva's market data includes [delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments and point-in-time index membership, so names removed from an index remain available to a historical run. - Membership is recorded per index as a joined/left history, so it can be read at a past date rather than only as it stands now. - Index membership is one of the filters that narrow a [universe](/glossary/universe), alongside country, exchange, sector, and [asset type](/glossary/asset-type). - An index and its members are different things: the members are instruments a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can hold, while the index itself is a reference series — see [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable). - Membership is recorded against [permanent instrument identifiers](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier) rather than ticker symbols, so a member that renamed mid-membership stays one continuous entry. ## What does it look like in practice? Take a ten-year backtest of "the S&P 500" starting in 2016. Sourced from today's membership, the instrument list contains only companies that are in the index in 2026: every name dropped during the decade — acquired, or removed for falling below the criteria — is absent, and so are their worst stretches. Sourced from an index list, the same run holds the index's membership as it stood on each date. A company that was a member in 2016 and was removed in 2019 is held for the period it was genuinely in the index and then leaves the run, exactly as the index did. Both runs use identical rules and produce different results; the gap between them is the size of the survivorship effect for that index over that period. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/information-ratio # Information ratio The information ratio is a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s excess return over its parent [Combined](/glossary/combined) divided by its [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) — a measure of how *consistently* the strategy outperforms the whole it belongs to. It is measured against the **parent Combined**, not against a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark): it asks whether a strategy's edge over the Combined is a steady contribution or an occasional lucky burst. **Also seen as:** IR, active return per unit of active risk ## How is the information ratio calculated? The information ratio divides the strategy's CAGR-based return above its parent Combined by the tracking error — the [volatility](/glossary/volatility) of that same return difference. The numerator is the strategy's annualised (CAGR-based) return above the Combined, and the tracking error in the denominator is annualised the same way as volatility, by ×√252. High excess return earned smoothly scores well; the same excess earned erratically scores poorly. $$ \text{information ratio} = \frac{\text{strategy return} - \text{Combined return}}{\text{tracking error}} $$ where: **strategy return** and **Combined return** are the annualised, [CAGR](/glossary/cagr)-based returns of the [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) and of the Combined it sits inside, so the numerator is the strategy's excess return over the whole; and **tracking error** is the [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) of that same return difference, annualised by ×√252. Both halves are annualised on the same basis, so the ratio is a plain number with no unit. ## What counts as a good information ratio? Higher is better: it means the strategy beats its parent Combined steadily rather than in occasional spikes. A value near zero means the strategy barely moves the Combined either way, and the sign follows the excess return — a strategy that consistently lags the whole has a negative information ratio. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Reported on the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page only, in its **Each strategy, against the Combined** card: one bar per strategy in the **Information ratio** column, drawn from zero so a negative value runs to the left of the baseline. A strategy analysed on its own still appears there, but it has no parent Combined to be measured against, so its information ratio carries no meaning — read it only for a strategy inside a Combined. - Divides a strategy's CAGR-based excess return over its parent Combined by its √252-annualised tracking error. - Measured against the parent Combined, **not** against a benchmark. - A higher value reflects steadier [outperformance](/glossary/excess-return) of the whole; a near-zero value reflects a strategy that adds little either way. ## What does it look like in practice? A member strategy returns 2% a year more than the Combined it belongs to. If it earns that 2% edge smoothly — a low tracking error of, say, 1% — its information ratio is about 2.0. If it earns the same 2% edge but erratically — a tracking error of 4% — the information ratio falls to about 0.5. The excess return is identical in both cases; what separates them is consistency, and the information ratio is the number that captures it. *No information ratio is a target to aim for.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/instrument # Instrument An instrument is a single tradable or reference security, identified by a ticker — its short symbol — such as a stock, an ETP (an exchange-traded product like an ETF), or a crypto asset. It is the smallest thing a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can hold, and its own price history is what a backtest replays. **Also seen as:** ticker, symbol, security Strategies screen, rank, buy, and sell instruments. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Asset selection card lists its basket: each instrument with its ticker, its name and its asset type. - Instruments are grouped by [asset type](/glossary/asset-type); today Fincanva offers three — Stocks, ETPs, and Crypto. - Each instrument is identified by its ticker symbol and carries its own price history and first available date, which set how far back a backtest that uses it can run. - [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments are kept and stay searchable, so a strategy can include securities that no longer trade — this is what keeps a backtest from seeing only today's survivors. ## What does it look like in practice? AAPL, SPY, and BTC are three instruments of different types. AAPL is a single company's stock; SPY is an ETP that itself tracks the S&P 500 index; BTC is a crypto asset. A strategy can hold any mix of them, and each brings its own price history — so a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) that includes BTC can only reach back as far as BTC's own history allows, even if AAPL's stretches decades further. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/instrument-logo # Instrument logo Wherever Fincanva shows an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) with a small picture — the [screener](/glossary/screener)'s results table, a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s Positions and Trade History, the instrument pickers, and the public screener embed — that picture is the instrument's own logo when Fincanva holds one, and a flag for the instrument's recorded origin when it doesn't. **Also seen as:** instrument icon, avatar ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Not every instrument has its own logo. Measured 2026-09-19: 5,854 of 38,207 instruments in the reference data do — about 15%. - Logos are added over time: an instrument showing a flag today can show its own logo later, with nothing else about it changing. - The same rule decides the picture everywhere it appears — the screener's results table, a strategy's Positions and Trade History, the instrument pickers, and the public screener embed all show the same picture for the same instrument. ## What shows when an instrument has no logo? A flag for the instrument's recorded origin, not for where it happens to be listed: the US flag when the recorded origin is US, a globe when no origin is recorded (or the reference data carries its `GLO` marker for that), and the EU flag for any other recorded origin — today every other origin in the data is European. A US-listed instrument can still show the EU flag if its recorded origin is European. This still resolves for every instrument Fincanva's reference data holds; one that has since dropped out of the reference data entirely shows a letter avatar instead, because there is no record left to read an origin from. ## Where does the picture come from? From Fincanva's own storage. Both an instrument's own logo and the three flag images are served by the platform itself, so no third party is contacted from the reader's browser to show an instrument's picture. ## What does it look like in practice? Two instruments sit side by side in a screener's Matches table. One is a widely covered US stock, and its Symbol cell shows the company's own logo. The other is a smaller instrument of European origin Fincanva has no logo for, and its Symbol cell shows the EU flag instead. Both cells identify their instrument; only one carries its own picture. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/interest-received-and-paid # Interest received and paid Interest received and interest paid are the two financing lines in a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s profit and loss: interest received is credited to the strategy, and interest paid is the cost of borrowing to fund [leverage](/glossary/leverage) or a short position. The [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) shows them apart, so financing appears as its own effect rather than buried in the total. **Also seen as:** financing cost, margin interest, carry ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The P&L breakdown carries two bands — "Interest received" on the gains side and "Interest paid" on the costs side — so the two directions are never netted into one figure. - Interest paid is charged only when the Costs simulation assumption is on. That assumption is off by default for every account, so interest paid reads zero until you switch costs on. - Uninvested (idle) cash rides on the same assumption as interest paid: with that assumption off — its default — idle cash earns nothing, so both bands read zero, and a wide cash band on the [capital chart](/glossary/capital-chart) is capital that earned nothing. - With the Costs assumption on, idle cash is credited the [margin-loan reference rate](/glossary/special-data-series) minus your "Borrowing rate markup", and never less than zero while that reference rate is above zero, so when the markup is the larger of the two, idle cash earns nothing. - When the reference rate is at or below zero, idle cash can be charged interest instead of earning it — as with the negative rates banks have charged on cash holdings — never more than 1% a year. ## What does Fincanva charge interest on? Interest paid arises whenever a strategy borrows: it uses leverage (borrows capital to hold more than its cash) or holds a short position (borrows the securities it sells). Each is priced as a spread over the broker's base rate, set by two fields in your [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — "Borrowing rate markup" ("Spread added above the broker rate when borrowing capital.") and "Short rate markup" ("Spread added above the broker rate when shorting securities."). Those spreads are the [interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups); interest paid is only applied when the Costs assumption is on. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy runs at 1.5× leverage for a month, borrowing 0.5× its capital to hold more exposure than its cash covers. For the days it holds that borrowed portion it pays the broker's base rate plus your "Borrowing rate markup" on the borrowed amount. That financing cost lands on the **Interest paid** band and pulls the net **Portfolio** line down for the month — the price of the extra exposure. Turn the Costs assumption off and the band drops to zero, which is why cost-free results flatter a leveraged strategy. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/interest-rate-markups # Interest-rate markups Interest-rate markups are the spreads Fincanva adds on top of a reference rate to model what financing would cost inside a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). Borrowing money to use [leverage](/glossary/leverage), or borrowing shares to sell short, is not free in real markets — a broker charges a rate above the market reference rate — and the markups let the simulation reflect that cost. There are two: a **borrowing rate markup** for leverage and a **short rate markup** for shorting. **Also seen as:** financing spread, short borrow fee ## How is the financing rate calculated? The financing rate the simulation charges is the reference rate plus the relevant markup. $$ \text{Financing rate} = \text{Reference rate} + \text{Markup} $$ where the reference rate is the market rate the model starts from — the [margin-loan rate series](/glossary/special-data-series) — and the markup is the spread added on top. The borrowing markup applies to capital borrowed for leverage; the short markup applies to the cost of borrowing securities to short. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Two markups are modelled: a "Borrowing rate markup" (default 1.5%), described in the app as the "Spread added above the broker rate when borrowing capital", and a "Short rate markup" (default 2%), the "Spread added above the broker rate when shorting securities". - Both are spreads over a reference rate, not the full rate themselves: with costs on, borrowing and shorting always pay the reference rate plus the markup. - The "Borrowing rate markup" also reduces what idle cash earns: it is subtracted from the reference rate before idle cash is credited — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). - They are applied only when costs are switched on; with costs off, modelled financing costs are zero. - The resulting financing cost appears in the interest line of your capital and profit-and-loss breakdown. ## What does it look like in practice? A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) runs a month with **leverage**, holding more exposure than its cash by borrowing capital. For that month the simulation charges interest on the borrowed portion at the reference rate **plus the 1.5% borrowing markup**, so the financing cost is higher than the reference rate alone. That charge shows up in the interest line of the [profit-and-loss breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) as a drag on the month's result — the price, in the model, of carrying leverage. A short position would be charged the reference rate plus the 2% short markup in the same way. *The markups are modelling assumptions applied to historical results, not the rate a broker will charge you, and nothing here is a suggestion to use leverage or to short.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/inverse-volatility # Inverse volatility Inverse volatility is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that weights each instrument in inverse proportion to its own risk: the calmer the instrument, the larger its weight. It looks at each instrument on its own and ignores how the instruments move together, which is what [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation) and [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) take into account. **Also seen as:** inverse-variance weighting, volatility-weighted allocation, inverse-volatility weighting, 1/σ weighting ## How does Inverse volatility set weights? Inverse volatility gives every instrument a raw score of one divided by its risk, then rescales those scores so the weights add up to 100%. $$ {w_i} = \frac{1 / {\sigma_i}}{{\sum_{j} 1 / \sigma_j}} $$ where: - the weight of instrument i - instrument i's risk over the historical window - the sum of the raw scores of every instrument in the strategy, so the weights always total 100% ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Risk measure** defaults to **Annualized volatility**; **Max drawdown** is the alternative. - **Inverse volatility is included from the Starter plan**, at the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike; the Free plan does not offer it in either place. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - The calculation window (**In-sample**) defaults to **12 months**. With **Annualized volatility** it is a choice of 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, the only lengths the engine accepts for that measure; with **Max drawdown** it takes any whole number of months from 1 upward. See [which window lengths you can choose](/glossary/calculation-window#which-window-lengths-can-you-choose). - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the risk figures measured over the window ending at that date, so they change over the life of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). - There is no weight floor or ceiling: a very calm instrument can end up with a large share, and adding a highly volatile instrument barely moves the totals. ## Which risk measure does Inverse volatility use? The **Risk measure** control decides what "risk" means for this method, and the app describes the two options exactly like this: "Annualized volatility = how much the price fluctuates · Max drawdown = its worst historical loss". | Risk measure | What it reads | Effect on weights | |---|---|---| | **Annualized volatility** (default) | each instrument's [annualised standard deviation of returns](/glossary/volatility) | instruments whose price fluctuates less get more weight | | **Max drawdown** | each instrument's largest [peak-to-trough decline](/glossary/max-drawdown) | instruments whose worst historical fall was smaller get more weight | Both measures are read over the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) — the field labelled **In-sample** in the strategy editor — which sets how many months of history the risk figures cover. What changes when you switch between them is covered in [risk measure selection](/glossary/risk-measure-selection). ## Where can you use Inverse volatility? Inverse volatility is available at both levels. Inside a single strategy it weights the [instruments](/glossary/instrument) the strategy holds; inside a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) it splits capital across the strategies the Combined contains. A **[Direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only)** control (Long-only or Long/short) appears only at the strategy level — a Combined's split across its member strategies is always positive. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds two instruments. Over the window, instrument A has an annualised volatility of 10% and instrument B of 30%. The raw scores are 1 ÷ 0.10 = 10 for A and 1 ÷ 0.30 = 3.33 for B, which total 13.33. Rescaling gives A a weight of 10 ÷ 13.33 = 75% and B a weight of 3.33 ÷ 13.33 = 25%. The calmer instrument ends up with three times the weight of the volatile one, purely because its volatility is three times smaller. ## How is Inverse volatility different from Risk parity? Inverse volatility reads each instrument's risk in isolation, while [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) equalises how much risk each instrument contributes to the finished portfolio, which depends on correlations as well as individual volatilities. The two coincide only in the special case where every instrument is uncorrelated with every other; as soon as some instruments move together, they produce different weights. Fincanva describes how these methods work; it does not recommend one. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/invested-portion # 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier # Lag, period, and multiplier Lag, period, and multiplier are the inputs in a [filter](/glossary/filter)'s **Advanced** panel that shift or scale what a metric reads before it is compared. **Lag** moves the reading back in time, **Period** sets the window it covers, and **Multiplier** scales it. Each input carries a unit that depends on the filter — Months Ago, Reports Ago, Quarters, Days, Bars, or Std Devs — so the same control means "four reports ago" on a fundamental filter and "twenty days" on a technical one. They change only the *reading*, never the [comparison mode](/glossary/comparison-modes) or the operator applied to it. **Also seen as:** Advanced filter settings ## What the lag and period units mean You set the number; the filter decides which unit it counts in. | Unit | Used on | Means | |---|---|---| | Months Ago | fundamental / price-history filters | shift the reading back by that many calendar months | | Reports Ago | fundamental filters | shift back by that many financial reports (filings) | | Quarters | fundamental filters | count in three-month reporting quarters | | Days | technical / price filters | count in trading days | | Bars | technical filters | count in price bars (data points on the chart) | | Std Devs | technical filters | scale in standard deviations of the metric | The **Period** input is separate and sets the length of a windowed metric, in **Months** or **Years**. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The unit is fixed by the filter — you enter the number, the filter decides whether it counts in reports, months, days, bars, or standard deviations. - Lag is optional; leaving it at zero compares the metric at its latest reading. - Period sets a window length (in Months or Years) for metrics that summarise a span rather than a single point. ## What does it look like in practice? A revenue filter in [**vs Lagged Self**](/glossary/comparison-modes) mode uses **Reports Ago** as its lag unit. Set the lag to 4 and the filter reads each company's revenue from four financial reports back — for a company reporting quarterly, roughly a year earlier — and compares it to the latest revenue. "Reports Ago" counts filings, not calendar time, so a company that files quarterly and one that files half-yearly are shifted by different spans for the same lag of 4. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/leverage # Leverage Leverage is the multiplier applied to a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s position sizes in an allocation profile: at 1.00× the positions add up to the strategy's capital, above 1.00× they add up to more than its capital, and below 1.00× to less. Holding more exposure than you have capital for means borrowing the difference, so leverage above 1.00× carries a financing cost that a strategy at 1.00× does not have. In the app the control is "Leverage", with the hint "Multiplier on position sizes. 1.00 = no leverage. Range 0.00 – 3.00." **Also seen as:** gearing, multiplier, margin. ## How much exposure does a leverage multiplier create? Multiply the strategy's capital by the multiplier; anything above the capital is borrowed. $$ E = L \times C \qquad B = \max(L - 1,\; 0) \times C $$ where $L$ is the leverage multiplier, $C$ is the strategy's capital, $E$ is the resulting market exposure, and $B$ is the borrowed amount that has to be financed. Below 1.00× nothing is borrowed and the unused share of capital — $(1 - L) \times C$ — simply stays in cash: a 0.70× profile is 70% invested and 30% cash, with the same [cash drag](/glossary/cash-drag) that any idle balance carries. ## What are the leverage presets? Four presets cover the range, with a slider for anything in between: | Preset | Leverage | Exposure per unit of capital | |---|---|---| | **Cash only** | 0.00× | none — no positions are held | | **No leverage** | 1.00× | exposure equals capital | | **Moderate** | 1.50× | 1.5 units of exposure, 0.5 borrowed | | **Max** | 3.00× | 3 units of exposure, 2 borrowed | | **Custom** | any value from 0.00× to 3.00× | as set | ## What does leverage cost? Above 1.00×, the borrowed part is financed for as long as it is held. The rate charged is the [margin-loan reference rate](/glossary/special-data-series), a short-term interest rate, plus the **borrowing rate markup**, the spread described in the app as "Spread added above the broker rate when borrowing capital." — see [interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups) for both markups and their defaults. That cost is charged only when the [Costs & interests assumption](/glossary/costs-toggle) is on. With costs off, a leveraged run shows the magnified gains and losses but none of the financing that produced them, which flatters leverage specifically. The Allocation card says so wherever an allocation borrows — a leverage above 1.00×, or a negative weight that sells short — with the grey note "With costs off, the levered return is higher than the real one": "As long as the analysis runs without costs, borrowed money pays no interest: the levered return comes out higher than the real one." The note appears on every plan and asks for no decision; see [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts#what-do-the-grey-notes-on-a-settings-card-mean). The cost lands on the "Interest paid" line of the results — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). ## What does leverage do to gains and losses? It multiplies both, by the same factor and in the same direction. A market move of $r$ on the exposure is worth $L \times C \times r$ to the strategy, so at 1.50× a 10% move is worth 15% of capital whether the market went up or down. There is no asymmetry: the multiplier that magnifies a good year magnifies a bad one identically, and a leveraged strategy can fall further and faster than the same strategy at 1.00×. The financing cost sits on top of that and does not care about direction. It is subtracted after a gain and added to a loss, so a leveraged run needs the magnified gain to clear the financing before it is ahead of the unleveraged version. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The default is **1.00× (No leverage)**, and the field's own range is 0.00× to 3.00× — 3.00× is the most exposure a strategy's profile can hold, on any plan. - **Leverage above 1.00× is included from the Starter plan.** Every plan has a leverage ceiling: 1.00× on Free, and 3.00× on Starter, Advanced, Ultimate and Professional. On Free the Leverage field is capped at 1.00×, so its range there is 0.00×–1.00×, with a tag naming the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that raises it. This is an app-side cap: the [simulation engine](/glossary/simulation-engine) carries no concept of a plan and applies none of this on its own. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **The Leverage field's range always matches your plan's ceiling** — the one stated above. - **Every preset is listed on every plan.** On Free, Moderate and Max sit above the ceiling: they carry the tag of the plan level that includes them, and choosing one changes nothing and opens a window that says how far your plan goes and what the next plan up allows. - **Moderate stays fixed at 1.50× on every plan.** Anything else in between is reachable with **Custom** or the slider. - A [Combined](/glossary/combined) can still go further than a single strategy's own leverage, through its [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) above 100% and a [volatility target](/glossary/volatility-target), up to the shared 300% ceiling. - Leverage belongs to an allocation profile, so a Risk-Off profile can carry a different multiplier from the Risk-On one — including **Cash only** — see [Risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition). - The profile summary line prints the multiplier next to the allocation method, as in "· 1.50×". - At **Cash only (0.00×)** no positions are opened at all; the run tracks an uninvested balance. - Leverage is the strategy-level exposure control, and it is **fixed**: the same multiplier through calm and turbulent markets. How much of a Combined's capital reaches its strategies in the first place is the [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion), a separate control at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) that can itself go above 100%. A Combined can also let its exposure move with the market's [volatility](/glossary/volatility) — that is a [volatility target](/glossary/volatility-target), sometimes called dynamic leverage. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy with **10,000** of capital runs a year at **1.50× (Moderate)**. Its exposure is 1.5 × 10,000 = **15,000**, of which **5,000** is borrowed. Suppose the reference rate is 4% and the borrowing markup is the default 1.5%, so the borrowed money costs 5.5% for the year: 5,000 × 5.5% = **275**. | Market move on the exposure | Gain or loss | Financing | Result on 10,000 of capital | |---|---|---|---| | **+10%** | +1,500 | −275 | **+1,225** (+12.25%) | | **−10%** | −1,500 | −275 | **−1,775** (−17.75%) | The same strategy at 1.00× would have made +1,000 or lost 1,000, with no financing at all. Leverage turned a 10-point market move into a 12.25-point gain or a 17.75-point loss — and the 275 was paid in both cases, which is why the downside is magnified by slightly more than the upside. *Leverage magnifies losses exactly as it magnifies gains. Fincanva does not recommend a leverage level or tell you whether to use leverage at all — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/live-book # Live book The live book is the Portfolios page that lists every [strategy](/glossary/strategy) you follow live, with a book summary panel that reads the whole book at a glance — the median return, the best and weakest performers, how many portfolios are positive — and then lists what needs you. It is the one screen where you judge your live-followed strategies together. **Also seen as:** Portfolios Each row is one live-followed [portfolio](/glossary/portfolio); the panel opens whenever no row is selected and reads the return window you pick. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The panel summarises only strategies you have marked Live; a strategy you have merely backtested but not followed does not appear in the book. - The three figures read the return window you select (1M, YTD or 1Y) — each is a summary across portfolios, never a single portfolio's figure. - A portfolio with no computed return for the selected window is left out of that window altogether: it is not counted in the median, in the positive count or in the total after `of`. - A portfolio counts as positive only if its return is above zero; a return of exactly zero is neither positive nor negative. - Before any returns exist the median section shows an empty state (`No returns computed yet`) rather than a zero. ## What does the book summary panel show? The book summary panel stacks its sections in a fixed order, from the book's returns down to what needs you. Select a row and the panel gives way to that portfolio's own details; with no row selected it shows the book. 1. **Median return** — the middle portfolio's return, so half your book did better and half did worse, shown large. A switch beside the title picks the window: **1M**, **YTD** or **1Y**, with **YTD** selected when the page opens. Beside the figure, a count reads how many portfolios are positive, as `{n} of {total} positive portfolios`. 2. **Best** and **Weakest** — the portfolio with the highest and the lowest return in that window, each with its name and its signed return. Selecting a name opens that portfolio's Positions view. 3. **Live used** — how many live slots the account holds: `{held} / {allowed}` when the plan has a ceiling, the number held alone when it has none. It is left out on a plan whose live allowance is zero. ## What does the To do section list? **To do**, the panel's last section, lists what needs you, in three groups: **Needs attention** (portfolios whose run is not up to date, each with its reason) and **Controls** (portfolios whose run is fine but that have an open strategy control) appear only when they have something to list; **Next rebalances** (the portfolios [rebalancing](/glossary/rebalance) soonest, with the days left) is always there and reads `No upcoming rebalances` when none is due. With nothing needing attention and no rebalance due, the section opens with `Nothing needs you right now`. How to clear each group is covered in [Keep your live book in order](/docs/portfolio-holdings/keep-your-live-book-in-order). ## What does the return window change, and why the median? The window switch changes only the first two sections: median, the positive count, Best and Weakest all recompute for the window, while **To do** does not depend on it. The three windows are the [return windows](/glossary/return-windows) of the same names; the panel offers no **MTD**. The median is used, not the average, because one runaway winner or loser cannot drag it — it always describes a typical portfolio in the book rather than an outlier. With an even number of portfolios it is the average of the two middle ones. ## What does it look like in practice? You follow five strategies live, and for the 1Y window their returns are −4%, +2%, +6%, +9%, and +21%. With **1Y** selected, **Median return** shows +6% — the middle of the five, with two portfolios above and two below — so a single +21% outlier does not flatter the headline the way an average would (the average here would be +6.8%). The count reads `4 of 5 positive portfolios`, **Best** names the +21% portfolio and **Weakest** names the −4% one. Switch to **1M** and every figure recomputes from each portfolio's one-month return instead. If a sixth live strategy has no 1Y return computed yet, it stays out of the 1Y view — the count still reads `of 5` — and is counted as soon as a return exists for the window you select. *The median, best, and weakest figures describe what the strategies you follow have already returned, not what they will return, and no ranking in the panel is a recommendation to add to, trim, or drop a portfolio.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/longest-drawdown # Longest drawdown Longest drawdown is the longest stretch of time a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s value stayed below a prior peak — from the moment the value dropped below that peak until it reached the same peak again. It records **duration, not depth**: a strategy whose worst fall was mild can still have spent years below its old high, and that is exactly what this figure exposes. **Also seen as:** Longest DD, time underwater ## How is longest drawdown different from longest recovery? Longest drawdown counts the whole time spent below the peak; [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery) counts only the climb back up. The two are constantly confused because they describe overlapping parts of the same episode. | Measure | Starts at | Ends at | |---|---|---| | **Longest drawdown** | the old peak, when the value first drops below it | the moment the value reaches that old peak again | | **Longest recovery** | the trough, the lowest point of the fall | the moment the value reaches that old peak again | A longest-drawdown span therefore contains the fall *plus* the climb back, while longest recovery is only the second half of it. For the same episode, longest drawdown is always the longer of the two figures. ## How are these durations displayed? Fincanva formats both durations with one rule, so the same figure reads as a plain number or as years-and-months depending on its size: - **12 months or fewer** — a bare number to one decimal place, with **no unit**: `6.3` means 6.3 months. - **An exact whole number of years** — years only: `2y`. - **Anything else** — years and months: `1y 2m`. The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) row is labelled **Longest drawdown (months)**, so a value like `2y 8m` in that row can look surprising: the label names the underlying unit, while the value itself is formatted for readability. A bare `6.3` in that row means 6.3 months, never 6.3 years. ## What if the strategy never recovers before the backtest ends? **Read this before you read the chart.** If the value is still below its prior peak on the last simulated day, the stretch does not get dropped and it does not wait for a recovery that never comes. It is **cut off at the last simulated bar** and counted from the peak to that bar — and that truncated stretch competes for the maximum like any other, so it can be the number the page reports as the longest drawdown. The hazard is what this looks like on screen: **a drawdown that was still open when the data ran out is indistinguishable from one that ended in a genuine recovery.** Both simply stop. A reader glancing at the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) will conclude the strategy climbed back to its high; it may never have done so — the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) just ended while it was still down. Two consequences worth carrying: - The reported figure is a **lower bound** on that episode. Had the backtest run longer, the stretch could only have been the same length or longer, never shorter. - The last episode of a run is the one to check. Look at where the equity curve finishes relative to its highest point: if it ends below that high, the final stretch is truncated, and the longest-drawdown figure may be describing an episode that never closed. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The metrics table shows it in the **Drawdown** group as the row **Longest drawdown (months)**, using the format rule above. - The KPI strip on the metrics view shows the same span as the **Longest drawdown** card, rounded there to whole months. - It is measured over the whole backtest window, so a longer backtest has had more chances to contain a long stretch below a peak — the figure is not comparable across runs of different lengths. - Your [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) gets its own longest drawdown over the same window, so a long stretch can be read against what the reference series did. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy peaks in March, falls for five months, bottoms out, then grinds back up and finally reaches that same March peak 14 months after leaving it. Its longest drawdown for that episode is 14 months, displayed as `1y 2m`. The [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) for the same episode might be only −11%: a shallow fall that simply took a long time to undo. The two numbers describe one event from different angles — one says how deep, the other how long. ## What counts as a good value? A shorter longest drawdown means the strategy's value spent less consecutive time below its previous high. It is a **duration** reading, so on its own it is half the picture: read it with [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) for how deep the falls went, and with [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery) for how much of the stretch was spent climbing back rather than falling. A long value is not automatically a fault of the strategy's rules — a window that happens to contain a slow, broad market decline can produce a long stretch below a peak for almost any strategy exposed to that market. Where the window begins matters for the same reason; see [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/longest-recovery # Longest recovery Longest recovery is the longest stretch of time a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) took to climb from a trough back to its prior peak — the count starts at the bottom of a fall and ends when the value reaches the old high again. It answers "once it had stopped falling, how long did getting back take?", and it is measured **from the bottom, not from the peak**. **Also seen as:** recovery time, time to get back to the high ## How is longest recovery different from longest drawdown? Longest recovery covers only the climb back up; [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown) covers the fall *and* the climb. Both end at the same moment — the return to the old peak — but they start in different places, which is why the same episode produces two different numbers. | Measure | Starts at | Ends at | |---|---|---| | **Longest drawdown** | the old peak, when the value first drops below it | the moment the value reaches that old peak again | | **Longest recovery** | the trough, the lowest point of the fall | the moment the value reaches that old peak again | For a single episode, longest recovery is therefore the shorter of the two. Confusing them is the most common mistake with this pair: a "9-month recovery" and a "14-month drawdown" can be the same event, seen from the bottom and from the top. ## What if the strategy never climbs back before the backtest ends? **Read this before you read the chart.** If the value is still below its prior peak on the last simulated day, the climb is not discarded and it is not left open. It is **cut off at the last simulated bar** and counted from the trough to that bar — and that truncated climb competes for the maximum like any other, so it can be the number the page reports as the longest recovery. The hazard is the same one the [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown#what-if-the-strategy-never-recovers-before-the-backtest-ends) page warns about, and it bites harder here: **a climb that was still under way when the data ran out looks exactly like one that finished at the old high.** The figure does not say "still recovering"; it just reports a duration. A reader will take it as the time the strategy needed to get back. It may be the time the strategy had spent trying when the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) stopped. So the reported figure is a **lower bound** on that episode: run the backtest longer and the same climb could only have taken the same time or more. If the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) ends below its highest point, the final recovery is truncated, and the longest-recovery figure may belong to a climb that never reached the peak at all. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) shows it in the **Drawdown** group as the row **Longest recovery (months)**. - It uses the same duration format as longest drawdown — a bare one-decimal number for 12 months or fewer, `2y` for exact years, `1y 2m` otherwise. See [how these durations are displayed](/glossary/longest-drawdown#how-are-these-durations-displayed). - Unlike longest drawdown, longest recovery appears in the metrics table only — it has no KPI card on the metrics view. - It is measured over the whole backtest window, so it is not comparable across runs of different lengths. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy peaks, falls for five months to its trough, then takes nine months to climb from that trough back to the old peak. Its longest recovery for the episode is 9 months. The same episode's [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown) is 14 months — the five months of falling plus the nine months of climbing. Same event, two figures: 9 months of recovery sits inside 14 months below the peak. ## What counts as a good value? A shorter longest recovery means that, once a fall had bottomed out, the strategy needed less time to get back to its previous high. Like longest drawdown it describes **duration only**: it says nothing about how far the value fell, which is [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), nor how much return the strategy earned for that worst fall, which is the [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). A shallow fall can still take a long time to recover, and a deep fall can be undone quickly — the pairing of depth and duration is what the two readings together describe, and neither one ranks strategies on its own. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/look-ahead-bias # Look-ahead bias Look-ahead bias is the use of information in a historical test that was not yet available when the simulated decision was made — a company figure read before its publication date, or an order filled at a price not yet printed. The test effectively sees the future, so its results flatter and cannot be repeated with real money. **Also seen as:** Lookahead bias, information leakage, peeking Look-ahead bias is a *timing* error in the data feeding the decision, not a flaw in the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s logic: the same rules, given only what was knowable at the time, would have produced a different and usually far worse result. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A Fincanva [backtest](/glossary/backtest) replays your strategy's rules in chronological order — a [walk-forward replay](/glossary/walk-forward-replay) — so each decision uses only the data available up to that point in history. It runs to the latest available market close and never into the future, so a decision dated in 2015 cannot draw on 2016 data. That removes the *computation's* opportunity to look ahead. It cannot remove a rule that reads a figure the market did not yet have on that date, which is why the verb here is reduce, not eliminate. ## What causes look-ahead bias in a backtest? Look-ahead bias appears whenever the date a value is *stamped with* differs from the date it *became public*, and the test uses the stamp. The recurring sources are: - **Publication lag on reported fundamentals.** A quarterly figure describes a quarter that ended weeks or months before the filing appeared. Attaching that figure to the quarter-end date lets a decision act on it before anyone could have read it. - **Restatements and revisions.** Many series are revised after first release. Using the final, revised value as though it had been known on the first-release date imports information that did not exist yet. - **Same-moment execution.** Deciding on a day's closing price and then filling at that same day's open, or using a session's high or low before it had printed, gives the fill a price the decision could not have known. Which price a fill uses is set by the [execution time](/glossary/execution-time). - **Today's membership applied to yesterday.** Running a test on the [constituents of an index](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) *as it stands now* over a period when the membership was different mixes look-ahead with [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias). ## What happens when earnings are used before they were published? A screen ranks companies on their latest reported earnings and rebalances on 1 February. Company A's fiscal quarter ended 31 December, but its results were only published on 20 February. A test that files the December figure under 31 December can see it on 1 February and buys on it; a test that files it under 20 February cannot see it yet and buys something else. Repeat that across every filing for ten years and the strategy has enjoyed a three-week head start on every earnings surprise — a systematic advantage no real account had. This is why a filter lag counted in **Reports Ago** rather than calendar months matters: filings, not the calendar, decide when a figure was knowable. See [lag, period, and multiplier](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier) for how those units work. ## How is look-ahead bias different from the other backtest biases? Look-ahead bias is about *when* the information was available; its neighbours are about *what* you tested and *how you read the result*. [Survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) is a sample missing the names that did not last. [Selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias) is a sample chosen with hindsight. [Data-snooping bias](/glossary/data-snooping-bias) is many tests with only the winner reported. [Overfitting](/glossary/overfitting) is a strategy shaped so tightly to past data that it captures noise. [Data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias) is the nearest neighbour of all: a conclusion driven by the stored data itself being wrong, which is where restatements and revisions land when the corrected value is the only one you have. A test can be entirely free of look-ahead bias and still suffer every one of the others. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/mark-live # Mark Live Mark Live is the action that starts following a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) going forward instead of only over history. **Live means monitoring only: nothing is traded.** Fincanva keeps tracking what the strategy's rules would hold and how that paper book would perform, and it never places an order, never connects to a broker, and never moves real money. A strategy you have marked Live becomes a [portfolio](/glossary/portfolio) on the Portfolios page and joins your [live book](/glossary/live-book); **Unfollow** reverses it at any time. **Also seen as:** Go live ## Does marking a strategy Live trade anything? No. Marking a strategy Live places no orders and moves no money. Fincanva has no broker connection at all — there is nothing for an order to be sent to. Going Live starts paper monitoring: the app follows the positions the strategy's rules imply and shows how that paper book would have performed, exactly as a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) does, but continuing forward from today instead of stopping at the end of history. The one place this can read like real trading is the [order plan](/glossary/order-plan), which lists what the strategy would buy, sell, and resize at its next [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). That list is a plan on paper — Fincanva does not act on it, and you would have to place any of those trades yourself, with your own broker, entirely at your own discretion. *Following a strategy Live is not a prediction and not a recommendation.* ## What changes when a strategy is Live? Four things change, and none of them touch money: - **It appears in Portfolios.** The confirm dialog states it plainly: "It'll show in Portfolios and count toward your dashboard." - **Its results are kept current automatically.** Live strategies are refreshed for you as new market data arrives; a strategy that is not Live only recomputes when you press Run or Re-run. See [Run status](/glossary/run-status) for the states you will see. - **It is starred automatically, and the star locks.** Going Live adds the strategy to your favourites and keeps it there while it stays Live — trying to unstar it shows "Turn the strategy off first". The star locks yellow in the dashboard table and in the strategy's header; in the sidebar library the row shows, in the star's place, a small bright-green square carrying only the rising line — the Live key in small — the word is left out there, and a screen reader still announces it as "Live". [Starring strategies and screeners](/docs/strategies/starring-strategies-and-screeners) covers the star, the lock, and the favourites cap. - **It counts toward your dashboard**, where its own numbers feed the whole-book summary. Editing a Live strategy does not silently re-run it: an edited strategy waits for you to run it explicitly, so a change you make never triggers a backtest by itself. ## Who chooses which strategies keep being followed? You do. When your plan stops covering the strategies you follow Live, Fincanva asks you which ones keep being followed before it stops any of them — it does not decide that for you any more. The question arrives as a dialog on the Portfolios page and when you open a strategy you follow Live, and it is blocking: it has no close button, Escape and a click outside do nothing, and the only way past it is an answer. The dialog names the numbers and lists every strategy you follow, each with how long you have been following it where Fincanva has that date. On Starter, following three, its title reads "Choose the strategy to keep live" and under it "You follow 3 live strategies, Starter covers 1. Choose which one to keep." Where the plan covers one, the rows are radio buttons; above one they are checkboxes with a counter reading "2 of 5 chosen". **Confirm** commits, and it stays disabled until you have chosen exactly the number the plan covers — not at most that number, exactly it. Once you reach it the remaining rows lock and dim: to pick a different one, untick one you picked. **Where Confirm leaves you depends on where you answered.** On the Portfolios page you stay there. Inside a strategy, you stay on it if it is one you kept; if it is not, Fincanva takes you to the Portfolios page, because the strategy you were looking at has just stopped being followed. The same holds on a cancelled subscription, where nothing is kept. **Fincanva's own order arrives pre-selected, and the dialog states in words what applies if you choose nothing:** "If you choose nothing we keep Momentum EU, the last one you used." Most recently used is the order for the Live ceiling, and only for it: which strategies your library keeps active is a separate question, answered on [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). Under it the dialog says what the choice costs: the ones you leave out stop being followed — no live updates and no live signals — and stay in your library, ready to go live again when your plan covers them. **You are asked once, and the question cannot be reopened.** It is owed at the moment your plan stops covering your live book, and your answer puts the account back inside what the plan covers; from then on Fincanva refuses any attempt to answer it again, so there is no screen, no menu entry and no link that reopens it. You meet it a second time only if a later plan change stops covering your live book again, and that is a fresh question about the strategies you follow then. **If the question moves under you while the dialog is open, your answer is refused rather than applied — and Fincanva says which case it was.** Answer in a second tab after the first has already been saved and you are told "Your choice was already saved, in another tab. This is where you stand now."; answer a question your plan has changed in the meantime and you are told "Your plan changed while this was open, so the question changed too. Here it is as it stands now." Neither is a failure and neither loses anything of yours — the dialog re-reads the server, and either shows you the question as it now stands or closes because your account is covered. **A cancelled subscription is the same moment in a different shape.** Your plan then covers no Live strategies at all, so there is nothing to choose between and the dialog states what is happening instead of offering a choice. It reads "Your subscription has ended", then "The 3 strategies you were following stop." It lists them, each marked **STOPPED**, and closes with "They all stay in your library, with their history: they go live again as soon as you take a plan. There is nothing to redo." There are no controls and no counter — only **See the plans**, and **Got it** to acknowledge. ## What happens when your plan stops covering a Live strategy? Following stops and the strategy is set aside — not deleted, not edited, not hidden. It keeps its place in your library and its settings stay editable; what it loses is the following, and the results that came with it. Two different shortages stop a following, and only one of them is yours to decide. When your plan covers fewer Live strategies than you follow, you choose which ones keep being followed, in a dialog Fincanva puts in front of you at the Portfolios page or when you open a Live strategy. When a strategy instead falls outside what your plan keeps active in your library, it is set aside and its following stops as a consequence: that set is decided for you, once, at the moment the plan stops covering your library, and the strategies you follow Live rank ahead of every other, so one of them is set aside that way only when you follow more than your plan keeps active. **The two can meet on one screen.** A strategy that is already set aside is still listed when the Live question is asked, marked **SET ASIDE** and with no control beside it: its following stops whatever you answer, so it is not one of the strategies you are choosing between. The dialog says so under the list — "One of these is set aside, so it stops being followed whatever you choose." — and the number you are asked to keep is spent on the strategies that can actually keep being followed. If setting them aside already leaves your live book inside what the plan covers, no question is asked at all. **Fincanva does not mark the interruption anywhere.** There is no line on the row saying when following stopped, no dated record of the stretch it was off, and no separate control for starting again. A set-aside strategy's row carries the bars of the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that would bring it back before its name and shows its Live key off and in muted ink, and pressing that key opens **Your plan is full** instead of toggling — an account cannot follow more strategies than its plan keeps active. **On the strategy's own page, a set-aside strategy cannot go Live, and Fincanva says why after you confirm.** Pressing the **Live** key opens the usual confirm, "Mark this strategy as Live?"; pressing **Mark as Live** is then refused, nothing goes Live, and a one-sentence message names the reason. When your account holds more strategies than the plan covers and this one is outside it, it reads, on Free: "You have more strategies than your Free plan covers: this one is outside it, so it can't go Live. Switch to Starter to follow it." When the strategy itself goes beyond a limit of your plan, it reads "This strategy goes beyond the limits of your Starter plan, so it can't go Live." followed by the plan that covers it — or, where no plan covers it as it stands, "No plan currently covers it — reduce what it holds and try again." In the Strategies table, **Mark Live** in a set-aside row's menu sends nothing and opens **The plan is full**, as that row's Live key does; only a strategy set aside after the table was loaded reaches the confirm, and then meets the same message. Turning Live off is never refused. Following past the Live cap is a different refusal: its dialog names your plan and how many Live strategies it allows, says how many you are following, and that nothing is deleted — the next level raises the number. Starting again therefore means bringing the strategy back inside the plan, and there are only two routes: a plan that covers what you hold, or — if you deleted an active strategy and a seat is genuinely vacant — **Activate this one** on that strategy's own panel. There is no free way to re-choose which strategies your library keeps active: that verdict is settled once, and it is discarded only when your plan covers your whole library again. The Live ceiling's one-time question is a different question, and answering it does not move the library verdict. [Plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance) covers the two reasons a strategy ends up outside a plan and how each clears. **A strategy followed again after months is not the same as one followed throughout, and nothing in the app will tell you so.** Months of [rebalances](/glossary/rebalance) never happened: its current positions are what its rules imply today, not what someone following it throughout would be holding, and the [order plan](/glossary/order-plan) it now shows is the move from those positions rather than from theirs. Reading it as an unbroken Live track would overstate what it is — and because the interruption is not recorded, keeping track of it is yours. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **How many strategies you may follow Live is set by your plan:** none at all on Free, 1 on Starter, 5 on Advanced, and no limit on Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Only your own strategies can be marked Live — a Public strategy has no Live control, because it is not yours to follow. - Both directions ask for confirmation. Going Live asks "Mark this strategy as Live?" and commits with **Mark as Live**; turning it off asks "Stop following this strategy?" and commits with **Stop following**. - There are two ways in: the **Live** key on the strategy's action row (and in the list pages' detail panel), and **Mark Live** in the strategy's row menu, which reads **Unfollow** once the strategy is live. The key always shows the word **Live** — it is a bright green raised key with a black label and the rising line moving while the strategy is Live, and a neutral raised key in muted ink with a small grey, still rising-line glyph while it is not — and the same key appears in the **Live** column of your own rows in the Strategies table and beside each strategy in the plan tile's **Your Live strategies** list, while elsewhere Live is that key in small: the **Portfolios** count in the sidebar is a small bright-green tag with the rising line and the number, and a Live strategy's sidebar row and open tab show a small bright-green square with only the rising line (a Public strategy is never Live, so the public list has no Live column) — and its tooltip reads **Go live** while off and **Live** while on. - A copy is never followed automatically: **Duplicate** and **Copy to Mine** both produce a strategy whose Live key starts off. - Unfollowing changes nothing about the strategy itself — it leaves Portfolios, stops counting toward your dashboard, and can be marked Live again later. ## What does it look like in practice? You have backtested a strategy and want to watch how it behaves from here. You open it and select the raised **Live** key, whose tooltip currently reads "Go live"; a dialog asks "Mark this strategy as Live?" and you confirm with **Mark as Live**. The key turns bright green with the rising line moving, and it still reads **Live** — the strategy appears on the Portfolios page, its star turns gold and locks, and Fincanva starts keeping its numbers current as new market days arrive. No broker was connected and no trade was sent. Two months later you decide to stop: you select the **Live** key again, confirm "Stop following this strategy?" with **Stop following**, and the strategy leaves Portfolios. The key goes back to neutral, its glyph turns grey and still, its star unlocks, its saved settings and its whole backtest history are untouched, and you can mark it Live again whenever you want. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/market-cap # Market cap Market cap is the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that sizes each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) in proportion to its market capitalization — the total market value of a company's shares. A company worth ten times more than another receives ten times the weight, so the largest holdings dominate the allocation. It is the weighting convention most broad market indices use. **Also seen as:** market cap weighted, cap weighted, capitalization weighting ## How is a market-cap weight calculated? Each instrument's weight is its own market capitalization divided by the total capitalization of all the instruments being allocated across; because the weights are shares of a total, they always add up to the whole capital being allocated. $$ {w_i} = \frac{{\text{cap}_i}}{{\sum_{j=1}^{N} \text{cap}_j}} $$ where: - instrument i's weight - instrument i's own market capitalization - the sum of the capitalizations of all N instruments in the allocation ## How does Fincanva handle it? The app labels the method **Market cap** and describes it as "Instruments are weighted by market capitalization". Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - It has no parameters: the weights follow each instrument's market capitalization, so there is nothing to set. - It is available **only inside a strategy**, across its instruments. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it when it splits capital across its member strategies. - It does not use the In-sample [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window): it reads current capitalizations rather than a window of history. - Weights are recomputed at each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date, so as companies grow or shrink relative to each other their shares move with them. ## What does it look like in practice? A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds two stocks. One has a market capitalization of \$500 billion; the other, \$50 billion — a 10:1 ratio. The total is \$550 billion, so the weights are 500 ÷ 550 = 90.9% and 50 ÷ 550 = 9.1%. On \$100,000 of strategy capital that is about \$90,900 in the large company and \$9,100 in the small one. Compare that with [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights) over the same two stocks, which would put \$50,000 in each. If the small company then doubles while the large one is flat, the equally weighted version gains roughly 50% and the cap-weighted version roughly 9% — the same two instruments, the same period, a different allocation method. ## What counts as a good value? There is nothing to configure, so what matters is the shape of the result: cap weighting concentrates capital in the largest holdings. A handful of very large companies can absorb most of the allocation while the rest of the list receives a fraction of a percent each, which means the strategy's outcome is driven mostly by those few names. That is a property of the method, not a fault — but it is why a cap-weighted allocation and an [equally weighted](/glossary/equal-weights) one over the same instruments can behave very differently. Read the result alongside a concentration check, such as how much of the capital the top few weights hold. Fincanva describes how this method behaves; it never recommends an allocation method or tells you which weighting to run. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment # Market-day and trading-calendar alignment Market-day and trading-calendar alignment is how Fincanva places instruments that trade on different exchanges — each with its own holidays and session days — onto the single shared date axis a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) runs on. A simulation advances one date at a time and needs every holding to sit on the same timeline, but no two exchanges are open on exactly the same set of days. Alignment is what makes a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) mixing a US-listed and an Italy-listed instrument computable at all, and it is why a multi-exchange strategy can show dates on which only part of the book had a fresh price. **Also seen as:** trading calendar, market days, exchange holidays ## Why don't two exchanges share the same trading days? Every exchange keeps its own calendar, and the differences are larger than they look. Weekends mostly coincide, but public holidays do not: US markets close for Independence Day and Thanksgiving, Italian and other continental European markets close for Ferragosto and Santo Stefano, and the UK adds its own bank holidays. Some markets also run half-days or close for local events that the others trade straight through. Over a single year this produces a dozen or more dates on which one exchange is open and another is shut. Fincanva tracks each exchange's closing days as part of its market data, so the simulation knows which dates were genuine sessions for each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) rather than reading a missing price as a data error. ## What a mixed-exchange strategy looks like on one date axis On a shared axis, each date either was or was not a session for a given instrument. In a single-exchange strategy every holding always agrees; in a mixed-exchange strategy it does not, so some dates carry a fresh observation for only part of the book. That is the source of the small oddities you can see in a multi-exchange run: a day's portfolio move can be driven entirely by whichever part of the book was actually trading, and a rebalance date placed on the shared calendar may not be a trading session for every holding. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A backtest runs on one shared date axis, and every holding is evaluated against the same sequence of dates. - Exchange closing days are part of Fincanva's market data, so a market holiday is recognised as a closed session rather than a gap in a price series. - Rebalance dates are placed on that shared calendar, not on each instrument's own exchange calendar, so one rebalance date applies to every holding — see [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). - Annualized figures count trading days rather than calendar days — see [annualization](/glossary/annualization). - The date a run stops at is a market date rather than a calendar date, which is the same market-day-versus-calendar-day distinction one step further out — see [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds one instrument listed on NYSE and one on Borsa Italiana. On **4 July** the US market is closed for Independence Day while Borsa Italiana trades normally: that date exists on the shared axis, but only the Italian instrument had a session on it. On **15 August** the reverse happens — Borsa Italiana is closed for Ferragosto while NYSE is open. Across a year the two exchanges disagree on roughly a dozen dates, in both directions. The consequences show up at the edges rather than in the headline numbers: a rebalance date on the shared calendar may not be a session for every holding, and a single day's move in the strategy can reflect only the half of the book that was open. A strategy built entirely on one exchange never meets any of this. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/matches # Matches Matches are the instruments in a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s universe that pass every one of its filters at once, shown as a live count that updates as you add, edit, or remove filters. The count sits at the right end of the screener's action row, labelled **Matches**; when no [instrument](/glossary/instrument) passes, its badge turns red (destructive style), signalling the screener has nothing to act on. Because filters combine with AND, an instrument has to clear all of them to be counted. **Also seen as:** match count ## How the match count changes as you add filters Every filter narrows the pool: a screener starts from its [universe](/glossary/universe) and keeps only the instruments that satisfy all of its [filters](/glossary/filter) together. Adding a filter can lower the count or leave it unchanged, but never raise it; removing or loosening a filter can only raise it. This is why a screen with more filters usually shows fewer matches — each condition is one more test an instrument must pass. Where a **Highest** or **Lowest** filter sits in that chain also matters, because it ranks only the instruments still passing at its own position — see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking). ## What a zero count means A zero count means no instrument in the universe passes all the filters together, and the **Matches** badge on the action row turns red to flag it. It usually points to filters that are too tight or that contradict each other rather than to an error. Widen a range, remove a filter, or broaden the universe to bring instruments back into the set. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The match count is the single count surface — it appears next to the word **Matches** at the right end of the screener's action row (the row of buttons under the tab bar), and updates live as you edit filters. The **Matches · Backtest** selector itself sits below that row, in a band together with the filter chips, and no longer carries the count. - At zero it switches to the destructive (red) badge style; above zero it shows as a plain count. - Before a screener has run, the count can read "Run to see matches" instead of a number. - The set of matches is what a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) or an attached [strategy](/glossary/strategy) draws from. It is not the same as what a strategy ends up holding: a simulation trims the candidate list with the [max-symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap) and then holds only as many as **Max positions** allows. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener over US stocks starts from its whole universe. You add a first filter, `P/E < 20`, and the count drops to, say, 620 matches; a second, `Sector = Technology`, brings it to 90; a third, `Market cap > $10B`, leaves 47. The readout now shows "47 matches" — the 47 instruments that satisfy all three filters at once. Remove the sector filter and the count rises again, because fewer conditions have to be met. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/max-diversification # Max diversification Max diversification is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that chooses the weights with the highest **diversification ratio**: the weighted average of the instruments' own volatilities divided by the volatility of the portfolio they form. The higher the ratio, the more the mix gains from instruments not moving together, so the method leans toward those that move most differently. **Also seen as:** maximum diversification, most diversified portfolio, MDP ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"Max diversification"** and describes it as "Favours the instruments that move most differently from the rest". - Max diversification is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - It has no settings of its own. It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and the **Covariance matrix** choice — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). - Weights are never negative. - With most covariance estimators — including the recommended Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation — every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) must have moved in price at some point inside the window: an instrument whose price stayed flat for the whole window, such as a suspended listing, stops the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than receiving a weight. Two estimators are the exception; [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) names them. - The picker marks it "slow to compute": it solves an optimisation at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). ## What is the diversification ratio? The diversification ratio compares what the portfolio's risk would be if its instruments moved in perfect lockstep with what it actually is. $$ DR(w) = \frac{\sum_i {w_i} \, {\sigma_i}}{{\sigma_p(w)}} $$ where: - instrument i's weight - instrument i's own volatility - the volatility of the whole portfolio at those weights Each instrument's [volatility](/glossary/volatility) is weighted and summed above the line. The numerator is the risk of a mix with no diversification benefit at all; the denominator is the risk you really carry. A ratio of 1 means the instruments move together completely; the further above 1, the more diversification the mix is harvesting. It is a third answer next to two others: [MPT](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) aims at the best risk-and-return trade-off, and [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) equalises each instrument's share of the risk. Max diversification asks only how much of the parts' risk disappears in the whole. ## How is it different from Min correlation? Both reward instruments that move differently, but they aim at different targets: [Min correlation](/glossary/min-correlation) aims at the lowest overall correlation of the portfolio, while Max diversification aims at the highest diversification ratio, in which each instrument's volatility sits directly. That makes it sensitive to how volatility is measured, which is why it also reads the **Covariance matrix** choice. ## Which plan includes Max diversification? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? Three instruments all have 20% volatility. Two of them are near-twins, with a correlation of 0.9; the third moves independently of both. - **At Equal weights (33.3% each)** the portfolio's volatility is 20% × √(0.533) ≈ 14.6%, so the diversification ratio is 20% ÷ 14.6% ≈ **1.37**. - **Max diversification** instead holds about **25.6% / 25.6% / 48.7%**: the independent instrument gets nearly half, and the twins share the rest almost as if they were one instrument. The portfolio's volatility falls to about 14.0%, and the ratio rises to about **1.43**. The method did not look at returns at all — only at how much risk the mix sheds by combining instruments that do not move together. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/max-drawdown # Max drawdown Max drawdown is the largest fall from a previous peak in a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s value to a later low, measured as a percentage of that peak, over the whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest) period. It is the **worst peak-to-trough fall** the strategy would have lived through — not the loss it ended the period with. **Also seen as:** Max DD, DD A single drawdown is any fall from a running peak to a later low; max drawdown is the deepest of them. The term stays *drawdown* in every language, including Italian. ## How is max drawdown calculated? Max drawdown compares each low point against the highest value reached before it, and keeps the worst result: the peak-and-trough pair chosen is the one producing the largest fall anywhere in the period. Because it is a ratio, max drawdown does not depend on how much [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) you used. $$ \text{max drawdown} = \frac{{\text{trough value}} - {\text{peak value}}}{{\text{peak value}}} $$ where: - the lowest value reached after that peak, before the strategy recovered - the highest value the strategy had reached before the fall ## How does Fincanva handle it? A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR. - Max drawdown is measured on the strategy's [capital curve](/glossary/equity-curve) over the whole backtest window, and shown as a negative percentage — a deeper fall is a more negative number. - The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) shows it in the **Drawdown** group as the row **Max drawdown**; the capital view shows the same figure as a KPI, and the by-year table repeats it per calendar year. The [monthly returns heatmap](/glossary/months-matrix) shows the per-year version in the compact **DD** column. - Your [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) gets its own max drawdown over the same window, so the two are directly comparable. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy climbs to a peak of 12,000, then falls to a low of 9,000 before recovering. Its drawdown from that peak is (9,000 − 12,000) ÷ 12,000 = −25%. If no other fall in the period is deeper, −25% is the max drawdown. Now suppose the same strategy recovers and finishes the backtest at 14,000, a [total return](/glossary/total-return) of +40%. The max drawdown is still −25%: the figure records the worst dip along the path, and a strong ending does not erase it. Total return asks where you ended; max drawdown asks how bad it got on the way. ## Where else does Fincanva use max drawdown? - Max drawdown is selectable as the **Risk measure** in the [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) allocation method, as the alternative to **Annualized volatility** — there it decides weights rather than reporting a result. - It feeds the [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio), which divides the period's return by the size of the max drawdown. - A drawdown deep enough to reach the simulation's floor triggers the [bankruptcy rules](/glossary/bankruptcy-rules), which close every position and leave the curve flat for the rest of the run. ## What counts as a good value? A max drawdown closer to zero means the strategy's value never fell far below its running high during the period. It describes **depth only** — it says nothing about how long the strategy stayed down, which is what [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown) and [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery) measure, nor how far below its own starting point a typical start date left it, which is [average pain](/glossary/average-pain). Two strategies with the same max drawdown can look very different if one recovered in two months and the other took three years. Max drawdown is also period-bound: it can only report the worst fall that happened inside your backtest window, so a shorter window has had fewer chances to produce a deep one. *No drawdown figure is a limit on future losses.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/max-hold-months # Max hold months Max hold months is a time-based exit that closes a position once the number of months you set has passed since it was opened — counted in **calendar months**, and acted on only at the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **scheduled rebalances**, never on the position's month anniversary. It caps how long any single position may stay, whether it is up or down. **Also seen as:** Max hold, maximum holding period, hold cap. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The control is labelled **Max hold**, with the helper "Sell a position after holding it this long". Off by default; when you switch it on, the value starts at the strategy's own rebalance interval, and you raise it from there. - Entered in months (suffix "mo"), up to 120; the field will not take a value outside that range. The value must be a whole multiple of the rebalance interval — at a 3-month cadence anything else is blocked with "Must be a multiple of 3 months" — so changing the cadence can leave a value you already set invalid; the whole-multiples rule belongs to [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). - In [Screen](/glossary/asset-selection-modes), with a [screener](/glossary/screener) attached, it is always on and equal to the rebalance interval, so at every rebalance every position is sold and the screener picks again. The Asset selection card shows it as "Same as the rebalance" and does not let you change it; to set a different hold, use Compose. - A position closed by this rule is recorded with the [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason) **Max hold**, one of the causes a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) records. - It is one of the per-position exits, alongside [take profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss), and looks only at elapsed time. Those two run on the position's own price bars and can close it between rebalances; max hold cannot. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy rebalances every month and has max hold set to **5** months. A position opened on the 12 January rebalance is 5 whole months old on 12 June, which is also a rebalance date, so it is closed there and its trade history shows the reason **Max hold**. Nothing happens at the February through May rebalances, and nothing happens between rebalances either. The calendar-month count shows when rebalance dates do not fall on the same day each month. Suppose the position opened at a rebalance on 28 January and June's scheduled rebalance falls on 3 June. January to June is five calendar months, so the position closes on 3 June — a few days short of five full months. Had a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) forced an [off-schedule rebalance](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip) on 28 June, it would not have closed the position there. Now raise the cadence to every 3 months: 5 is no longer a whole multiple of 3, so the app refuses it with "Must be a multiple of 3 months", and the nearest valid settings are 3 or 6 months. *Fincanva does not recommend a holding period, or whether to cap one at all.* ## When does max hold actually close a position? Max hold closes a position at the first **scheduled** rebalance of the strategy at which the months you set have passed — never partway through a period, and never on a rebalance a risk condition forced off schedule. Two rules decide which rebalance that is: - **Months are calendar months.** The count is the number of calendar months between the month the position was opened and the month of the rebalance; the day of the month plays no part. A position opened in January has been held five months at any rebalance in June, whether June's rebalance falls on the 3rd or the 28th. - **Only scheduled rebalances act on it.** The check runs at the strategy's scheduled rebalance dates, and nowhere else. The practical consequence is that max hold is not an exact stopwatch: the position leaves at the scheduled rebalance in the month its time runs out, which can be a few days before or after the same calendar day N months on. Because the exit lands on a scheduled rebalance date, the value has to line up with the rebalance clock — which is why it must be a whole multiple of the rebalance interval. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/max-positions # Max positions Max positions caps how many instruments a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) may hold at the same time, so a selection that qualifies twenty candidates still holds only as many as the cap allows. It is a concentration control rather than an exit rule: it decides the width of the portfolio at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), not when an individual position leaves. **Also seen as:** position cap, maximum positions, holdings limit. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The control is labelled **Max positions**, under **Selection rules** on the strategy's **Asset selection** card; its dotted underline shows this definition and opens this page. - **The highest cap your plan allows is 5 on Free, 10 on Starter, 25 on Advanced, and 50 on Ultimate and Professional.** The value in force is the lower of that and the 50 the field itself accepts, which is why Ultimate and Professional both show the same 50 here and no upgrade between them raises it further. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Always on: unlike the other per-position controls it has no on/off switch, so a strategy always carries a cap, which keeps its results bounded and comparable. The value is a whole number of instruments — except on a manual selection, where Fincanva sets it and shows no field. - The cap is per strategy: inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) each [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) carries its own, so the Combined can hold more instruments in total than any one member. - It is applied at each rebalance, so it constrains the target portfolio, not just the first buy-in. It is independent of [max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months), which decides how long a position may stay, and [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay), which decides how long a closed [instrument](/glossary/instrument) stays out. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's [screener](/glossary/screener) matches 14 instruments and max positions is set to **10**. At the rebalance the strategy ranks all 14, keeps the top 10, and holds those; the remaining 4 are matched but not bought, and they appear nowhere in the strategy's holdings. The eleventh-ranked instrument is the first one left out — it qualified on every filter and was excluded purely by the cap. Raise the cap to 14 and all of them are held, each at a smaller share of the same capital. Lower it to 5 and only the top five survive, so the strategy becomes markedly more concentrated and small changes in the ranking now change half its portfolio. *Fincanva does not recommend how many positions to hold — a wider or narrower cap is a mechanical consequence of where the cut falls, not a suggestion. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* ## What happens when more instruments qualify than the cap allows? The cap is applied at each rebalance, and when the selection produces more candidates than the cap allows, the strategy's ranking — the ordering its [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) works from — decides which of them are kept; the rest are simply not bought. A screener still reports every instrument it [matches](/glossary/matches), and the cap then trims that set down to the number the strategy is allowed to hold. Max positions is not the only limit on that path: a [max-symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap) can trim the match set to its most liquid names before the ranking ever sees it. So the cap changes what the strategy owns, not what its screener found. A lower cap makes the strategy more concentrated and puts more weight on the ranking — explicit when the method is [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based) — because a smaller number of survivors is decided by a finer cut of the same ordering. A higher cap spreads the same capital over more instruments and leans less on the ranking. Both are mechanical consequences of where the cut falls — neither is a recommendation. ## Is max positions a control when I pick the instruments myself? No — this is the one place the cap is not something you set. When the selection is manual, Fincanva sets max positions to the number of instruments you picked, updated with every pick and removal, so the cap can never be the reason one of your own choices goes unheld. That covers a **Single instrument** strategy (one), a **Multiple instruments** strategy, and the **Basket** mode of a Full setup strategy; the field is not shown there, because you already answered "how many?" by choosing them. Leave the Basket for Screen or Compose and the value you last gave it there comes back — never the basket's count; a strategy that has only been on Basket since you opened it starts from the default. Pick more instruments than your plan holds in one strategy and the list is kept whole, but a [blocking alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts#which-controls-belong-to-the-selection-section) says so: the strategy is not saved and does not run until you remove instruments or move to a higher plan. It remains a real control wherever the selection is by rule — **Screen** and **Compose** — where the number of qualifying instruments is not known in advance. ## How high can max positions go? As high as the lower of two ceilings: the 50 the field itself accepts, and what your plan allows — so a Free account tops out at 5, a Starter one at 10, an Advanced one at 25, and Ultimate and Professional both at 50. The engine imposes no user-facing maximum of its own; both ceilings are Fincanva's, and the app resolves your plan's before it accepts the value, so the number the field lets you save is a statement about your own account. A strategy already holding more than its plan allows is not edited or deleted — it reads Set aside until the value comes down or the plan covers it, which is [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/max-symbols-cap # Max-symbols cap The max-symbols cap is the limit on how many of a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s [matches](/glossary/matches) a simulation carries forward as candidates: when a screen returns more instruments than the run will work with, the set is trimmed and only the most liquid matches survive. It applies where a screener feeds a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), not to the screener on its own — the count you read on a screener's **Matches** tab is not capped, while the candidate list the [simulation engine](/glossary/simulation-engine) receives from it can be shorter. Liquidity is the tie-break: when names have to be dropped, the most heavily traded ones are kept. **Also seen as:** symbols cap ## Why does my screener show more matches than my strategy holds? Because two separate limits sit between the filters and the holdings, and only one of them is the max-symbols cap. - **[Max positions](/glossary/max-positions)** is the control you set yourself, under **Selection rules** on the strategy's **Asset selection** card. It decides how many positions the strategy carries at any one moment. - **The max-symbols cap** sits earlier, between the screen and the run. It decides how many matches are considered as candidates at all on a screening date, before the allocation picks anything. So a screener reporting 200 matches does not hand 200 candidates to the run, and the run does not hold every candidate it is handed. Both gaps are expected rather than errors, and Fincanva shows no notice when the cap has applied — you infer it from the distance between the match count and the holdings. A screener's own backtest is a different measurement again: it is taken against [a benchmark](/glossary/screener-backtest-benchmark) rather than against what a strategy ends up holding. ## What happens to the matches that get dropped? They are not considered on that screening date, and nothing else about them changes. The cap keeps the most liquid matches and drops the least liquid, so the names that fall away are the thinnest-traded ones in that match set — instruments whose trading activity is small next to the rest of the set. They stay in the screener's own results, they stay in the [universe](/glossary/universe), and they keep the same [permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier). Being dropped is also not permanent. A screener is re-run on every screening date, so the trimming is redone each time against a fresh match set: a name outside the cap on one date can be inside it on the next, because either the match set or its liquidity ranking has moved. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The cap applies to the candidate set a simulation screens in, never to the count a screener reports on its own. - Liquidity is the only tie-break. The cap does not prefer a sector, a country, an exchange, or an instrument that passed the filters by a wider margin. - The cap is not a published number — Fincanva states no figure for it and shows none in the app. - Trimming happens on every screening date, not once at the start of the run, because the screen itself is re-evaluated each time (see [screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching)). - The cap changes which [instruments](/glossary/instrument) a run may hold; it does not change any filter, any threshold, or the screener you saved. - It is not a filter row you author. A Highest-N or Lowest-N ranking inside a screener is a row you write and can read back — see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking) — whereas the cap is applied between the screen and the run and has no row of its own. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener returns 200 matches on a screening date. If the cap sits below 200, the set is trimmed before anything is allocated: the most liquid of the 200 are kept, the thinnest-traded are dropped, and the allocation then chooses its holdings from the shorter list. If the cap is at or above 200, nothing is trimmed and all 200 stay candidates. Read the two numbers apart. The 200 is what the filters found. What the strategy holds is a subset of a subset — the most liquid matches first, then as many of those as **Max positions** allows. If a specific thinly-traded name you expected keeps failing to appear in the holdings even though it shows up in the screener's results, the cap rather than the filters is the usual reason. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/metrics-table # Metrics table The metrics table is the read-out on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Performance Metrics** page that reports 14 [backtest](/glossary/backtest) metrics for your strategy next to the same 14 metrics for its [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), grouped into five named blocks. Each metric has its own definition and its own conventions; this page is the map of the table — what sits where, and where to read each figure's full meaning. **Also seen as:** the metrics page, the summary table Fincanva shows it in two parts on one page: **Summary** (the whole period) and **By year** (the same story, one row per calendar year). ## What does the Summary table show? **Summary** has three columns — the metric name, a **Portfolio** value and a **Benchmark** value — so every figure can be read against the benchmark run over the identical dates. The rows are grouped under five headings. **Performance** - **Total return (%)** — the whole-period gain or loss. See [total return](/glossary/total-return). - **Years** — not a metric but the span: the number of calendar years the backtest covers, carried to decimal months so a partial year counts. It is the denominator that turns a total into a yearly pace, which is why it sits in this group. - **CAGR** — the compound yearly growth rate. See [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). - **AAGR** — the arithmetic yearly average, which takes CAGR's place in the same slot when **Reinvest profits** is off. See [AAGR](/glossary/aagr). **Drawdown** - **Max drawdown** — the deepest peak-to-trough fall. See [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). - **Return-to-drawdown ratio** — the period's return divided by the size of that fall. See [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). - **Longest drawdown (months)** — the longest stretch spent below a prior peak. See [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown). - **Longest recovery (months)** — the longest climb back from a trough to a prior peak. See [longest recovery](/glossary/longest-recovery). **Volatility and risk** - **Volatility** — the annualized standard deviation of returns. See [volatility](/glossary/volatility). - **Risk-free rate** — the period-matched riskless baseline the risk-adjusted metrics subtract. See [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). - **Sharpe** — return above the risk-free rate per unit of volatility. See [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio). **Monthly performance** - **Positive months (%)** — the share of months that closed up. See [positive months](/glossary/positive-months). - **Best month** and **Worst month** — the single strongest and weakest month of the period. See [best month and worst month](/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month). **Averages** - **Monthly average** and **Yearly average** — the plain averages of the monthly and annual return series. See [monthly and yearly average](/glossary/monthly-and-yearly-average). The **Portfolio** value carries the colour: positive figures read green, negative red, and ratio rows are coloured against a neutral band. The **Benchmark** value is deliberately shown muted, because it is context rather than your result. ## How does the By year table work? **By year** repeats six of the same metrics per calendar year: the columns are **Year**, **Annual return (%)**, **Max drawdown**, **Volatility**, **Return-to-drawdown ratio**, **Sharpe** and **Positive months (%)**. Years are listed newest first, and the page's footer pages through them 25 at a time by default, with 50, 100 and **All** available. Each cell stacks two figures: your strategy's value on top, and a second, smaller line underneath. A **Benchmark** toggle in the card header decides what that second line is. - **Value** shows the benchmark's own figure for that year, prefixed with "vs" — and the card's caption reads "Each cell: your portfolio, with the benchmark value below." - **Delta** replaces it with the gap between the two, prefixed by an arrow: up and green when your strategy beat the benchmark on that metric, down and red when it trailed. The caption changes to "Each cell: your portfolio, with the gap vs the benchmark below." Two things about **Delta** are easy to misread. First, the gap between two percentages is a difference in **percentage points**, so it is labelled **pp** rather than **%** — see [excess return](/glossary/excess-return). Second, the arrow means "better", not "bigger": for **Volatility** a lower number is the better one, so a smaller volatility than the benchmark's shows an up arrow. ## Why does the CAGR row sometimes read AAGR? Because the two [annualization](/glossary/annualization) conventions share one slot and the **Reinvest profits** assumption chooses between them. With **Reinvest profits** on, the compounding assumption holds and the row is **CAGR**; with it off, profits are not compounded and the row becomes **AAGR**. The same choice flows into **Sharpe**, whose return term is whichever of the two is active. See [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions). ## Where else do these metrics appear? - A KPI strip above the table leads with four headline figures — **Sharpe ratio**, **Volatility**, **Longest drawdown** and **CAGR vs benchmark**. - Every strategy row in your strategies list carries a compact version of the same read-out: **CAGR**, **Volatility**, **Sharpe** and **Max drawdown** as columns, alongside the **MTD**, **1M**, **YTD** and **1Y** return windows. All of them are shown by default and can be hidden from the **Columns** chooser. See [return windows](/glossary/return-windows). - The **Monthly Returns** page repeats the per-year figures in its compact **Total**, **DD** and **NP/DD** columns. See [months matrix](/glossary/months-matrix). - A [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page repeats several of these figures per strategy — as cards of charts rather than as a table — and adds [Sortino](/glossary/sortino-ratio), [Tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) and [Information ratio](/glossary/information-ratio). The last two are measured against the parent Combined, not against the benchmark. For a row-by-row walkthrough with each metric's convention stated in place, read [what every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Every row is computed over the same period for your strategy and for the benchmark, because the benchmark runs as its own full simulation on the same dates and [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital). - Percentage rows are shown as percentages and ratio rows as plain numbers — **Sharpe** and **Return-to-drawdown ratio** are ratios, not percentages. - The three simulation assumptions — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes**, **Reinvest profits** — change which pre-computed set of figures the table reads; the switch is immediate and does not re-run the backtest. - **By year** opens in **Value** mode; the choice is a view preference and is not saved to the page's address. - The table fills in only after a completed run. Before that the page reads "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to generate its metrics." ## What does it look like in practice? Read one **By year** cell out loud. In the **Annual return (%)** column, the row for 2022 shows **−14.2%** on top and, in **Value** mode, "vs −18.0%" below it: the strategy lost 14.2% that year while its benchmark lost 18.0%. Flip the header toggle to **Delta** and the same cell shows **−14.2%** with **↑ 3.8pp** beneath it. The arrow points up and reads green because losing less than the benchmark is the better outcome on this metric, and the gap is 3.8 percentage points, not 3.8%. Move one column right to **Volatility**, where the strategy shows 11.0% against the benchmark's 15.5%: the delta is **↑ 4.5pp**, again up and green, because on volatility the smaller number is the better one. ## What counts as a good value? No single row answers that, and the table is built so that no single row has to. Each metric answers one narrow question — how much, how fast, how deep, how bumpy, how often — and reading one in isolation is how a result gets misread: a high return with a deep max drawdown and a high return with a shallow one are very different results with the same first number. The **Benchmark** column exists for the same reason. It tells you which part of a figure was the market and which part was the strategy's own doing, which is a genuinely different question from whether the figure is large. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/mimicking # Mimicking Mimicking is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that weights a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s own instruments so that the strategy's returns follow one chosen reference [instrument](/glossary/instrument) as closely as possible — index replication built from your holding list rather than the index's. You pick the reference; the method works out the weights. **Also seen as:** index replication, index tracking, partial replication, tracking-portfolio weighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Mimicking is available inside a single strategy only. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it when it splits capital across its member strategies. - A **Reference instrument** is required — until one is chosen the app shows "Select a reference instrument" with the note "Required for Mimicking". - The reference is any single instrument in Fincanva's coverage, searched by ticker or name. It is commonly an index or an index ETF, but the picker is not restricted to indices. - Mimicking reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window): the weights are fitted over that many months of history, and recomputed at each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) as new history arrives. - How the weights are computed is part of the engine and is not published. What the method promises to the user is the objective — follow the reference's returns as closely as this universe permits. ## What does Mimicking actually track? Mimicking targets the reference instrument's **returns**, not its published list of constituents. As the app puts it, "The strategy's weights are computed so its returns track this instrument as closely as possible." The strategy therefore does not need to hold what the reference holds: it holds the instruments already in its own [universe](/glossary/universe), weighted so that the basket's return path stays as near the reference's path as those instruments allow. That is what makes it useful for replicating a broad index with ten or twenty holdings instead of hundreds. ## Why is the copy never exact? Replicating something with fewer holdings than it has always leaves a residual gap, because the strategy can only be assembled from the instruments in its universe. The gap tends to be wider when the universe is small, when its instruments behave differently from the reference's own components, and in periods when the reference's return is driven by parts of the market the strategy cannot hold at all. A wider universe generally follows the reference more closely; a shorter holding list is simpler and cheaper to trade but follows less tightly. That trade-off — closeness against holding count — is the whole decision Mimicking puts in front of you. Note that Fincanva's [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) metric measures a different pair: a [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) against its parent Combined, not a strategy against its Mimicking reference. It is not a readout of how well a Mimicking strategy is following its reference. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's universe holds ten large US stocks, and its reference instrument is a broad US index ETF. Mimicking sets those ten weights so the basket's return path stays as near the ETF's as ten names allow; it does not attempt to copy the index's hundreds of constituents. Through a stretch where the index is carried by sectors none of the ten stocks belong to, the basket lags the reference noticeably. Through a stretch where the ten move with the market, it follows closely. Swap the reference for a small-cap index and the same ten large-cap stocks track it far less well — not because the method changed, but because the instruments available cannot reproduce that reference's behaviour. *How closely a Mimicking strategy followed its reference on historical data is not how closely it will follow it ahead, and neither the method nor any reference instrument is a recommendation.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/min-correlation # Min correlation Min correlation is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that sets weights so the instruments in a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) move together as little as possible: instruments closely tied to the rest get less weight, those that behave differently get more. Where [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) looks at each instrument on its own, Min correlation looks at the relationships between them. **Also seen as:** minimum-correlation algorithm, MCA, minimum correlation weighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - It is a **single-strategy method**: a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) does not offer it when it splits capital across its strategies. - Its one setting, **Correlation matrix**, chooses how the correlations are estimated; the weights fall out of them. It **starts on Sample**, for a newly chosen method and for a strategy saved before the setting existed alike, and a chip under the method names any other choice — see [Choose how a method estimates risk](/docs/strategies/choose-how-a-method-estimates-risk). - **Marchenko-Pastur is included from the Ultimate plan**, like the advanced [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) estimators; the other five choices come with the method. On a lower plan it stays in the list with the plan mark, and choosing it opens the plan dialog. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **It is not the Combined's correlation matrix**: the [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) on a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s **Correlations** page is a separate analysis, unaffected by it. - The [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**), over which correlations are measured, defaults to **12 months** and is a choice of 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, because the method also reads annualised [volatility](/glossary/volatility) over it — see [which window lengths you can choose](/glossary/calculation-window#which-window-lengths-can-you-choose). - Correlations are re-measured at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), so the weighting can shift sharply over a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — a [rolling correlation](/glossary/rolling-correlation) shows that movement. With a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) there is nothing to correlate. ## Why does low correlation matter? A portfolio's volatility depends on how its holdings move relative to each other, not only on how volatile each one is: two instruments with identical volatility give a *less* volatile combination the less correlated they are. That is the mechanism behind diversification, and the correlation term in the [mean-variance volatility formula](/glossary/mpt-markowitz#what-is-the-efficient-frontier). For two instruments held at equal weight with the same volatility: $$ {\sigma_{\text{pair}}} = {\sigma} \times \sqrt{\frac{1 + {\rho}}{2}} $$ where: - the volatility of the equal-weight pair - each instrument's own volatility - their correlation At a correlation of 1 the pair is no calmer than one instrument alone; the lower it falls, the more the pair's volatility drops below each instrument's. ## Which correlation estimate does Min correlation use? **Sample**, unless you choose another under **Correlation matrix** — "How the method measures how closely the instruments move together." **Change** opens six choices, none with a setting of its own: | Choice | What it does | |---|---| | **Sample** (default) | "The historical estimate, computed on prices." | | **Pearson on returns** | "The classic correlation, computed on daily returns instead of prices." | | **Spearman (rank-based)** | "Compares the order of returns, not their size: extreme days weigh less." | | **Kendall (rank-based)** | "Counts how often two instruments rise and fall together: the most robust to extreme days." | | **Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)** | "Gives more weight to recent days: reacts sooner when correlations change." | | **Marchenko-Pastur** | "Separates the signal from the noise and keeps only the signal." | **Sample** correlates prices, which picks up shared long-run trends as well as day-to-day co-movement; the other five work on daily returns, which measure the day-to-day co-movement alone. **Pearson** is the textbook coefficient; **Spearman** and **Kendall** compare the order of returns, so a few extreme days move them less; **EWMA** follows a change in correlations sooner, with no decay setting here; **Marchenko-Pastur**, in the list's **Advanced** group, keeps only the structure distinguishable from noise — the idea behind the same option under [Covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds three instruments, each with 15% volatility. Their pairwise correlations over the window are: A with B, 0.85; A with C, 0.20; B with C, 0.35. Held at equal weight, a pair's volatility is 15% × √((1 + ρ) ÷ 2): | Pair | Correlation | Volatility of the equal-weight pair | |---|---|---| | A + B | 0.85 | 15% × √0.925 = **14.4%** | | B + C | 0.35 | 15% × √0.675 = **12.3%** | | A + C | 0.20 | 15% × √0.600 = **11.6%** | Every pair is built from instruments with the same 15% volatility, yet the calmest pair is nearly three percentage points calmer than the most correlated one. Only the correlations explain it, and picking on that difference is what Min correlation is for. Fincanva reports the same pair-by-pair reading for a Combined's strategies in its [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix). ## How is Min correlation different from Risk parity? Both take correlations into account, but aim at different things. [Risk parity](/glossary/risk-parity) targets the *split* of risk — every instrument supplies an equal share of the total. Min correlation targets the *co-movement* itself, favouring instruments that behave least like the rest. A highly correlated instrument can still receive a substantial risk-parity weight; under Min correlation it is the very thing being weighted down. Fincanva describes how these methods work; it does not recommend one. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/min-cvar # Min CVaR Min CVaR is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that chooses the weights whose **average loss on the worst days** is as small as possible. It looks only at the bad tail, the worst 5% of days by default, so it separates instruments variance calls equally risky when one has rare, deep falls. **Scenario CVaR** applies it to generated futures. **Also seen as:** minimum CVaR, mean-CVaR optimisation, minimum expected shortfall, CVaR minimisation ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"Min CVaR"** and describes it as "Reduces the average loss on the worst days"; Scenario CVaR as "Generates possible futures and reduces the worst losses across them". - Min CVaR and Scenario CVaR are offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - Both read the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default). Neither reads the **Covariance matrix** choice: they work on the returns themselves. - The **Tail share** starts at 5% and accepts 1% to 25%; a value outside that range shows an error on the field, and the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) does not run until it is corrected. - Both are marked "slow to compute" in the picker: each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) solves an optimisation over every day or scenario. ## Which plan includes Min CVaR and Scenario CVaR? Both depend on your plan, at each level where they are offered. The robustness radius and joint-crash scenarios come with Scenario CVaR itself. **Min CVaR inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Min CVaR inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Scenario CVaR inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Scenario CVaR inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does Min CVaR minimise? The [conditional value at risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk) (CVaR, also called expected shortfall): the average loss across the worst share of outcomes, that share being the **Tail share**. $$ {\text{CVaR}_\alpha} = \mathbb{E}\left[\,{L} \mid L \ge {\text{VaR}_\alpha}\,\right] $$ where: - the average loss on the worst α of days — what the method pushes down - the portfolio's loss on one day - the loss that only the worst α of days reach, α being the tail share Line up every day of the window from worst to best, keep the worst 5%, and average them. Variance counts a +3% day and a −3% day as the same risk; CVaR only counts losses, which is why two instruments with the same [volatility](/glossary/volatility) can come out very differently. ### What is the tail share? The **Tail share** is Min CVaR's one setting: "The worst share of days or scenarios over which the method measures the average loss." It runs from 1% to 25% and starts at 5%. A small share looks at the few most extreme days only, which makes the estimate noisy; a larger share is steadier but looks less deep into the tail. ## What is Scenario CVaR? Scenario CVaR minimises the same average loss over **generated possible futures** instead of the window's days. At each rebalance it builds a set of scenarios, each a possible next period assembled from real days of the window, and minimises the average loss of their worst share. Two settings describe them, under **Advanced settings**: - **Number of scenarios** — "How many possible futures are generated at each rebalance." From 100 to 2,000; 500 by default. - **Horizon of each scenario** — "How many trading days each generated future covers." From 5 to 63 days; 21 by default, about one month. ### How does Scenario CVaR differ from Min CVaR? In two ways. The loss it looks at is over a whole next period rather than a single day, and the scenarios can combine days that never followed each other in history — two instruments that never fell on the same day can still fall in the same scenario. The limit is the other side of the same coin: a kind of market the window never contained cannot appear in any scenario. ## What does the robustness radius do? The **Robustness radius** makes Scenario CVaR also guard against scenario sets slightly different from the one it generated: "Also protects against scenarios slightly different from the generated ones. The higher it is, the more evenly the weights spread." Off by default; switched on, it runs from 0.001 to 0.1 and starts at 0.01. In theory terms it is distributionally robust optimisation: an adversary may shift the scenarios by the radius before the loss is measured, and the method minimises the worst loss that could result. Concentration is penalised, so from a radius of about 0.02 the weights become almost equal and every other setting stops mattering; with joint-crash scenarios also on, the app says so: "At this radius the weights become almost equal", with an action to reduce the radius to 0.01. ### What are joint-crash scenarios? **Joint-crash scenarios** generate the futures differently: each [instrument](/glossary/instrument) keeps its own history of daily moves while the link between instruments is drawn so they crash together more often than the window shows — a Student-t copula. The app puts the trade-off plainly: "t copula: instruments tend to crash together. It is a different way to generate scenarios, not necessarily a better one." It gives up the way calm and stormy days cluster in real history. Switched on, it adds **Tail heaviness**, from 3 to 30 and 5 by default: "Lower = more extreme joint crashes." ## What does it look like in practice? Two instruments both have 15% annual volatility over a 12-month window of about 252 days. A moves about ±0.95% on a typical day; B is calmer, about ±0.57%, but had four days of −6%, which supply almost two-thirds of its variance. - At a 5% tail share the method averages the worst 252 × 5% ≈ 12–13 days. - A's worst days average about −1.95%; B's — its four −6% days plus eight or nine ordinary days of about −1.25% — about −2.8%. - Variance sees two equally risky instruments; Min CVaR sees about 40% more tail loss in B and leans toward A, holding some B only where B's bad days fall on A's good ones. ### What happens when the window is too short for the tail share? When the in-sample window times the tail share is less than one day, the average becomes the single worst day. The app warns before you run — "Too little data for this tail share" — with the arithmetic: at 1 month and 4%, about 21 days × 4% is less than one day (at 5%, 1.05 days, right at the edge). It offers two fixes: lengthen the in-sample period, or "Switch to EVaR" — [Entropic value at risk](/glossary/entropic-value-at-risk), to which every day contributes. Scenario CVaR measures its tail over scenarios, so the check runs on their number instead, and within the accepted ranges its tail always keeps at least one scenario. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/min-mad # Min MAD Min MAD is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that chooses the weights whose daily returns stray the least, on average, from their own mean. It is the robust cousin of minimising variance: variance squares every deviation, so one extreme day can outweigh months of ordinary ones, while the mean absolute deviation (MAD) counts each deviation once, at its size. **Also seen as:** minimum MAD, mean absolute deviation optimisation, MAD ## What is the mean absolute deviation? The mean absolute deviation is the average distance between each day's portfolio return and the portfolio's average return over the window. $$ \text{MAD} = \frac{1}{{T}} \sum_{t=1}^{T} \left| {r_{p,t}} - {\bar{r}_p} \right| $$ where: - the number of days in the calculation window - the portfolio's return on day t - the portfolio's average daily return In words: how far, on a typical day, the portfolio lands from where it usually lands — counting a day twice as far away as twice as bad, not four times as bad. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"Min MAD"** and describes it as "Reduces the average deviation of returns: one unusual day weighs little". - Min MAD is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - It has no settings of its own. It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and works on the daily returns themselves, so it does not read the **Covariance matrix** choice. - The picker marks it "slow to compute": each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) solves an optimisation over every day of the window. ## When does Min MAD differ from minimising variance? When returns have outliers. If returns were normally distributed, minimising MAD and minimising variance would lead to the same weights; the two part ways when some days are far more extreme than the rest. So a large gap between Min MAD's weights and the Min volatility weights of [MPT](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) on the same instruments is itself a sign that their history has fat tails. What Min MAD does not offer is an efficient-frontier picture or a target to choose: it has one objective and no settings. ## Which plan includes Min MAD? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A window holds 250 days on which an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) moves 1% away from its average, and one day on which a data glitch or a one-off event puts it 20% away. - **In variance**, each ordinary day adds 0.01² = 0.0001 and the one extreme day adds 0.20² = 0.04 — as much as 400 ordinary days. That single day outweighs the rest of the window put together. - **In MAD**, each ordinary day adds 0.01 and the extreme day adds 0.20 — as much as 20 ordinary days. It counts, but it does not decide. An optimiser minimising variance would reorganise the whole portfolio around that one day; Min MAD treats it as one bad day among many. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/mine-public # Mine / Public Mine and Public are the two halves of your library, shown as two tabs above every [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and [screener](/glossary/screener) list. **Mine** holds the items you own — the only ones you can edit, save, delete, or [mark Live](/glossary/mark-live). **Public** holds a read-only catalogue that Fincanva curates and every user sees the same way. The split is about ownership, not visibility: a Public item is not something you shared, it is something Fincanva published. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Your plan caps how many saved strategies Mine may hold** — the plan statement below the list gives the figures, and a figure of 999 is a safety maximum that stops runaway creation, not an allowance a plan buys you. - **Saved screeners are not limited by your plan.** Every plan carries the same 999 safety maximum, so the two counts no longer move together: saved strategies can be capped by your plan, screeners by none. They are still counted separately, and Public is a catalogue you do not own, so nothing in it counts against either number. - The Public tree's folders are organised by Fincanva, not by you: `Public folders are managed by Fincanva — copy items to Mine to organize.` - Everything you create lands in Mine — a new strategy or screener, a Duplicate, a **Copy to Mine**, and a screener saved from a [Fin](/glossary/fin) suggestion. - A Copy to Mine arrives at the top level of Mine with no [folder](/glossary/folder), so you file it wherever you want afterwards. - Copy to Mine on something that is not Public is refused with `Copy to Mine is only available for Public items.` — an item you already own is Duplicated instead. - Starring works on both tabs. A Public item's star is only a bookmark; the star lock that comes with going Live applies only to your own strategies (see [Starring strategies and screeners](/docs/strategies/starring-strategies-and-screeners)). Set by your plan: 2 on Free and 999 on Starter, Advanced, Ultimate and Professional. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## Can you edit a Public strategy or screener? No — and this is the rule that surprises people most: **editing a Public item forces a copy first.** You can open a Public strategy or screener and read every setting, but you cannot save a change to it. The app blocks the save and tells you the way round: `Public strategies can't be saved. Use "Copy to Mine" to make an editable version.` On the screener side it reads `Public screener — use Copy to Mine to create your own version.` Once you have used **Copy to Mine**, you own the copy outright and can change anything in it. The Public original is untouched and stays in the catalogue for everyone — see [Duplicate and Copy to Mine](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine) for what the copy keeps. ## What is the difference between Mine and Public? | | Mine | Public | |---|---|---| | Who owns it | you | Fincanva (no owner) | | Can you edit and save it | yes | no — Copy to Mine first | | Can you create items or folders in it | yes | no — `Create (disabled on Public tab)` | | Can you delete it | yes | no | | Can you mark it Live | yes | no | | Can you favourite it | yes | yes — a plain bookmark that never locks | ## What does it look like in practice? You find a Public strategy in the catalogue and want it to [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) monthly instead of quarterly. You open it, change the rebalance cadence, and try to save — the save is blocked with `Public strategies can't be saved. Use "Copy to Mine" to make an editable version.` So you choose **Copy to Mine**. A copy appears at the top level of the Mine tab, owned by you and no different from anything else you built. You set it to monthly, save, and back-test it. The Public original still rebalances quarterly and still sits in the catalogue exactly as it was, for you and for everyone else. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/monthly-and-yearly-average # Monthly and yearly average Monthly and yearly average are the plain arithmetic means of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s monthly and annual return series over the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) period. The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) lists them as two rows, "Monthly average" and "Yearly average", in the **Averages** group. Both are simple averages — the figures in a series added up and divided by how many there are — not compounded growth rates, which is what makes them read differently from [CAGR](/glossary/cagr). **Also seen as:** average monthly return, average annual return, Avg month ## How are the monthly and yearly averages calculated? Each is the arithmetic mean of its own return series. $$ \text{monthly average} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n} r_i $$ where: $r_i$ is the return of month $i$ and $n$ is the number of months in the backtest period. The yearly average is the same calculation over the series of annual returns, with $n$ as the number of years. ## Why is the yearly average not twelve times the monthly average? Because each yearly return already compounds its own twelve months, while the monthly average only adds monthly figures up and divides. Compounding means a year's return is built by multiplying its months together, not by summing them, so the annual series carries growth-on-growth that the monthly series does not. Multiplying the monthly average by twelve therefore usually lands below the yearly average, and neither result is the strategy's compounded growth rate — that is [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), or [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when **Reinvest profits** is off. ## What counts as a good value? A positive monthly or yearly average means the typical period in the series gained rather than lost, but an arithmetic mean hides how spread out the figures were: two runs with the same monthly average can have completely different [best and worst months](/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month). Comparing the yearly average with CAGR is the useful reading — a yearly average far above the run's CAGR points to returns that swung widely from year to year, because dispersion drags a compounded rate below an arithmetic one. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Both appear in the **Averages** group of the metrics table, labelled "Monthly average" and "Yearly average", as percentages to one decimal place and coloured by sign. - The monthly returns view shows the same monthly figure as a KPI labelled "Avg month". - Neither is annualized or compounded — the annualized slot in **Performance Metrics** holds CAGR or AAGR instead, depending on the **Reinvest profits** assumption. - The monthly average is computed over the same month-by-month series the [monthly returns heatmap](/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap) displays; the yearly average uses the annual returns the by-year metrics table lists as "Annual return (%)". ## What does it look like in practice? A five-year backtest has 60 monthly returns that add up to +41 percentage points, so its monthly average is 41 ÷ 60 ≈ +0.7% a month. The same run's five annual returns are +14%, −6%, +21%, +3% and +16%; they add up to +48, so the yearly average is 48 ÷ 5 = +9.6% a year. Twelve times the monthly average is about +8.2%, below the +9.6% yearly average, because each annual figure already compounds its own twelve months while the monthly average simply adds them up. Neither +0.7% nor +9.6% is the run's CAGR, which compounds the whole period into one rate. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/months-matrix # Months matrix The months matrix is the grid on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Monthly Returns** page, titled **Monthly returns**, with one row per calendar year and one column per month, each cell holding that month's return and each row ending in a three-column summary of the year. It shows *when* the result happened — which months carried a year and which gave it back. **Also seen as:** monthly returns heatmap, month grid. ## What does the year detail above the grid show? Selecting a year — by clicking its row or the year itself — fills three stacked panels above the grid with just that year, and the most recent year is selected when the page opens. - **Equity**, labelled "vs benchmark", is that year's value curve for your strategy against the benchmark. See [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve). - **Drawdown** is how far below its previous peak the strategy sat on each day of that year. - **Monthly returns** is the same twelve months as bars, green above the line and red below. Hovering any of the three highlights the matching point on the other two. Only the **Monthly returns** bars follow the **vs. Benchmark** switch; the **Equity** and **Drawdown** panels always show the strategy's own figures. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Four KPIs sit above the grid: **Avg month**, **Best month**, **Worst month** and **Positive months**. They cover the whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest), not the selected year, and they always describe the strategy itself even when the **vs. Benchmark** switch is on. See [monthly and yearly average](/glossary/monthly-and-yearly-average), [best month and worst month](/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month) and [positive months](/glossary/positive-months). - Sorting, year selection and the **vs. Benchmark** switch are display choices; none of them re-runs the backtest. - The three [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** and **Reinvest profits** — change which set of figures the grid reads. - With no completed run there is nothing to draw, and the page reads "No monthly data for this run." ## What is in the matrix? The columns run **Year**, then **Jan** through **Dec**, then three per-year summary columns. - **Year** is the calendar year, and its column help reads "Calendar year". It stays pinned to the left as you scroll sideways, and clicking a year selects it. - **Jan**–**Dec** each hold that month's return for that year, printed as a percentage in the cell. Months that have not been simulated yet — the remainder of the current year, for instance — are left blank. - **Total** is the year's own total return. See [total return](/glossary/total-return). - **DD** is the deepest fall inside that year. See [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). - **NP/DD** is that year's return divided by the size of that fall. See [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). Rows start with the most recent year at the top. Clicking any column header sorts the whole grid by that column and clicking again reverses it, so sorting by **Jan** ranks the years by their January, and sorting by **DD** brings the roughest years together. Blank months always sort to the bottom. The grid scrolls rather than paging. ## What do the colours mean? The shading carries one fact and one fact only: **the size and direction of that month's return.** Every figure is also printed as a number in its cell, so the colour is a way to find things quickly, never the only way to read a value. - **Green** means the month ended positive; **red** means it ended negative. - **Stronger colour means a bigger move.** The intensity is scaled against the strongest single month currently in the grid, so the most saturated green cell is the best month on view and the most saturated red cell is the worst. Every non-zero month keeps at least a faint tint, so a small move is still visible as a colour rather than disappearing. - **No colour means no move or no data.** A month that ended exactly flat is left untinted, and so is a month with no result yet — a blank cell has no figure in it, which is how you tell the two apart. Because the scale is relative to what is on view, the shading is a ranking within your own backtest, not an absolute scale you can compare between two different strategies. A strategy whose worst month was −4% will still show a deep red cell for it; that red means "worst month here", not "−20%". ## What does the vs. Benchmark switch do? The **vs. Benchmark** switch above the grid turns the month cells and the **Total** column into *excess* figures — your strategy's return minus the [benchmark's](/glossary/benchmark) return for the same month — so a green cell then means "beat the benchmark that month" rather than "made money that month". The switch leaves **DD** and **NP/DD** unchanged, since those describe the strategy's own path. The result is in percentage points; see [excess return](/glossary/excess-return). ### What counts as a good pattern? The matrix describes distribution, not quality. A row of many small greens and a row with one huge green and several reds can both total the same, and they tell you different things about where the year's result came from — the second one depended on a single month, so it would look very different had the backtest window started or stopped a few weeks earlier. Reading a column down instead of a row across shows whether one calendar month recurs as strong or weak. Bear in mind that ten years give only ten samples per month, which is far too few to distinguish a pattern from coincidence — and a pattern in past months is not a statement about future ones. ## What does it look like in practice? Say you want the worst month of a ten-year backtest without reading a hundred and twenty numbers. Scan for the darkest red cell: it sits in the **Mar** column of the 2020 row and reads −18.4%. That single cell is also the figure the **Worst month** KPI shows above the grid, and the one the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) reports as **Worst month**. Now read the rest of that row across. **Total** for 2020 is +6.1% — the year finished up despite that March — and **DD** is −22.0%, deeper than the worst single month, because the fall ran across the end of February and into March rather than fitting inside one calendar month. That gap between −18.4% and −22.0% is the point of having both columns: a monthly grid cuts the path at month boundaries, and a drawdown does not. Finally, click 2020 to load its detail panels: the **Equity** curve shows the drop and the recovery inside the year, and the **Monthly returns** bars show one deep red bar in March followed by green ones. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/mpt-markowitz # MPT (Markowitz) MPT (Markowitz) is the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) built on Harry Markowitz's mean-variance Modern Portfolio Theory: for any level of risk you are willing to carry there is a mix with the highest expected return, and for any return one with the lowest risk. Because instruments do not move in lockstep, a mix can be less volatile than the instruments inside it. **Also seen as:** Modern Portfolio Theory, mean-variance optimisation, Markowitz optimisation ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"MPT (Markowitz)"** and describes it as "Modern portfolio theory: optimize on a risk/return objective". It is offered inside a single [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and inside a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), and has one optional variant, **Resampled**. - **MPT is included from the Advanced plan**, at the strategy level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike; Free and Starter do not offer it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - On a plan that does not include **Weight limits**, turning them on is refused with the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that includes them named, while MPT keeps running. - **Resampled starts at Ultimate**: on Advanced, turning it on is refused and the app names the plan that includes it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **Optimization target** defaults to **Optimal**; **Resampled** is off by default. - Its constraints — **Position direction** (strategy level only, starting at **Long/short**), **Weight limits** (off; **Min weight** 0 and **Max weight** 0.5 when on) and **Force diversification** (off) — are set as [Limit MPT's weights](/docs/strategies/limit-mpt-s-weights) describes. - The [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) supplies the risk and return inputs, and the **Covariance matrix** choice decides how volatilities and correlations are estimated from it; a newly chosen MPT starts on Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), so an MPT weighting moves over the life of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). **Weight limits** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What is the efficient frontier? The efficient frontier is the set of portfolios not beaten on both counts at once: none can raise expected return without raising risk, or lower risk without lowering expected return. Every other combination sits below it. For two instruments the expected return is the weighted average of the two, but the volatility is not: $$ E(R_p) = {w_A} {E(R_A)} + {w_B} {E(R_B)} \qquad \sigma_p = \sqrt{w_A^2 {\sigma_A^2} + w_B^2 {\sigma_B^2} + 2 w_A w_B {\rho_{AB}} \sigma_A \sigma_B} $$ where: - the two weights, adding to 1 - each instrument's expected return - each instrument's volatility, squared - the correlation between the two instruments' returns The correlation term is what makes the frontier curve: the lower the correlation, the more the mix's [volatility](/glossary/volatility) falls below the weighted average of the two volatilities. ## Which optimization target can you choose? The **Optimization target** control picks the point on the frontier the method aims at: "Optimal = best risk-adjusted return. Min volatility = lowest portfolio risk. Max return = highest expected return regardless of risk." | Target | Aims at | |---|---| | **Optimal** (default) | the best return per unit of risk — the [Sharpe-ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) sense of "best" | | **Min volatility** | the lowest-risk point on the frontier | | **Max return** | the highest expected return, with no regard for the risk that comes with it | ### How is Black-Litterman related to MPT? **[Black-Litterman](/glossary/black-litterman) is an allocation method built on MPT**, listed in the picker as a method of its own. It runs the same optimisation with every MPT setting and changes one input: the expected returns, replaced by a steadier estimate tilted toward momentum. So it offers **Optimal** and **Max return** but not **Min volatility**, which does not use them. Moving between the two in the picker keeps every MPT setting. ## What does the Resampled option do? **Resampled** repeats the optimisation on many resampled versions of the window's history and holds the average of the weights: "Michaud's method: repeats the optimization on many samples of the history and averages the results", with the effect "Steadier weights, less sensitive to noise." $$ {\bar{w}} = \frac{1}{{B}} \sum_{b=1}^{B} {w^{(b)}} $$ where: - the average set of weights actually held - the Number of samples - the weights the optimisation returns on sample b A lucky stretch that made one [instrument](/glossary/instrument) look best favours it in only some samples, so the average holds it at a moderate weight rather than piling onto it. - **Number of samples** runs from 10 to 1,000 and starts at 100. - It is very slow to compute, and the app says so with the count filled in — at the default: "Very slow to compute: every rebalance repeats the optimization 100 times." - The averaged weights are no longer a single point on the textbook efficient frontier. ## What does it look like in practice? Instrument A has an expected return of 6% and volatility of 10%; B has 10% and 20%; their correlation is 0.2. Hold them 60% / 40%: - Expected return: (0.6 × 6%) + (0.4 × 10%) = **7.6%**. - Volatility: √(0.6²×0.10² + 0.4²×0.20² + 2×0.6×0.4×0.2×0.10×0.20) = √0.01192 = **10.9%**. That pair of numbers is one point on the frontier. The low correlation bought a lot: 10.9% volatility, only 0.9 points more than A alone, for 1.6 points more expected return. Sliding from 100% A to 100% B traces the whole curve; the frontier is its upper edge. ### What is the expected return based on? The expected returns and volatilities are estimates read off the historical calculation window — not forecasts. Two backtests over different windows can produce different "optimal" weights from the same instruments, because the inputs changed. Picking the window whose weights looked best is [overfitting](/glossary/overfitting), and searching many windows for it is [data snooping](/glossary/data-snooping-bias). Fincanva describes how this method works; it does not recommend it or any target within it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/negative-dividends # Negative dividends A negative dividend is a dividend that counts against a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) instead of for it: it happens when the strategy is short a stock that pays one. A short position has borrowed and sold the shares, so on the ex-dividend date it owes the dividend to the lender, shown on the **Negative dividends** line of the P&L breakdown. **Also seen as:** short dividend, dividend payable on a short ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Negative dividends appear on the negative stack of the P&L breakdown, under the label "Negative dividends", kept separate from the positive "Dividends" line. - They arise only when a strategy runs short positions — for example a beta-neutral or short-enabled allocation method — so a long-only strategy never shows a negative dividend. ## Why can a dividend show as negative? The sign of a dividend follows which way the position points. Hold a stock long and its dividend is income — a gain that lands on the "Dividends" band. Hold the same stock short and the dividend flips into a cost: the lender of the borrowed shares is still entitled to it, so the short position pays it, and it lands on the "Negative dividends" band on the costs side of the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown). It is the mirror image of a normal dividend, not a data error. $$ {\text{negative dividend}} = {\text{shares held short}} \times {\text{dividend per share}} $$ where: - what the short position pays on the ex-dividend date - the number of shares the strategy is short - the dividend the stock pays per share ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is short 100 shares of a stock that pays a dividend of 0.50 per share. On the ex-dividend date the short position owes 100 × 0.50 = 50. That 50 is a negative dividend: it reduces the strategy's P&L and shows on the "Negative dividends" band — the exact mirror of the 50 in dividend income a holder who was long the same 100 shares would have collected on the "Dividends" band. See [dividends and splits](/glossary/dividends-and-splits) for how the same event is recorded on a long position. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/nested-clustered-optimization # Nested clustered optimization Nested clustered optimization is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that splits one hard optimisation into several small ones: it groups the instruments that move alike, finds the lowest-risk mix inside each group, treats each group as a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument), and then finds the lowest-risk mix across the groups. **Also seen as:** NCO ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"NCO · Nested clustered optimization"** and describes it as "Optimizes inside each group of similar instruments, then across the groups". - Nested clustered optimization is offered **inside a single strategy only**, across its instruments; a [Combined](/glossary/combined) does not offer it. - It has no settings of its own. It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and the **Covariance matrix** choice — see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). - Weights are never negative. - With most covariance estimators — including the recommended Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation — every instrument must have moved in price at some point inside the window: an instrument whose price stayed flat for the whole window, such as a suspended listing, stops the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than receiving a weight. Two estimators are the exception; [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix) names them. - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the window ending on that date. ## Why split the optimisation into groups? Because estimation errors spread through a single large optimisation. When several instruments are almost identical, a minimum-risk optimiser over all of them at once can turn tiny differences in their measured correlations into large offsetting bets. Inside a small group the problem is well behaved, and the groups are then compared as a handful of synthetic instruments — so a measurement error inside one group cannot move the weights inside another. $$ {w_i} = {w_{i \mid k}} \times {W_k} $$ where: - the instrument's final share of the capital - instrument i's weight inside its group k - group k's weight across the groups An instrument's final weight is its weight inside its group multiplied by its group's weight. Both levels aim at the lowest-risk mix, the "Min volatility" end of the [efficient frontier](/glossary/mpt-markowitz). The number of groups is chosen from the data at each rebalance, not set by you. ## When does Nested clustered optimization fit, and when not? It fits a [universe](/glossary/universe) of many similar instruments — a basket of stocks that fall into sectors, say — where the groups are clear and a single optimisation would be most fragile. It fits less well in two cases: - **A universe with no clear groups.** The two-stage answer then drifts further from what a single lowest-risk optimisation would give. - **A book built on a hedge.** Two instruments that move in opposite directions are treated as maximally different and land in different groups, so the method cannot fully use the hedge between them. And like any lowest-risk optimisation, the across-group step can give a whole high-risk group a weight close to zero. ## Which plan includes Nested clustered optimization? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds six instruments that fall into two groups of three: three bank stocks and three utility stocks. Inside the bank group, the lowest-risk mix is 50% / 30% / 20%; inside the utility group it is 40% / 40% / 20%. Treated as two synthetic instruments, the groups are then mixed for the lowest risk, which here comes out at 30% banks and 70% utilities. The first bank stock's final weight is 50% × 30% = **15%**; the first utility stock's is 40% × 70% = **28%**. Every one of the six weights is built the same way, and together they add up to 100%. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/order-plan # Order plan The order plan is the list of buys, sells, and adjustments a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s rules imply for its next [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), grouped into positions Entering, Exiting, and Adjusted. It shows what the portfolio would change from its current holdings to reach the new target portfolio, with an estimated turnover figure summarizing how much of the book moves. Fincanva shows it as the "Order plan" card on the Positions view. **Also seen as:** trade list ## What is in the order plan? The order plan sorts every change into three groups: **Entering** (instruments the strategy is adding), **Exiting** (instruments it is dropping), and **Adjusted** (instruments it keeps but re-sizes). It compares the current holdings against the next rebalance's target portfolio and lists only what differs. When there is nothing to do, the card reads "No changes this rebalance". ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Groups are labelled "Entering", "Exiting", and "Adjusted"; the first time a strategy is followed, everything falls under Entering as the portfolio's first buy-in. - The plan carries an "est. turnover" figure — an estimate of how much of the portfolio changes hands at the rebalance. It is an approximation and excludes exits, so it reads slightly low whenever instruments leave the book. - The order plan describes a rebalance on paper: it is what the strategy's rules imply, not real orders sent to a broker (see [Portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). - With no changes due, the card shows "No changes this rebalance". ## What does it look like in practice? At a rebalance, a strategy drops one [instrument](/glossary/instrument) it no longer wants, adds two that now pass its rules, and keeps three others but changes their sizes. The order plan lists those as Exiting (1), Entering (2), and Adjusted (3), and shows an estimated turnover — say "35% turnover" — as a rough gauge of how much of the book is moving. That 35% covers only the two entries and the three re-sizings: the instrument leaving is counted as a move in the list but not in the turnover figure, so the real churn is a little higher. *The order plan describes what a strategy's rules imply, not an instruction to place anything.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/overfitting # Overfitting Overfitting is the error of tuning a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) so tightly to a particular stretch of past data that it captures the noise in that data rather than a durable effect. It looks excellent on the history it was fitted to and performs poorly on data it has never seen; the gap between the two is its measurable signature. **Also seen as:** Curve-fitting, curve fitting ## How does Fincanva handle it? You define the rules. Fincanva has no automatic optimizer: it does not search parameter values or tune your thresholds against history for you, so a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reports what your exact stated rules would have done and nothing else — you stay in control of how closely they are shaped to history. The [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view re-runs one strategy across many entry dates and holding windows and reports the spread, a direct robustness check on a single flattering run. A backtest always runs to the latest available market close, so recent history is never held back automatically: a chronological in-sample / out-of-sample split is one you construct yourself from the periods you compare, primarily via the [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year). ## What counts as a robust result? A result is robust when it does not depend on one exact set of parameter values, one start date, or one sample of instruments. In practice that is a broad plateau instead of a sharp peak — small changes to a threshold move the outcome slightly rather than destroying it — plus a narrow spread of outcomes across many start dates. A result that exists only at one precise parameter setting is the textbook profile of an overfitted one, and a result that only survives with costs left out carries [cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias) as well, so repeat the check on the net figures. Robustness describes how a result behaves under perturbation; no level of it makes a strategy safe or a future return likely. ## Why does an overfitted strategy fail out of sample? An overfitted strategy is not a strategy that was wrong about the past — it described the past extremely well, which is exactly the problem: it encoded accidents that will not recur. Overfitting is an error of the *fitting step*: it lives in the strategy's own complexity, not in the sample you chose to test or the number of variants you tried before this one. An overfitted strategy fails out of sample because every historical price series contains two components — a repeatable one and an unrepeatable one — and fitting cannot tell them apart. As you add rules, thresholds, and exceptions, the strategy gains the flexibility to describe finer and finer detail in the sample. Some of that detail is a real effect that will show up again; the rest is coincidence specific to those particular dates. Past a certain point, each extra degree of freedom buys mostly coincidence, so in-sample performance keeps improving while out-of-sample performance flattens and then deteriorates. This is the standard bias–variance trade-off applied to trading rules: a very simple rule may systematically miss part of the real effect, while a very flexible one reproduces the sample almost exactly and generalises badly. The complexity that performs best on the fitted sample is therefore almost never the complexity that performs best afterwards. ## How many parameter combinations does a search really cover? The number of distinct strategies a parameter search covers is the product of the values tried for each parameter, so it grows multiplicatively, not additively. $$ {N} = {v_1} \times {v_2} \times \cdots \times {v_k} $$ where: - the number of distinct strategy variants the search covers - the number of values tried for each of the k tunable parameters Four parameters with ten candidate values each is not forty tests — it is $10^4 = 10{,}000$ distinct strategies, of which the best-looking one will look very good on that sample whether or not any real effect exists. This is the mechanical link between overfitting and [data-snooping bias](/glossary/data-snooping-bias): the more variants a search covers, the more the winner's apparent quality is explained by the size of the search. The two are the same statistical problem seen from two ends: overfitting describes the *strategy*, which has too many degrees of freedom for the data and has absorbed noise; data-snooping describes the *search*, in which many candidates were tried and only the winner is reported. Most real cases are both — [how data-snooping differs from overfitting](/glossary/data-snooping-bias#how-is-data-snooping-bias-different-from-overfitting) separates them case by case. ## How can a 12-parameter strategy be perfect in sample and dead out of sample? Consider two versions of the same idea, both fitted on 2000–2012 and then run unchanged on 2013–2025. | | Rules / parameters | 2000–2012 (fitted) | 2013–2025 (unseen) | |---|---|---|---| | Simple version | 2 | +11% [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), −28% max [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) | +9% CAGR, −31% max drawdown | | Tuned version | 12 | +19% CAGR, −14% max drawdown | +2% CAGR, −39% max drawdown | On the fitted window the tuned version is clearly the better strategy on every figure, and that is the result a single backtest would have shown. On the unseen window it collapses, while the simple version behaves roughly as it did before. The 12 parameters did not discover a better strategy; they described 2000–2012 more precisely — including the parts of it that were accidents. Note also which figure moved most: the tuned version's drawdown nearly tripled, because tuning had quietly removed the specific historical declines it was fitted to avoid rather than teaching the strategy to avoid declines in general. ## What is an in-sample / out-of-sample split? An in-sample / out-of-sample split is the standard defence against overfitting: the history is divided in two, the strategy is designed and tuned on the first part only (in sample), and the second part (out of sample) is then run once, unchanged, as a test of whether the result survives on data that played no part in shaping it. The out-of-sample result is the one that carries information, because it is the only one the rules were not fitted to. Two conditions make the split meaningful. The out-of-sample period must be genuinely untouched — each time you look at it, adjust the rules, and look again, it becomes part of the fitting sample and stops being a test. And the split must be chronological rather than random, so the earlier data trains and the later data tests, which also keeps the exercise free of [look-ahead bias](/glossary/look-ahead-bias). Repeating the split as a series of rolling train-then-test windows is [walk-forward](/glossary/walk-forward-replay) validation, the sequential form of the same idea. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/p-l-breakdown # P&L breakdown The P&L breakdown is a stacked view that splits a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s total profit and loss into the gains and costs that produced it. On the [capital chart](/glossary/capital-chart)'s **P&L breakdown** view, gains stack upward, costs and losses downward, and a **Portfolio** line traces the net total. **Also seen as:** profit and loss breakdown, P&L attribution ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Each component is a coloured band; gains stack above the axis and costs and losses below it, so the height on each side shows how much came from each source. - The breakdown responds to the Costs, Taxes, and [Reinvest](/glossary/reinvest-profits) [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions): the Costs, Interest paid, and Taxes bands are zero when those assumptions are off, and costs are off by default for every account. - [Negative dividends](/glossary/negative-dividends) and [Interest paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid) appear only when a strategy uses short positions or borrows to fund [leverage](/glossary/leverage). ## What does the P&L breakdown split your result into? Every unit of profit and loss goes into a named component, on a gains side or a costs-and-losses side. - **Gains (stacked upward):** Realized profit, Open profit, Dividends, Interest received. - **Costs and losses (stacked downward):** Realized loss, Open loss, Negative dividends, Interest paid, Costs, Taxes. $$ {\text{Portfolio}} = {\text{gains}} - {\text{costs and losses}} $$ where: - the Portfolio line — the strategy's total P&L - the sum of the bands stacked upward - the sum of the bands stacked downward Realized profit and loss come from positions already closed, open profit and loss from positions still held; they are kept apart because only the open side still moves with the market (see [realized vs open P&L](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l)). The **Costs** band is the same charge that separates gross from net on a position — trading fees plus [slippage](/glossary/slippage); see [gross vs net](/glossary/gross-vs-net). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy ends a period with the "Portfolio" line at +4,000, and the breakdown shows line by line how it got there. On the gains side: Realized profit +3,200, Open profit +1,900, Dividends +600, Interest received +50 — a total of +5,750. On the costs-and-losses side: Costs −900, Taxes −500, Realized loss −250, Open loss −80, Interest paid −20 — a total of −1,750. The two sides net to +5,750 − 1,750 = +4,000, which is exactly where the **Portfolio** line finishes. Reading the bands tells you the 4,000 was earned mostly from realized and still-open gains, and trimmed by roughly 1,750 of costs, taxes, and losing positions. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/passkeys # Passkeys A passkey is a sign-in credential that lives on one device — a phone, a laptop, or a hardware security key — and is unlocked by that device's own screen lock, so you prove who you are with a fingerprint, a face scan, or a device PIN instead of typing a secret. **Fincanva does not support passkeys yet.** This page explains the concept so it is already clear when the feature arrives; it describes no Fincanva flow, because none exists. **Also seen as:** passkey, WebAuthn credential, FIDO2 credential ## Can I use a passkey with Fincanva today? No. Fincanva has no passkey setting: **Settings → Access and security** lists your password, two-factor authentication, connected accounts and [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions), and no **Passkeys** row. There is nothing to enrol, nothing to name, and nothing to remove, and no passkey affects how you sign in. What that page holds: [how to manage your account security settings](/docs/account-security/how-to-manage-your-account-security-settings). Until it ships, the ways into a Fincanva account are the three described under [passwordless sign-in](/glossary/passwordless-sign-in) — an emailed link, an emailed 6-digit code, or a password — plus **Continue with Google**, each of which can be protected with [two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication). ## What is a passkey? A passkey is a pair of cryptographic keys created for one website and stored on one device. The device keeps the private half and never releases it; the website keeps only the public half, which is useless to anyone who steals it. Signing in means the site sends a challenge, your device unlocks the private key with your fingerprint, face, or PIN, and returns a signature the site can verify. Two consequences follow from that shape, and they are the whole point of the design: - **Nothing reusable is transmitted.** A signature answers one challenge and cannot be replayed elsewhere, so there is no shared secret in flight to intercept. - **The credential is bound to the site that issued it.** A passkey created for one site will not sign a challenge from a lookalike domain, which is why passkeys resist phishing in a way a typed secret cannot. Passkeys are the consumer-facing name for credentials built on the WebAuthn and FIDO2 standards, which is why the same passkey works across browsers and platforms that implement them. ## How is a passkey different from a password? In one line: a password is something you know and can therefore be tricked into typing somewhere else, while a passkey is something your device holds and will only ever present to the one site it was made for. | | Password | Passkey | |---|---|---| | Where it lives | in your head or a manager | on a device, in its secure store | | What travels to the site | the secret itself | a one-off signature | | Phishable | yes — you can type it into a fake page | no — it will not sign for the wrong domain | | Reusable across sites | yes, and that is the risk | no, one per site by construction | | Breach exposure | the site holds something worth stealing | the site holds only a public key | | How you unlock it | by recalling it | with the device's fingerprint, face, or PIN | The practical trade is convenience against portability: a passkey removes the recall step entirely, but it is tied to the device or the platform keychain that holds it, so losing every synced device is a different kind of problem than forgetting a password. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/passwordless-sign-in # Passwordless sign-in Passwordless sign-in is signing in to Fincanva with a single-use link or 6-digit code emailed to your address, instead of typing a password. It is the route the sign-in screen offers first: you enter your email, press **Continue with email →**, and Fincanva sends one email that carries both a clickable link and a typeable code. Signing in with a password remains available as a second route, and **Continue with Google** as a third. **Also seen as:** magic link, email link, email code, one-time code, OTP ## How does passwordless sign-in work? You give Fincanva your email address and it emails you two interchangeable ways to finish the sign-in — click the link, or type the code into the screen you are already looking at. Both are single-use and both stop working 10 minutes after the email is sent; the screen says so verbatim: "Enter the 6-digit code below, or click the link in the email. Both expire in 10 minutes." If the email hasn't arrived, **Resend code** becomes available again 30 seconds after each send, and the button counts down in the meantime. On the sign-up screen the same email doubles as account creation: `We sent a code to {email} — your first sign-in will create your account.` ## How is signing in without a password different from signing in with one? The difference is what proves it's you — control of your inbox, or knowledge of a secret you stored yourself. | | Passwordless (link or code) | Password | |---|---|---| | What you supply | your email address | your email address and your password | | What proves it's you | you can open the email | you know the password | | What you have to remember | nothing | the password | | How long the proof lasts | 10 minutes, single use | until you change it | | Where it can leak | your inbox | anywhere you reused it | | How you start it | **Continue with email →** | **Sign in with password instead** | Neither route is a lesser account: the same account can use whichever is at hand on the day, and [two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication) applies to both. A third route, **Continue with Google**, hands the check to your Google account instead — and it can also create the account, not only sign in to one you already have. If Google confirms your identity but you don't have a Fincanva account yet, the sign-in screen shows a consent step, headed **One step to finish**, asking you to accept the Terms and Privacy Policy before it creates one. The checkbox starts unticked; press the button without ticking it and nothing happens except that the box is marked with "Please accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to continue." Tick it, press **Continue with Google** again, and you're in — Google doesn't ask again, and there's no separate signup page and no email to open. The emailed link and code lead to the same step. If you enter an address on the sign-in screen that has no Fincanva account yet, the email arrives exactly as it would for an existing account; only when you open its link or type its code does the sign-in screen show **One step to finish**, reading "This email doesn't have an account yet. Accept the Terms and Privacy Policy to create it." Check the address shown, tick the box and press **Continue**: the account is created and you are signed in, with no second email, because opening the link or typing the code already proved the address is yours. That proof lasts 5 minutes, stays in the browser where you used the link or code, and ends if you go back or sign in another way; if it has run out, the screen says so and **Continue with email →** sends one new email whose link or code creates the account. The first email's link and code are spent either way. A returning user who already has an account never sees this step, by any route. ## Why does Fincanva ask me to verify my email address? Fincanva requires a verified email address before you can sign in with a password, because an unverified address may not belong to the person who typed it. A verification link goes out when you sign up, and until it is opened, a password sign-in stops with "Verify your email before signing in." and the screen switches to "Please verify your email" with a **Resend verification email** button. Opening the link verifies the address and signs you in. The address matters beyond sign-in: it is the channel every passwordless link, code, reset link, and security notice travels through. ## What if I forget my password, or never set one? Use **Forgot password?** on the sign-in screen and Fincanva emails you a reset link, which is valid for one hour. Past that, the screen tells you plainly: "For security, password reset links expire after 1 hour." — request a fresh one and the old link stays dead. If you created your account with Google and never had a password, the same machinery sets your first one. Fincanva shows "You signed in with Google. We'll email you a link to set a password." with a **Send reset link** button; open the emailed link and choose a password. ## How strong does my password have to be? A Fincanva password must be at least 8 characters long — that is the only rule the app enforces. There is no requirement for capitals, digits, or symbols. Above that minimum the sign-up and reset-password screens show an advisory strength bar labelled `Strength: {level}`, where the level reads **Weak**, **Fair**, **Good**, or **Strong**. It reacts to length and to the mix of character types, and it never blocks you: a password rated **Weak** is accepted as long as it reaches 8 characters. Treat it as feedback, not a gate. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Passwordless is the route offered first; password sign-in and **Continue with Google** sit beside it. - **Continue with Google**, the emailed link and the emailed code all create an account for a first-time visitor who started from the sign-in screen, after a one-tick consent step for the Terms and Privacy Policy (**One step to finish**). - One email carries both the link and the code, and both expire 10 minutes after it is sent. Each can be used once. - **Resend code** unlocks 30 seconds after each send. - Password reset links expire after 1 hour. - A verified email address is required before a password sign-in succeeds. - Passwords must be at least 8 characters; the strength bar is advisory only. - Changing your password from your account settings signs your other sessions out — see [active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions). ## What does it look like in practice? At 09:00 you enter your email and press **Continue with email →**. One email lands with a **Sign in** button and the code `418 205`. At 09:04 you are on your laptop, where you opened the request, so you type `418205` into the code field and you are in. Had you instead opened the email on your phone, tapping the button would have signed you in there — either one works, whichever device is in your hand. At 09:11 both are dead. Typing the code returns "That code didn't work. Try again or request a new one.", and the link lands on "This link is invalid or has expired." Pressing **Resend code** issues a fresh pair with its own 10-minute window; the first pair never comes back. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/per-strategy-risk-layer # Per-strategy risk layer The per-strategy risk layer is the set of [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) attached to one [strategy](/glossary/strategy) inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), held separately from the Combined's own risk conditions. Because the two layers are independent, one strategy can switch to its [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-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? A Risk card as each strategy inside a Combined carries it: its own conditions, at most two joined by Or, and what its own Risk-Off holds. - Every [strategy inside a Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/strategy-alerts#what-do-the-grey-notes-on-a-settings-card-mean). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/percent-change # Percent change Percent change is how much a series has moved from an earlier point to now, expressed as a percentage of that earlier value: positive means the series has risen, negative that it has fallen. In Fincanva it is one of the **Indicator** choices on a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition), turning a level series into a change series before the threshold comparison. **Also seen as:** percentage change, % change, price change, rate of change. ## How is percent change calculated? $$ \text{percent change} = \frac{{P_t} - {P_{t-N}}}{{P_{t-N}}} \times 100 $$ where: - the latest value of the series - its value N periods earlier, where N is the lookback the Period field sets Percent change is the difference between the latest value $P_t$ and the earlier value $P_{t-N}$, divided by the earlier value, and $N$ is the lookback the **Period** field sets. The denominator is always the *earlier* value, which is why the same absolute move is a bigger percentage from a lower base — and why a percentage compares a price of 5 and a price of 500 on one scale. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Percent change is one of four **Indicator** options on a risk condition's series, alongside "Raw price", "Simple moving average" and "Average momentum". - With "Percent change" selected, a **Period** field appears next to the indicator; its hint reads "How much the series has moved, in percent, over the number of months you set. The thresholds are in percent." A condition's row names the result, for example "6-month change". - The indicator only transforms the series being watched. Whether the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) ends up in [Risk-On or Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) is decided by the condition's [thresholds](/glossary/condition-types), not by the change reading itself. - The shipped "S&P 500 12-month momentum" [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) is a 12-month percent change of the index. ## What does it look like in practice? An index stands at 4,400 today and stood at 4,000 twelve months ago. The 12-month percent change is (4,400 − 4,000) / 4,000 × 100 = +10% — the index is 10% above its level a year earlier. Now suppose it instead stands at 3,600 after that same year: the reading is (3,600 − 4,000) / 4,000 × 100 = −10%. The two readings are symmetric in wording but not in level: a −10% move from 4,000 lands at 3,600, and a +10% move back from 3,600 only reaches 3,960, not 4,000, because the second percentage is measured against the smaller base. ## What does a positive or negative reading mean? A positive percent change means the series ends the window above where it started; a negative one means it ends below. Zero means it is back where it began, whatever happened in between — percent change compares only the two endpoints and knows nothing about the path between them, so a series that fell hard and fully recovered reads the same as one that never moved. Read it alongside a path-aware measure such as [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) if the journey matters as much as the endpoint. This page describes a measurement, not a recommendation. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier # Permanent instrument identifier A permanent instrument identifier is the identity Fincanva assigns to every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) in its catalogue, and unlike a ticker symbol it never changes. Ticker symbols are labels an exchange can reassign: a company rebrands and takes a new symbol, and a symbol freed by a delisting can later be given to an unrelated company. The permanent identifier is the identity underneath that label, so an instrument's price history stays one continuous series across a rename. **Also seen as:** permanent instrument ID, permanent identifier ## Why does an instrument need an identifier other than its ticker? A ticker symbol says where an instrument trades today, not which instrument it is. Three ordinary events break a ticker-based identity: - **Renames** — a company rebrands and its symbol changes, splitting one price history into two records that look unrelated. - **Reuse** — after a delisting a symbol becomes available again and can be assigned to a different company, so one symbol can cover two unrelated histories. - **Cross-listings** — the same company can trade under different symbols on different exchanges. A permanent identifier removes all three problems at once. The symbol becomes a display label that is free to change, while every price, filing, and index-membership record stays attached to the same underlying instrument. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Every instrument in the catalogue carries a permanent identifier; the ticker you search on and read on screen is a label attached to it. - Fincanva references instruments by their permanent identifier rather than by ticker string — a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) instrument, for example, is stored that way, and a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s matches come back identified the same way — see [screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching). - [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments keep their permanent identifier, so their history stays reachable after trading has stopped and a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) can still hold them for the period they traded. - These identifiers are internal rather than readable codes. You never need to type or know one: you search by ticker or name, and Fincanva resolves it. ## What does it look like in practice? A company listed as **ABC** rebrands, and its shares begin trading as **XYZ**. Under a ticker-based identity this looks like two instruments — ABC with history up to the rename date, XYZ with history from it — and a ten-year backtest spanning the rename would either stop at the old symbol or start late at the new one. Because Fincanva keys the instrument by its permanent identifier, both stretches are one series on one instrument: a strategy that held it before the rename still holds it after, and the run reads a full ten years of prices instead of two truncated fragments. The same protection applies in reverse — if the freed symbol **ABC** is later assigned to a different company, that company is a separate instrument with its own permanent identifier, so the two histories never merge. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/plan-compliance # Plan compliance Plan compliance is the check that asks whether a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s setup is allowed by the plan attached to your account, run before Fincanva serves that strategy's [backtest](/glossary/backtest) result. It is a pass/fail answer about the setup, never a judgement about the numbers. A strategy your plan does not cover produces no results at all — no metrics, no [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), no positions and no what-to-buy list — and Fincanva says so rather than staying silent: opening it shows its results veiled behind a panel, pressing **Backtest** is refused with a message that names your plan, and the strategy carries the [run status](/glossary/run-status) **Set aside** in your library. **Nothing is deleted.** ## What happens when a setup is not compliant? The strategy opens as usual and its results are veiled rather than taken away: the page keeps its shape, every number is hidden, and one panel sits over it. You are not redirected and nothing is reported as an error, because neither is true: the strategy is exactly where you left it. The panel names your plan, says which of the two reasons applies, and offers the way out that fits that reason. - **The account holds more strategies than the plan keeps active.** The panel reads **Set aside, not deleted**, then names the plan, the number it keeps active — 2, on Free — and the number you hold, closing with "It becomes active again when the plan covers it." There is no free action under it, because none exists: what remains is the named level, **Switch to Starter**, and no button at all where no plan would cover the account as it stands. The one exception is a genuinely vacant seat — see below. - **The strategy on its own asks for more than the plan grants.** The panel reads **It asks for more than the plan allows** and lists every limit it exceeds, one line each, with the strategy's value beside the plan's — `“Model 1” holds 40 positions, Free allows 5`, or `Screener “Momentum” in “Model 1” has 15 filters, Free allows 10`, where `Model 1` is the model the setting sits on and `Momentum` is the attached [screener](/glossary/screener)'s own name — then `Correct these values in Settings and it becomes active straight away, without changing plan.` Its action is **Correct the settings**, and it is the loud button: correcting them costs nothing, and nobody should have to pay to leave a limit their own strategy crossed. Where a higher plan would cover the strategy, **Switch to Advanced** sits beside it as the quieter second choice. Where no higher plan covers it, that button is absent rather than pointing at nothing. The refusal is not only in the interface. The same verdict is applied when the results, the positions, or the what-to-buy list are requested directly, so nothing computes a number for a strategy the plan does not cover. Pressing **Backtest** answers with a sentence that names the plan you are on, every limit the strategy crosses with its value beside the plan's, and the plan that would lift the refusal — for a strategy on Free whose model holds 40 positions, `This strategy is outside your Free plan, so it cannot run: “Model 1” holds 40 positions, Free allows 5. Switch to Ultimate to run it.` When it crosses more than two limits, the first two are named and the rest are counted, `and 2 more`. Where no plan covers the strategy as it stands, the same message ends `No plan currently covers it — reduce what it holds and try again.` instead. **Its settings stay open and editable.** That is deliberate: editing is how a strategy that exceeds the plan on its own is corrected, and a save that brings it back inside the plan reopens it — the panel says so, `Correct these values in Settings and it becomes active straight away, without changing plan.` Two accounts on different plans therefore get different answers to the same strategy: each simulation is judged against the plan of the account that asked for it. **Nothing is deleted and nothing is edited.** A strategy outside your plan stays in your library exactly as you left it, and it becomes runnable again the moment the plan covers it. ## Which two things put a strategy outside a plan? Two, and they clear differently. - **Your account holds more strategies than the plan allows**, and this one is not among the ones kept active. Fincanva chooses which stay active rather than leaving it to chance: the strategies you [follow Live](/glossary/mark-live) first, then the most recently used. The rest read **Set aside**. This clears by moving to a plan that covers what you hold; the active set itself is decided once and does not shift on its own afterwards. - **The strategy on its own asks for more than the plan grants** — more positions, more strategies inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), more attached screeners, or more filters inside one attached screener than your plan allows, or a start year earlier than your plan's floor. This clears either by moving to a plan that covers it, or by editing the strategy back inside the limit. Which strategies your plan keeps active has no bearing on it: the problem is the strategy's own settings, so only the settings or the plan can resolve it. A strategy kept aside inside a Combined — switched off with its pause button on the Combined's **Strategies** card, or carried over already switched off from the previous Fincanva platform — does not count toward how many strategies a Combined may hold: only the ones in use do, as on the previous platform, and a Combined always counts as at least two. Keeping one aside is therefore a way to edit a Combined back inside that limit, and switching one back on is refused while the limit is reached — unless the Combined was last saved with at least that many in use — see [strategy in a Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined#can-you-switch-a-strategy-in-a-combined-off-without-removing-it). Its own settings (positions, attached screeners, risk conditions, allocation method) are still held to the plan, in a Combined or in a single strategy, because they are still part of what the strategy contains. Switched off, it is left out of what a run uses. Whatever is switched on or off, a strategy holds at most as many components as the highest plan allows. **Filters inside an attached screener are the one limit no plan raises.** Every plan allows the same number of filters in a screener, so there is no higher level to move to and the panel offers none: the only way out is to remove filters from the attachment, or to detach it. The panel names the attachment on its line when it has a name, because one strategy can hold several and each carries its own filters: without the name, two attachments over the same allowance print the same line twice and neither says which one to trim. A screener you built inline in **Asset selection** has no name until you save it to your library or attach one from there, so its line stops at the model — `filters per screener · Model 1` — where an attached one adds the screener's name after it. A strategy can cross it without you editing anything and without your plan changing — [attaching a screener](/glossary/screener-attach) copies it into the strategy, and if the allowance itself moves afterwards the copy is over it where it stands. The other limits can be crossed without an edit too, but by moving to a plan that grants less. **A screener in your library that is already at the allowance will not take another filter**: **Add filter** opens and refuses, with the number you are at beside it. Narrowing the [universe](/glossary/universe) — country, sector, exchange — stays available in that same menu, because it is filters that are counted and not the universe; where there is no universe to narrow, as in a hand-picked basket, the button itself is off. You meet the limit where you are standing rather than at the save, nothing is trimmed in silence, and no plan is offered to switch to — because for this limit there is none. Inside a strategy, which of the two you meet depends on where the screener came from. One you built inline in **Asset selection** has no screener behind it, so it refuses at the button, as a library one does. The number it stops you at need not be the same, though: headroom a strategy carries over the allowance — because the allowance changed under it — belongs to the strategy rather than to one screener inside it, so another screener you built inline that is already using it leaves none here. One attached from your library keeps the rule for any filter that is new — what the strategy's copy may still take on is a filter the screener it came from already has, because that one exists whether you add it here or detach and attach the screener again — and there the refusal comes at the save rather than at the button, because whether a filter you are adding is one that screener still holds is something only Fincanva can see, and it is checked when you save. One that is already over the allowance — because the allowance changed under it — is left as it is rather than pruned, and stays editable in the direction that helps. **The ceiling is what already exists, and it only comes down.** A strategy carrying an attached screener with 12 filters may keep it at 12 and save it unchanged; bring the strategy's copy down to 11 and the twelfth is still available to it for as long as the screener in your library still holds it — add it back in place and the save is taken, because that filter still exists behind the strategy. You do not have to detach and attach again to get it; re-attaching is simply the other way of asking for the same rows. What is gone is a filter the library screener no longer holds either: then 11 is the ceiling, and it only comes down from there. Nothing can be saved above what is already there, in the strategy or in the library behind it. **Already there** counts the screener in your library as well as the strategy: a screener left at 12 by a change in the allowance can still be attached — to the strategies you already have and to new ones — because attaching moves filters that already exist rather than writing new ones. What you cannot do is change them on the way in: the filters that arrive have to be the ones that screener holds, so a thirteenth is refused, and so is naming a 12-filter screener while sending twelve different filters. Both cases give the strategy the status **Set aside**, and in your library its row stays a row: it carries, before the name, a small square with the bars of the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that would bring it back, the name is muted, and the computed metrics show dashes instead of numbers, because there are no numbers to show. Set-aside rows sink to the bottom of the list whatever sort you chose. Which of the two reasons applies is in that mark's tooltip, not in a sentence across the row. For the count case it names the ceiling and the plan — on Free, a ceiling of 2 saved strategies. For a strategy that exceeds the plan on its own it names each limit with the arithmetic — `Outside the Free plan: “Model 1” holds 40 positions, Free allows 5.` — because the correction is a number you have to hit yourself. Under both, the same closing line: `Nothing has been deleted — it becomes active again when the plan covers it.` A set-aside row keeps its **Live** key, shown off and in muted ink, and pressing it changes nothing: it opens **The plan is full**, which says how many the plan goes up to — 2, on Free — that they are all taken, and that nothing is deleted because the next level raises the number. It closes with **Got it**, or takes you to the higher plan with **Switch to Starter**. An account cannot follow more strategies than its plan keeps active, and a key that simply refused the press would leave you with no way to learn why. **On the strategy's own page the Live key does not open The plan is full: it opens the usual Live confirm, and confirming is refused with the reason.** The message says the strategy can't go Live and names why — the account holds more strategies than the plan covers, or the strategy itself goes beyond a limit of the plan — and the plan that would bring it back, or, where none would, tells you to reduce what it holds. **Mark Live** in a set-aside row's menu in the Strategies table opens **The plan is full**, as the row's key does. [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live) quotes each message and covers the key itself; how a strategy ends up set aside is the subject of the two reasons above. ## What happens to a strategy with a screener on the Free plan? It stays intact and editable, and its backtest is refused before you press it. The Free plan includes no screeners inside strategies, so a strategy holding one — made on a paid plan, or kept after a downgrade — crosses that limit on its own. The Asset selection card shows the blocking [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "The strategy can't run on the Free plan": "This strategy uses a screener, and strategies with screeners start at Starter. Nothing changes until you decide: remove it or switch to Starter. Until then the backtest will not run." The **Backtest** button is refused with that reason beside it, rather than after the click. The card's footer carries the ways out: - **Remove the screener** (**Remove the screeners** when there are several) takes them off the strategy. - On a Screener strategy, which cannot run without one, **Change strategy type** instead switches it to **Multiple instruments**, which removes the screeners. - **Switch to Starter** opens the plan that includes them. Nothing is removed until you choose one of them. On Starter and above none of this appears, unless a strategy holds more screeners than the plan allows. From Starter up the plan includes screeners, but it still counts them: entry and exit screeners together, per strategy, and on every strategy inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) — the ones you switched off included. A strategy holding more than your plan allows — usually after a downgrade — stays intact and editable, and its backtest is refused before you press it. The Asset selection card shows a blocking [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) that gives both numbers — how many screeners the strategy uses, and how many your plan includes — and then the way out: "Remove the extra screeners or move to" the first plan that holds that many screeners, not merely the next one up. Where no plan holds that many, the sentence stops at "Remove the extra screeners." The **Backtest** button is refused with that reason beside it, rather than after the click, and pressing it would meet the same refusal it always did. How many screeners each plan includes is on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## How does Fincanva decide which strategies stay active? Fincanva decides it, once, at the moment your plan stops covering your library: the strategies you [follow Live](/glossary/mark-live) first, then the most recently used. Those stay active; the rest read **Set aside**. The notice at the head of the list states the rule rather than leaving you to guess: **We kept the ones you follow, then the ones you used most recently. Nothing has been deleted.** **The decision is written down, and it does not move again.** Once the set is settled, ordinary use no longer changes it — editing an old strategy does not pull it back in, and does not push another one out. It is decided afresh only when your plan covers your whole library again: at that point the whole verdict is discarded, nothing is set aside, and a later change of plan is judged on the library as it is then rather than on a set decided months earlier. **Nothing is deleted by any of it.** A set-aside strategy keeps everything it had, its settings stay editable, and it comes back exactly as it was as soon as the plan covers it. Because the strategies you follow Live rank first, one of them is set aside only when you follow more strategies than your plan keeps active; a set-aside strategy stops being followed, and then declares that gap for good — see [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live). There is one moment where you choose instead. If you delete a strategy that was active, your plan has room for one more — and that is the only way a seat ever falls vacant, since nothing else here deletes. From then on, every set-aside strategy that could actually reopen carries **Activate this one** on its own set-aside panel. One that exceeds the plan on its own does not: taking the seat would not change its settings. Nothing appears on its own, and no control sits somewhere waiting to be found: with no vacant seat, that button does not exist. You reach it when you decide to, on the row you mean. If you never press it, the same rule fills the seat by the next time you open Fincanva. And the price does not move: a seat exists only because something was deleted for good, so changing which strategy is active still costs a strategy. ## Where do you see how much of your plan you are using? In the plan tile, in the sidebar above your account, which keeps the count of what you are following in view at rest. It is one raised button on a single row: while you hold a plan, paid or on trial, a black face with the plan written in lime; on Free, a lime face — on the left the plan's bars and its name; on the right, how many strategies you follow Live against how many your plan allows, written `Live 3/5`, or just `Live 7` on a plan with no Live ceiling — Ultimate and Professional, today. Saved strategies and saved screeners no longer get a row here: both are effectively unlimited by plan — screeners on every plan, strategies from Starter up — so Live, which still has a ceiling below Ultimate and Professional, is the one count worth stating at rest. During the free trial the tile names the plan as `{plan} · trial`, in the lime every plan the account holds is written in — trial or paid — and the right side shows the days left in place of the Live count: `{n} days left`, and `1 day left` on the last one. On a plan with no Live at all — Free, today — the right side instead reads `Free trial` while the account is still eligible for the trial, which is now only a moment, since the trial starts by itself the first time the account opens the app; otherwise it invites the step up to the first plan with Live, written `Switch to Starter` with an arrow. Collapsed to icons, the sidebar keeps the tile's bars alone; its tooltip carries the plan's name and the same Live count — or, during the trial, the days left. Between a downgrade and the one-time choice of which Live strategies to keep, an account can briefly follow more than its plan allows, and the tile states that too — `Live 5/1`. The sidebar's **Portfolios** entry carries the same Live count on its own, as a small bright-green tag — the Live key in small — with the rising line and the number, `2`, that a screen reader announces as "2 Live"; it is hidden when you follow none and when the sidebar is collapsed to icons. Pressing the tile opens a panel headed by the plan's own ribbon — the plan's name, with **Manage plan** at the top, which opens billing settings. Below it, **Your Live strategies** repeats the count (`3 / 5`) and lists every strategy you follow Live: each name links to the strategy, and each carries the Live key, asking for the same confirmation as switching Live off from the strategy's own page before it stops following. From nine Live strategies onward, a search box, **Search Live strategies**, appears above the list. Once every Live slot is taken, it adds `Every Live slot is taken. Switch one off to follow another.` With nothing followed yet, it reads `No strategy is Live yet. Turn Live on from a strategy's page.` Wherever a higher plan allows more Live, the panel's foot always carries the invitation — `More Live with Ultimate`, from Advanced, beside **Switch to Ultimate** — full or not; on a plan with no Live ceiling there is nothing to offer and it is absent. On a plan that does not include Live — Free, today — the panel carries no Live list at all: it reads **Follow a strategy Live**, `With Starter you can follow a strategy Live.`, and — only while the account is still eligible for the trial — `Start your free trial` with `30 days, no card` beneath it, closing with **Switch to Starter**. How much you hold against your plan's ceilings, and what your plan gives you, still have their own place: [Settings → Plan and usage](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you). A strategy set aside because your plan does not cover it is still marked on its own row in the strategies list, exactly as described above — the tile states Live alone, not the set-aside count. ## What Fincanva enforces today The refusal holds when a strategy the plan does not cover is opened, when its results are requested, and when a run is asked for — and, as of a later fix, at creation and at save too. **You may never *create* beyond the plan.** Making a new strategy, duplicating one, copying one from the public library, cloning it, or combining strategies into a [Combined](/glossary/combined) all ask the plan first and are refused outright when what they would produce is not covered — copying counts as creating, so a Free account can no longer pull an Ultimate-level public strategy into a full library. Combining strategies at all is gated the same way: **Combined is not available below Advanced**, and a press there is refused before anything is created. That gate does not exempt an Advanced-or-above account from the count refusal above — the Combined tile itself stays visible and clickable regardless of plan, and a Combined that would push you past what your plan grants is refused the same way any other creation is, with its own sentence, `Couldn't create the combined strategy`. A creation refused on the count answers with its own sentence, not the run one, and that sentence names the copy — at every door that copies, with no exceptions left. **Duplicate** in a dashboard row's menu, **Duplicate** in the header of an open strategy, **Duplicate** in the strategies explorer's own row menu, **Copy to Mine** in the first two of those, and the copy button on a **Public** strategy in the explorer all read — on a Free account whose library already holds as many strategies as the plan allows — `This would take you past what your Free plan allows, so the copy wasn't created: 3 strategies, Free allows 2. Switch to Starter for more.` It says the copy *wasn't created* rather than *it cannot run* because nothing was created: whatever you were duplicating from is untouched. The explorer's row menu used to word this one as a refused save; it no longer does, and no copy door anywhere does. **A duplicate refused for what the strategy *is*, rather than for how many you hold, is a different message — and which one you read depends on where you pressed.** Cloning a [Combined](/glossary/combined) on a plan that does not offer Combined is refused before anything is created, in every case. From a dashboard row's menu or an open strategy's header it answers short: `Couldn't duplicate the strategy` — no plan, no level, no number. From the explorer it answers `This strategy is outside your Free plan, so it cannot run. Switch to Advanced to run it.`, which names the plan and the level but describes a run that was never going to happen — you asked for a copy. Nothing is created either way, and the strategy you copied from is untouched. **Copy to Mine** has no such case where it is offered as *Copy to Mine*: in a dashboard row's menu and in an open strategy's header, your plan is read at that door for how many strategies you already hold and for whether the copy's [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) is one your plan allows — both of which name the plan when they refuse — so a copy your plan stopped always tells you so. `Couldn't copy the strategy` is what you get when something other than your plan stopped it: the strategy is no longer public, or no longer there. **The copy button on a Public strategy in the explorer is the exception, and it is one because of how it copies.** In the tree it is a copy **icon** carrying no words, announced to a screen reader as `Copy "…" to Mine`; the window it opens is titled and confirmed **Duplicate**, and it duplicates rather than copies — so the Combined check above applies to it and a Free account copying a public Combined reads the run sentence there too. On the count, it reads the copy sentence like every other door. One door answers with a wall instead of that sentence: **New strategy** above the strategies library, on **Mine**, opens a dialog of its own rather than the creation dialog. It names the level that lifts the limit, states where you stand — `You are at 2. Nothing is deleted — the next level raises the number.` — adds `Fincanva applies this limit itself, so the level above is the only way past it.` and offers **Switch to Starter**. It is not the plan panel described above, which belongs to the sidebar tile. The same button on **Public** is not walled: that board lists strategies you do not own, so your plan is not read there and the click opens the creation dialog like any other door. **Every other way in refuses without naming the plan.** **New strategy** on the portfolios page, the **+** in the sidebar, the **+** on the tab bar, the create button on an empty strategies board — which you can still meet on a full plan, because that board is filtered to one kind while the plan counts your whole library — and the create buttons on the dashboard and in the explorer all open the creation dialog as usual. You submit, the creation is refused on the count, and the message you get is `Couldn't create your strategy. Try again.` — it says nothing about your plan and nothing about the level out. Combining is the one leg of that dialog with a sentence of its own — `Couldn't create the combined strategy` — and it names the plan no more than the other does. The creation dialog does not show how many strategies you hold; the strategies board does. On Free, beside **New strategy**, a muted count reads how many you have saved out of 2 — `1 / 2` — and the wall above is what meets that 2, the only saved-strategy ceiling a plan sets. Every paid level allows 999, the anti-abuse maximum, which no plan level raises — it is not a plan number, so no count shows there. **You may still *find yourself* beyond it**, and saving stays the route back rather than a second wall. A save is refused only when it would make some breach worse than the one the strategy already had — more positions, more member strategies, or more attached screeners than before, or a start year earlier than the one it already had. A strategy a downgrade left over the plan keeps its settings editable and can be saved as many times as you like as long as no save increases what it exceeds by; the one save that is never refused is the one that brings a number down. Only once a save reduces every breach to nothing does the strategy stop reading **Set aside**. **One refusal at the run door names no plan at all.** A few of the plan's limits are only read when a run is asked for, so a strategy can open normally — results in place, no panel, no **Set aside** on its row — and still be refused at the press: **Backtest** answers `Couldn't start the run`, without naming your plan and without offering a level, and nothing else on the page changes. On the walk the same refusal arrives as a panel instead of that message: **Saved — the backtest did not start**, which confirms your changes are saved and says the strategy is outside what your plan allows — again without naming the setting or a level. It clears the same two ways as any other plan refusal — move to a plan that covers the strategy, or bring the setting that asks too much back inside the plan — but Fincanva does not name that setting here, so [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) is where you check what your level grants. **Set aside** is one of the three statuses Fincanva reads from your own account rather than from the [compute engine](/glossary/simulation-engine) — the other two being **Incomplete** and **To run** — so it is true right now and does not change when the engine is unreachable. It is also the first question asked about a strategy: a strategy outside the plan reads **Set aside** even when it is unfinished, because finishing it would not make it runnable. The same capability question seen from the data side is [data-tier gating](/glossary/data-tier-gating). This page describes the check itself: what each plan includes, and what it costs, is on [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? Two accounts open the same strategy, one holding 40 instruments. The account on a plan that grants it sees the results and presses **Backtest**: the run starts and the status settles on **Up to date**. The account on Free opens the same strategy and finds its results veiled — the page keeps its shape, the numbers gone — with one panel over it reading **It asks for more than the plan allows**, the limit under it (`“Model 1” holds 40 positions, Free allows 5`) and **Correct the settings** beside **Switch to Ultimate** — the first plan whose ceiling reaches 40. Pressing **Backtest** produces no run either: `This strategy is outside your Free plan, so it cannot run: “Model 1” holds 40 positions, Free allows 5. Switch to Ultimate to run it.` The strategy is not touched, nothing is removed from it, its settings are still editable, and the same press succeeds unchanged once the account is on a plan that covers it. Recognising that shape matters, because it is the one case where an empty results view is neither a run that never happened nor data that has moved on — the two ordinary reasons covered by [run status](/glossary/run-status) and [data freshness](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/plan-level # Plan level A plan level is your account's position on the ordered scale of Fincanva's paid plans, and it is what the plan pass at the top of **Settings → Plan and usage** shows with your plan's bars — one bar lit per level — labelled `Level {rank} of {total}`. The scale runs Starter, Advanced, Ultimate — three levels, so `{total}` reads 3 — and `{rank}` is where your held plan sits on it: Starter is level 1, Advanced level 2, Ultimate level 3. **Free is not on this scale at all** — it sits at level 0, and the app treats that as *unheld*, not as a missing or broken value. **Also seen as:** plan rank ## Which plans are on the scale, and which are not? Only the three plans you can hold through checkout are on it: **Starter** (level 1), **Advanced** (level 2), and **Ultimate** (level 3), so `{total}` is 3. Two plans sit outside it, for different reasons: - **Free is level 0.** It is the account you have before subscribing to anything, so the scale still applies to it — it is simply unheld. The plan pass still shows the indicator for a Free account, at level 0 of 3. - **Professional does not appear on the scale at all.** It is not sold through checkout — [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) covers how it is reached — so the plan pass shows no level indicator for it: not level 4 of 3, no bars at all. A Professional subscriber's pass reads **Custom** instead of a level. ## Is this the same as the five plans listed on "what each plan includes"? It is the same ordering, seen from two different widths. [What each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes) describes Fincanva's full plan ordering — Free, Starter, Advanced, Ultimate, Professional, five in ascending order of what each unlocks. The plan pass's level scale is the narrower view drawn from the same order: it counts only the plans a held subscription can actually be, which is why its own total reads 3 rather than 5. Free is the floor of the wider order and Professional is its top, and neither is ever assigned as a *held* level on the pass — which is exactly why the pass's own scale starts at Starter and stops at Ultimate. The ladder beside the pass is a third view of the same order: it draws the four plans on sale, Free included, as blocks, so Free has a block there while it still sits at level 0 on this scale. ## Is the plan level the same as what "What you're using" counts? No — both are on Settings → Plan and usage, but they answer different questions. This page's level is about your **subscription**: which of the three sellable plans it names, shown on the plan pass. The **What you're using** section below it reads a different figure — the *capability* actually enforced on your account right now ([what Settings → Plan and usage tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you)). The two agree for every account holding one of the three sellable plans, including throughout a [30-day trial](/docs/account-security/the-30-day-trial), which runs at the plan the trial is on rather than at a level of its own. They part company on **Professional**, which is a real enforced capability but not one of the three plans this scale counts: the plan pass shows no level there at all, while What you're using still counts against Professional's own ceilings, and only the plan comparison under What each plan includes stays empty, because Professional is not a plan on sale. Neither is wrong; they are naming two different things. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The plan pass on **Settings → Plan and usage** shows the level indicator — the plan's bars — whenever your account holds one of the three paid, checkout-sold plans, or is on Free (level 0). During a trial it shows the level of the plan the trial is on, which is also the plan being enforced. - A Professional (custom) account shows no level indicator at all — the figure the scale would answer does not apply to a plan with no published price. - `{rank}` and `{total}` are read live from the plans Fincanva actually sells today; this page states the current scale rather than a number to remember, since a plan Fincanva adds or retires from checkout changes `{total}` without needing a new word for the concept. ## What does it look like in practice? An account on **Advanced** opens **Settings → Plan and usage** and sees two of three bars lit on its plan pass, labelled **Level 2 of 3** in English or **Livello 2 di 3** in Italian: Advanced is the middle of the three sellable plans, one above Starter and one below Ultimate. An account on **Free** sees the same indicator read **Level 0 of 3** — no plan held yet, not an error. An account on **Professional** sees no level indicator at all, because Professional is not one of the three plans the scale counts. A Starter trialer sees **Level 1 of 3** on the plan pass from the first day of the trial, and Starter's own limits are what the account runs under while the trial lasts — the same figures [what Settings → Plan and usage tells you](/docs/account-security/what-settings-usage-tells-you) reports. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/portfolio # Portfolio A portfolio, on the Portfolios page, is a single [strategy](/glossary/strategy) you have chosen to follow live — one of the strategies in your [live book](/glossary/live-book). [Marking a strategy Live](/glossary/mark-live) adds it to Portfolios and starts paper monitoring: nothing is ever traded and no order is placed. **Also seen as:** paper portfolio Fincanva keeps following what the strategy would hold and how it would perform. In Fincanva "portfolio" always means a live-followed strategy; a strategy built out of other strategies is a [Combined](/glossary/combined), which is what "portfolio" used to mean in earlier versions. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Marking a strategy Live uses the "Go live" control; it then shows in Portfolios and counts toward your dashboard. - Going live starts paper monitoring only — Fincanva tracks the strategy's holdings and performance and never places an order or moves real money. - Choosing "Stop following" removes the strategy from Portfolios; the strategy itself is unchanged and can be followed again later. ## What does it look like in practice? You have a screener-based strategy you have [backtested](/glossary/backtest) and like. You open it and choose Go live, and it moves to the Portfolios page to be tracked day to day. No broker is connected and no trade is ever sent — Fincanva simply follows the positions the strategy's rules imply and shows how that paper book would perform. Later you choose Stop following, and the strategy leaves Portfolios with no effect on the saved strategy itself. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positions # Positions Positions is the view that shows what a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) would hold right now — the target positions its rules imply at a chosen [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date — rather than how it performed across history. It answers "what does this strategy hold today?", where the Analysis view answers "how did it do?". **Also seen as:** Holdings, current state, target portfolio ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Positions on your own strategies is set by your plan: the page opens from Starter upwards.** A Free plan still backtests its strategies and reads the Analysis surfaces its plan includes; what it does not open is this page's view of what one of your own strategies would buy today. Public strategies are unaffected — anyone can open the Positions view of a strategy from the public catalogue, on any plan and signed out. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **On a plan without Positions, the current-state output is never computed, not merely hidden.** On a plan that includes it Fincanva computes this view's figures for a strategy; on one that does not they are never asked for, so there is nothing held back behind a lock. An out-of-plan Analysis tab works the same way — its figures are not computed either — and the two now look alike: each tab stays in place and opens, marked with the bars of the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that includes it, and where the figures would be the page shows a faded sample with the plan's button and one sentence on what the page shows. - Positions reads from a completed [backtest](/glossary/backtest), so a strategy has to have been run at least once. With none it shows "No results yet" and "Backtest this strategy to see its target portfolio." - You choose which rebalance date to view; when it is not the most recent one the view warns "You're viewing `{date}` — not the latest rebalance". - **Refresh** recomputes the current state, showing "Refreshing…" while it works. It changes nothing about the strategy itself. - You can type your own figure into **Capital**, and the target values rescale to it. The saved strategy's own [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) is unchanged. - A [Combined](/glossary/combined) with only one [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) shows example results rather than its own — see [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined). Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does the Positions view show? Positions shows one rebalance date's target book, in five parts. Four KPIs summarise it — [**Target notional**](/glossary/target-notional), [**Cash**](/glossary/cash-and-capital-invested), **Positions**, and **Accuracy** (see [accuracy](/glossary/accuracy)). The **Order plan** lists what would be bought, sold, and adjusted to reach that book, grouped as Entering, Exiting, and Adjusted (see [order plan](/glossary/order-plan)). **Target allocation** shows the resulting weights, including any cash. **Rebalances** lets you move between past and upcoming rebalance dates. And the **Target positions & exits** sheet lists every position with its Qty, Target value, Deployed amount, and exits (see [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed)). ## How is the Positions view different from the Analysis view? Positions describes a single point in time; Analysis describes the whole path. Positions also runs on its own fixed set of assumptions rather than the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) toggles — see [Positions forced assumptions](/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions) for what that set is and why the two views can disagree on the same date. ## What does it look like in practice? A monthly-rebalanced strategy last rebalanced on 1 July and rebalances next on 1 August. Open Positions and it shows the 1 July target book against 50,000 of capital: 12 positions, a Target notional of 48,000, 4% cash, and 96% Accuracy — the shortfall coming from whole-share rounding across the positions. The Order plan for that date reads 3 Entering, 2 Exiting, and 7 Adjusted, with an estimated turnover figure beside it. Switch the date to the previous rebalance and every panel re-reads that older book instead, with a warning that you are not looking at the latest one. *The Positions view describes a paper target portfolio a strategy's rules imply, never real orders, and no position or figure on it is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positions-detail-drill-down # Positions detail drill-down The positions detail drill-down expands one [symbol](/glossary/instrument) into the individual positions the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) took in it, and each position into the fills, dividends and splits that made it up. It answers what a summary cannot: not what an instrument earned overall, but what exactly happened to *this* position, from the trade that opened it to the one that closed it. **Also seen as:** the position drill-down; trade history. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Trades are listed newest first, and fills sharing a date are ordered by execution time — Open, then Intraday, then Close — so a same-day sequence reads in the order it happened. - Prices are in the instrument's own currency and profit-and-loss figures are in the account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency); a position in a foreign-listed instrument therefore mixes two currencies across one row, by design. - Dividends and splits are merged into a single event stream per position, newest first — see [dividends and splits](/glossary/dividends-and-splits) for how each row reads. - Each level has its own empty state: "No positions for this symbol.", "No trades.", and "No dividends or splits." - Gross, Costs and Net mean the same thing at every level: [gross before costs, net after](/glossary/gross-vs-net) — for one fill, for one position, or for the whole symbol. ## How do you follow one position from entry to exit? The detail opens in three layers, each one narrowing the scope. 1. **The symbol** — a row of the [positions summary table](/glossary/positions-summary-table), covering everything the strategy ever did in that instrument. 2. **Its positions** — one row per position the strategy held in that symbol, with its **Start** and **End** dates, its **Side** (long or short), its **Max contracts** — the largest [quantity](/glossary/contracts) it ever held — and the same money columns as the summary: Gross, Costs, Net, Dividends, [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l). 3. **Inside one position** — its **Executions**, one row per fill, and its **Dividends & splits**, one row per event. A position that is still open at the end of the run has no closing fill, so its result is still [open rather than realized](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l). ## What does each trade row record? Each row of the trade history is one fill: its **Execution date**, its [**Execution time**](/glossary/execution-time) — Open, Intraday or Close, which fixes the price the fill books at — its **Side**, the **Contracts** filled, the **Actual execution price** it filled at, then **Gross**, **Costs** and **Net** for that fill, and the [**Reason**](/glossary/exit-reason) it happened when the fill closed a position. Realized results belong to closing fills, so an opening fill shows a dash for its Gross and no Reason — nothing is realized yet at that point in the position's life. ## What does it look like in practice? A symbol's row opens to show three positions. You take the second: it starts in March, ends in September, is long, and reached a maximum of 40 contracts. Opening it, the trade history shows a Buy of 25 contracts at the Open in March with no Reason and no realized result, a second Buy of 15 contracts in May that took it to its peak of 40, and a Sell of all 40 in September at Intraday, this time carrying a realized Gross, its Costs, its Net, and a Reason of [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss). Beneath, the Dividends & splits stream shows the two dividends collected while the position was held. Those five rows are the position's whole life: how it was built, what it collected on the way, why it ended, and what it kept. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions # Positions forced assumptions Positions forced assumptions are the fixed set of [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) the Positions view always applies — **profits reinvested, Costs & interests off, Taxes off** — whatever you have selected on the Analysis views. That is why the same [strategy](/glossary/strategy), on the same date, can legitimately show different numbers in Positions and in Analysis. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The forced set matches the default state of the Analysis assumptions ([Reinvest profits](/glossary/reinvest-profits) on, [Costs & interests](/glossary/costs-toggle) off, Taxes off), so out of the box the two views agree. They diverge only after you switch Costs & interests or Taxes on in Analysis. - Positions is re-parameterized by two other things: the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date you select and the "Capital" input. Neither is an assumption — they change which snapshot you see and how it is scaled. - Every Positions figure inherits the forced set: the "Target notional", "Cash", "Positions" and "Accuracy" KPIs, the "Target allocation" chart, the "Order plan" card and the "Target positions & exits" sheet. - The forced set applies to the Positions view only. It does not alter the saved [backtest](/glossary/backtest), your saved assumption rates, or anything the Analysis views show. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy shows a set of target weights in Positions for the rebalance date of 1 June, and the same date appears in Analysis. With Analysis on its default assumptions the two match. You then switch **Taxes** on in Analysis: its figures change immediately to the after-tax version. The tax on gains realized since the start has been taken out of the simulated account along the way — as events occur under the Administered [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime), once a year under Declarative — so the portfolio reaching 1 June is smaller, the money behind each weight differs and small positions can round differently. Positions does not move at all, because it never left the gross, reinvesting version. Nothing is broken and nothing needs re-running: you are looking at the same strategy under two assumption sets, and only Analysis lets you pick which. ## Why can Positions and Analysis disagree on the same strategy? Because they are reading two versions of the same backtest. A backtest is computed as every combination of the three assumptions ([precomputed toggle variants](/glossary/precomputed-toggle-variants)), and each view picks one: the Analysis views follow your toggles, while Positions is hard-wired to the gross, reinvesting combination. Once you turn Costs & interests or Taxes on in Analysis, that view's path through history is no longer the path Positions shows — costs and tax withdraw money as the simulation runs, which changes the capital available at each rebalance, and therefore the weights, position counts and cash left over. Both views are correct; they answer the question under different assumptions. ## Which assumptions does the Positions view force? | Assumption | Analysis views | Positions view | |---|---|---| | **Reinvest profits** | your choice | always on | | **Costs & interests** | your choice | always off | | **Taxes** | your choice | always off | In prose: Positions gives you exactly one reading — reinvesting, gross of costs and gross of tax — and does not let you change it. That is also why the Positions view carries no assumptions toggle group at all, while the Analysis views do: the controls would have no effect there. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positions-summary-table # Positions summary table The positions summary table is the one-row-per-instrument view of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s trading: every [symbol](/glossary/instrument) the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) ever held gets one row summarising its whole life in the simulation. It is a lifetime summary, not a list of trades — a symbol bought and sold five times still has one row, its results added together. **Also seen as:** the **By symbol** table, per-symbol P&L ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - One row per symbol ever held, whether or not it is still held at the end of the run — a symbol that was traded and fully exited still has its row. - Every money column is in the account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), so rows are directly comparable to each other regardless of where each instrument trades. - Rows are sorted by **Total P&L**, largest first, until you sort by another column; the table is searchable by symbol and loads more rows as you scroll. - Above the table, four figures summarise the same data set: how many symbols were traded, how many of them ended profitable, the single best symbol by money, and the total trading costs — the sum of fees and [slippage](/glossary/slippage) across every symbol. - With no trading at all the table shows "No symbols in this backtest." - Each row opens into the [positions detail drill-down](/glossary/positions-detail-drill-down) for that symbol. ## What does each row of the positions summary tell you? Each row reads left to right as one symbol's whole story, in money: - **Symbol** — the instrument, with its ticker and name. - **Asset type** — what kind of instrument it is. - **Gross** — the symbol's trading profit or loss before costs. - **Costs** — the trading fees plus slippage it paid over its life. - **Net** — [gross minus costs](/glossary/gross-vs-net). - **Dividends** — the dividend income it realized, counted apart from trading. - [**Total P&L**](/glossary/total-p-l) — the symbol's whole-life money result, dividends included. $$ {\text{Total P\&L}} = {\text{Gross}} - {\text{Costs}} + {\text{Dividends}} $$ where: - the symbol's whole-life money result - its trading profit or loss before costs - the fees and slippage it paid, so Gross minus Costs is Net - the dividend income it realized Because every figure is a lifetime total, the table answers "which instruments actually carried this strategy, and what did they cost me?" rather than "what happened on a given day". Every one of those columns is **money**, which is what separates this table from the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table): that page reports the strategy's percentages, this one reports each instrument's cash result. The last column is therefore [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l) — a money figure — and not the percentage that the metrics table calls [total return](/glossary/total-return). ## What does it look like in practice? A symbol's row reads: Gross 3,294 · Costs 12 · Net 3,282 · Dividends 129 · Total P&L 3,411. Read aloud: this instrument made 3,294 on price movement across every position the strategy took in it, paid 12 in fees and slippage to do so, kept 3,282 from trading, collected 129 in dividends along the way, and finished 3,411 up overall. A neighbouring row with a large Gross but a Costs figure many times bigger tells the opposite story in the same five numbers. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positions-table-columns # Positions table columns Positions table columns are the fields of the `Target positions & exits` table on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [Positions](/glossary/positions) view, one row per holding. Three of them get misread most often: **Side** says whether the target position is `Long` or `Short`, **Last** is the [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s most recent price **in the asset's own currency**, and **Quantity** is the number of shares or units the target works out to. The currency of `Last` is the trap — it is never converted to your account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), so a single row can pair a dollar price with a euro value. The table has eight columns, in this order: `Symbol`, `Asset type`, `Side`, `Last`, `Quantity`, `Target value`, `Deployed`, `Exits`. ## What do Side, Last, and Quantity mean? | Column | What it holds | Currency or unit | |---|---|---| | `Side` | `Long` — the position profits if the price rises — or `Short`, which profits if the price falls | not a number | | `Last` | the instrument's most recent price | the **asset's** currency, at that asset's own decimal precision | | `Quantity` | the target quantity of the instrument | a count of shares, units, or contracts — never money | `Quantity` is the same quantity concept the app calls [Contracts](/glossary/contracts) in its trade and position tables. ## Why is Last in a different currency from the rest of the row? Because `Last` is the price on the instrument's own exchange, quoted the way that market quotes it, while the money columns are converted to your account's base currency so a portfolio total can be added up at all. A US-listed stock is quoted in dollars whatever currency your account keeps score in; converting that quote would show you a price no exchange displays. The row tells you when the two differ. `Target value` prints in your base currency and adds a second, muted figure in the asset's currency underneath — but **only** when the asset's currency is not your base currency. If a row shows that sub-line, `Last` is in the sub-line's currency. If it shows no sub-line, the asset trades in your base currency and every figure on the row is in one currency. The practical consequence: you cannot check a row by multiplying `Last` × `Quantity` and comparing the result to `Target value`. That product is in the asset's currency, while `Target value` and `Deployed` are in yours. Convert first, or compare against the muted sub-line instead. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - `Side` renders as a badge reading `Long` or `Short`. - `Last` is formatted in the asset's currency at that asset's own number of decimals, so one row may show two decimal places and another more. - `Quantity` is a plain count, shown without decimals when the target quantity is a whole number. - Take-profit and stop-loss chips in the `Exits` column are priced in the asset's currency too, matching `Last` rather than the money columns (see [Exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason)). - The money columns are always in your base currency: `Target value` is the [target notional](/glossary/target-notional) and `Deployed` is what fits in whole shares (see [Target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed)). - Every figure is a target for a paper portfolio; no order is placed and nothing is traded (see [Portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). ## What does it look like in practice? Your account keeps score in euros and the portfolio holds a US-listed stock. The row reads `Side Long` · `Last USD 412.00` · `Quantity 6` · `Target value EUR 2,500` with a muted `USD 2,700` beneath it, and `Deployed EUR 2,289`. Read it in the right currencies. The target is EUR 2,500, which is USD 2,700 at the day's rate — that is what the sub-line is for. At USD 412.00 a share, USD 2,700 buys 6 whole shares, so `Quantity` is 6. Multiplying `Last` × `Quantity` gives USD 2,472, which is dollars, and falls short of the USD 2,700 target by less than one share's price; that shortfall is [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed) at work. The `Deployed` column shows that same USD 2,472 converted back to euros, about EUR 2,289. Nothing on the row is inconsistent: `Last` is the price New York quotes, while `Target value` and `Deployed` are the euros your account measures in. *Every column describes a paper target a strategy's rules produced. A `Short` badge is a description of that target position, never a suggestion to short anything, and no row is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/positive-months # Positive months Positive months is the share of months in the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) period that closed with a positive return, expressed as a percentage. The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) lists it as "Positive months (%)" in the **Monthly performance** group. It is a count-based measure: every month contributes equally whether it gained 0.1% or 12%, so positive months describes how *often* a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) went up, never by how much. **Also seen as:** monthly win rate, hit rate, up months ## How is positive months calculated? Positive months divides the number of months whose return was above zero by the number of months in the period. $$ \text{positive months} = \frac{\text{number of months with a return above } 0}{\text{total number of months in the period}} $$ where: each month's return is the figure the monthly returns view shows for that month, and the total is every month of the simulated period. ## What counts as a good value? A figure above 50% means more months closed up than down, and a figure near 100% means the strategy rarely had a losing month. On its own the number says nothing about magnitude, so it can be high while the outcome is poor: a strategy that gains a little in eleven months and loses heavily in the twelfth can still report over 90% positive months. Read it beside [best month and worst month](/glossary/best-month-and-worst-month), which show the size of the extremes, and [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), which shows the deepest fall. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Positive months appears as "Positive months (%)" in the **Monthly performance** group of the metrics table, shown as a whole-number percentage. - The same measure is repeated as a KPI on the monthly returns view, labelled "Positive months", and per calendar year in the by-year metrics table as "Positive months (%)". - It is computed over the months of the backtest period, from the same month-by-month return series the [monthly returns heatmap](/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap) displays. - A month that closes exactly flat is not a positive month — the test is a return above zero. ## What does it look like in practice? A ten-year backtest covers 120 months, and 84 of them closed with a positive return. Positive months is 84 ÷ 120 = 0.70, displayed as 70%. That means roughly seven months in ten went up. It does not mean the strategy was up 70% of the time by value: the remaining 36 months could each have been small losses, or a handful of them could hold the whole of the run's max drawdown, and the 70% figure would read the same either way. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/precomputed-toggle-variants # Precomputed toggle variants Precomputed toggle variants are the finished result sets Fincanva computes for every combination of the three [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — [Costs & interests](/glossary/costs-toggle), Taxes and [Reinvest profits](/glossary/reinvest-profits) — inside one single backtest, so flipping a toggle selects an already-computed result instead of starting a new one. Three on/off switches make eight combinations, and one backtest fills them. **Also seen as:** toggle combinations, assumption variants ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The toggles read a variant; they never queue a backtest, so they work identically on an old result and a fresh one, and never change the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [status](/glossary/run-status). - The rates behind the toggles are a different kind of change: editing a cost or tax rate is a settings change, which makes the strategy read **Needs re-run** and takes effect only after a re-run. - Reinvest profits also selects which annualized figure is shown — [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) when it is on, [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when it is off — and that swap is instant for the same reason. - The Positions view is always served from the reinvesting, costs-off, taxes-off variant, whatever the toggles above the backtest results say: it answers "what would this strategy hold now", not "what did it net historically" ([Positions forced assumptions](/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions)). - Because the variants belong to the backtest, a strategy whose result is reused rather than recomputed ([shared compute](/glossary/shared-compute)) arrives with all of them in place. ## What does it look like in practice? You run a strategy once, with both cost and tax rates configured in your settings. The results open on the default view — gross of costs and tax, profits compounding. You flip **Taxes** on: the return, the annualized figure and the monthly table all drop to their after-tax values at once, because that variant was computed in the same backtest. You flip **Reinvest profits** off and the headline metric switches from CAGR to AAGR just as fast. Then you open Settings and change the capital-gains rate from 26% to 20%: nothing on the page moves, the strategy reads **Needs re-run**, and the new rate only appears after you re-run — the eight variants belong to the backtest that produced them, and a new rate needs a new one. ## Why does flipping an assumption toggle update instantly? Because the result you switch to already exists. The three toggles are not inputs the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is waiting on — they choose which finished variant is displayed, so switching one is a read, not a recomputation. A backtest therefore produces the gross view and the after-cost, after-tax and non-compounding views together, and the results page moves between them with no queue and no progress bar. That is why the after-tax curve appears the moment you ask for it. ## Why are there eight variants? Three toggles with two states each give eight distinct combinations. Costs & interests, Taxes and Reinvest profits are each either on or off, and every way of setting the three of them together is one variant: $$ 2 \times 2 \times 2 = 2^3 = 8 $$ where: each factor is one assumption toggle with two states, on and off, and 8 is the number of distinct combinations of the three. All eight are produced when both costs and taxes are configured in your settings; fewer are produced when one of those sides is not configured, because a side with nothing set has nothing to switch between. Either way, every combination the app lets you select has a finished result behind it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/projection-cone # Projection cone A projection cone is the fan of values a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) could reach over a chosen horizon, drawn from many possible paths. Each path — a scenario — is built by drawing daily returns from the strategy's [backtest](/glossary/backtest) and compounding them from today's value. It shows the outcomes the strategy's past makes plausible, never the one that will happen, on the [Projection tab](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab). **Also seen as:** Monte Carlo projection, fan chart, percentile cone ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The cone starts from the last value of the backtest and runs one to five years ahead, a year being 252 trading days; the **Horizon** and **Scenarios** your plan allows are on [the Projection tab's guide](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab#how-far-ahead-does-my-plan-let-me-project). - It projects the figures the tab is showing: with costs, interest or taxes switched on under **Simulation settings**, it draws on the net daily returns — see [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions). - The same request on the same backtest always returns the same cone. - Under the chart the tab restates it: "This is not a forecast." ## What do the bands of a projection cone show? The bands are percentiles of the paths, read day by day. The light band, **5–95%**, holds the middle 90% of the scenarios at each future day; the darker band, **25–75%**, holds the middle half; the **Median** line is the middle scenario, with half of the paths ending above it and half below. So one outcome in 20 lands below the light band and one in 20 above it, and the cone widens with the horizon because uncertainty compounds as days add up. ## Which ways of drawing days can a projection use? Three **Method** options decide how a future day is drawn from the past, each keeping a different property of the history: - **Blocks of days** draws runs of consecutive days, so calm and turbulent spells stay together — a block bootstrap. - **Single days** draws each day independently, keeping every day's size but shuffling their order — the classic independent bootstrap. - **Gaussian** draws from a normal distribution with the history's average and [volatility](/glossary/volatility), which makes very large days rarer than markets produce them. The Projection tab's guide says what each one assumes in more depth — see [what each projection method assumes](/docs/analysis/see-where-a-strategy-could-go-with-the-projection-tab#what-does-each-projection-method-assume). ### Does drawing more scenarios make a projection more accurate? No — more **Scenarios** make the cone's edges steadier, not the projection truer. With few paths, the 5th and 95th percentiles rest on a handful of extreme scenarios and shift noticeably if the draw changes; with many, they settle. How wide the cone is comes from the strategy's history and the method, and does not change because more paths were drawn. ## What does the Change row under a projection show? **Change** is how far each percentile of the cone ends from today's value, as a percentage. The table under the chart reads the cone at the horizon, one column per percentile — P5, P25, P50, P75 and P95 — and gives each one twice: as a **Value**, and as a **Change** from the value the cone starts from. A P5 Change of −12% means that one scenario in 20 ended at least 12% below today's value; a P50 Change of +28% means the median scenario ended 28% above it. It looks forward, from today to the horizon — not back over the backtest. $$ {\text{Change}} = \frac{{\text{Value at the horizon}}}{{\text{value the cone starts from}}} - 1 $$ where: - the Change of one percentile, as a percentage - that percentile's Value at the end of the horizon - today's value, the last value of the backtest ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy worth 100,000 today is projected three years ahead with **Blocks of days** and 1,000 scenarios. The **Median** ends at 128,000, the **25–75%** band runs from 112,000 to 146,000, and the **5–95%** band from 91,000 to 178,000. Read it as: half the paths built from this strategy's own past ended between 112,000 and 146,000, and one in twenty ended below 91,000. A history that happened to be kind makes a kind cone too, which is why the figure is a range of what the past allows, not an expectation. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/ranking-based # Ranking-based Ranking-based is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that sorts a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s holdings by a ranking metric you choose, splits the sorted list into ten rank tiers, and pays each tier the relative weight you set for it. The sort is redone at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), so weight follows rank rather than a particular [instrument](/glossary/instrument): one that climbs the ranking gains weight. **Also seen as:** rank weighting, decile weighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? - It works at both levels: inside a strategy it ranks instruments, inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the member strategies — see [Combined weighting](/glossary/combined-weighting). - **Ranking-based is included from the Starter plan**, at the strategy level and inside a Combined alike; the Free plan does not offer it in either place. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - The default ranking metric is **Price Change**. - A fresh setup starts on the **Equal Weight** preset — the same weight on all ten tiers — so it invests from the start, evenly whatever the rank; apply another preset or type your own numbers to make the ranking tilt it. **Clear** returns every tier weight to 0. - The presets are Equal Weight, Balanced Top Tilt, Strong Top Tilt, Top 3 Equal, Top Decile Only and Linear Decay, plus the advanced Soft Exclusion, Top Half Tilt, Contrarian / Inverse Rank and Barbell. - Inside a strategy each of the ten tier weights accepts −999 to 999, decimals included. A number outside that range is not changed for you: the field shows "Enter a rank weight between -999 and 999." until you correct it. ## How does Ranking-based assign weights? It ranks every candidate by the selected metric, highest value first, then pays each tier the weight you typed for it. The tiers are deciles: **Tier 1** is the top 10% of the ranked list and **Tier 10** the bottom 10%. Weights are relative — "Weights are relative — any number from -999 to 999, decimals allowed. A negative weight holds that tier short." They are normalised to 100% of the sum of their sizes, so 50/30/20 and 5/3/2 describe the same allocation and a negative weight counts by its size. A tier at 0 receives nothing, which drops the weakest ranks entirely; a negative tier is held short, its [direction](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only) given by the sign. The sort is always highest-value-first, whatever the metric measures: rank on Volatility and Tier 1 holds the *most* volatile instruments, not the calmest. ### What does the shape of the rank weights change? How concentrated the strategy is, independently of the metric. A steep drop from Tier 1 to Tier 10 pushes most capital into the best-ranked names; a flat set makes Ranking-based behave like [equal weighting](/glossary/equal-weights). A curve that zeroes the bottom half acts as a filter as well as a weighting. Fincanva describes what each shape does; it does not recommend a shape or a metric. ## Which ranking metrics can you choose? Five inside a single strategy; a Combined offers the same list without P/E Ratio. | Ranking metric | Sorts on | Reads the calculation window? | |---|---|---| | [Price Change](/glossary/percent-change) | recent price change | yes | | Average Momentum | average momentum | no | | Volatility | [volatility](/glossary/volatility) | yes | | Sharpe ratio | [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) | yes | | P/E Ratio | price-to-earnings ratio | no | Changing the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) therefore leaves Average Momentum and P/E Ratio rankings unchanged. With **Volatility** the window is a choice of 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, the only lengths the engine accepts for it — see [which window lengths you can choose](/glossary/calculation-window#which-window-lengths-can-you-choose). **Average Momentum** ranks on [average momentum](/glossary/average-momentum) — the average of an instrument's percent price change over 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. It blends several spans instead of reading one window, which is why it ignores the calculation window. An instrument is not ranked on it until it has 12 months of price history, and because three of the four spans are long, its rank moves more slowly than its price. ## What happens if every tier weight is zero? The setup invests nothing. Fincanva lets you save it, but the totals line reads "Total raw: 0 · Invests nothing — every weight is zero" and the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review "Everything stays in cash" appears — "This allocation invests nothing: every weight is zero, so no capital goes anywhere." **Clear** produces exactly this state, so the alert shows until you apply a preset or type a weight. ### What happens with fewer than ten instruments? With fewer than ten picked instruments and no entry [screener](/glossary/screener), the engine reads one tier per instrument from **Tier 1** down: with 5 instruments Tiers 6 to 10 are never used, negative ones included, the totals line counts only the read tiers and the rest show 0%. Two alerts to review say so: - When unread tiers carry a weight, "The engine uses only part of your weights": "With 5 instruments the engine uses only the first 5 levels and the later weights do not count, negative ones (short sales) included: reduce the levels or add instruments." It stays silent when all ten tiers carry the same weight. - When the read tiers are all zero, "Everything stays in cash": "With 5 instruments only the first 5 ranking levels count and they are all zero, so nothing is invested." — and the totals line reads "Total raw: 0 · Invests nothing — the first 5 levels are zero". With an entry screener the number of candidates is known only at each rebalance, so neither alert is raised. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds ten instruments and ranks them by Price Change over a 12-month calculation window, so there is exactly one instrument per tier. You type 50 in Tier 1, 30 in Tier 2, 20 in Tier 3 and leave Tiers 4 to 10 at 0. The raw total is 100, so the best-ranked instrument takes 50% of capital, the second 30%, the third 20%, and the remaining seven are not held. At the next rebalance the ranking is recomputed: if the previous leader slips to third, its weight falls from 50% to 20%, and whichever instrument now ranks first takes the 50%. Nothing about the instruments changed the weights — only their positions in the sorted list did. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/raw-price # Raw price Raw price is the **Indicator** option on a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) that applies no transformation, so the condition compares the watched series' own published level against your threshold. It is the simplest of the four indicator options, and the one a new condition starts on. **Also seen as:** price level, index level, untransformed series. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The VIX template's sheet reads the index untransformed: go Risk-Off when the value of the CBOE Volatility Index is above 25, back to Risk-On when it is below 20. - Raw price is one of four **Indicator** options, alongside "Simple moving average", "Percent change" and "Average momentum"; the sheet's hint for it reads "The series as it is published: a price, an index level or a spread." - It takes no lookback window — the **Period** field applies to the indicators that summarise a span. - The threshold you type is read in the series' own units: an index level for an index, a rate in percent for a yield series, a price for a stock or ETP. - Several built-in [risk templates](/glossary/risk-templates) use it, including the VIX and VIX ratio templates and every yield-curve spread template. ## What does it look like in practice? You build a Single series condition on a volatility index and leave the **Indicator** at "Raw price". The condition now reads whatever the index publishes: 18 one day, 31 a few weeks later. Those readings are compared straight against the number in the Risk-Off comparison, with no averaging, no percentage and no window in between — so a single day's print is the whole signal. That directness is exactly why the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) exists: on a Raw price condition it is the only thing that stops one unusual day from asking for a switch. Change the same condition's **Indicator** to "Simple moving average" with a **Period** of 22 and the comparison would instead read the average of the last 22 days — a smoother number, and one that needs a **Period** to be meaningful. All the parts of a condition are listed in [what a risk condition is made of](/glossary/risk-condition#what-is-a-single-risk-condition-made-of). ## When does a condition use Raw price? A condition uses Raw price whenever the number you want to compare against is the series' published level itself, not something derived from it. That covers a volatility index you compare against a level, a yield spread you compare against zero, and a price you compare against another price. Because nothing is derived, no window is involved: the **Period** field has nothing to read over and does not apply. In a **Double series** condition, Raw price on one side is how a series is compared against a transformed version of itself — for example a price against its own [moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l # Realized vs open P&L Realized P&L is the profit or loss from positions a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) has already closed; open P&L is the profit or loss from positions it still holds, valued at their current price. Realized P&L is locked in; open P&L is a mark-to-market figure that moves with the market until the position is sold. **Also seen as:** unrealized P&L, paper profit, mark-to-market P&L ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown) shows realized and open results as four separate bands — "Realized profit" and "Realized loss", "Open profit" and "Open loss" — so you can tell locked-in profit and loss from profit and loss still exposed to the market. - The realized bands stop changing once positions close; the open bands revalue as prices move over the period. ## What separates realized P&L from open P&L? Realized P&L is banked and open P&L is still in play. A closed position's gain or loss is settled — selling it turned the paper result into a realized one that no later price move can change. An open position's gain or loss is unrealized: it is measured by marking the position to its current price, so it rises and falls every day the position is held and only becomes realized when the position is closed. Together they make the strategy's P&L: $$ {\text{total P\&L}} = {\text{realized P\&L}} + {\text{open P\&L}} $$ where: - the strategy's profit or loss to date - the settled result of positions already closed - the result of positions still held, at today's price ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds two positions. It sells the first for a gain of +800 — that +800 is realized profit, banked, and it will not change no matter what the market does next. The second it still holds, and at today's price it is up +450 — that +450 is open profit, and it will keep moving until the position is sold. The strategy's [total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l) today is +1,250, but only the +800 is locked in; the +450 could grow, shrink, or turn negative before it is realized. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/rebalance # Rebalance Rebalancing is periodically resetting a strategy's holdings back to their target weights on a fixed cadence. Between rebalances the weights drift as holdings rise and fall; at each rebalance the strategy trims what has grown past its target and tops up what has fallen below, returning the mix to plan. You set how often with **Rebalance every**, in months. **Also seen as:** rebalancing, periodic reweighting ## How does Fincanva handle it? On a strategy's Settings page, the Rebalance key among the strategy rules shows the cadence, every so many months. - **Rebalance every** is a whole number of months chosen from **1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24** ([which frequencies you can choose](#what-frequencies-can-i-choose)); the default is every month. - The rebalance takes place on the first Friday of the month. Anything that waits for "the next rebalance" — a [risk condition](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip) with **Auto-rebalance** off, the cash freed by a [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) — waits for that day. - The interval is the master clock: max hold and [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay) are counted in whole multiples of it — at a 3-month cadence the app refuses anything else with "Must be a multiple of 3 months" — so changing the cadence re-snaps them. - The **Next rebalance** date is shown for each Live strategy, in your browser's [time zone](/glossary/time-zone); [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) can add an extra, off-schedule rebalance when a strategy switches to its Risk-Off allocation. - Fincanva used to call this a *rotation*; that term is retired, and the app only says Rebalance. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy targets 60% in a stock ETP and 40% in a bond ETP, rebalancing every month. Over the four weeks after a rebalance the stock sleeve rallies and the bond sleeve is flat, so the split drifts to roughly 63/37 — the portfolio is now carrying more equity risk than intended. On the next monthly rebalance date the strategy sells enough of the stock sleeve and buys enough of the bond sleeve to snap the mix back to 60/40, and the drift-and-correct cycle begins again. Choose a longer cadence — every 6 months — and the weights are allowed to drift much further before they are reset; how far they move is [weight drift](/glossary/weight-drift). ## What frequencies can I choose? You choose from a fixed set of intervals in the **Rebalance every** control: **1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months** (the unit shows as "mo"). One month is the most frequent cadence and 24 months the slowest; a 1-month strategy re-checks twelve times a year, a 12-month strategy once a year. You can't enter an arbitrary number, and there is no weekly or daily setting today. One frequency governs the whole strategy; it is not set per [instrument](/glossary/instrument). At each rebalance the strategy rebuilds its target: it re-reads which [instruments are in scope](/docs/strategies/choosing-the-instruments-your-strategy-holds), re-applies its [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) and resets each position to its intended weight. Between two rebalances nothing is bought or sold on the strategy's schedule. Changing the frequency is a settings edit like any other: it applies to your working copy, and you re-run a backtest to see its effect — see [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards#the-settings-cards-one-by-one), or [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) to set it on a new one. ## How does the frequency shape a backtest? The frequency sets how often, across the tested history, the backtest stops to re-check and rebalance the strategy. A shorter interval means more rebalance points over the same period, so the strategy reacts to the market more often; a longer interval means fewer points and a strategy that holds each set of weights for longer. It does not change *what* a rebalance does at each point — only how many times it happens. See [What happens when you run a backtest?](/glossary/backtest#what-happens-when-you-run-a-backtest) for what one backtest computes at each of those points, and [Strategy](/glossary/strategy) for where the frequency sits among a strategy's parts. Fincanva does not tell you which rebalance frequency is best for your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## How do risk conditions and exits interact with the frequency? The frequency paces some of these rules and not others. **Risk conditions are not paced by it:** each is measured on the bars of the series it watches, and its **Confirmation delay (weeks)** ("0 = act immediately.") counts calendar weeks from the flip — see [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay#what-does-the-confirmation-delay-change). A condition can carry an **Auto-rebalance** toggle ("Trigger a rebalance when the condition flips."), marked **Triggers rebalance** in the list, which makes a flip force an extra rebalance at once instead of waiting for the next scheduled one. **Take profit and stop loss are not paced by it either:** each position is checked on its own price bars, so either exit can close it between two rebalances — see [execution time](/glossary/execution-time#when-does-a-modelled-trade-fill-within-a-bar) for the price that close books at. **Max hold is paced by it:** it acts only at scheduled rebalances, which is why it and reinvest delay must be whole multiples of the frequency — see [max hold months](/glossary/max-hold-months#when-does-max-hold-actually-close-a-position). An off-schedule rebalance forced by a flip is not one of those scheduled rebalances: max hold and the Exclude-screener exit do not act on it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/regime-timeline # Regime timeline The regime timeline is the band under the growth chart on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Performance Metrics** tab that shows, day by day, whether the strategy ran its normal **Risk-On** allocation or its defensive **Risk-Off** one, with the share of time spent in each. It lines up with the chart above, and appears only when a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) is active. **Also seen as:** regime band, time in Risk-Off, Risk-On/Risk-Off timeline ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The timeline appears on **Performance Metrics**, under the growth chart, whenever the strategy or any strategy inside a Combined has an active risk condition. The band has no plan of its own: it follows the risk conditions, and which plan includes those is stated on [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off). - It follows the tab's **Simulation settings**. A rule that watches the strategy's own value can switch on different days when **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** or **Reinvest profits** change what that value was, so the band is redrawn for the figures the tab is showing. - It reads the switch dates the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) itself recorded; it is not recomputed or estimated after the fact. - A simulation stored before the regime timeline existed shows no band until the backtest is run again. ## How do I read the regime timeline? Each row is one strip running along the same time axis as the growth chart above it. - **Grey** marks the days in Risk-On, **solid dark grey** the days in Risk-Off. The band uses neutral shades on purpose: green and red already mean gain and loss everywhere else in the app. - A small **triangle** marks a switch whose risk condition was set to [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) immediately — see [auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip). A switch without one waits for the next scheduled rebalance. - Hovering a stretch names its regime and its first and last day, in the form "Risk-Off · … to …". - Beside the row, the time shares — "Risk-Off 18% · Risk-On 82%" — or, for an element that never switched, "always Risk-On". What Risk-On and Risk-Off mean for the allocation is on [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off). ## Why does a Combined show more than one row? Because on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the rules can act at two levels, and each keeps its own timeline. The first row, labelled **Combined**, is the Combined's own rule — the one that watches the portfolio as a whole. Below it comes one row per strategy inside it, each following that strategy's own rule. A Combined whose own rule is off still shows its row, grey from end to end, so its strategies' rows can be read against it. A single strategy shows one row: its own. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy with a trend-following risk condition is backtested over twenty years. Its timeline is grey for most of the period with three dark stretches: a long one through 2008, a short one in early 2020, and one across most of 2022; the row reads "Risk-Off 14% · Risk-On 86%". Two of the three switches into Risk-Off carry a triangle, so those rebalanced the same day; the third waited for the monthly rebalance. Laid under the growth chart, the 2008 stretch sits under the flatter part of the curve — the defensive allocation was in charge while the market fell. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/reinvest-delay # Reinvest delay Reinvest delay is a cooldown on re-entry: after a position closes, the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) it held stays out of the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s choices for the number of months you set, so the strategy cannot buy that same instrument straight back. It is not an exit rule — it does not decide when a position closes, only how soon the instrument can return. **Also seen as:** re-entry cooldown ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The control is labelled **Reinvest delay**, with the helper "Wait this long before re-entering an instrument after its position closes"; a screen reader announces its number field as "Months before re-entering a closed instrument". - It can be switched on only in Compose with a qualifying [screener](/glossary/screener-attach) attached; without one the strategy's candidates are always the instruments you picked, and the delay stays off. - Off by default. When you switch it on, the value starts at the strategy's own rebalance interval, and you raise it from there. - Entered in months (suffix "mo"), up to 120, and always a whole multiple of the cadence: at a 3-month cadence anything else is rejected with "Must be a multiple of 3 months". Changing the cadence does not change a value already set; if it is no longer a multiple, the field flags it with the same message and you pick a valid value. - It applies whatever closed the position — a [take profit](/glossary/take-profit), a stop loss, a [max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months), an Exclude [screener](/glossary/screener), a rebalance that dropped the instrument, or the end of its price history. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy rebalances every month and has reinvest delay set to **3** months. On 10 March one of its holdings hits its [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) and is closed. At the April and May rebalances the strategy's rules select that instrument again, but it is still inside its delay, so it is left out and the strategy allocates among its other candidates. At the June rebalance — three calendar months on from March — the instrument is eligible again and can be bought back if the rules still select it. Set the delay to 1 month instead and it makes no difference in this case: April is already one calendar month on from March, so the instrument can return at the April rebalance, the first one after the stop-out. Turn the setting off and the same is true — without a delay, the earliest the instrument can come back is the next rebalance that selects it. ## What does reinvest delay do to freed-up cash? Nothing directly: reinvest delay holds back the **instrument**, not the money. While the delay runs, the instrument whose position closed is left out of the candidates the strategy chooses from at each rebalance — exactly as if its selection rules had not picked it — even when those rules select it again. The cash the exit freed is handled at the next rebalance like any other cash in the strategy, by its [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method). Without the delay, an instrument that has just been closed can be bought again at any later rebalance that selects it. With it, a strategy that keeps selecting the same instrument cannot rotate straight back into it — the common use is to stop a stopped-out position being re-bought at the very next rebalance. The delay is counted in whole multiples of the rebalance interval, so the instrument comes back into play on a rebalance date — the same clock that governs [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) cadence. ## When does the clock start — at the exit, or at the rebalance that records it? **At the exit itself.** The delay is measured from the date the position actually closed, not from the rebalance that booked it. A position stopped out or taken-profit between rebalance dates carries the date of the day it was hit, so its instrument starts waiting from that day. In practice this matters less often than it sounds: the delay counts **whole calendar months crossed**, not elapsed days. A position closed on 3 March and one closed on 20 March have both crossed one month boundary by 1 April, so a one-month delay expires for both on the same date. The exit date only buys time when it falls in an **earlier calendar month** than the rebalance that would otherwise have recorded it. And the delay expiring is not the instrument being bought: the strategy only checks eligibility at a rebalance, so an instrument whose delay runs out mid-period still waits for the next rebalance — and for its selection rules to pick it. ## Why can a delay equal to the rebalance interval be shorter than it looks? Because the delay counts calendar months crossed since the exit, while eligibility is checked only at a rebalance. On a monthly rebalance with a 1-month delay, an instrument stopped out on 20 January — after the January rebalance — has crossed a month boundary by the February rebalance and can be bought again there; one stopped out on 3 February, before the February rebalance, has not, and waits until March. A delay of twice the interval always skips at least one rebalance. When a stop loss or take profit is on and the delay equals the interval, the Exits card raises the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review "The wait after a stop is shorter than it looks", which names the doubled value. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/reinvest-profits # Reinvest profits Reinvest profits is the [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) that decides whether a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s realized profits are put back to work — so they compound — or are set aside as cash and stop contributing. In the app it is the switch labelled **Reinvest profits**, described as "Compound realized profits" and shortened to "Reinvest" in the assumptions summary. Only [realized](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l) profit is affected: an open position's paper gain is already at work in the position itself. **Also seen as:** Reinvest, compounding, profit compounding Not to be confused with [**Reinvest delay**](/glossary/reinvest-delay), a separate screening-strategy setting that keeps an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) out of the strategy's choices for a number of months after its position closes. ## What changes when reinvest profits is off? With the assumption off, profit taken out of a closed position no longer increases the capital the strategy deploys on the next [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). Position sizes keep being computed from a base that does not grow with past wins, so profit accumulates beside the strategy instead of inside it — growth is additive rather than compounding, and a long run ends visibly lower than the same run with the assumption on. With it on, each realized profit raises the capital at work, so later positions are sized off a larger base. That is compounding, and it is the reason the gap between the two views widens the longer the run. ## Which annualized-return metric does it drive? This assumption also decides which annualized-return figure the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) shows, because only one of the two is meaningful for each case: - **On → [CAGR](/glossary/cagr)**, the geometric annual growth rate — the right measure when profits compound. - **Off → [AAGR](/glossary/aagr)**, the arithmetic average of the annual returns — the right measure when they do not. The row swaps in place, so a figure you read as "the annualized return" can be either metric depending on this one switch. Check which of the two labels the row is carrying before comparing two strategies. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Reinvest profits is on by default** — the one assumption of the three that starts switched on, so results compound out of the box. - Flipping it switches the displayed result immediately, with no new run (see [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions)). - It applies to realized profit; unrealized gains on open positions are unaffected either way. - Cash the strategy is not holding in positions accrues interest in the simulation on its own terms, independently of this assumption — see [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). - It is independent of the [costs](/glossary/costs-toggle) and taxes assumptions, so any combination of the three can be viewed. ## What does it look like in practice? Take 10,000 of [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) and, purely to isolate the mechanic, a flat 8% a year for 10 years. - **Reinvest profits on** — each year's 8% is earned on a base that already includes previous years' profit: 10,000 × 1.08¹⁰ ≈ **21,589**. - **Reinvest profits off** — each year's profit is 8% of the original 10,000, i.e. 800, set aside ten times: 8,000 of profit on top of the untouched 10,000 = **18,000**. Same strategy, same yearly return, a gap of about 3,589 that comes only from whether profit was put back to work. The gap grows with the length of the run: it is small over two years and large over twenty. *A flat yearly return is an arithmetic illustration of compounding, not something a real [backtest](/glossary/backtest) produces, and not a projection of any strategy's returns.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/return-windows # Return windows Return windows are the four fixed periods Fincanva reports a return over: **1M**, **1Y**, **YTD** and **MTD**. Two of them are trailing — 1M and 1Y count back one month and one year from the end of the data — and two are calendar-anchored, since MTD starts at the beginning of the month the data ends in and YTD at the beginning of that year. They appear as columns on the strategies list and on [screener](/glossary/screener) results, which is why the same [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can show four different return figures side by side. **Also seen as:** trailing return, rolling return, month to date, year to date ## What does each return window cover? Each window has a fixed start rule and the same end point: the last bar of the data. The start rules below are the ones a **strategy's** windows follow. The screener's per-symbol columns carry the same four names but are anchored differently — see [do the screener's columns work the same way?](#do-the-screeners-columns-work-the-same-way) below. | Window | Starts | The app's own description | |---|---|---| | 1M | one month back from the last bar (trailing) | "Return over the last month." | | 1Y | one year back from the last bar (trailing) | "Return over the last 12 months." | | MTD | the first day of the calendar month the last bar falls in | "Return since the start of the month." | | YTD | the first day of the calendar year the last bar falls in | "Return since the start of the year." | In words: 1M and 1Y answer "how did this do over the last month / last year", regardless of where those periods fall on the calendar. MTD and YTD answer "how has this done so far this month / this year", so they get longer the further into the month or year the data runs, and start over when a new one begins. If you have seen the trailing windows written as **M1** and **Y1**, those are older labels that have been retired: **1M** and **1Y** are the names the product uses everywhere today, for the same two windows. ## Are the windows trailing or calendar-anchored? 1M and 1Y are trailing; MTD and YTD are calendar-anchored. On a strategy, a trailing window is built by rolling back one month or one year from the last bar of its data and then snapping forward to the first available price bar on or after that date — so a 1M figure covers approximately, not exactly, one month, because markets are closed on some days. A calendar-anchored window ignores the length of the period entirely and simply starts at the first day of the month or year that the last bar falls in, which makes MTD and YTD partial periods of whatever length the calendar happens to give them. All four end at the same point. ## Do the screener's columns work the same way? No — and this is the one place the four names mislead. A strategy's windows end at **the last bar of that strategy's run**; the screener's per-symbol columns of the same names end at **today**, because they describe an [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s own live price history rather than a stored backtest. Two figures labelled "YTD" side by side can therefore cover two different periods. - The screener's **YTD** runs from **1 January of the current year** to today. - The screener's **MTD** runs from the **first day of the current month** to today. - The screener's **1Y** is the trailing twelve months up to today, drawn as the sparkline beside the return. Those are fixed calendar anchors: they ignore the [trading calendar](/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment) and simply take the price on or before the anchor date. That is a different convention from a strategy's trailing windows, which roll back from the run's last bar and then snap forward to the first available price bar. **Do not read a screener column and a strategy column as the same measurement** — they answer the same question about two different things, over two periods that only coincide by accident. ## Why can a window end before today? Because the windows end at the last bar of the data, not on today's date. For a strategy, that last bar is the final day of its [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — so a strategy that was last run a week ago shows an MTD that stops a week ago, and its four window figures do not move until the strategy is run again. "YTD" therefore means year-to-date-of-the-data, and comparing two strategies whose runs ended on different dates compares two slightly different windows. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The strategies list shows all four as sortable columns, in the order "MTD", "1M", "YTD", "1Y", as percentages to one decimal place and coloured by sign. - On screener results, the **Returns** tab shows "YTD", "1M" and "MTD" as numeric columns and "1Y" as a mini line chart with the return percentage beside it; each header carries the hover description quoted in the table above. - The windows are period returns, not annualized figures: 1M is one month's return as it stands, never scaled up to a yearly rate. See [annualization](/glossary/annualization) for the figures that are scaled. - The [live book](/glossary/live-book) summary panel uses three of the four as a selector — **1M**, **YTD** and **1Y**, with no **MTD** — and its median, positive count, best and weakest recompute against the window you pick. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's backtest ends on 18 March. On that run, MTD covers 1 March to 18 March. 1M is trailing, so it rolls back one calendar month to 18 February, takes the first price bar on or after that date, and runs to 18 March. YTD covers 1 January to 18 March. 1Y is trailing over the same rule, from mid-March a year earlier to 18 March. Open the same strategy in April without re-running it and none of the four figures change — they still end on 18 March, and MTD still covers 1–18 March rather than the days of April, because every window is anchored to the run's last bar rather than to today's date. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio # Return-to-drawdown ratio The return-to-drawdown ratio is a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s return over a period divided by the size of its [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) in that same period — the return earned per unit of worst peak-to-trough loss. It answers "how much return did this strategy produce for the deepest fall it put up with?", which a return figure on its own cannot say. It is a standard, publicly known ratio, not a proprietary Fincanva measure. **Also seen as:** NP/DD, NPDD, NP max DD, net profit ÷ maximum drawdown ## How is the return-to-drawdown ratio calculated? The ratio divides the period's return by the absolute size of the max drawdown, so the drawdown's minus sign does not flip the result. $$ \text{return-to-drawdown ratio} = \frac{\text{return}}{\lvert\text{max drawdown}\rvert} $$ where: return is the period's return (the [whole-period return](/glossary/total-return) for the headline figure, that year's return for a per-year figure), max drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough fall in the same period, and the vertical bars mean its absolute value — the drawdown's size without its minus sign. ## Why is it a ratio and not a percentage? The return-to-drawdown ratio is a **plain number**, not a percentage, because it divides one percentage by another and the units cancel out. A value of 4.0 means the return was four times the size of the worst drawdown; it does **not** mean 4%, and it does not mean 400%. Since a percentage divided by a percentage has no unit, the figure is shown as a bare number everywhere it appears in Fincanva — the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table), the by-year table, the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page, and the heatmap's **NP/DD** column. Reading it as a percentage is the most common mistake made with this metric, and it is why the canonical name carries the word *ratio*. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The metrics table shows it in the **Drawdown** group as the row **Return-to-drawdown ratio**, as a plain number. - The by-year table gives a **Return-to-drawdown ratio** column per calendar year. The Strategy analytics page gives one bar per strategy inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined), in the column its **Each strategy, against the Combined** card labels **Return / fall** — the same ratio under a shorter name, because that card puts four figures side by side. - The [monthly returns heatmap](/docs/analysis/reading-the-monthly-returns-heatmap) carries the same per-year figure in its compact **NP/DD** column — net profit divided by maximum drawdown, the same quantity under an abbreviated label. - It turns negative when the period's return is negative, because the denominator is always a positive size: a negative ratio means the strategy lost money over that period. - Where the figure is not available for a period, Fincanva shows "—" rather than a number. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy returns +80% over its [backtest](/glossary/backtest) and its max drawdown in the same period is −20%. The ratio is 80 ÷ 20 = **4.0**: four units of return for every unit of the worst fall. Compare a second strategy that also returns +80% but whose max drawdown was −40%. Its ratio is 80 ÷ 40 = 2.0. On return alone the two look identical; the ratio separates them by what each went through to get there. ## What counts as a good value? A higher ratio means more return per unit of the worst fall. A ratio above 1.0 means the period's return was larger than its deepest drawdown; below 1.0, the deepest fall was larger than the return earned; a negative value means the period's return was itself negative. The ratio uses only the *single deepest* fall, so it says nothing about how often drawdowns happened or how long they lasted — read it next to [longest drawdown](/glossary/longest-drawdown) for duration, and the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) for return measured against overall variability instead of one worst-case event. It is also period-bound: a short window containing one mild dip can produce a very high ratio. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-condition # Risk condition A risk condition is a rule that watches a market series and, when it triggers, switches a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) from its Risk-On allocation to its **Risk-Off** allocation — the defensive profile you defined. When the condition clears, the strategy switches back. It never pauses or stops the strategy. A strategy carries up to two, built in its **Risk** card. $$ \text{Risk-Off is requested when}\quad {s_t} \;{\square}\; {\theta} $$ where: - the value of the chosen indicator on the watched series, on the day being checked - the Operator you pick: is above, or is below - the number you type for Risk-Off — or, on a Double series condition, the second series' value In words: the rule asks for Risk-Off on a day its indicator sits on the chosen side of the threshold or second series. A **Single series** condition runs the test again, with its own threshold, to return to Risk-On; a quantitative rule uses its own test, stated on its page. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A risk condition's sheet writes the rule as sentences: go Risk-Off when the value of the S&P 500 is below its 200-day moving average; when the rule flips, switch immediately, without rebalancing. - The **Risk** card is described as "Automatically de-risk when markets turn", and each condition's sheet as "Configure a market condition that flips this strategy to its Risk-Off allocation." With no condition it reads "Without a condition, the strategy stays in Risk-On at all times." - At most two conditions, joined by "Or" on the card and in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step): either one is enough — see [two-condition combination](/glossary/two-condition-combination). Removing the first moves the second into its place. - Each condition carries its own [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay), 0 to 12 weeks ("0 = act immediately."), and its own [auto-rebalance](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip) toggle ("Trigger a rebalance when the condition flips."), so one can act at once while the other waits. - A Risk-Off profile identical to Risk-On makes a trigger change nothing; the app flags it before you [backtest](/glossary/backtest) ([Risk-Off canonicalization](/glossary/risk-off-canonicalization)). - The app sends no notification on a trigger: [you find out by opening the strategy](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off#how-do-you-find-out-your-strategy-has-gone-risk-off). - Fincanva does not say when to go defensive, which series to watch, or what threshold to set. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What does it look like in practice? You want a strategy to turn defensive while a broad equity index trades below its long-term trend. You pick "Double series" under **Custom**, set **Series 1** to SPY with the **Indicator** at "Raw price", and set the **Comparison series** to SPY with "Simple moving average" and a **Period** of 200. The **Operator** reads "is below", and **Confirmation delay (weeks)** is 2, so a two-day dip below the average is not enough. While SPY sits below its 200-day average for at least two weeks, the strategy runs its Risk-Off allocation; once SPY is back above it, Risk-On again. The strategy never stops: it keeps [rebalancing](/glossary/rebalance), and the only holdings that change are those the two profiles differ on — a lower [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) in Risk-Off shows up as a larger cash reserve. What changes between the profiles is on [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off). ## What is a single risk condition made of? A risk condition is one watched series, one comparison and two behaviour settings — enough to read as one sentence: *when SPY is below its 200-day simple moving average for two weeks, switch to Risk-Off.* The sheet, headed "New risk condition", writes every rule out as a sentence like that one. | Part | The field that sets it | In the example | |---|---|---| | Watched series | **Instrument** | SPY | | Transformation | **Indicator**, over a **Period** where it reads a window | "Raw price" | | Reference | thresholds you type, or a second series — the **Signal** you choose decides | SPY with "Simple moving average", **Period** 200 | | Comparison | **Operator** — "is above" or "is below" | is below | | Patience | **Confirmation delay (weeks)** | 2 | | Timing | **Auto-rebalance** | off | The **Indicator** choices are "Raw price" ([raw price](/glossary/raw-price)), "Simple moving average" ([SMA](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma)), "Percent change" ([percent change](/glossary/percent-change)) and "Average momentum" ([average momentum](/glossary/average-momentum)). That is the **Double series** shape, measured against another series; **Single series** measures against two numbers. The three **Quantitative regimes** rules — [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov), [Clustering](/glossary/clustering) and, on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) only, [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance), which watches the Combined's own value — replace the indicator and comparison with a model's settings; [condition types](/glossary/condition-types) covers all five. Both behaviour settings exist to damp [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw); you can also start from a ready-made [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates). ## How do the Risk-Off and Risk-On thresholds work? A **Single series** condition has two thresholds, set independently: a **Risk-Off** one that switches the strategy into Risk-Off, and a **Risk-On** one that switches it back. Two separate numbers give the condition a distinct entry and exit point: set Risk-Off at 25 and Risk-On at 20 on a [volatility](/glossary/volatility) reading, and the strategy returns to Risk-On only once the reading has fallen a clear distance below the level that made it defensive. That gap stops a reading hovering around one value from flipping the allocation back and forth — the [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw) the two thresholds damp. A **Double series** condition has no numeric thresholds: the comparison between the two series is the whole condition. The two thresholds must not overlap. In Risk-On only the Risk-Off threshold is checked, in Risk-Off only the Risk-On one, each as a strict comparison — so a value that meets both switches the regime at every observation. Set Risk-Off to "is above 30" and Risk-On to "is below 40", and every reading between 30 and 40 flips the strategy; with both on "is above", every reading above the higher one does. The Risk card flags it as the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "The portfolio would keep flipping between Risk-On and Risk-Off", and the Risk-On threshold's help reads "The comparison that brings it back to Risk-On. Between the two thresholds the regime stays where it is, so it does not switch back and forth." ## What does Risk-Off change on a single instrument? On a strategy holding one picked [instrument](/glossary/instrument) and no entry [screener](/glossary/screener), Risk-Off can change only how much of the capital is invested — the profile's [leverage](/glossary/leverage) — because an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) has nothing to weigh with one instrument. Leverage 0 in Risk-Off means all in cash, 0.5 means half invested. The Risk card says so with the grey note "With one instrument, risk only changes how much you invest": "Risk-Off decides how much to invest in the instrument: leverage 0 means cash, 0.5 means half." If both profiles carry the same leverage, the switch has nothing left to change and the engine removes the rule. The Risk card then shows the [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) "Nothing changes when the risk triggers": "With one instrument the method does not matter and Risk-Off can only change the leverage; with the same leverage the engine removes the rule, so set a different leverage (0 = all in cash)." A few method settings keep the method running on one instrument — [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) among them — and the alert stays silent for those. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-measure-selection # Risk measure selection Risk measure selection is the choice of which statistic counts as "risk" when an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) sizes positions by risk: **annualized volatility** (the annualized standard deviation of returns) or **max drawdown** (the worst peak-to-trough fall). The two rank the same instruments differently, so the same [strategy](/glossary/strategy) over the same window can end up with very different weights. **Also seen as:** Risk measure, risk metric, risk proxy ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The control is labelled **Risk measure** and offers exactly two options: "Annualized volatility" and "Max drawdown". - The window each measure is computed over is the profile's **In-sample** setting, in months — "Historical window used by the active method for volatility, correlation, beta, and similar calculations. Default 12." - Annualized volatility follows the standard 252-trading-day convention (the daily figure × √252) — see [volatility](/glossary/volatility). - The risk measure belongs to the allocation profile, so a Risk-On and a Risk-Off profile can weight by different measures — see [allocation and allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method). ## Why does the choice of risk measure change the weights? The two measures look at different things. [Volatility](/glossary/volatility) counts every swing across the whole window, up and down alike, and says nothing about where those swings led. [Max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) counts a single event — the deepest fall from a previous peak — and ignores how choppy the ride was otherwise. So an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) that grinds steadily downhill can look calm on volatility and terrible on drawdown, while one that lurches around but keeps recovering can look wild on volatility and mild on drawdown. Whichever measure you pick becomes the working definition of "calm" that the method weights by. ## Which allocation method uses the risk measure? The **Risk measure** control belongs to the **[Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility)** method, whose description reads "Less-volatile instruments receive higher weights". Textbook inverse-risk weighting gives each instrument a weight proportional to 1 ÷ its risk and then normalizes so the weights sum to 100%, so the instrument the chosen measure calls calmest receives the largest weight. The control's hint states both options plainly: "Annualized volatility = how much the price fluctuates · Max drawdown = its worst historical loss". ## What does it look like in practice? Two instruments over the same 12-month window. Instrument A shows annualized volatility of 12% and a max drawdown of 35% — a slow, steady slide. Instrument B shows annualized volatility of 20% and a max drawdown of 18% — choppy, but it kept bouncing back. Weighting each in proportion to 1 ÷ its risk: | Risk measure | A's risk | B's risk | A's weight | B's weight | |---|---|---|---|---| | Annualized volatility | 12% | 20% | 62.5% | 37.5% | | Max drawdown | 35% | 18% | 34% | 66% | Same two instruments, same window, opposite ordering — under volatility A is the calm one and takes almost two-thirds of the capital; under max drawdown B is the calm one and takes almost two-thirds. That reversal is the whole point of the setting: you are choosing which kind of risk the weights should shrink away from. *Fincanva does not tell you which risk measure to use.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-parity # Risk parity Risk parity is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that sizes every instrument so that each one contributes the same share of the portfolio's total risk. **Equal risk contribution is not the same thing as equal weight:** risk parity shrinks the risky positions and enlarges the calm ones until each supplies an equal slice. **Also seen as:** equal risk contribution, ERC, risk budgeting ## What does "equal risk contribution" mean? An instrument's risk contribution is its weight multiplied by how much the portfolio's overall volatility changes when that weight changes; the slices add back up to the whole. Risk parity is the weighting that makes every slice equal. If two instruments are held in equal amounts but one is three times as volatile as the other, the volatile one supplies almost all of the portfolio's risk. $$ {RC_i} = {w_i} \times {\frac{\partial \sigma_p}{\partial w_i}} \qquad\text{and}\qquad \sum_i {RC_i} = {\sigma_p} $$ where: - instrument i's risk contribution - instrument i's weight - instrument i's marginal effect on the portfolio's volatility - the portfolio's volatility Because that marginal effect depends on how the instrument moves against the rest of the portfolio, not only on its own [volatility](/glossary/volatility), correlations feed into a risk-parity weighting even though correlation is never something you set. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Allocation card names its method — here Risk parity, with its goal, Balance risk, and its description — and, beneath it, the method the strategy uses in Risk-Off. - **Risk parity is included from the Advanced plan**, at the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike. Free and Starter do not offer it in either place. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - It works at both levels: inside a strategy it sizes the [instruments](/glossary/instrument) the strategy holds; inside a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) it splits capital across the strategies so each contributes an equal share of the Combined's risk. - Weights are recomputed at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) from the risk figures measured over the window ending at that date, so a risk-parity weighting drifts over the life of a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than staying fixed. - Risk parity never assigns a zero weight to an instrument you have selected: every instrument must carry a slice of the risk, so every instrument gets some weight. ## Which settings does Risk parity have? One: **Covariance matrix**, which decides how the volatilities and correlations behind the risk contributions are estimated — the plain sample estimate or a corrected one; see [covariance matrix](/glossary/covariance-matrix). Equalising risk contribution itself leaves nothing to choose. A newly chosen Risk parity starts on Ledoit-Wolf · constant correlation, marked Recommended; a strategy saved before that choice existed keeps the sample estimate, so its results do not change by themselves. The other input Risk parity reads is the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) — the field labelled **In-sample** in the strategy editor — which sets how many months of history those estimates cover. It defaults to **12 months** and accepts any whole number of months from 1 upward. Why the statistic a method treats as "risk" changes its answer at all is covered in [risk measure selection](/glossary/risk-measure-selection). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds two instruments with no tendency to move together. Instrument A has 10% volatility, instrument B has 30%. - **At equal weights (50% / 50%)** the risk slices are proportional to (weight × volatility)², so A supplies 0.05² = 0.0025 and B supplies 0.15² = 0.0225 — a split of **10% / 90%**. A "balanced" 50-50 portfolio is in fact nine-tenths driven by one instrument. - **Risk parity** instead sets the weights to **75% / 25%**, because 0.75 × 10% = 0.25 × 30% = 7.5%. Now each instrument supplies exactly half the risk. The 50-50 portfolio looks balanced by weight and is heavily lopsided by risk; the 75-25 portfolio looks lopsided by weight and is balanced by risk. Which of those two is "balanced" is exactly the question Risk parity answers differently from [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights). ## How is Risk parity different from Inverse volatility? [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) reads each instrument's risk in isolation and weights by one divided by that figure. Risk parity targets the finished portfolio's risk split, which also depends on how the instruments move together. In the two-instrument example on this page the methods happen to agree on 75-25, because the instruments were uncorrelated — that equivalence is a special case, and it breaks as soon as the instruments move together. Fincanva describes how these methods work; it does not recommend one. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-templates # Risk templates Risk templates are the ready-made [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) listed in the **Signal** menu of the condition builder: each arrives with its [instrument](/glossary/instrument), indicator, operator and thresholds already filled in, so one pick gives you a complete, working condition. They are starting points, not recommendations — the choice, and any tuning, stays yours. **Also seen as:** presets, ready-made conditions. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The VIX template's sheet: its description, CBOE volatility index level, Risk-Off when volatility exceeds the threshold; the rule as sentences — go Risk-Off when the value is above 25, back to Risk-On when it is below 20 — and the behaviour sentence: switch immediately, without rebalancing. - Eleven templates ship today, grouped under **Volatility**, **Yield curve**, **Inflation** and **S&P 500**. An *inverted* yield curve means the shorter-dated yield in the pair sits above the longer-dated one, so the spread turns negative — which is what those templates compare against. The two inflation-indexed spreads read the same pairs on inflation-linked yields instead of nominal ones. - Every template ships with **Confirmation delay (weeks)** at 0 and **Auto-rebalance** off — maximum responsiveness, and therefore maximum exposure to [whipsaw](/glossary/whipsaw); add patience or off-schedule [rebalancing](/glossary/rebalance) yourself. - Most templates are **Single series** conditions with two thresholds. The **S&P 500 200-day moving average** template is a **Double series** condition, comparing the index with its own moving average, so it has no numeric thresholds. - Several templates read their series untransformed — see [Raw price](/glossary/raw-price). - Where a template's construction is not published — the [Average momentum](/glossary/average-momentum) behind **TIPS**, for instance — Fincanva documents what it observes, not how the value is built. - A built-in template is a pre-filled form, not a signal that it works: Fincanva does not say which to use, whether to use one, or what threshold to set. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What does it look like in practice? You pick the **S&P 500 200-day moving average** template. The builder fills in a **Double series** condition: **Series 1** is the S&P 500 read as a level, and the **Comparison series** is the same index transformed by a [simple moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma) over 200 days. The comparison between them is the whole condition, which is why its sentence holds no threshold — there is no number to type. You then select the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) in the rule's last sentence, set **Confirmation delay (weeks)** to 4 so a brief dip below the average is not acted on, and leave **Auto-rebalance** off so a flip rides the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s normal rebalance schedule. Because the confirmation delay is not one of the fields this template exposes for tuning, its description now reads with " (modified)" after it — a label, not a warning. **Reset to template** would undo both edits. The steps are in [Set up a risk condition](/docs/strategies/set-up-a-risk-condition). ## What do the built-in risk templates watch? Each description below is the one the app shows. | Group | Template | What it watches | |---|---|---| | [Volatility](/glossary/volatility) | **VIX** | "CBOE volatility index level. Risk-Off when volatility exceeds the threshold." | | Volatility | **VIX ratio** | "Ratio of short-term (VIX) to medium-term (VXV) implied volatility. Risk-Off when the short term exceeds the medium term." | | Inflation | **TIPS** | "Average momentum of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. Risk-Off when momentum turns sharply negative." | | Yield curve | **Short Term (5Y − 3M)** | "Short-end yield curve spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | Yield curve | **Medium Term (10Y − 5Y)** | "Mid-curve yield spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | Yield curve | **Medium Term (10Y − 5Y, inflation)** | "Inflation-indexed mid-curve spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | Yield curve | **Long Term (30Y − 3M)** | "Long-end vs short-end spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | Yield curve | **Long Term (30Y − 10Y)** | "Long-end spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | Yield curve | **Long Term (30Y − 10Y, inflation)** | "Inflation-indexed long-end spread. Risk-Off when inverted." | | S&P 500 | **S&P 500 200-day moving average** | "Risk-Off when the S&P 500 is below its 200-day simple moving average." | | S&P 500 | **S&P 500 12-month momentum** | "12-month percent change of the S&P 500. Risk-Off when 12-month momentum turns negative." | ## What can you change once you pick a template? You can change every value of a template, because the builder shows the whole rule as one sentence and each value in it opens its own control. Each template declares the values it expects you to adjust — for most of them the two thresholds and their operators; the **S&P 500 200-day moving average** template declares none — and changing any other value appends " (modified)" after the template's description, so you can see the condition no longer matches its template. **Reset to template** puts the original values back. To start from nothing, the menu also offers **Custom** ("Build your own rule from scratch.") with two starting shapes, "Single series" and "Double series" — see [Condition types](/glossary/condition-types). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-free-rate # Risk-free rate The risk-free rate is the short-term reference interest rate that risk-adjusted metrics subtract from a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s return, so that only the return earned *above* a near-riskless baseline counts as the reward for taking risk. It is the return you could have earned over the same period with essentially no risk, and it is the baseline the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) and [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) measure excess return against. **Also seen as:** riskless rate, reference rate ## How Fincanva sets the risk-free rate Fincanva uses a real market-data series rather than a fixed number: the 3-Month US Treasury Bill secondary-market rate, published by FRED as the series `DTB3`. A short-term government bill is the standard textbook proxy for a near-riskless return, because you are almost certain to be repaid over such a short horizon. The series is time-varying, so the rate is matched to your [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s own date window and reported as the period average. ## What risk-free rate is used where the series has no data? For any month of your backtest window that falls outside the DTB3 series — before its first observation or after its last — Fincanva uses a flat **2% a year** in its place, and the period average blends those months with the months the series does cover. A window that sits entirely outside the series is measured against 2% throughout. This stand-in belongs to the risk-free rate only: it is not the rate charged on borrowed money, which is set separately — see [interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups). The stand-in covers dates outside the series, not a missing series. If the series itself could not be loaded, backtests would not run at all rather than run on an assumed rate. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The rate comes from the FRED `DTB3` series (3-Month US Treasury Bill), a live market-data series — not a hardcoded constant. - It is matched to the first and last dates of your backtest and shown as the period average for that window. - Months of the window outside the series are filled with a flat 2% a year, blended into the period average. - It feeds the excess-return term of the Sharpe ratio and the Sortino ratio: both subtract it, stand-in months included, before dividing by a risk measure. - The **Sharpe** a [screener](/glossary/screener) shows for an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) does not subtract it — see [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio#does-the-screeners-sharpe-subtract-the-risk-free-rate). ## What does it look like in practice? Suppose a strategy returns 8% over a year while the risk-free rate averaged 3% across the same window. Only the 5 percentage points *above* the risk-free rate are the reward for taking risk — the first 3% is a return you could have earned with essentially no risk at all. The Sharpe ratio divides that 5% excess by the strategy's [volatility](/glossary/volatility), so subtracting the risk-free rate is exactly what turns "total return" into "reward for the risk you took". A strategy that beat cash by a wide margin and one that barely beat it can post the same headline return but very different excess returns. *The risk-free rate shown is a historical average over your backtest's window, not a rate available to you now or a return you can count on.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-off-canonicalization # Risk-Off canonicalization Risk-Off canonicalization is what happens when a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [Risk-Off allocation profile](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) is configured identically to its Risk-On profile: the switch has nothing to change, so a triggered [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) has no visible effect and the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) matches one with no risk condition at all. The condition is not broken; there is simply no difference to switch into. **Also seen as:** identical-profile no-op ## How does Fincanva handle it? The Allocation card holds both profiles: the Risk-On method — here Risk parity — and beneath it the line In Risk-Off: naming the Risk-Off method, here Equal weights. Because the two differ, a flip changes the holdings. - For a flip to change anything, the two profiles must differ in something the allocation uses: the [weighting method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method), that method's parameters, or the profile's [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window). At the strategy level a different [leverage](/glossary/leverage) also counts; at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level), a different [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion). - The profile's name ("Risk-On" / "Risk-Off") is a label, not a setting, so two profiles that differ only by name are identical. - Matching profiles make the condition a no-op: the strategy behaves as if it had no risk condition, even though the condition is configured and active. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy runs [Equal weights](/glossary/equal-weights), no leverage, in Risk-On. You add a risk condition on a volatility index and set the Risk-Off profile to Equal weights, no leverage — the same thing. Fincanva shows the alert below. You back-test through a downturn in which the condition triggers for four months. The [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) is identical to the same strategy with no condition at all: through those four months it still held the same instruments, at the same weights, with the same exposure. Lower the Risk-Off exposure, or pick a different method for Risk-Off, and the two backtests diverge from the first trigger onward — that difference is the entire effect of the risk condition. ## Why does nothing change when the condition fires? Going [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) means swapping one allocation profile for another. If both profiles carry the same weighting method with the same settings, the swap replaces a profile with its twin, and the holdings that come out are the ones that were already there. The regime still flips — the strategy is genuinely in its Risk-Off state — but nothing about what it holds, or about the equity curve, differs from the Risk-On state. ## How does Fincanva flag identical profiles? The app raises a [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review: "When the risk condition triggers, nothing changes, because Risk-Off is the same as Risk-On. Change the Risk-Off allocation, or leave it if that is intended." It appears once risk conditions are active and both profiles are materially the same, and the Risk-Off profile reads "Same as Risk-On: the regime change does not change the allocation". The backtest still runs; make the two profiles differ, or press **Leave as is** if an identical Risk-Off is a deliberate placeholder. That is a different situation from a Risk-Off profile that was never picked at all, which shows the harder error "Risk-Off allocation needs to be set" — "Risk conditions are active, but no Risk-Off allocation method has been picked yet. Choose one below so the strategy knows what to do when a risk condition triggers." 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off # Risk-On and Risk-Off Risk-On and Risk-Off are the two allocation profiles a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can run: **Risk-On** is the normal profile, and **Risk-Off** is the defensive profile the strategy switches to while a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) is triggered. Each carries its own weighting method and its own invested portion, and a strategy is always in exactly one of the two. **Also seen as:** RORO, defensive allocation ## Does Risk-Off stop the strategy or sell everything? No — Risk-Off does neither. Going Risk-Off swaps in the Risk-Off allocation profile and nothing more: the strategy keeps running, keeps its [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) schedule, and keeps holding whatever that profile allocates to. It does not pause, halt, or stop, and it does not liquidate to cash unless the Risk-Off profile you configured is itself cash-heavy. If you set the Risk-Off profile to hold less capital at work, the difference shows up as a larger cash reserve — see [How can risk conditions lower the invested portion?](/glossary/invested-portion#how-can-risk-conditions-lower-the-invested-portion). ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Allocation card shows both profiles: the Risk-On method first — here Risk parity, with its goal, Balance risk — and beneath it the line In Risk-Off: naming the method the Risk-Off profile uses, with Open to switch to it. - With no risk condition configured, a strategy stays in Risk-On at all times and the single allocation you set applies always; the empty Risk card says so: "Without a condition, the strategy stays in Risk-On at all times." - The Risk-Off profile is independent: its own method, its own parameters, its own invested portion. It may also be left identical to Risk-On, in which case switching changes nothing. - **Risk-Off is included from the Advanced plan**, at the strategy level and inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) alike. Free and Starter run Risk-On only, so a strategy on either plan never switches; Advanced, Ultimate and Professional include it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Fincanva does not say how defensive a Risk-Off profile should be, or when a strategy should be in it. See [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice). ## What is the difference between Risk-On and Risk-Off? The difference is the allocation profile, not the activity: both profiles are complete allocations, and the strategy runs continuously under whichever one is active. In the **Allocation** card the two sit side by side — **Risk-On** is the allocation that runs while no risk condition is firing, **Risk-Off** the one that runs while one is. Each has its own [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) picker ("Method for Risk-On" / "Method for Risk-Off") and its own invested portion, so Risk-Off can use a different weighting method, put less capital to work, or both. Until you configure the defensive side, the app shows "Risk-Off allocation needs to be set". ## What switches a strategy from Risk-On to Risk-Off? A risk condition does, and only a risk condition. While no configured condition is triggered the strategy runs Risk-On; while one is triggered it runs Risk-Off. With two conditions configured, either one is enough — the Risk card joins them with "Or", the [two-condition combination](/glossary/two-condition-combination). When the condition clears, the strategy returns to Risk-On. The condition can compare a market series with thresholds or with a second series, or it can be one of three quantitative rules that decide from a model instead — [Hidden regimes (Markov)](/glossary/hidden-regimes-markov), [Clustering](/glossary/clustering) and, on a Combined, [Strategy's own performance](/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance); [condition types](/glossary/condition-types) lists all five. How quickly the switch reaches your holdings depends on the condition's [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) and its [auto-rebalance toggle](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip). ### How do you find out your strategy has gone Risk-Off? You see the current regime by opening the strategy — the app does not notify you when a strategy flips to Risk-Off. There are no push notifications, alerts or emails on a flip today. On the Settings page, the **When** section of the Risk card lists each condition, with "Or" between two of them, so you can see what would trigger a switch. ## How does the Allocation card show Risk-On and Risk-Off? The allocation summary badges the two states as "Risk-On only" or "Risk-Off set up". On the **Settings** page the Allocation card switches between Risk-On and Risk-Off with two keys at the top right. Under the method button, a line names the other regime's method — "In Risk-Off:" or "In Risk-On:" — with **Open** to switch to it. When the Risk-Off profile matches Risk-On, the Risk-Off key carries the violet mark of an alert to review, and — with Risk-Off open — the line beside the method button reads "Same as Risk-On: the regime change does not change the allocation". The method button's lower edge and that line turn violet too. With no Risk condition active there is nothing to switch between: the Risk-Off key is grey and cannot be pressed, and pointing at it says "Risk-Off switches on when you add a condition in the Risk card." On a plan that does not include Risk-Off, the key carries the mark of the plan that does. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds three equity ETPs, weighted equally, with all of its capital invested — that is its Risk-On profile. You set its Risk-Off profile to the same three instruments but with a lower invested portion, leaving part of the capital in cash. A risk condition then triggers. The strategy switches to Risk-Off at the next rebalance (or immediately, if the condition has **Auto-rebalance** on). It sells down each holding to the smaller target, and the freed capital sits in the cash reserve. It still holds all three ETPs, still rebalances on schedule, and still records positions and results — it is simply carrying less market exposure. When the condition clears, the strategy switches back to the Risk-On profile and the cash is put back to work. Had you instead set the Risk-Off profile identically to Risk-On, this whole sequence would have produced no change at all. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/robust-worst-case # Robust worst case Robust worst case is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that generates a set of possible futures at each rebalance and chooses the weights whose **single worst** future is the least severe. It is the most conservative of the tail-focused methods: expected returns do not enter it at all, and nothing above the floor matters — only how bad the worst scenario gets. **Also seen as:** worst-case optimisation, maximin allocation ## What does Robust worst case optimise? It maximises the return of the worst scenario — a maximin rule. $$ \max_{{w}} \; \min_{{s}} \; {r_s(w)} $$ where: - the set of weights - each of the generated scenarios - the portfolio's return in scenario s at those weights In words: for each candidate mix, find its worst scenario; then keep the mix whose worst scenario is the best of all those worsts. Compare [Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar), which looks at the same kind of scenarios but averages the worst share of them. Robust worst case looks at one scenario only, which makes it the cleanest "protect the floor" objective and also the most sensitive to that one extreme scenario. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"Robust worst case"** and describes it as "Picks the weights whose worst scenario is least severe". - Robust worst case is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). - It has no tail share and no other setting beyond the two scenario settings above. It reads the calculation window (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and does not read the **Covariance matrix** choice. - With a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) there is nothing to choose: it receives the whole weight. - The picker marks it "slow to compute": each [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) generates the scenarios and solves an optimisation over them. ## Where do the scenarios come from? Each scenario is a possible next period assembled from real days of the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window), the same way [Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) builds its scenarios. Two settings describe them, under **Advanced settings**: - **Number of scenarios** — "How many possible futures are generated at each rebalance." From 100 to 2,000; 500 by default. - **Horizon of each scenario** — "How many trading days each generated future covers." From 5 to 63 days; 21 by default. A kind of market the window never contained cannot appear in any scenario, so the floor it protects is the worst the window's own days can be recombined into. ## Which plan includes Robust worst case? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? Across 500 generated one-month scenarios, three candidate mixes behave like this: | Mix | Average scenario | Worst scenario | |---|---|---| | A | +1.2% | −9.0% | | B | +0.9% | −6.0% | | C | +0.4% | −4.1% | In prose: A has the best average and the deepest floor, C the weakest average and the shallowest floor, and B sits between them on both. Robust worst case chooses **C**, because −4.1% is the least severe worst case — the averages play no part in the choice. A method that weighed the average, such as [Stochastic programming](/glossary/stochastic-programming) with a low risk aversion, could choose differently. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/rolling-correlation # Rolling correlation Rolling correlation is the correlation between two return series measured over a window that slides forward through time, giving one value per date instead of one figure for the whole period. It keeps the timeline a [full-period correlation](/glossary/correlation-matrix) compresses: when two assets moved together, when they parted, and whether the relationship held when it mattered. **Also seen as:** moving-window correlation, rolling-window correlation, time-varying correlation ## How does Fincanva handle it? Fincanva does not currently display a rolling-correlation chart on any screen in the app. Correlations themselves are shown: a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s analysis has a correlations page carrying a [correlation matrix](/glossary/correlation-matrix) and a comparison against [factors](/glossary/factor-roster). What those tables report is a single figure per pair, scoped to the whole run or to one calendar year — not a value per date, which is what makes a series rolling. The term is documented here because it is standard vocabulary for reading a diversified [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and because the difference between one figure and a series is exactly what this page is about. **Fincanva's window is one year.** Wherever Fincanva computes a rolling correlation it rolls a one-year window, so every value you read is the correlation of the twelve months ending on that date — not the whole history, and not the last quarter. The window is part of the reading, not a technical footnote: a correlation of 0.8 on a one-year window and a correlation of 0.8 on a one-month window are different statements about the same pair. It also fixes where the series can start: the first year of any pair's shared history produces no value, because until then there is no full window to compute. ## How is a rolling correlation calculated? A rolling correlation applies the ordinary correlation calculation repeatedly, each time to the most recent window of observations only. $$ {\rho_t} = \operatorname{corr}\big({r^A}_{t-w+1 \dots t},\; {r^B}_{t-w+1 \dots t}\big) $$ where: - the correlation across the window ending at date t - the two series' per-period returns, over the last w periods Each step forward drops the oldest observation and adds the newest, so the window "rolls" and the output is a series in the range −1 to +1. Two properties follow from the shape of that calculation. The series cannot begin until the window is full, so the first $w$ periods of history produce no value at all. And the window length is a trade-off: a short window reacts quickly to a change in the relationship but jumps around on noise, while a long window is smooth but slow, still reporting a crisis-era correlation months after the crisis ended. Windows from a few months to a few years are standard practice. ## Why does correlation spike in a crash? Correlation between risk assets rises sharply in a sell-off because in that regime a single force — investors reducing exposure across the board — dominates the individual reasons the assets would otherwise move apart. Positions are sold because they can be sold, not because of what they are, so shares, credit, and often assets held precisely as diversifiers all fall in the same weeks. The practical consequence is uncomfortable: diversification measured on calm data overstates the protection it provides in exactly the periods it is meant to protect against. A pair of holdings that spent a decade at 0.2 and combined into a genuinely smoother portfolio can behave like one holding for the three months that produce most of the [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown). A rolling correlation is how that becomes visible; a single full-period figure hides it by construction. ## How can two sleeves decouple, then move together? Take two sleeves of a strategy — a broad equity sleeve and a corporate-credit sleeve — and compute their correlation on a rolling window across a ten-year [backtest](/glossary/backtest). | Period | Rolling correlation | What it means | |---|---|---| | Calm years (most of the decade) | 0.25 to 0.40 | the sleeves move partly independently; combining them lowers portfolio [volatility](/glossary/volatility) | | The three crash months | 0.85 | both sleeves fall together; the pair behaves close to a single asset | | Full-period figure | 0.42 | a number that describes neither regime | The full-period 0.42 is not wrong — it is the correct average — but it is the answer to a question nobody asked. The diversification benefit the 0.25–0.40 stretch implies is real for nine years and largely absent for the quarter that produced the worst of the drawdown, and only the rolling series shows that the two facts are about the same pair of sleeves. ## What counts as a good value? A full-period correlation of 0.4 can be the average of a long calm stretch near 0.1 and a few violent months near 0.9, and the two situations mean entirely different things for a portfolio. There is no good value, only a reading. A rolling correlation near +1 means the two series have been moving almost identically over that window, near 0 means recent moves have been largely unrelated, and near −1 means they have been moving in opposite directions. What a rolling series adds over a single figure is *stability*: a pair that holds a steady 0.3 through several market regimes has behaved differently from a pair averaging 0.3 by alternating between 0.0 and 0.9, even though both report the same full-period number. Correlation also says nothing about magnitude — two series can be perfectly correlated while one moves five times as far, which is what [beta](/glossary/beta) measures instead. Fincanva does not tell you which correlations to seek or avoid in a portfolio — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/run-status # Run status Run status is the lifecycle state of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [backtest](/glossary/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? The run status chips in the order the Strategies list sorts them: Up to date in green, Computing in violet, Stalled and Needs re-run in amber, To run in grey, Failed in red, Incomplete outlined, and last Set aside, which is not a chip but the mark of the plan that would bring the strategy back, its bars showing that plan's level. **Every one of the eight describes the strategy, never Fincanva.** Three of them — **Set aside**, **Incomplete** and **To run** — 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](/docs/backtesting/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](/glossary/plan-compliance). - **Incomplete** — the strategy does not yet hold enough to run: a [Combined](/glossary/combined) with fewer than two components, or one you have started and not filled in. - **To run** — the strategy is complete but has never been backtested, so there is nothing to show yet. - **Computing** — a run was launched and has not come back; the results replace it when done. - **Stalled** — a run was launched, but its progress has not moved for more than a day: it has most likely stalled. - **Up to date** — the result matches your current settings and the latest data; the numbers are current. - **Needs re-run** — 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. - **Failed** — the last run produced no results. Fincanva does not show why a run failed. Related reading: [bankruptcy rules](/glossary/bankruptcy-rules). ## Why does a strategy flip to Needs re-run? Editing any setting that feeds the backtest flips the status to **Needs re-run**, because the saved result no longer matches your configuration. Changing the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) frequency, the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), or a cost or tax rate in Settings all invalidate the last run. Flipping one of the three [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) 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 **Needs re-run** 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](/glossary/mark-live) are recomputed for you on Fincanva's daily schedule, so they return to **Up to date** on their own — see [daily warm](/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies) and [data freshness](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## What happens when Fincanva cannot reach the engine? When Fincanva cannot reach the [compute engine](/glossary/simulation-engine), **most of your book does not change its wording at all.** A strategy that is **Set aside**, **Incomplete** or **To run** 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 **Up to date**, **Computing** or **Stalled** from an earlier day reads **Needs re-run**. Figures are kept either way, dimmed, so the page is never blank. A **Computing** 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](/glossary/mark-live). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is **Up to date**, 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 **Needs re-run** and the metrics dim. You press **Re-run**: the chip becomes **Computing**, the results view shows **Computing results… 40%**, and when the engine finishes it settles back to **Up to date** 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 **Needs re-run** again — and one more Re-run puts it back on the latest data. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/screener # Screener A screener is a saved set of filters over a universe of instruments that returns every [instrument](/glossary/instrument) passing all of them. You choose a [universe](/glossary/universe) and add [filters](/glossary/filter) that narrow it; whatever survives is the screener's [matches](/glossary/matches). It picks instruments by rule instead of by hand, and the same saved screener can be reused, backtested, and attached to a strategy. **Also seen as:** screen, stock screener ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **A screener may hold up to 10 filters, on every plan**, and no upgrade raises it — there is no higher figure to buy. A screener saved with more before the limit was checked keeps working; [what happens to it](#what-happens-to-a-screener-with-more-than-10-filters) is below. - A strategy carrying a copy of a screener with more than 10 filters reads [outside the plan](/glossary/plan-compliance) until you remove filters from that strategy's own copy, or detach it. Trimming the screener in your library does not clear it: attaching copies the filters, and the two are independent from then on. - A new screener opens as "Untitled screener" over the widest universe, and **Save** stays disabled until you change something: "Add a filter or change the universe to enable Save." - Filters combine with AND, so an instrument has to pass all of them to be a match. - A screener's matches refresh daily as new market data arrives, so the same screener can return a different set from one day to the next with no edit from you. - Public screeners are read-only. To change one you use **Copy to Mine**, which puts your own editable copy in your library. - Editing filters makes a screener's last [backtest](/glossary/backtest) stale rather than deleting it: the app keeps showing the previous run under "Out of date — filters changed since the last backtest. Showing the previous run." ## What is a screener made of? A screener is a universe plus a list of filters, and nothing else. The universe decides which instruments are eligible at all — by [asset type](/glossary/asset-type), country, exchange, index, sector, and asset subtype; "All" is the whole market — and each filter is one testable condition on a metric. The **Matches** tab carries the live count of instruments passing every filter at once, and it updates as you add, edit, or remove filters. ## What can you do with a screener? Three things: read its matches, backtest it, or attach it to a strategy. [Backtesting a screener](/glossary/screener-backtest) measures how its picks would have performed over six holding horizons — 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months — against a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) built from the same universe with no filters applied, so the comparison isolates what the filters contributed rather than what the market did. That same Backtest view is where [Fin](/glossary/fin) offers to improve your filters or suggest new ones. [Attaching it to a strategy](/glossary/screener-attach) makes the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) buy what the screener selects; see [Attaching a screener to a strategy](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy) for the steps. ## What does it look like in practice? You want cheap, sizeable US stocks with strong returns on equity. You set the universe to US-listed stocks, then add three filters: `P/E < 15`, `Market Cap > 2B`, and `ROE > 15`. The **Matches** count falls with each one — from the whole universe, to a few thousand, to a few hundred, to 38. Those 38 instruments are the screener's matches: the set a backtest measures and an attached strategy buys. Loosen `P/E < 15` to `P/E < 20` and the count rises again, because one condition became easier to pass. ## What happens to a screener with more than 10 filters? It keeps working, and says so. Until recently nothing checked a screener's filter count on save, on any plan — and one plan's limit was higher before it was levelled — so a screener saved then may carry, say, 15. It reads, returns matches and backtests. On its own screener page, where it is yours to edit, a note above its filters says: *"This screener holds 15 filters; the limit is now 10. It goes on running, and your changes to it save normally while it holds no more than the 15 filters it was saved with. You cannot go above that number. No plan raises this limit."* A screener in a public [folder](/glossary/folder) is not yours to save, so it carries no note. You can rename it, change its universe, edit a filter and remove filters. **What counts is the number it was SAVED with, not 10**: an edit is refused only when it would leave more filters than that. Add a sixteenth and the note says the draft cannot be saved and how many rows to take out, until you are back to 15. At 10 or fewer the note goes before you save; reload without saving and it returns. Every save below your old number becomes the new one: save at 12, and 12 is the next ceiling. Nothing is deleted. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/screener-attach # Screener attach A screener attach is a [screener](/glossary/screener) embedded inside a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) so that a rule, rather than a hand-picked list, decides which instruments the strategy may hold. An attached screener is re-evaluated at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), and it sits in one of two pools: a **qualifying** pool, which brings instruments in, and a **rejecting** pool, which takes them out. Attaching copies the screener into the strategy, so from that moment the attachment is independent of the saved screener it came from. **Also seen as:** In and Out screeners, entry screener / exit screener, Qualify and Reject, Attach to In / Attach to Out ## What do the two screener pools do? The qualifying pool decides who is considered, and the rejecting pool decides who is thrown out — the app states each rule where the pool is: "Instruments must match an In screener to be considered." and "Instruments matching any Out screener are excluded." Within a pool, membership is **any**, not all: the pool header reads "Match any" with the count of screeners in it, so an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) that matches one qualifying screener is a candidate even if it fails the others, and an instrument that matches one rejecting screener is out even if it fails the others. Filters *inside* a single screener still combine with AND — see [matches](/glossary/matches). The two pools are only available together in **Compose**; the other [asset-selection modes](/glossary/asset-selection-modes) carry a single screener with no rejecting pool. ## How do the qualifying and rejecting pools combine? The candidate set is the union of what the qualifying screeners match, minus the union of what the rejecting screeners match: $$ S = \left( \bigcup_{i=1}^{n} Q_i \right) \setminus \left( \bigcup_{j=1}^{m} R_j \right) $$ where: $S$ is the set of instruments the strategy may hold at that rebalance; $Q_i$ is the set of instruments in the working scope that match the $i$-th qualifying screener; $R_j$ is the set that match the $j$-th rejecting screener; $n$ and $m$ are how many screeners sit in each pool; the working scope is the basket if it has instruments in it, and each qualifying screener's own [universe](/glossary/universe) otherwise; and when $n = 0$ there is no qualifying screener, so the candidates are the basket itself — with no basket either, the strategy has nothing to choose from and does not run. Union (∪) is why "Match any" behaves the way it does inside a pool, and set difference (∖) is why one rejecting match is enough to remove an instrument no matter how many qualifying screeners liked it. Two cases work differently in the engine than the formula suggests, and Fincanva raises a [strategy alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts) to review for each. The same screener in both pools: a title that passes both is sold and bought back in the same rebalance, and the entry wins, unless a [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay) of at least 1 month holds it out. A rejecting pool over a basket with no qualifying screener: the engine sells what matches it and buys the same instrument back in the same rebalance, because the candidates are always the basket and no wait applies there — so the rejecting pool changes nothing. ## Which titles does an entry screener put into the positions? The positions are filled from the qualifying screeners' result in its order, and the order is decided in two steps. 1. **The cap.** When more titles pass than six times [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions), the engine keeps only the most traded of them — the highest average traded volume — and orders them from the most traded down. The cap applies to the union of all the qualifying screeners, not to each one. 2. **Your ordering row.** A «Highest by…» or «Lowest by…» row keeps the first N titles of its own order, so it is how you decide which titles are preferred. Without one, the order is the cap's by traded volume, or — under the cap — an internal order of the index, which is not a merit. So an ordering row decides the positions only when its last row keeps no more than six times Max positions: a row keeping more is cut back to the most traded before the positions are filled, and the positions go to the most liquid titles instead of the top of your ranking. Two alerts to review on the Asset selection card say where you stand: "No rule decides which names enter" when a qualifying screener has no ordering row, and "The engine does not keep the top of your ranking" when the last ordering row keeps more than the cap. When the Risk-On method is [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based), the positions are filled from that method's own ranking of the candidates instead, and the two alerts stay silent. With two or more qualifying screeners a title enters by passing any one of them, and the grey note "Passing any one of the screeners is enough to enter" says so: "A title enters if it passes at least one of the screeners, not all of them; to ask for both conditions, put them in the same screener." ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's basket holds ten tickers, so that basket is the working scope: `AAPL · MSFT · NVDA · TSLA · JNJ · PFE · KO · WMT · XOM · GE` Two screeners sit in the qualifying pool and one in the rejecting pool. Suppose at this rebalance they match: | Pool | Screener | Matches | |---|---|---| | Qualify | $Q_1$ | JNJ · PFE · KO · WMT · XOM | | Qualify | $Q_2$ | AAPL · MSFT · NVDA · TSLA | | Reject | $R_1$ | TSLA · XOM | The qualifying union $Q_1 \cup Q_2$ is nine tickers — everything except **GE**, which matched neither, so it is never a candidate. Subtracting $R_1$ removes **TSLA** (a candidate via $Q_2$) and **XOM** (a candidate via $Q_1$), leaving seven: `AAPL · MSFT · NVDA · JNJ · PFE · KO · WMT` Those seven are what the strategy may hold at this rebalance. A [**Max positions**](/glossary/max-positions) cap applies on top: with the cap at 5, the strategy holds five of the seven rather than all of them. At the next rebalance the same three screeners are re-evaluated and the seven can be a different seven. ## Does editing the saved screener change strategies that already use it? No — attaching copies the screener's filters into the strategy at that moment, so a later edit to the saved screener in your library does not reach strategies that already have it attached. Each attachment is its own copy: you edit that copy's filters from inside the strategy, and the change affects only that strategy, never your library screener or another strategy that attached the same one. This is the same copy-on-use rule that governs [Duplicate and Copy to Mine](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine). Fincanva does remember which library screener an attachment came from, but only to support one manual, one-directional action: **Update source screener** pushes the strategy's copy back onto the saved screener, overwriting its filters and universe. Nothing pushes the other way. When the attachment has no library origin — one inserted empty, or one whose original was deleted — the option is unavailable and reads "No source screener tracked — use Save as new instead". ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Attaching a screener to a strategy is not included on the Free plan.** Free attaches none — a screener still runs on its own there — while Starter attaches 1, Advanced 2, and Ultimate and Professional 8. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **On Free, what needs a screener stays visible and marked.** On the Asset selection card **Screen** and **Compose** keep their place, each with the plan's bars after its name — hovering them reads "Available from Starter" — and choosing one opens it as a switched-off preview: you see the surface with the starter screener filled in, but nothing in it can be changed and nothing is saved. Pressing the bars, or the key you are already previewing, opens the plan dialog — "Strategies with screeners are available from Starter" — and choosing **Basket** brings back what the strategy holds. The Basket's **Filters** are hidden on Free, unless the strategy already holds a screener. A strategy that holds one anyway — made on a paid plan, or copied — is kept intact, but its [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is refused before you press it; see [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance#what-happens-to-a-strategy-with-a-screener-on-the-free-plan). - An attached screener is shown by name, and can be opened and edited without detaching it. - Adding a second screener to a pool widens that pool, because a pool matches on *any* of its screeners — it does not tighten it the way adding a filter to one screener does. - A rejecting screener over a basket with no qualifying screener changes nothing, because what it sells is bought straight back; Fincanva flags it as the alert to review "The exit screener changes nothing" rather than blocking it. With no basket and no qualifying screener the strategy has nothing to choose from, which blocks the run — see [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts#which-controls-belong-to-the-selection-section). - A strategy on the screener path needs at least one attached screener before it can be saved and run: "Add at least 1 screener." - The full step-by-step is in [Attaching a screener to a strategy](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/screener-backtest # Screener backtest A screener backtest is a historical test of a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s filters: it re-screens the market month by month from 2000 to the latest market data and measures what the [matches](/glossary/matches) went on to return over each of six fixed [holding horizons](/glossary/holding-horizon), stated against a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark). It answers "would these filters have beaten the market?" rather than "what would this portfolio have been worth?", and it lives on the **Backtest** sub-view beside **Matches**. It is return-only today: no [volatility](/glossary/volatility), drawdown, or [Sharpe](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) figures are produced for a screener backtest. **Also seen as:** screen backtest ## How a screener backtest differs from a strategy backtest A [backtest](/glossary/backtest) of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) replays that strategy's own allocation, [rebalancing](/glossary/rebalance), and exit rules over history and produces an [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) plus a full [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table). A screener backtest never builds a portfolio: it repeats the screen on a monthly cadence, then averages what the selected instruments did over the next 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. So a strategy backtest has one path and one [final value](/glossary/final-value), while a screener backtest has six per-horizon averages and no equity curve. The two also answer to different inputs — a strategy backtest changes when you change allocation or exits, a screener backtest changes only when the [filters](/glossary/filter) or the [universe](/glossary/universe) change. ## What happens while a screener backtest runs A run is submitted and then watched until it finishes, so the view moves through named states rather than blocking: | State | What you see | |---|---| | Never run | a faded preview of the finished layout behind "See how this screener beat the market", with **Run backtest** and the option to "let Fin suggest a stronger one" | | Running | a progress bar with "Backtesting `{percent}`%" and "`{percent}`% · evaluating monthly windows, 2000 → today", plus **Cancel** | | Refreshing data | "Refreshing data…" while market data reloads; the run keeps retrying on its own | | Complete | the verdict band and the full result, with "Last run …" | | Failed | "This backtest couldn't complete" and "Something went wrong while running it. Your screener and filters are unchanged — try again.", with **Retry run** | **Cancel** stops watching the run; it does not undo anything, and a previously completed result stays on screen rather than blanking. ## What the verdict band shows The verdict band is the standing answer to "did these filters beat the market?", and it appears on both the **Matches** and **Backtest** sub-views. It carries the [benchmark it measured against](/glossary/screener-backtest-benchmark) (in the **Benchmark universe** dock), one hero figure — the annualized edge at the best horizon, read as "annualized above the benchmark" or "annualized below the benchmark" — and then all six horizons as compact figures. Every figure in the band is an edge, so it is quoted in percentage points (pp) rather than as a return: `+3.4 pp` means the matches annualized 3.4 points above the benchmark over that horizon, not that they returned 3.4%. A zero reads as a tie, in neutral styling, never as a win. ## What the "Out of date" banner means When you change the filters after a run, the app keeps the previous result and marks it out of date rather than deleting it. The banner reads: > Out of date — filters changed since the last backtest. Showing the previous run. The fix is the **Re-run backtest** action beside it. The old result stays visible but dimmed, so you can still read it while knowing it belongs to the earlier filter set. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Every screener backtest starts in **2000** and ends at the latest available market data, and it re-screens on a **monthly** cadence — the methodology strip states "Rebalanced monthly". - The six holding horizons are fixed at **1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months** and are not configurable. - The run tests the **saved** screener, not unsaved edits — which is why saving a change marks the last result out of date. - The **Backtest** action needs at least one saved filter; with no rules the view shows "Backtest your screening rules" and points you at the filter bar instead. - A completed result is not carried across visits: reopening the screener returns the **Backtest** sub-view to its never-run state, so you press **Backtest** again. - That second run comes back quickly rather than recomputing, because the finished result is reused for an unchanged screener until new market data arrives — which is also why the same screener's figures can shift from one day to the next with no change to its filters. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener over US stocks holds three filters: `P/E < 20`, `Sector = Technology`, and `Market cap > $10B`. You press **Backtest**. The run steps to "Backtesting 41%", then completes. The verdict band names the benchmark, shows one hero figure — say `+2.8 pp` annualized at the 3-month horizon, marked as the best horizon — and lists all six horizons beside it, some positive and some negative. You then loosen the first filter to `P/E < 25`. Nothing recomputes on its own: the banner appears, the old result dims, and the numbers you are looking at still belong to `P/E < 20` until you press **Re-run backtest**. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching # Screener execution and caching [Screener](/glossary/screener) execution is the run that turns a screener's filters into its [matches](/glossary/matches) — the instruments that pass every filter — evaluated against the latest market data Fincanva has loaded. Every run is answered against the [data frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier) rather than the wall-clock date, over the screener's whole [universe](/glossary/universe). The two things a screener can produce behave differently when you ask again: a match run always computes and answers from that day's data, while a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) you have already run comes back immediately for a limited time, which can end sooner and never lasts past the daily data refresh — after which it computes in full again. **Also seen as:** running a screen, executing a screener ## What are the states a screener run passes through? A match run is short and has three visible outcomes: while it is in flight the results area reads `Refreshing matches…`; on success the matches replace it; on failure it reads `Couldn't run the screen.` with the reason. A run that finds nothing is not a failure — it shows `No instruments match your filters`, which points at filters that are too tight or that contradict each other. A screener backtest is a longer job and reports more. Before it has ever run, the band carries no status at all and the panel shows the never-run preview instead. While it runs the action reads `Backtesting {percent}%` and the panel shows `Computing performance across six horizons` with that percentage — that running display covers the whole wait, from the moment you start the backtest until the results appear. On failure the status reads `Failed` and the action becomes `Retry backtest`. A failed backtest is kept for the same limited time as a finished one, so pressing `Retry backtest` inside that window brings back the same failure at once rather than computing again; after it ends — at the latest with the daily data refresh — a retry computes in full. While market data is being loaded the band reads `Refreshing data…` instead of computing. Editing a filter afterwards does not invalidate the result on screen: the banner reads `Out of date — filters changed since the last backtest. Showing the previous run.` until you re-run it. ## Why do I get the same matches every time — and why is a re-run backtest instant? For two different reasons. **Matches** are computed on every run: you get the same list because the same filters over the same day's data produce the same result, and it changes the moment either side changes. A **screener backtest** you have already run comes back without computing again, which is why opening it a second time shortly afterwards returns at once. That reuse lasts a limited time, not the whole day, and it can end sooner than that: once it ends, the next backtest computes in full again on the same data. The daily data refresh is the one event that ends both. When the daily market-data refresh advances the frontier, a match run starts producing different numbers and the first backtest of the new day computes in full again — so its figures can differ slightly from yesterday's even though you changed nothing. No result ever straddles a refresh. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A screener always runs against the most recent loaded market close; there is no option to run it as of another date. - A match is an [instrument](/glossary/instrument), not a ticker string: it is listed under its current ticker and name, but its identity is its [permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier), so a company that changes ticker does not become a different match. - While market data is loading, a screener reports the refreshing state instead of computing — it never returns a partial or stale answer as if it were current. - A screener backtest re-runs the screener on every monthly screening date from 2000 to the frontier, which is why it takes long enough to report progress while a match run does not. - A result belongs to the screener that produced it, not to the account that asked for it — the same principle as [shared compute](/glossary/shared-compute) for strategies. ## What does it look like in practice? You open a screener with four filters and run it: the results area shows `Refreshing matches…` for a moment, then lists 47 matches. You loosen one filter and run again — a different screener now, so a different answer: 88 matches. You put the filter back and run once more: 47 again, recomputed from scratch but identical, because the filters and the day's data are the same as the first time. Now the backtest. You press `Run backtest`, watch it pass through `Backtesting 62%`, and the horizon returns appear when it finishes. You leave the page, come back twenty minutes later and press `Run backtest` again — the view did not keep the earlier result, but the answer returns at once instead of computing, served from the result already held — it is still within the limited time that result is kept. The next morning, after the overnight refresh has advanced the frontier by one trading day, the same backtest computes from the start, and its horizon returns shift slightly with the extra day of data. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/screener-backtest-benchmark # Screener-backtest benchmark The screener-backtest benchmark is the reference a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) measures itself against, which is why every headline figure such a backtest reports is a *gap* rather than a return: the [screener](/glossary/screener)'s result minus the benchmark's result over the same holding horizon. A screen that averaged 10% a year in a stretch when the benchmark also averaged 10% a year showed no edge at all, even though 10% reads well on its own. Which series the benchmark is, and how it is put together, are not documented — Fincanva has not released either, so this page covers what the benchmark *does* and not what it is. **Also seen as:** Benchmark universe ## Why is a screener's result only meaningful next to its benchmark? Because a raw return over a long window mixes two things that a screener cannot take equal credit for: the market's own move across the period, and whatever the filters added on top of it. Over a run that spans decades the first of those dominates — most instruments rose, so most screens produce a positive number, and a positive number is therefore no evidence that the filters did anything. Subtracting the benchmark removes the shared part and leaves the part attributable to the screen, the same logic that [excess return](/glossary/excess-return) applies to a [strategy](/glossary/strategy). That is also why the *level* of the figure is not the finding. Two screens that both returned 12% a year are not equally good if one ran in a decade the benchmark returned 5% and the other in a decade it returned 14%. ## How does the benchmark shape the numbers you read? In four ways, each of which changes how a verdict should be read: - **The verdict is directional.** A screener is reported as being above the benchmark, below it, or level with it — never as a bare return. - **Zero is a tie, not a win.** A gap of exactly zero resolves to neutral wording rather than being rounded up into a win. - **The gap is in percentage points.** It is the difference between two percentages, so a screener at 12% against a benchmark at 9% is +3 pp — three points of annualized return above the benchmark, not "3% more". - **There is one gap per [holding horizon](/glossary/holding-horizon).** The benchmark is measured over the same set of holding horizons as the screener, so each horizon compares like with like — and a screener can be ahead at one horizon and behind at another. The benchmark is also drawn alongside the screener on the [event-time path](/glossary/event-time-path), so the two can be read together rather than one at a time. ## Can I choose the benchmark for a screener backtest? No. Unlike a strategy's [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), which you pick per strategy from market presets or — on the plans that include them — from one of your own live portfolios, a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) arrives with its benchmark already decided: there is no benchmark control on a screener's **Backtest** tab. The practical consequence is that a screener verdict and a strategy's benchmark comparison are two different measurements, and a figure from one should not be read as if it came from the other. ## Is the verdict a statement about what my strategy will hold? No — it is a measurement of the screener's [matches](/glossary/matches) as a group. A strategy built on the same screener holds a trimmed, liquidity-ranked slice of those matches (see [max-symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap)) and applies its own allocation, exit rules, and costs on top, so its result is a different quantity from the screener's verdict. Fincanva does not tell you whether a verdict is good enough to act on — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Every screener-backtest figure labelled above or below the benchmark is a comparison, not an absolute return measured from zero. - The comparison is a difference between two annualized figures, so it is read in percentage points. - A gap of zero is reported as level with the benchmark rather than as an outperformance. - The benchmark covers the same period and the same holding horizons as the screener, so both sides move when new market data arrives and the backtest is re-run (see [screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching)). - The benchmark cannot be selected, changed, or switched off for a screener backtest. - Not every figure in a screener backtest is a gap against this benchmark: the per-filter impact table mixes a raw return with two deltas measured against other filter sets — see [filter impact lenses](/glossary/filter-impact-lenses). ## What does it look like in practice? At the 12-month holding horizon a screener's matches averaged +10.8% annualized, while the benchmark averaged +7.8% over the same horizon. The verdict is the difference: **+3.0 pp annualized above the benchmark at 12 months**. The same run at the 1-month horizon tells a different story — the screener averaged +9.4% against the benchmark's +10.0%, a gap of **−0.6 pp**, so at that horizon the screen was behind. One screener, one run, two horizons, opposite signs. Note what the two absolute figures (+10.8% and +9.4%) cannot tell you on their own: both are solidly positive, yet one horizon beat its benchmark and the other did not. The level says how the period went; only the gap says what the screen contributed to it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/seed-universe # Seed universe A seed universe is the starting pool of instruments a [screener](/glossary/screener) filters within — the set it searches before a single filter has run. The screener evaluates its filters only against that pool, so the pool is the ceiling on everything it can ever return. The app labels it **Universe**; how filters narrow one is covered in [Universe](/glossary/universe). **Also seen as:** screening universe, starting pool, candidate set ## How does Fincanva handle it? - With no universe filters set, the pool is the entire asset class you chose — "No further universe filters". - A universe edit is a draft until you commit it: **Apply** commits the change, **Cancel** discards it. - Editing the universe of a screen inside a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) changes only that strategy's own copy of the screener. It never rewrites the saved screener the copy came from — see [Attaching a screener](/docs/strategies/attaching-a-screener-to-a-strategy). - Some asset classes have no further universe filters to offer, in which case only the asset-class choice applies. ## Where does a screener start hunting? In whichever pool you hand it, and there are two ways to hand it one. - **[Universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets).** You choose an asset class and, optionally, narrow it further — on things like where instruments are listed, the exchange, the asset subtype, [index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents), sector, and trading currency. Add none of those and the pool is the whole asset class; the app confirms that state with "No further universe filters". - **A hand-picked list of instruments.** The instruments you choose *become* the pool. The screener then filters inside that pool: only instruments you added there are ever considered. Either way the screener's [filters](/glossary/filter) run inside the pool and can only shrink it. A filter never reaches outside to pull in an instrument the pool excluded — which is why two identical screeners on different seed universes return different [matches](/glossary/matches). ## What happens to my universe filters in Easy mode? The screening card runs in two modes, **Easy** and **Pro**, and moving from Pro to Easy changes how the pool is defined. The switch dialog lists what Easy hides — extra Include screeners, Exclude screeners, custom max-hold and reinvest-delay timings — with a general framing of "Easy mode hides these Pro settings. They're kept and restored if you switch back to Pro:". The universe line is worded differently from the rest: "Your screener's universe filters will be dropped — in Easy, your picked instruments are the universe." So in Easy the pool is your picked instruments, and in Pro the pool can additionally be defined by universe filters. Whether the filters survive a round trip back to Pro is not something the app's copy settles — that open point is recorded as a pending fact on this page rather than guessed at here. ## Why does the seed universe change results? Because it decides what was ever eligible. A screener's output is a subset of its seed universe, so widening the pool can only add candidates and narrowing it can only remove them — and a strategy then allocates across whatever came back, using its [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method). A screener that looks unproductive may simply have been pointed at a pool with few instruments that could satisfy its filters. ## What does it look like in practice? A screener has one filter: revenue growth above the market median. You point it at a seed universe of all US-listed stocks — several thousand [instruments](/glossary/instrument) — and it returns several hundred matches, which the strategy then allocates across. You keep the identical filter and swap the seed universe for a hand-picked list of 30 instruments. Now at most 30 instruments can be tested, so at most 30 can match, and in practice perhaps twelve do. Same filter, same date, same market data — a different result, because the pool the screener started from was different. Nothing in the first run's several hundred matches can appear in the second unless it was one of your 30. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/selection-bias # Selection bias Selection bias is the error of drawing a general conclusion from a sample of instruments or periods that is not representative of the population you mean to describe — typically a small, favorable subset chosen with hindsight. The figures are arithmetically correct; they simply describe that sample rather than the [strategy](/glossary/strategy). **Also seen as:** Sample selection bias, sampling bias Selection bias is the bias of the *sampling step*: it enters before any rule is applied, and once the sample is chosen no analysis performed on it can undo the distortion. ## How does Fincanva handle it? Fincanva lets a strategy draw from a broad [universe](/glossary/universe) narrowed by explicit filters rather than a hand-typed list of names, and lets a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) run from an early [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) across many market regimes. Testing the same rules across a wide universe and a long span makes a result harder to attribute to a lucky handful of names or a single kind stretch of the market. The [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view re-runs the same strategy across many entry dates and holding windows, which reveals directly whether a result depended on one favorable starting point. None of this chooses a sample for you. A universe you narrow down to the instruments you already know worked, or a start year you moved because the earlier years looked bad, carries selection bias whatever the tool does. ## What makes a sample unrepresentative? A sample is unrepresentative when membership in it correlates with the outcome being measured, which in backtesting happens in three ways: - **Hindsight-informed instruments.** You already know which names did well over the period, and those are the names in the test. The knowledge that shaped the sample was not available at the start of the period being tested. - **Hindsight-informed periods.** The test covers a stretch of market history that suited the strategy's style, chosen because it suited it. A trend-following rule tested only across a long uninterrupted trend is a sample of one favorable regime. Choosing that stretch and then reading its result as support for the idea is where selection bias shades into [confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias). - **Too small a sample.** A handful of instruments or a couple of years cannot distinguish a durable effect from noise, so the result is dominated by whichever few positions happened to dominate. The clearest symptom is that the conclusion does not survive a change of sample: run the same rules on a wider list of instruments, or on a different span of years, and the effect disappears. ## What goes wrong when you hand-pick the assets that happened to work? Consider a strategy tested on five instruments. You know, in 2026, that those five were among the strongest performers of the previous decade, and you chose them for that reason. The backtest reports a high return — but the return is a property of the five names, not of the rules, and the same rules applied to five names chosen without hindsight would have produced something ordinary. The test cannot tell you which of the two it measured, because it only ever saw the favorable sample. Running the identical rules over a broad [universe](/glossary/universe) instead of the five separates the two questions: if the effect holds across hundreds of names it is at least a property of the rules, and if it collapses it was a property of the five. ## How is selection bias different from survivorship bias and cherry-picking? The three biases attach to three different steps, and each one can occur without the others: | Bias | Where it enters | Who introduces it | |---|---|---| | [Survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias) | the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) list itself, before any choice is made — the failures are already gone | the data | | **Selection bias** | choosing which instruments or which period to *test* | the researcher, at test time | | [Cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) | choosing which of the results already produced to *report* | the researcher, at reporting time | Read together: survivorship bias means the losers were never on the list; selection bias means you picked the sample that suited you; cherry-picking means you ran the full test and then quoted only the good part of it. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/semideviation # Semideviation Semideviation is the [volatility](/glossary/volatility) of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s losing days alone: the standard deviation of the daily returns below zero, annualized with the square root of 252 like volatility itself. It measures how much the losing days differed from one another — whether the bad days were all alike or ranged from mild to much worse — and leaves the winning days out entirely. **Also seen as:** semi-deviation, semi-standard deviation, downside volatility ## How is semideviation calculated? Keep only the days the strategy lost money, take the standard deviation of those returns around their own average, and annualize it: $$ \text{semideviation} = \sqrt{252}\times\text{standard deviation of the daily returns below zero} $$ where 252 is the number of trading days in a year, the same convention volatility uses. In words: it is volatility, measured on the losing days only. A strategy whose losing days were all about −0.5% has a low semideviation; one whose losing days ranged from −0.1% to −4% has a high one. ## Why is semideviation about 0.6 times volatility even for symmetric returns? Because it measures the losing days around their own average, not around zero, semideviation is not the share of the movement that went down. Take returns that are perfectly symmetric — as many ups as downs, of the same sizes: their losing half, measured around its own average, has a standard deviation of about 0.6 times the full volatility. So a semideviation near 0.6 × volatility is the ordinary case, not a sign that most of the movement was upward; a figure well above it means unusually uneven losing days. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Performance Metrics shows it in the **Volatility and risk** group as **Semideviation (downside only)**, right under **Volatility**, annualized the same way — see [what every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). - It follows the same losing-days convention as the [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) on the **Components** tab. - A simulation computed before the row existed shows "n/a", never 0%. ## What does it look like in practice? Two strategies both show a **Volatility** of 15%. The first reads **Semideviation (downside only)** 9%, close to 0.6 × 15%: its losing days were about as varied as a symmetric distribution expects. The second reads 13%: its losing days ranged much more widely — most mild, a few far worse — even though its overall volatility is the same. ## What counts as a good value? Lower means more uniform losing days. Compare it with the strategy's own volatility first: about 0.6 × volatility is ordinary, well above means some losing days were much worse than the rest, which is worth reading beside the [Value at Risk](/glossary/value-at-risk) and [Conditional Value at Risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk). Between strategies, compare it only over the same period. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking # Sequential filtering and Top-N ranking Sequential filtering is the way a [screener](/glossary/screener) applies its filters: one at a time, in the order they sit in the filter strip, each one narrowing the instruments the previous filters left. Top-N ranking is what the **Highest** and **Lowest** operators do inside that sequence — they keep the top or bottom N instruments on a metric, ranked among whatever is still passing at that point rather than across the whole universe. This is why a ranking filter's position in the list changes the result, while a threshold filter's position does not. **Also seen as:** filter order, the filter funnel, Top-N, best N ## How does a screener apply its filters? A screener starts from its [universe](/glossary/universe) and hands that set to its first filter. The instruments that pass become the input to the second filter, those survivors become the input to the third, and so on to the end of the list. What comes out of the last filter is the set of [matches](/glossary/matches). That set is also what a [screener backtest](/glossary/screener-backtest) measures. Because every filter has to be satisfied, the filters combine with AND and the count can only fall or stay level as you go down the list — a funnel, never a fork. If one filter leaves nothing, the screener has no matches and the filters after it have nothing left to narrow. ## Why does filter order matter? Order matters because **Highest** and **Lowest** rank the survivors at their own position, not the universe. Move a ranking filter and you change the pool it ranks, so you change which instruments come out — even though the rules themselves are identical. Threshold filters — `<`, `≤`, `=`, `≥`, `>`, Between — are order-independent among themselves: an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) either clears a threshold or it does not, whatever ran before. Put one of them before a ranking filter and it shrinks the pool the rank draws from; put it after and it trims the ranked set. Both are legitimate screens; they are different screens. ## What does a Highest or Lowest filter keep? A Highest or Lowest filter keeps **at most N instruments** — the count you set, taken from the instruments still passing at that point. It can return fewer than N in two situations: when fewer than N instruments are still in the running, and when some of the survivors have no reading for that metric, because an instrument that cannot be measured cannot be ranked and drops out. Note what Top-N does *not* say: it selects by relative position, not by level. The "highest 10" on a metric are the highest of that particular pool, which says nothing about whether their readings are high in absolute terms. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Filters run in the order they sit in the filter strip, which is the order you added them; the strip has no reorder control today, so changing the order means removing a filter and adding it again. - A ranking filter's count defaults to 5, and its stop list runs 1 to 15 one at a time, then in widening steps up to 300. - **Highest** and **Lowest** sit in the **Rank** group of a filter's operator dropdown, and only filters whose catalogue entry declares them offer them. See [standard operators](/glossary/standard-operators). - A ranking filter reads the same metric as any other filter on that metric, including its **Advanced** settings, so "Highest 10 by revenue four reports ago" is a valid rank. - The [match count](/glossary/matches) reflects the end of the whole sequence, not any intermediate stage. A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) fed by that screener may work with fewer candidates than the count shows — see [max-symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap). ## What changes when the same two rules run in both orders? A screener over 500 US stocks with two filters: `P/E < 20` and `Highest 10` on ROE. **Order A — threshold first, then rank.** | Step | Filter | In | Out | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | `P/E < 20` | 500 | 120 | | 2 | `Highest 10` on ROE | 120 | 10 | The result is the 10 most profitable stocks *among the cheaper half* — every one of them trades below 20× earnings. **Order B — rank first, then threshold.** | Step | Filter | In | Out | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | `Highest 10` on ROE | 500 | 10 | | 2 | `P/E < 20` | 10 | 3 | The rank now runs across all 500 stocks, so it returns the market's 10 most profitable companies — which tend to be expensive. The P/E filter then cuts that list of 10 down to the 3 that happen to trade below 20× earnings. Same two rules, same universe, same day: 10 instruments one way and 3 the other, with a completely different character. Order A asks "who is most profitable among the cheap ones"; Order B asks "of the most profitable companies, which are cheap". Reading a ranking filter's position as part of the rule, not as cosmetic list order, is the habit that stops this surprising you. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/shared-compute # Shared compute Shared compute is Fincanva computing one result per distinct [strategy](/glossary/strategy) setup and reusing it wherever that same setup appears, so a strategy whose exact setup has already been computed returns its result immediately. A result belongs to the setup that produced it — instruments, rules, settings, start year, [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) — not to the account that asked for it. **Also seen as:** deduplication, result reuse ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Asking for a setup that is already computing does not start a second backtest of it — you wait on the one under way and get its result. - Reuse is not a stored badge that can go stale: a reused result is still checked against your settings and the latest market data, so a match that is no longer current is recomputed rather than served (see [data freshness](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier)). - Public strategies benefit the most, because many accounts open the same setups — and a separate server-side sweep, not your [daily warm](/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies), has usually computed them before anyone arrives. - Nothing about your strategy is shown to anyone else by reuse; what is shared is the computed answer to an identical setup. ## What does it look like in practice? A public strategy has been run many times, so its result exists. You use **Copy to Mine** and press Run on your copy without editing anything: the setup matches, the finished result is served, and the **Compute** column reads a near-instant time — no queue, no progress bar. You then change one thing, the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) cadence, from every 3 months to every month. That single edit makes the setup new: nothing matches it, the status flips to **Needs re-run**, and the next backtest computes in full for the first time, with a compute time that reflects the whole work. Change the cadence back to every 3 months and the original result matches again. ## Why was my run instant? Because the answer already existed. Pressing Run on a setup that has been computed before does not recompute it: the finished result is served, [compute time](/glossary/compute-time) reads a fraction of a second, and the [status](/glossary/run-status) goes to **Up to date** without ever passing through a visible **Computing** phase. The reverse also happens: a strategy you have just created can already be **Computing** the first time you look at it, because an identical setup is already being computed and its result is the one you will get. ## What counts as the same setup? Everything that feeds the [backtest](/glossary/backtest). Change one input — an [instrument](/glossary/instrument), a rebalance cadence, the benchmark, a cost or tax rate, the start year — and the setup is no longer the same, so no existing result matches it and the next backtest computes in full. Change nothing and it stays a match, which is why duplicating a strategy and running the copy is effectively free. Two strategies identical in every respect are the same question with one answer. The three [assumption toggles](/glossary/precomputed-toggle-variants) are the exception that proves the rule: they are not part of the setup, because all of their combinations are computed in the same backtest. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/sharpe-ratio # Sharpe ratio The Sharpe ratio is a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s annualized return minus the risk-free rate, divided by its annualized volatility — the return it earned per unit of the variability it took on. It puts return and variability in one number, so strategies with different returns and different swings compare on one scale. It is a standard, public ratio, not a Fincanva measure. **Also seen as:** Sharpe, risk-adjusted return ## How is the Sharpe ratio calculated? The Sharpe ratio subtracts the risk-free baseline from the strategy's annualized return, then divides what is left — the excess return — by the strategy's [annualized volatility](/glossary/volatility). A percentage divided by a percentage, it is a plain number with no unit. $$ \text{Sharpe ratio} = \frac{{\text{annualized return}} - {\text{risk-free rate}}}{{\text{annualized volatility}}} $$ where: - the strategy's annualized return over the backtest - the risk-free rate, a near-riskless baseline over the same window - the standard deviation of the strategy's returns, scaled to a year with the square-root-of-252 convention ## How does Fincanva handle it? A backtest's Performance Metrics page opens on four tiles: Sharpe ratio, Volatility, Longest drawdown and CAGR vs benchmark. - The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) shows it in the **Volatility and risk** group as the row **Sharpe**; the KPI strip calls the same figure **Sharpe ratio**. The by-year table repeats it per calendar year, computed on that year's own return and volatility. - The risk-free rate is a real market rate, not a fixed assumption: the **3-Month US Treasury Bill secondary-market rate**, the FRED daily series `DTB3` (from 1954), matched to your [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s own date window. A strategy tested through a high-rate decade is held to a higher bar than one tested through a near-zero-rate decade. The [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) page owns the series, and the metrics table's risk-free rate row shows its period average. - On the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page's **Return and oscillation** card each strategy is a dot labelled **Sharpe**, on a line that starts at the risk-free rate: the steeper the line, the higher the ratio. Narrow that page to a single year and the lines disappear; the page explains why. - It turns negative whenever the annualized return fell below the risk-free rate over the period. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy returns 11% a year over its backtest while the risk-free rate averaged 3% over the same window, and its annualized volatility was 10%. The excess return is 11% − 3% = 8 percentage points, so the Sharpe ratio is 8 ÷ 10 = **0.8**: the strategy earned 0.8 units of excess return for each unit of volatility. Now take a second strategy that returned the same 11% a year with volatility of 20%. Its excess return is the same 8 points, but its Sharpe ratio is 8 ÷ 20 = 0.4 — the same reward, from twice the variability. Headline return alone would have called these two identical. ## Which return feeds the Sharpe ratio, CAGR or AAGR? It depends on where you read it. On the metrics table — the **Sharpe** row and the KPI strip's **Sharpe ratio** — the annualized-return term follows the same **Reinvest profits** switch as the annualized-return row in **Performance Metrics**: it is the [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) when [Reinvest profits](/glossary/reinvest-profits) is on, and the [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when it is off. The by-year table and the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page always use CAGR, whatever the setting. This matters when comparing runs, because AAGR ignores compounding and usually reads higher than CAGR over multi-year gains. Two backtests of the same strategy that differ only in the Reinvest profits setting therefore feed different numerators into the metrics-table Sharpe ratio, and those Sharpe values are not directly comparable. ## Does the screener's Sharpe subtract the risk-free rate? No. The Sharpe a [screener](/glossary/screener) shows is return divided by volatility with no risk-free rate subtracted, unlike the Sharpe ratio a backtest reports. It is measured on the [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s own adjusted price: its annualized return over a trailing window, divided by the annualized volatility of its daily price moves over the same window. - The **Sharpe** column on the **Returns** tab of a screener's results table covers the last 12 months. - The **Sharpe Ratio** filter covers the number of months you set in its **Months** input, from 1 to 36. **Positive Sharpe Ratio** is the same measure, keeping only values above zero. Because nothing is subtracted, the screener's figure reads higher than an excess-return Sharpe whenever short-term rates are above zero, so an instrument's screener Sharpe and a strategy's backtest Sharpe are not comparable. The filter's description in the app speaks of subtracting a Treasury-bill rate; the value the screener computes does not. ## What counts as a good value? A higher Sharpe ratio means more excess return per unit of variability; zero means the strategy merely matched the risk-free baseline, and a negative value means it trailed it. Since the ratio is a plain number, a move from 0.4 to 0.8 is a doubling of return per unit of risk, not "0.4 percentage points". The Sharpe ratio treats every swing as risk, upward ones included, so a burst of *good* months lowers it — the [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) counts only downside variability. It says nothing about the worst single fall, which is [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), or about return against that fall, which is the [return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio). And because both inputs are measured over the backtest's own window, Sharpe ratios from windows of different lengths or rate environments are not like-for-like. *No Sharpe ratio is a target to aim for or a promise about future risk.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma # Simple moving average (SMA) A simple moving average (SMA) is the unweighted mean of a series' last N values, recalculated at each new point, so short-term noise is smoothed away and the underlying trend becomes easier to read. "Simple" means every value in the window counts the same. In Fincanva it is one of the **Indicator** choices on a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition). **Also seen as:** SMA, moving average, MA, rolling average. ## How is a simple moving average calculated? $$ {\text{SMA}_N(t)} = \frac{1}{{N}} \sum_{i=0}^{N-1} {P_{t-i}} $$ where: - the average on day t - the number of periods in the lookback window - each of the most recent N values, the current one included — the closing price, for a price series A simple moving average adds up the last N values and divides by N, then repeats that at every new point: each new point drops the oldest value out of the window and takes the newest one in, which is what makes the average "move". A weighted or exponential average, by contrast, gives recent values more pull. ## How does Fincanva handle it? The S&P 500 200-day moving average template's sheet: go Risk-Off when the value of the S&P 500 is below the 200-day moving average of the S&P 500. - It is one of four **Indicator** options on a risk condition's [instrument](/glossary/instrument) series, alongside [raw price](/glossary/raw-price), [percent change](/glossary/percent-change) and [average momentum](/glossary/average-momentum). - With "Simple moving average" selected, a **Period** field appears next to the indicator; a condition saves with 22, 60, 200 or 252. The app names the resulting series in days — "SPY · 200-day SMA" in a condition's row. - The indicator only transforms the series being watched. Whether the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) switches to its [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) allocation is decided by the condition's [thresholds](/glossary/condition-types), not by the average itself. - The "S&P 500 200-day moving average" [risk template](/glossary/risk-templates) is built on it. ## What does it look like in practice? Take a 200-day simple moving average of a price series. On each trading day, the SMA is the sum of the last 200 closes divided by 200. If the closes over a stretch average out to 400, the SMA reads 400 while the latest close might be 415 — the price sits above its own average, which is what "above the 200-day SMA" means. If the price then falls to 380 and stays there, the SMA does not drop to 380 with it: it eases down day by day as older, higher closes leave the 200-day window and newer, lower ones enter. Shorten the window to 50 days and the same fall pulls the average down roughly four times faster, because each new close carries four times the weight in the mean. ## How does the lookback window change an SMA? A longer window makes the average smoother and slower; a shorter one makes it closer to the raw series. Because the average always looks backwards, it lags the series by construction: after a turn in the underlying series, the SMA keeps carrying older values until they age out of the window, and the longer the window, the longer that takes. This is the standard trade-off of any moving average — less noise, later reaction. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/simulation-assumptions # Simulation assumptions Simulation assumptions are the three modelling choices applied to every [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** and **Reinvest profits** — that decide whether results include trading costs and financing, whether tax is deducted, and whether profits compound. **Also seen as:** backtest assumptions ## How does Fincanva handle it? - They live in the bar at the bottom of every page you open for a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), behind the sliders button, which shows how many of the three are on (for example 2/3); it opens a panel titled **Simulation assumptions**. The word "Assumptions" is no longer a navigation label — this group carries the name. - **Costs & interests** covers trading costs, financing and interest; **Taxes** covers [tax on dividends](/glossary/dividend-tax) and realized [capital gains](/glossary/capital-gains-tax); **Reinvest profits** compounds realized profits. - By default a backtest is shown with [Costs & interests](/glossary/costs-toggle) and Taxes off and [Reinvest profits](/glossary/reinvest-profits) on — gross of costs and tax, with profits compounding. - Reinvest profits also decides which annualized-return metric appears: on shows [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) (geometric), off shows [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) (arithmetic). - The three govern the Analysis views. The [Positions view](/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions) ignores them and always reads the gross, fully-reinvested version, which is why the two can show different numbers. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is showing a gross return with **Taxes** off. You flip Taxes on: the displayed return, its annualized figure and the monthly numbers all drop to their after-tax values immediately, because that variant was pre-computed at the last backtest — no new backtest starts. What persists is everything you didn't touch: the backtest itself, the strategy's settings and your saved tax rates are unchanged, so flipping Taxes back off restores the gross view instantly. Editing a tax rate in Settings is the opposite kind of change — that is persisted, and the strategy must re-run before the new rate shows up. *Switching an assumption changes what a past backtest is reported to have produced, not what a strategy will produce.* ## Which changes are instant, and which need a re-run? The three toggles and the rates behind them behave differently, which is the key to reading them: - **Instant — the toggles.** Flipping **Costs & interests**, **Taxes** or **Reinvest profits** switches what you see immediately, with no new backtest. Fincanva computes every combination when the strategy runs, so a toggle just reads the matching [already-computed variant](/glossary/precomputed-toggle-variants). - **Saved — the rates.** The values behind the toggles — your cost and interest assumptions, and your tax rates and [regime](/glossary/tax-regime) — are saved in Settings. Changing a rate is a settings change: the strategy reads **Needs re-run**, and the rate takes effect only after it re-runs. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/simulation-engine # Simulation engine The simulation engine is the computation service that runs your backtests — it replays each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) over historical data and returns the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) and metrics you see. A small status indicator reports its current state, which signals how fresh your results are. **Also seen as:** backtesting engine, compute engine While the engine is refreshing market data, newly requested results may lag until the refresh finishes. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The status indicator shows three states, worded in the app as "Engine healthy", "Engine updating data", and "Engine unavailable". - "Engine healthy" means backtests run normally and results reflect the latest available market close. - "Engine updating data" means new market data is loading; existing results stay usable, but the very latest figures may not be in until the refresh completes. - "Engine unavailable" means the engine cannot be reached right now, so new backtests and refreshes wait until it returns — already-computed results still display. - **This indicator is about the engine; it is not a strategy's status.** Your strategies keep their own [run status](/glossary/run-status), which always describes the strategy and never Fincanva — no strategy ever reads "unavailable" because the engine could not be reached. ## What does it look like in practice? You open a strategy and the indicator reads "Engine updating data". Your existing results still show, but a run you request now may take longer or reflect data from just before the refresh. You wait a few minutes; the indicator returns to "Engine healthy", you run the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) again, and the results now include the most recent market close. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/simulation-start-year # Simulation start year The simulation start year is the first calendar year your backtest runs from. It sets where the historical replay begins, so it decides how much market history the results include — a start in 2000 spans more cycles than a start in 2015. In the app the setting is labelled "Starting year". **Also seen as:** Starting year ## What counts as a good value? There is no single right start year — it depends on the story you want the backtest to tell. An earlier start includes more market conditions, including sharp declines like 2008, so the metrics reflect how the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) would have weathered them; a later start focuses on more recent regimes but hides earlier stress. A start year only works if the instruments in the strategy have price data that far back. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Your plan sets the earliest start year, and Fincanva applies it** — 2020 on Free, 2010 on Starter, 2000 on Advanced, no floor on Ultimate and Professional. The start-year calendar greys out every earlier year, a save asking for one is refused, and a strategy that already starts earlier after a plan change is set aside, not moved. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes#what-sets-the-backtests-starting-year). - The default start year is 2000, or your plan's floor where that is later. - On a plan with no floor the calendar reaches from the current year back to 1793, so you can start earlier than 2000 as well as later. What limits a run in practice is price history, not the calendar: a start year only produces results for the years your instruments actually have data for, and almost every [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s history begins far later than 1793. - Choosing a later start year shortens the backtest and drops the earlier history from every metric. - Changing the start year is a settings change, so the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) recomputes on the next run. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy is backtested twice with no other change. Starting in **2008** places the opening of the run right at a major market decline, so the early [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) falls before it recovers and the drawdown and return figures carry that shock. Starting in **2010** begins after the worst of that decline, so the same strategy shows a smoother early curve and different headline metrics. Neither is "more correct" — they answer different questions, which is why the [start-date sensitivity](/glossary/start-date-sensitivity) view exists. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/single-asset-simplification # Single-asset simplification Single-asset simplification is how a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) that holds exactly one [instrument](/glossary/instrument) skips allocation altogether: with a single holding there is nothing to weight against, so all of the strategy's invested capital goes to that one instrument. Allocation only becomes a real choice once there are two or more things to split capital between. **Also seen as:** trivial allocation, "nothing to allocate" ## How does Fincanva handle it? - With exactly one instrument and no Risk-Off split, the allocation method picker and the per-method weighting controls are not shown — the weight is fixed at 100% of the invested capital — see [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) for what that share is and what stays in cash. - Adding a second instrument, or enabling a Risk-Off split, restores the full allocation surface. - Sizing stays available in the one-instrument case: [leverage](/glossary/leverage) scales the position, it does not weight it against anything. In [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), a **Single instrument** strategy's **Allocation** chapter is that sizing on one page, titled "How much leverage do you use?", with no goal and no method to choose. ## Why does a one-instrument strategy skip allocation? An [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) answers "how much of each?", and with one instrument the answer is fixed before you start. The app says so directly: where the method picker would be, the Allocation surface shows "Nothing to allocate yet", explained as "With one instrument and no Risk-Off split, 100% of capital goes to that instrument. Add more instruments or enable a Risk-Off split to make allocation meaningful." The **Single instrument** strategy type takes the same shortcut in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), which requires only **Asset selection** and **Summary** — see [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type). ## When does allocation matter again for one instrument? Two things bring it back. Enabling a Risk-Off split makes allocation meaningful even with a single holding, because [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) are separate profiles and the Risk-Off profile needs a method of its own — see [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition). Separately, **sizing** is never skipped: the **Leverage** control ("Multiplier on position sizes. 1.00 = no leverage. Range 0.00 – 3.00.") still applies, because how much exposure to take is a different question from how to split it. ## What does it look like in practice? You build a **Single instrument** strategy on one equity ETP. Step by step never requires a weighting method, and the editor shows "Nothing to allocate yet" where the picker would be — the instrument holds 100% of the invested capital by construction, and [weight drift](/glossary/weight-drift) has nothing to drift against. You then add a second ETP: the method picker appears, and the strategy now needs a rule to decide the split. Nothing about the first version was incomplete — there was only ever one possible answer. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/slippage # Slippage Slippage is the difference between the price an order is quoted at and the price it actually fills at. In real markets an order rarely executes at exactly the price you saw when you placed it — the fill can be a little worse — and that gap is a real cost of trading. Fincanva models slippage so [backtest](/glossary/backtest) results reflect it rather than assuming every trade fills at the ideal price. It is the **price** half of trading costs and is proportional to the value traded; the fee half is [transaction cost](/glossary/transaction-cost), a flat charge per fill that does not scale at all. **Also seen as:** execution slippage, fill-price slippage ## How is slippage calculated? Slippage is the fill price minus the quoted price, measured per unit or as a percentage of the quote. $$ \text{Slippage} = P_{\text{fill}} - P_{\text{quote}} $$ where $P_{\text{fill}}$ is the price the order actually executes at and $P_{\text{quote}}$ is the price it was quoted at; expressed as a fraction it is that gap divided by $P_{\text{quote}}$. ## What counts as a large value? Smaller slippage is better, because it eats less of each trade's value. Slippage tends to be larger for bigger orders and thinner, less liquid instruments, and it compounds with how often a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) trades — a high-turnover strategy pays it more often than a buy-and-hold one. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Slippage is modelled as a small proportional cost applied to each fill, so unlike the flat transaction fee it scales with the value traded. - It is a fixed platform assumption today — there is no setting in the app for changing the slippage a backtest models. - It is applied only when **Costs & interests** is on; with costs off, modelled slippage is zero. - The slippage paid feeds the costs shown in your results, alongside transaction fees and financing costs. In the positions view it is aggregated with the per-trade fee into the "Costs" figure rather than shown as its own line. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy places an order for a stock quoted at **100.00**. Because the fill lands slightly worse than the quote, the order executes at **100.25**. The slippage is 0.25 per share, or 0.25% of the quoted price — a cost that never appears in a naive "filled at the quote" backtest but does appear here once costs are on. The 0.25% is illustrative arithmetic chosen to make the sum easy to follow, not the fraction the model applies. Over many trades this small per-fill gap adds up, which is why turnover-heavy strategies feel it most. *The slippage a backtest models is an assumption applied to historical results, not the fill you would get in a real market, so a result net of it is still not what a strategy will do.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/sortino-ratio # Sortino ratio The Sortino ratio divides a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s excess return by its downside deviation only — a variant of the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) that penalises harmful downward [volatility](/glossary/volatility) while leaving harmless upside swings out of the risk measure. Where Sharpe treats all variability as risk, Sortino counts only the periods that finish below zero, on the reasoning that investors mind losses far more than they mind unexpectedly good months. **Also seen as:** Sortino, downside-adjusted return ## How is the Sortino ratio calculated? The Sortino ratio takes the strategy's excess return over the risk-free rate and divides it by the downside deviation, but the two halves use different baselines. The numerator is the strategy's [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) minus the [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate), whatever the **Reinvest profits** setting. The downside deviation in the denominator is measured against a 0% per-period threshold: only periods with a negative return feed the downside deviation, while periods at or above 0% are left out. $$ \text{Sortino ratio} = \frac{\text{annualised return} - \text{risk-free rate}}{\text{downside deviation (vs a 0\% threshold)}} $$ where the numerator is the excess return over the risk-free rate and the downside deviation counts only the periods that finished below 0%. It is built like the Sharpe ratio but swaps total volatility for downside-only volatility in the denominator. ## What counts as a strong Sortino ratio? Higher is better — more return earned per unit of *harmful* variability. Because the denominator only counts downside, a strategy's Sortino ratio is usually higher than its Sharpe ratio; the gap between the two is itself telling, since a wide gap means most of the strategy's volatility was to the upside. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Fincanva reports the Sortino ratio on the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page only — one bar per strategy in the **Sortino** column of its **Each strategy, against the Combined** card. It is not a row on the main [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) and not a KPI card. A strategy that is not part of a [Combined](/glossary/combined) still appears on that card — alone — so it shows a Sortino ratio too. - The numerator is the excess return over the risk-free rate, always measured from CAGR: unlike the Sharpe row of the metrics table, it does not switch to [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when **Reinvest profits** is off. - The risk-free rate it subtracts is the period average of the 3-Month US Treasury Bill series over the window, with a flat 2% a year standing in for any months outside that series — see [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). - The denominator counts only periods that finished below a 0% per-period threshold; periods at or above 0% are ignored, so only downside variability is penalised. - A higher value means more return for the same amount of downside variability. ## What does it look like in practice? Take two strategies that both return 9% a year. One climbed in bumpy but mostly upward steps; the other posted the same 9% but with several sharp drops along the way. Their Sharpe ratios can look alike, because Sharpe counts every swing — up or down — as risk. The Sortino ratio only puts the downward moves in its denominator, so the strategy with the sharp drops gets the lower Sortino. Same [total return](/glossary/total-return), but the ratio rewards the strategy whose volatility was mostly the harmless, upside kind. *No Sortino ratio is a target to aim for or a promise about future downside.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/special-data-series # Special data series Special data series are the market-wide reference series Fincanva keeps alongside instrument prices — interest rates, an inflation series, and broad valuation indicators — used as inputs to a simulation or as comparison series rather than as things a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds. They are not [instruments](/glossary/instrument): you cannot buy an inflation rate. Six of them exist today, and each has a defined behavior when a requested date falls outside the data it covers. **Also seen as:** reference series, macro series, special symbols ## Which special data series does Fincanva keep? | Series | What it measures | Where it is used | |---|---|---| | Risk-free rate | The 3-month US Treasury Bill secondary-market rate, published by FRED as `DTB3` | The near-riskless baseline that risk-adjusted metrics subtract — see [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) | | Margin-loan rate | A short-term reference interest rate — today the same 3-month US Treasury Bill series as the risk-free rate | The base rate that the borrowing markups sit on top of, and the rate idle cash is credited from — see [interest-rate markups](/glossary/interest-rate-markups) | | Inflation | A long-history monthly US inflation series | Inflation-adjusted figures and inflation-based comparisons | | Shiller PE | The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio of the US market: price divided by the average of the last ten years of inflation-adjusted earnings | A market-wide valuation reference | | Buffett Indicator | Total US market capitalisation divided by US GDP | A market-wide valuation reference | | Buffett Deviation | A proprietary Fincanva variant of the Buffett Indicator | A market-wide valuation reference | Two of the six are worth a note on how they are produced. The **Shiller PE** is taken exactly as its public reference series publishes it rather than recomputed, so Fincanva's value matches the widely quoted figure instead of a private recalculation. The **Buffett Indicator** is computed inside Fincanva as the standard ratio above, from market-capitalisation and GDP data. The **Buffett Deviation**'s construction is proprietary and is not published — only the existence of the series is documented here. ## What happens when a date falls outside a series? A date outside a series' coverage — before its first data point or after its last — falls back to a fixed assumed value rather than failing the run. The rule is the same for the three rate and inflation series; what differs is the value and how it enters your results. | Series | What stands in outside the series | |---|---| | Risk-free rate | A flat 2% a year for each month of the backtest window outside the series, blended into the window's period average — see [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) | | Margin-loan rate | A fixed assumed rate on each date outside the series. Its value is not published. | | Inflation | A fixed assumed rate on each month outside the series. Its value is not published. | The fallback covers dates outside a series, not a missing series. These series are loaded before any backtest runs, and if one of them could not be loaded no backtest would run at all. You will rarely meet the start-of-series case, because the [simulation start year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) defaults to 2000 and these series reach back decades further. The end-of-series case can occur: when a series ends before your backtest window does — because it is published less often, or later, than prices — the dates past its end use the fallback. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Six special data series exist today: risk-free rate, margin-loan rate, inflation, Shiller PE, Buffett Indicator, and Buffett Deviation. - The risk-free rate is a live market series matched to your backtest's own dates, not a constant — see [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate). - The risk-free fallback is a flat 2% a year; the margin-loan and inflation fallbacks are fixed values that are not published. - Special data series are references rather than holdings: they are not tradable instruments a strategy buys, so they never appear as a position in a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). - They refresh alongside instrument prices, so a series' last data point moves forward as new data lands — see [data freshness and frontier](/glossary/data-freshness-and-frontier). ## What does it look like in practice? Suppose a backtest window runs 120 months and its first 12 fall before the risk-free series begins. The risk-free rate for that window is then a month-weighted blend: 2% a year for those 12 months and the series' own average for the other 108. If the series averaged 4% over its part, the window's rate is (12 × 2% + 108 × 4%) ÷ 120 = **3.8%**, and the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) for that window subtracts 3.8%. Those 12 months are held to a 2% bar whatever short-term rates actually were then, and the longer the window, the smaller the share of it they can move. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/special-relations # Special relations Special relations are the pattern tests that a small number of [screener](/glossary/screener) filters offer in place of the numeric operators — they ask whether something *happened* or which *state* an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) is in, rather than whether a reading clears a threshold. There are fifteen of them, spread across six filters, in three families: **crossings**, **price against a line**, and **valuation bands**. A special relation never takes a threshold value; where it takes a number at all, that number is a time window, not a level. **Also seen as:** special strings, pattern relations, cross relations ## What does each special relation test? The relation names in the editor are the full labels; the chip shows a shorthand code. `{N}d` in a chip is the window in days, not a threshold. | Relation | Chip code | Offered on | Tests whether | |---|---|---|---| | Crosses Above | `X-Above {N}d` | SMA, Bollinger Bands, Mkt SMA, Sec SMA | the price crossed up through the line within the last N days | | Crosses Below | `X-Below {N}d` | SMA, Bollinger Bands, Mkt SMA, Sec SMA | the price crossed down through the line within the last N days | | Price Above | `> Price` | SMA, Bollinger Bands, Mkt SMA, Sec SMA | the price is currently sitting above the line | | Price Below | `< Price` | SMA, Bollinger Bands, Mkt SMA, Sec SMA | the price is currently sitting below the line | | Fast Bullish Cross | `Fast Bull-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the fast line crossed up within the last N days | | Fast Bearish Cross | `Fast Bear-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the fast line crossed down within the last N days | | Slow Bullish Cross | `Slow Bull-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the slow line crossed up within the last N days | | Slow Bearish Cross | `Slow Bear-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the slow line crossed down within the last N days | | Fast/Slow Bullish Cross | `F/S Bull-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the fast line crossed up through the slow line within the last N days | | Fast/Slow Bearish Cross | `F/S Bear-X {N}d` | Stochastic | the fast line crossed down through the slow line within the last N days | | Strongly Overvalued | `Strongly Overvalued` | Buffett Indicator | the market's valuation reading sits in the highest band | | Overvalued | `Overvalued` | Buffett Indicator | the reading sits in the band below that | | In Range | `In Range` | Buffett Indicator | the reading sits in the middle band | | Undervalued | `Undervalued` | Buffett Indicator | the reading sits in the band below the middle | | Strongly Undervalued | `Strongly Undervalued` | Buffett Indicator | the reading sits in the lowest band | The five valuation bands are mutually exclusive: on any given date the reading is in exactly one of them, so picking two bands in two conditions on the same date yields nothing. ## What is the window on a cross relation? The number on a cross relation is a **lookback window in trading days**, and the condition passes when the crossing happened at any point inside it. The choices are 7, 14, 21, and 28 days, and 28 is the default — so out of the box a cross relation asks "has this crossed in the last four weeks", not "did it cross today". A shorter window makes the test stricter, because the crossing has to be more recent to count. **Price Above** and **Price Below** carry no window. They describe where the price is right now relative to the line, so they stay true for as long as the price stays on that side, while a cross relation goes false once the crossing ages past the window. ## Is Crosses Above the same as a golden cross? No — Crosses Above tests the *price* against one moving average, while a golden cross is conventionally a *faster moving average* crossing above a slower one. The two are related signals but not the same test: with Crosses Above there is one line on the chart and the price crosses it; with a golden cross there are two lines and they cross each other. The relations that do compare two lines to each other are the Stochastic filter's **Fast/Slow** pair, and there the two lines are the oscillator's fast and slow lines, not a pair of moving averages. So "golden cross" is a useful mental picture for what Crosses Above signals, and the wrong description of what it measures. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Only six filters carry special relations: SMA, Bollinger Bands, Stochastic (Technical → Indicators), Mkt SMA and Buffett Indicator (Market & Sector → Market Technical and Market Fundamental), and Sec SMA (Sector Technical). - On a filter that has them, the special relations replace the numeric operators rather than sitting alongside them, and each one is its own choice in the editor. - The eight cross shorthand codes stay in English in every language (`X-Above 28d`, `F/S Bull-X 14d`); the Price Above and Price Below chips and the five valuation-band chips are translated. - A filter's **Advanced** inputs still apply. The SMA filter's `Bars` input sets how long the moving average is, and `Months Ago` shifts the whole reading back in time; see [lag, period, and multiplier](/glossary/lag-period-and-multiplier). - Because Mkt SMA and Buffett Indicator read the market rather than an instrument, a condition on them gates the entire screen: on a date where it fails, the screener returns no matches at all. Sec SMA gates whole sectors the same way. See [filter taxonomy](/glossary/filter-taxonomy). - Fincanva describes what these relations detect. It does not rate a crossing as bullish or bearish for your purposes, and a relation being true is not a signal to act. ## What does a bullish moving-average cross look like? Take the [SMA](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma) filter with its default 252-bar average — roughly one trading year — on a stock that has been below that average for months and then rallies through it eight trading days ago. - Pick **Crosses Above** and leave the window at its default of 28 days. **You're saying** reads "SMA crosses above (28 days)." The crossing happened 8 days ago, which is inside the window, so the stock passes and the chip reads `SMA (252) X-Above 28d`. - Narrow the window to 7 days. The same crossing is now 8 days old, one day outside the window, and the stock stops passing — with no change to its price at all. - Switch to **Price Above** instead. The window disappears, and the stock passes for as long as its price stays above the 252-bar average, whether it crossed eight days ago or eight months ago. The three conditions read the same chart and select different things: a recent event, a recent-enough event, and a current state. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/standard-operators # Standard operators Standard operators are the comparisons a [screener](/glossary/screener) filter can apply to a metric — the choices in a filter's operator dropdown. There are eight, offered in three labelled groups: **Compare** (`<`, `≤`, `=`, `≥`, `>`), **Range** (Between), and **Rank** (Highest, Lowest). The operator decides how the metric's reading is tested; it does not change which metric is read. **Also seen as:** comparison operators, comparators, relations ## What does each operator group do? The three groups test three different kinds of thing: a threshold, an interval, and a position in a ranking. | Group | Operator | Reads as | Passes when | |---|---|---|---| | Compare | `<` | less than | the reading is below your value | | Compare | `≤` | at most | the reading is below your value, or exactly equal to it | | Compare | `=` | equals | the reading matches your value exactly | | Compare | `≥` | at least | the reading is above your value, or exactly equal to it | | Compare | `>` | greater than | the reading is above your value | | Range | Between | between … and … | the reading falls inside the low–high range, both ends included | | Rank | Highest | is among the highest … | the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) is in the top N on that metric | | Rank | Lowest | is among the lowest … | the instrument is in the bottom N on that metric | **Compare** takes one value. **Range** takes two, a low and a high. **Rank** takes a count, not a threshold — you say how many instruments to keep, not what the metric has to read. ## Which boundary values pass? `<` and `>` are strict, so a reading that sits exactly on your value fails them; `≤` and `≥` include that boundary. Between includes both of its ends: $$ \text{min} \le \text{reading} \le \text{max} $$ where: `min` and `max` are the low and high values you set, and a reading equal to either one passes. This is the difference that surprises people most often, because the two operators sit next to each other in the dropdown and their labels read almost identically. `≤` is "at most", not "less than". ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Each [filter](/glossary/filter) offers only the operators its catalogue entry declares, so the dropdown differs from filter to filter and a group with nothing to show is hidden rather than shown empty. `=` is the rarest — one filter offers it. - A filter arrives with a default operator already selected, and it is not always a Compare operator: the ROE filter opens on `>`, the P/E filter opens on Between. - Compare and Range values snap to the stops that filter offers: type any number and it moves to the nearest stop on Enter or on blur. - Rank counts come from their own stop list, running 1 to 15 one at a time and then in widening steps to 300; the default is 5. - Rank behaves differently from the other two groups because it depends on which instruments are still in the running when it runs — see [sequential filtering and Top-N ranking](/glossary/sequential-filtering-and-top-n-ranking). - The same Compare operators are reused when you compare a metric to its own earlier reading or to a market or sector figure, with one exception: `=` is not offered against the metric's own earlier reading. See [comparison modes](/glossary/comparison-modes) and [aggregate comparisons](/glossary/aggregate-comparisons). - A few filters replace the standard operators entirely with pattern tests — crossings and valuation bands. Those are [special relations](/glossary/special-relations). ## How do less than and at most differ on the boundary? Take a P/E filter and a company whose price/earnings ratio reads exactly 20.0. - Set the operator to `<` and the value to 20.0. **You're saying** reads "P/E is less than 20.0." The company at exactly 20.0 **fails** — the test is strict, so 20.0 is not below 20.0. - Change the operator to `≤`, leaving the value at 20.0. **You're saying** now reads "P/E is at most 20.0." The same company **passes**. Nothing else changed: the same metric, the same value, the same instrument, one operator apart. If a filter drops an instrument you expected to keep, and its reading sits exactly on your threshold, the strict operator is usually the reason. Note that the value itself has to exist as a stop on that filter's scale — the P/E filter steps in halves, so 20.0 is available but 20.2 snaps to 20.0. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/start-date-sensitivity # Start-date sensitivity Start-date sensitivity measures how much a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s outcome depends on when you started it — how different the results would have been had it begun on other dates. A single [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reports one start date's luck; a strategy whose results swing with the entry month is fragile, one that holds up across many start dates more robust. **Also seen as:** timing luck, entry-date risk ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Starter upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - The analysis tests rolling holding windows of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years, each started on many different entry dates. - Its headline figures are the **CAGR range** tile, which shows the two ends — the worst-start and best-start annualised returns, worst ↔ best — the worst start on record, and the share of start dates that finished positive. - A summary-statistics table repeats the detail per holding window — the best, worst and average CAGR, the spread of those CAGRs, the **Avg pain** ([average pain](/glossary/average-pain)) and the worst starting point — and the view also draws the best, the worst and the most painful start as separate curves. - Because it compares annualised returns, windows of different lengths sit on the same yearly scale and can be read side by side. ## How is start-date sensitivity measured? The strategy is re-run over many possible entry dates and several holding windows, and the spread of outcomes across those runs is summarised. Because each run can be annualised with [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), the results are directly comparable regardless of window length, and the width of the resulting range is the sensitivity: a narrow range means the start date barely mattered, a wide one means timing dominated. $$ {\text{width of the CAGR range}} = {\text{CAGR of the best start}} - {\text{CAGR of the worst start}} $$ where: - the spread of outcomes across start dates, for one holding window - the highest annualised return among the start dates tested - the lowest annualised return among them ## What does it look like in practice? Take one strategy and start it at the beginning of every month of 2015, holding each run for the same window. Collect the CAGR of each start. If the best month annualises to +14% and the worst to +2%, the strategy earned a positive return whichever month you began — but the 12-point gap shows the outcome still leaned heavily on timing. ## What counts as a good result? A robust strategy shows a narrow spread of outcomes across start dates and a high share of start dates that ended positive; a fragile one shows a wide spread and a low positive share. A single strong backtest tells you little on its own — it may simply have caught a lucky entry — so the value of this view is in the range, not any one run. This is also the cleanest defence against [cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias): a window chosen after the fact to flatter a strategy is one start date among many, and the spread shows you all the others. *A narrow spread is not a promise of a repeatable result.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/starting-capital # Starting capital Starting capital is the amount of money a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) begins with — the initial portfolio value every simulated figure is scaled from. It is a single account-level setting, listed in Settings under "Simulation defaults" as **Starting capital** ("The capital your strategies' simulations start with."), and it applies to the strategies you own. Raising or lowering it rescales all the money figures a run produces and leaves the percentages — return, [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), [volatility](/glossary/volatility) — essentially unchanged. **Also seen as:** initial capital, initial portfolio value ## Does starting capital change a strategy's results? Not in percentage terms. A [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s rules do not depend on how much money is behind them, so the same rules over the same period produce the same percentage outcome at any capital; only the money amounts scale. $$ \text{profit} = \text{starting capital} \times \text{total return} $$ where [total return](/glossary/total-return) is the strategy's return over the period as a fraction (so +45% is 0.45) and starting capital is the amount you set. Because the return is the same on both sides, the money figures move in exact proportion to the capital. ## When does starting capital actually matter? It matters at small capital, because a portfolio can only hold whole shares. Each holding's ideal money amount is its [target notional](/glossary/target-notional), and that amount has to be rounded down to a whole number of shares, leaving a little cash unspent — see [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed). That leftover is a fixed size per holding but a much bigger slice of a small portfolio, so at low capital more of the target goes unfilled, [accuracy](/glossary/accuracy) is lower, and a high-priced [instrument](/glossary/instrument) may not fit at its intended weight at all. At large capital the same rounding is negligible. The rounding is redone at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), so at low capital the shortfall recurs rather than being a one-off at the start. What happens to cash the strategy is not holding in positions is covered by [interest received and paid](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The default starting capital is 100,000, and the setting offers a fixed ladder of ten amounts from 10,000 up to 10,000,000. Each option is displayed in your [base currency](/glossary/base-currency). - Starting capital is part of what identifies a simulation, so changing it means the results for your own strategies are recomputed on the new amount rather than converted. - A public strategy you do not own is always computed on the default 100,000, whatever your own setting is — so its money figures will not match the ones you would get by copying it and running it yourself. Its percentages will. - The Positions view has its own [Capital](/glossary/capital) input for the target snapshot it shows — a different control, not this setting under another name. It starts at 100,000 rather than following your Starting capital setting, and changing it rescales that view only: the saved setting and the saved run are untouched. ## What does it look like in practice? Take the same strategy over the same period, once with 10,000 of starting capital and once with 100,000. Suppose it returns +45% over the period. The first run ends at 14,500 with a profit of 4,500; the second ends at 145,000 with a profit of 45,000 — ten times the money, the identical +45%, and the identical drawdown and volatility figures. The one real difference shows in the holdings: at 100,000 a 10% weight is 10,000, which buys 24 shares of an instrument trading at 412 and leaves 112 unspent; at 10,000 the same 10% weight is 1,000, which buys 2 shares and leaves 176 unspent — nearly 18% of that holding's target left in cash instead of 1%. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/step-by-step # Step by step **Step by step** is Fincanva's strategy walk-through: a map of chapters on the left, one chapter open at a time, and an explanation beside the choices that need one. It runs from choosing how you pick holdings to the **Summary**, where you name the strategy and run its first [backtest](/glossary/backtest). Step by step and [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) edit exactly the same [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and differ only in how much of it they show you at once and how much they explain. A per-user preference decides which of the two a strategy opens in, and either can be opened for a single visit. **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. | # | Chapter | What it holds | |---|---|---| | 1 | **Strategy type** | the [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type), with its four official names and their one-line descriptions | | 2 | **Asset selection** | the instruments, or the [screener](/glossary/screener), the strategy will trade | | 3 | **Allocation** | how capital is split across them: **Goal** · **Method** · **Settings** | | 4 | **Rebalance** | how often the strategy [rebalances](/glossary/rebalance), and nothing else | | 5 | **Risk and exits** | **When** the strategy changes allocation, **Then: Risk-Off** the allocation it changes to, and **Exits** — the [take-profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop-loss](/glossary/stop-loss) rules applied to each position | | 6 | **Summary** | **Backtest settings** — the strategy's name, [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark), [starting year](/glossary/simulation-start-year) and description — and the button that runs the backtest | Three details of the chapters are worth knowing before you open them: - **Asset selection** puts the screener's [universe](/glossary/universe), filters and [maximum positions](/glossary/max-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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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 | Required chapters | Optional chapters | |---|---|---| | **Single instrument** | Asset selection · Summary | Allocation, Rebalance, Risk and exits | | **Multiple instruments** | Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Summary | Risk and exits | | **Screener** | Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Summary | Risk and exits | | **Full setup** | Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Risk and exits · Summary | none | **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](/glossary/strategy-type#can-you-change-a-strategys-type-later). A **Combined** is not in this table because it has no strategy type: strategy type belongs to each [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), never to the Combined that blends them. Its chapters are in the next section. ## Which chapters does a Combined walk? A [Combined](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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?](#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](/glossary/strategy-alerts), 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](/glossary/strategy-alerts#what-does-the-section-strip-show) 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?](#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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/mine-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](/glossary/strategy-type); 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-are-the-chapters-of-step-by-step); what All at once holds is described in [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) and in [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/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](#does-the-backtest-wait-for-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](/glossary/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?](#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](/glossary/mine-public). ## Which pages go further on the two views? To build a strategy from scratch, follow [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). To change one you already have, see [Editing a strategy: the settings cards](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards). To pick the shape that fits your idea, see [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type). To save and re-run after an edit, see [Saving, running, and copying a strategy](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/stochastic-programming # Stochastic programming Stochastic programming is an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that chooses today's weights by playing out a **tree of possible futures** in which the portfolio may react: scenarios for the next period, a rebalance in each paying a transaction cost, then a second set of scenarios valuing the result. Today's weights account for later adjustment and its cost. It is Fincanva's slowest method. **Also seen as:** multi-stage stochastic optimisation, scenario-tree optimisation ## How does Fincanva handle it? The method picker labels it **"Stochastic programming"** and describes it as "Plans over a tree of scenarios, accounting for the cost of rebalancing". - Stochastic programming is offered at **both levels**: across the instruments of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and across the strategies of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). Inside a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the large-basket advice counts strategies instead of instruments. - It reads the [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window) (**In-sample**, 12 months by default) and does not read the **Covariance matrix** choice. - With a single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) there is nothing to plan: it receives the whole weight. - How long a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) takes also depends on your plan's compute power — see [compute time](/glossary/compute-time). ## Which plan includes Stochastic programming? It depends on your plan, at each level where the method is offered. **Inside a strategy** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). **Inside a Combined** Included from Ultimate upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does Stochastic programming optimise? It balances the expected [final value](/glossary/final-value) of the portfolio against how bad its worst outcomes are: $$ \max_{{w}} \; {\mathbb{E}}\left[\,{W_{\text{final}}}\,\right] - {\lambda} \cdot {\text{CVaR}}\left({W_{\text{final}}}\right) $$ where: - today's set of weights - the portfolio's value at the end of the tree - the average over every branch - the average loss of the worst outcomes — see Min CVaR - the Risk aversion you set Its tail term is the [Min CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) measure. More final value is better, deep bad outcomes are worse, and risk aversion decides how much the second counts against the first. The two preferences do different jobs, and only one of them diversifies. **Risk aversion** is what spreads the weights: at 0 the method looks only at the expected final value, and the best way to maximise an average is to put everything on the single instrument whose scenarios end highest on average — whatever the transaction cost. Raising it makes deep bad outcomes count against a mix, and a mix of instruments whose bad outcomes do not coincide has shallower ones. **Transaction cost** does not diversify by itself: it prices every later rebalance. At 0% a rebalance in any branch is free, so today's weights matter only for the first period; the higher the cost, the more each later change eats into the final value, so the plan favours today's weights that are already worth keeping through the branches and trades less afterwards. ## Which settings does Stochastic programming have? Two preferences are always visible: - **Risk aversion** — "0 = looks only at the expected return; higher = weighs the worst losses more." From 0 to 10; 1 by default. - **Transaction cost** — "The method takes it into account when deciding whether to move the weights." From 0% to 1%; 0.1% by default. It shapes the plan only; the costs charged in the backtest itself are set separately — see [Transaction cost](/glossary/transaction-cost). Three more describe the tree, under **Advanced settings**: - **First-stage scenarios** — "How many possible futures for the first period." From 20 to 200; 50 by default. - **Second-stage scenarios** — "For each first-stage scenario." From 5 to 40; 10 by default. - **Length of each stage** — from 5 to 63 days; 21 by default. The second-stage scenarios are one shared set used under every first-stage branch, so the value of planning comes from the trading cost and the shape of the risk rather than from forecasting what follows each branch. Raising the second-stage count is the lever when the tail feels thin. ## Why is Stochastic programming so slow? Because at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) it builds the scenario tree and solves one optimisation over all of it, and that optimisation grows with the number of instruments times the number of scenarios. The picker marks it "very slow to compute", the only method with that mark, and the method's card says why: "Very slow to compute: it builds a scenario tree at every rebalance." Large baskets are where it hurts. At the default tree, a strategy that can hold more than 30 instruments pushes the work past the point the app considers reasonable, and the card shows the warning **"Large basket for this method"**, naming the basket size, the threshold, and the two ways out: reduce the instruments or the first-stage scenarios, or choose Scenario CVaR. The threshold moves with the tree — fewer first-stage scenarios allow a larger basket — and a tree that is too large on its own, whatever the basket, gets its own message: "The scenario tree alone is too large: with this many first- and second-stage scenarios, the computation may take a very long time whatever the basket." Both are advice, not refusals: the backtest still runs. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy holds 10 instruments and keeps the default tree: 50 first-stage scenarios, each followed by the same 10 second-stage scenarios, every stage 21 trading days long. - With **Risk aversion 0**, the plan has no reason to diversify, and all the capital goes to the instrument whose scenarios end highest on average. Raising **Transaction cost** alone does not change that: the plan still holds one instrument. - With the defaults — **Risk aversion 1** and **Transaction cost 0.1%** — the worst outcomes now count against a concentrated bet, so the weights spread across several instruments; the cost then makes the plan prefer weights it will not need to trade away in most branches. Let the same strategy hold up to 40 instruments at the same tree and the card warns: "This strategy can hold up to 40 instruments. The computation grows with instruments × scenarios: above 30 instruments the simulation may take a very long time. Reduce the instruments or the first-stage scenarios, or choose Scenario CVaR." Cutting the first-stage scenarios to 20 brings the tree back under the line for 40 instruments; switching to [Scenario CVaR](/glossary/min-cvar) removes the tree altogether. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/stop-loss # Stop loss Stop loss is an automatic exit that closes a position once its loss reaches a threshold you set, such as a 10% loss, capping how far the position can fall before it is sold. It is the loss-side exit: it acts on one position at a time and looks only at how far that position is down. **Also seen as:** loss limit, SL. ## How does Fincanva handle it? On a strategy's Settings page, the Exits key among the strategy rules shows the stop loss beside the take profit, the loss as a negative percentage. - Off by default; the threshold is entered as a **negative percentage** (e.g. −10%), and when enabled it starts at **−30%**. - Adjustable across a range of **−100% to −5%**, shown as a percentage (suffix "%"). - It sits on the **Position exits** card, described there as "Auto-close rules applied to each position". - Values outside the band are blocked with a "Stop loss must be between -100% and -5%." validation message. - A position closed by this rule is recorded with the [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason) **Stop loss**. ## How does stop loss decide when to close? Stop loss closes a position once its loss reaches the threshold you set. The threshold is entered as a negative percentage (e.g. −10%) because it describes a loss, so a value closer to −100% keeps a position open longer, while one closer to −5% closes it sooner. It looks neither at how long the position has been held, which is [max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months), nor at a gain: where [take profit](/glossary/take-profit) caps the upside, stop loss caps the downside. The loss is counted from the price the position was **first** opened at and keeps counting through every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) that keeps the position, exactly as for [take profit](/glossary/take-profit#how-does-take-profit-decide-when-to-close). The check is not tied to the rebalance schedule: the loss is read on the position's own price bars, so a stop loss can close a position between two rebalances. It closes on the first bar that reaches the threshold — at the threshold level itself, or at that bar's open when the bar opens already past it, which is how a stop-out can book a loss larger than the threshold after a gap. [Execution time](/glossary/execution-time#when-does-a-modelled-trade-fill-within-a-bar) has the full fill rule. ## What if one bar reaches both the stop-loss and the take-profit level? Only one of them closes the position, and the bar decides which. If the bar **opens** already past one of the two levels, that one wins. Otherwise a daily bar does not say which extreme came first, so Fincanva follows one fixed convention: a bar that closed **at or above** its open is taken to have reached its low first, and a bar that closed **below** its open its high first. For a long position that means a stop-out on a rising bar and a take profit on a falling one; for a short position it is the other way round. ## Can a stopped-out instrument be bought again? Yes, but never on the bar that closed it. New positions are opened when the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) rebalances, and at no other time, so the earliest the same [instrument](/glossary/instrument) can come back is a later rebalance at which the strategy's rules select it again. If you set a [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay), the instrument stays out of the strategy's choices until that delay has passed, counted from the day of the stop-out. Until that rebalance the capital the stop-out freed stays in cash; what happens at the rebalance itself — and the two alerts that say so — is in [position exits](/docs/strategies/position-exits#what-happens-after-a-stop-loss-or-take-profit-closes-a-position). ## What does it look like in practice? A position is opened at a price of 100 with stop loss set to close at a **10% loss**. When the price falls to 90, the position's return is −10%, which reaches the threshold, so the position is sold and the loss is capped at that point. Had stop loss instead been set to a 20% loss, the same position at −10% would remain open and could fall further before the rule closed it. *Fincanva does not recommend a stop-loss level, or whether to use one at all.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy # Strategy A strategy is a saved set of instruments together with the rules for how capital is weighted across them and when positions change — the unit you [backtest](/glossary/backtest), keep in your library, and follow over time. It holds instruments directly, and it is the building block of a [Combined](/glossary/combined), which holds strategies instead. **Also seen as:** trading strategy, investment strategy Earlier versions of Fincanva called this object a *model* or a *component*. Both names are retired — the app says strategy everywhere now. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A strategy needs at least one [instrument](/glossary/instrument) before it can be saved or run, and a strategy that selects instruments through a screener needs at least one screener attached; [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments) quotes the exact gate messages, and the editor's other setup checks are listed under [strategy alerts](/glossary/strategy-alerts). There is no fixed upper limit on the number of instruments a strategy can hold today. - Strategies are listed under **Strategies**, split into **Single** and **Combined** — a Combined is a strategy too, just one whose members are strategies. - Four strategy types shape what you fill in when you create one; they change which steps you see, not what the backtest computes. See [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type). - A strategy can be followed live with [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live), which lists it as a [portfolio](/glossary/portfolio) on the Portfolios page. Nothing is traded and no order is placed. - Editing a saved strategy leaves its last result in place until you run it again; the [run status](/glossary/run-status) chip reads **Needs re-run** until then. ## What does a strategy contain? A strategy contains the instruments it trades plus the settings that decide how they are weighted and when they change. Each controls a different part: - **Asset selection** — the instruments the strategy trades, chosen as a basket you pick by hand or by attaching a [screener](/glossary/screener) that selects them for you. - **Allocation** — how capital is split across those instruments. - **Rebalance every** — how often the weights are reset; see [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance). - **Risk** (optional) — conditions that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation when they trigger. - **Position exits** (optional) — conditions that close a position. Together these settings define exactly what the strategy would have done over any historical period. ## How is a strategy different from a Combined? A strategy holds instruments; a Combined holds strategies and splits capital across them. Use a single strategy for one coherent idea, and a Combined to blend several strategies into one book. The pieces inside a Combined are themselves strategies — deliberately the same object you build on its own — so "strategy" covers both a standalone strategy and a [strategy in a Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined). Where the whole and its pieces appear together the whole is always called the Combined, never a generic "strategy", and destructive actions name their level: "Remove this strategy from the Combined" versus "Delete Combined". ## Why build a strategy instead of picking instruments by hand? A strategy is reusable, testable, and modular, which a one-off hand-picked list of instruments is not. Because it is saved as a defined set of rules, you can backtest it over history to see how those same rules would have behaved, re-run it as new data arrives, and reuse it later without rebuilding it — on its own or as a building block of a Combined. To start one, follow [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments); to pick the shape that fits your idea, see [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type). ## What does it look like in practice? You start from an idea: hold the strongest recent performers among S&P 500 stocks and refresh the list every month. As a strategy that becomes one saved object — a [universe](/glossary/universe) of S&P 500 stocks, an attached screener that ranks them on recent [price change](/glossary/percent-change), **Ranking-based** allocation so the highest-ranked receive the most capital, and **Rebalance every** set to 1 month. You run it, read the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) and metrics such as [CAGR](/glossary/cagr), then change the rebalance to 3 months and run again. Both runs describe the same strategy — one object, two settings — which is exactly why it is worth saving as one. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-alerts # Strategy alerts Strategy alerts are the automatic checks Fincanva runs over a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s setup, at two levels — **blocking** and **to review**. A blocking alert stops the strategy from being backtested until you change the setting behind it; an alert to review lets the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) run, but describes a setup that is probably not what you meant, and you can either fix it or leave it as is. Twenty alerts exist today: six blocking and fourteen to review, each belonging to one section of the strategy — Selection, Allocation, Risk or Exits. In [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) they surface as the **section strip** in the strategy's header and in the footer of the Settings card they belong to; in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) the same strip sits in the header of every chapter, and each alert also shows on the chapter map and in the footer of the chapter whose control resolves it. On a [Combined](/glossary/combined), each member's most serious alert also shows in the **Strategies** chapter and as a mark on the member's tab: **Blocks the backtest** or **To evaluate**. A further nine notes describe what the engine will do with the current setup without asking for a decision — see [What do the grey notes on a Settings card mean?](#what-do-the-grey-notes-on-a-settings-card-mean) below. ## What do the two levels of alert mean? The level decides whether the alert stops the run and whether you can leave it as is. - **Blocking** — the strategy cannot be backtested. In both [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) and [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), the section strip marks the section that holds it red. There is no "Leave as is" action; the underlying setting has to change. - **To review** — the strategy runs, but the setup is likely unintended. On both views the section strip marks the section violet instead. You can fix the setting, or press **Leave as is** if the setup is deliberate. ## What does the footer on a Settings card show? Each Settings card shows at most one footer, for its single most severe control. A control to review carries a **Leave as is** action; a blocking one offers its fix instead — for example, the Risk-Off card's footer reads **Choose the Risk-Off**, and the Asset selection card's footer on a Free-plan strategy holding a [screener](/glossary/screener) reads **Remove the screener** (or **Change strategy type**) beside the plan link **Switch to Starter**. When a selection is below what its strategy type needs — **Multiple instruments** with one [instrument](/glossary/instrument), say — the Asset selection card's footer carries the same blocking sentence the section strip's popover lists, "Add at least 2 instruments before running this strategy.", and it clears from the footer, the strip and the popover together as soon as you add the missing instrument. Further controls in the same card sit behind a line such as "and 1 more control in this card". Once you leave the footer's control as is, it drops out of the footer entirely — a closed control no longer shows anywhere on the card. It lives only in the [section strip](#what-does-the-section-strip-show)'s count and its popover, under **Reviewed by you · `{count}`**, where you press **Reopen** to bring it back. ## What does "Leave as is" do, and can I undo it? **Leave as is** acknowledges an alert to review and moves it out of the active list into a **Reviewed by you · `{count}`** section — it changes nothing about the strategy itself, it only records that you have reviewed the alert. **Reopen** brings one back to the active list, and **Reopen all** brings back every reviewed alert; **Leave all as is** handles the whole active batch at once. Leaving as is the last active alert to review turns the strip grey: it reads `{count} reviewed`, or **All clear** once nothing was ever left as is either. Every alert to review can be left as is; no blocking alert can. Once left as is, an alert is stored on the strategy and never cleared automatically, so if the same condition arises again later it stays in Reviewed by you rather than reopening. On a [Combined](/glossary/combined), leaving an alert as is — or reopening it — applies to the strategy you pressed it on alone: the same alert on another of its strategies, or on the Combined itself, keeps its own state. ## What does the section strip show? [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) and [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) show the same section strip: one small mark per section, always in the same order — Selection, [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), Allocation, Risk, Exits. On a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s own tab or walk the order is Strategies, Allocation, Risk, Rebalance, followed by one double mark standing for its member strategies ("Its strategies"). Each mark is faint grey while its section has nothing, a solid darker grey once every alert in it was left as is, violet while it holds an alert to review, and red while it holds a blocking alert. A strategy the Backtest refuses because its selection is below its type's minimum — **Multiple instruments** holding a single instrument, say — also turns **Selection** red (on a Combined's own tab, **Strategies**) and counts as one blocking item, and the popover lists it in the refusal's own sentence, so the strip never reads ready beside a refused Backtest. The same holds for a Combined with more member strategies switched on than your plan includes: **Strategies** turns red and the popover lists the refusal's sentence — "The Combined uses 6 strategies, your plan includes 5. Switch off the extra strategies or move to Ultimate.", or, on a plan without Combined strategies at all, "The Starter plan does not include Combined strategies. Move to Advanced." It sits in the strategy's header, above the section band, in every section of the strategy and in every chapter of Step by step. The strip is always shown, followed by the count in words: `{count} blocking` once at least one section is red, `{count} to review` once none are red but at least one is violet, `{count} reviewed` (grey) once every section is clear but at least one alert was left as is, and **All clear** (grey) once there is nothing at all — open or reviewed. ## What happens when I click the section strip? Clicking the strip opens the **Strategy controls** popover, which lists every section as a heading, in the strip's order — Selection, Rebalance, Allocation, Risk, Exits, or, on a Combined's own tab or walk, Strategies, Allocation, Risk, Rebalance. Each heading carries its section's mark and its state in words, such as "1 to review" or "1 to review · 1 note"; the sections with nothing to say are not headings but share one closing line, such as "All clear: Rebalance · Exits". Under a heading come its open controls: clicking a control takes you to the card that fixes it, and a control to review also has **Leave as is** beside it. Then, in the same section, what you already reviewed, each with **Reopen**, and the section's [grey notes](#what-do-the-grey-notes-on-a-settings-card-mean), which also take you to the card they explain when clicked. On a Combined's own tab or walk, each [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) with something to say follows as its own heading, named after it: clicking one of its controls opens that strategy at the card instead of scrolling on the same page. If there is nothing at all to list — no open control, nothing reviewed, no note — clicking the strip opens nothing. In Step by step, clicking a control takes you to the chapter that owns it, on the page that fixes it. The chapter is the one whose control resolves the alert: the missing Risk-Off alert, for example, belongs to **Risk and exits**, not to **Allocation**. On a public, read-only strategy the strip is not shown at all, so there is no popover: its alerts are not the viewer's to decide. ## What happens to a refused Backtest? A refused **Backtest** button keeps its normal face — it is not replaced by a different control — but its base turns red to show it is refused. Beside it sits the reason, as a link to the fix: for a strategy alert, the control's short title (for example, "Nothing set for when the risk triggers"); when several blocking alerts fire, the reason is the first in the strip's order, Selection before Allocation before Risk; on a Combined, the member strategy together with its reason, `{strategy}: {reason}`, followed by `· +{count}` when more are refused; for a refusal that is not a strategy alert — a missing instrument, an [Incomplete Combined](/glossary/incomplete-combined), and the other setup checks — the refusal sentence itself. See [Why was my run refused?](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy#why-was-my-run-refused) for the full list of non-alert refusals. ## Which alerts can appear, and what fixes each one? Each quote below is the exact text the app shows, followed by what triggers it and what clears it. The bold title before each quote is the alert's short form on its card and on a refused **Backtest**. Where a number in a sentence depends on your settings, the quote shows an example value. The controls are grouped by the section of the strip that shows them; the Rebalance section has none today. ### Which controls belong to the Selection section? The Selection section's controls are about what the strategy chooses from — its picked instruments, its entry and exit [screeners](/glossary/screener-attach), and [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions). They sit on the **Asset selection** card. - **Blocking · The strategy has no instruments — "There is nothing for the strategy to choose from: no instruments and no entry screener. Add instruments or an entry screener: until you do, the backtest cannot run."** The strategy has no picked instrument and no entry screener, so it has no candidate to buy on any date and would never invest. Add instruments or attach an entry screener. When the [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) already requires instruments or a screener, the run refusal names that requirement instead, so the same fact is not said twice — see [Saving, running, and copying a strategy](/docs/strategies/saving-running-and-copying-a-strategy#why-was-my-run-refused). - **Blocking · The strategy can't run on the Free plan — "This strategy uses a screener, and strategies with screeners start at Starter. Nothing changes until you decide: remove it or switch to Starter. Until then the backtest will not run."** The strategy holds at least one entry or exit screener and your plan includes no screeners inside strategies — Free, today. The strategy stays intact and editable; only the run is refused, before you press anything. The card's footer carries the ways out: **Remove the screener** (**Remove the screeners** when there are several), or, on a Screener strategy — which cannot run without one — **Change strategy type**, whose sentence then reads "change type" instead of "remove it"; beside them, the plan link **Switch to Starter**. See [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance#what-happens-to-a-strategy-with-a-screener-on-the-free-plan). - **Blocking · Your plan holds at most 10 instruments — "You have 12 instruments and your plan holds at most 10 in one strategy: while there are more, the strategy can't be saved and the backtest won't run. Remove 2 or move to a higher plan."** You picked more instruments than your plan holds in one strategy — the most [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions#how-high-can-max-positions-go) your plan allows. It is the Basket's alert: there Max positions is the number of instruments you picked, so a list over the limit is a strategy over the limit. In Compose a list longer than the limit raises it only while Max positions is above the limit too; with Max positions within your plan the strategy runs, and "Some instruments stay out" below says which are held. A pasted or added list over the limit is kept whole, never cut to fit. Besides the backtest, it stops the save: **Save** does not go through and shows this alert's sentence instead. On the top plan, where no higher plan raises the limit, the sentence ends at "Remove 2". It cannot be left as is: remove instruments until the list is within the limit, or move to a higher plan. - **Blocking · The strategy uses 3 screeners, your plan includes 1 — "The strategy uses 3 screeners, your plan includes 1. Remove the extra screeners or move to Ultimate."** Your plan includes screeners inside strategies, but fewer than this strategy holds — entry and exit screeners together, counted on every member of a [Combined](/glossary/combined), switched-off ones included. It usually follows a downgrade. The plan it names is the first one that holds that many screeners; where no plan does, the sentence ends at "Remove the extra screeners." The strategy stays intact and editable; only the run is refused, before you press anything. It cannot be left as is: remove screeners until the count is within your plan, or move to the plan it names. See [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance#what-happens-to-a-strategy-with-a-screener-on-the-free-plan). - **Blocking · The strategy holds 25 positions, your plan includes 10 — "The strategy holds 25 positions, your plan includes 10. Lower Max positions to 10 or move to Advanced."** [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions) is switched on and set above what your plan allows, while the picked list itself is within it — Compose, a screener strategy, or a strategy kept after a downgrade. With Max positions switched off nothing is counted and this alert does not appear. Like the screener count, it is read on every member of a Combined, switched-off ones included. The plan it names is the first one that allows that many positions; where no plan does, the sentence ends at "Lower Max positions to 10." It cannot be left as is: lower Max positions to your plan's limit, or move to the plan it names. - **To review · An instrument exits as soon as it enters — "The same screener is both an entry and an exit screener: a title that passes both is sold and bought back in the same rebalance unless a wait of at least 1 month applies, and entry wins. Keep it in only one of the two lists."** The same source screener is attached as an entry screener and as an exit screener. Remove it from one of the two lists, or Leave as is. The same screener attached twice as an entry screener raises nothing, because a repeat there changes nothing. - **To review · Some instruments stay out — "You picked more instruments than Max positions allows: the engine keeps the first ones and open positions keep their slot, so it is always the same ones, chosen in an internal order, not alphabetical. The others enter only when one frees up. Raise Max positions or remove some instruments."** You picked more instruments than Max positions allows, with no entry screener, and the Risk-On method is not [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based), which chooses among them by its own ranking. The remaining instruments are bought only when a position frees up — when an exit frees one. Raise Max positions, remove instruments, or Leave as is. Where Fincanva sets Max positions to the number of instruments you pick, this alert does not arise. - **To review · No rule decides which names enter — "If more than 10 titles pass, the engine takes the most traded (when there are more than 60) or the first in an internal order, not the best: add a «Highest by…» row to decide yourself."** An entry screener has no «Highest by…» or «Lowest by…» row, so nothing in it says which of the titles that pass should fill the positions. The first number is your Max positions; the second is six times it. Add an ordering row to the screener, or Leave as is. It does not fire when the Risk-On method is Ranking-based, which fills the positions from its own ranking, nor when the entry screener runs over picked instruments that can all be held — no more of them than Max positions — because a screener over picked instruments chooses only among them, and every one of them has a slot. How the screener's result is cut and ordered is on [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#which-titles-does-an-entry-screener-put-into-the-positions). - **To review · The engine does not keep the top of your ranking — "The last ranking row keeps 100 titles, more than 60: the engine cuts them to the most traded and fills the positions with the most liquid instead of the top of your ranking. Bring the row to 60 titles or fewer."** The last «Highest by…» or «Lowest by…» row of an entry screener keeps more titles than six times Max positions. Bring the row down to that number, or Leave as is. Silent under a Ranking-based Risk-On method, for the same reason as the previous control, and when the entry screener runs over no more picked instruments than six times Max positions, because it can never pass more titles than you picked. - **To review · The exit screener changes nothing — "The engine sells and buys back the same instrument in the same rebalance, because it is on your list and there is no wait here: remove the exit screener, or switch to Compose with an entry screener and a wait of at least 2 months."** The strategy has picked instruments and an exit screener but no entry screener. Without an entry screener the candidates are always your picked list, and no wait can apply, so whatever the exit screener sells is bought straight back. The number is twice your rebalance interval. Remove the exit screener, move to [Compose](/glossary/asset-selection-modes) with an entry screener and a [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay), or Leave as is. This control replaces the grey note "It sells with the exit screener", which said the opposite of what the engine does. ### Which controls belong to the Allocation section? The Allocation section's controls are about the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) and its weights. They sit on the **Allocation** card; the ones marked below also appear on a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s own Allocation card. - **Blocking · The strategy does not run with this in-sample period — "With this method the engine accepts only 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, and with 9 the backtest stops with an error: choose one of these values."** The method reads annualised [volatility](/glossary/volatility) over its [calculation window](/glossary/calculation-window#which-window-lengths-can-you-choose), and the window holds a number of months outside those seven. Choose one of the seven. It is raised on a Combined's own allocation too, and it stays silent on a strategy holding one picked instrument when the method has nothing to weigh and so never reads the window. - **Blocking · The strategy does not run with fixed weights — "Fixed weights are set instrument by instrument, but the screener picks instruments you have not weighted and the backtest would stop: choose a method that computes the weights itself, for example equal weights."** The method is [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights), there is no picked instrument, and an entry screener chooses the holdings. The method picker already shows «Fixed weights» greyed out on such a strategy; this control catches a strategy that holds it anyway. Choose another method. - **To review · Everything stays in cash** — the allocation in use invests nothing. It has three causes, each with its own sentence: - "This allocation invests nothing: every weight is zero, so no capital goes anywhere. Set at least one weight above or below zero." — every weight in a Fixed weights or Ranking-based setup is 0, including the ten zero weights a Ranking-based setup has after **Clear**. It is raised the same way for a Combined whose own allocation invests nothing across its member strategies in use, and its totals line reads "Invests nothing" either way. - "With 5 instruments a minimum weight of 25% asks for more than 100%: the engine finds no valid weights and stays in cash. Bring the minimum below 20%." — a constrained [Markowitz](/glossary/mpt-markowitz) allocation, **Long-only** or **Long/short** with **Min weight** 0% or more (which the engine then solves as long-only), whose minimum weight, times the number of instruments it holds, is above 100%. - "With 5 instruments only the first 5 ranking levels count and they are all zero, so nothing is invested." — a Ranking-based allocation on fewer than ten picked instruments, with no entry screener, whose weights sit only on levels the engine does not read — see [Ranking-based](/glossary/ranking-based#what-happens-with-fewer-than-ten-instruments). The Risk-Off allocation is checked only while a risk condition is active. Leaving it as is applies where you press it: on a Combined's own allocation to the Combined alone, on a member strategy to that strategy alone. Fix the weights, or Leave as is if an all-cash allocation is what you want. - **To review · Part of the capital stays in cash — "With 5 instruments and a maximum weight of 10%, the engine invests at most 50% and the rest stays in cash: raise the maximum weight or add instruments."** A constrained Markowitz allocation, **Long-only** or **Long/short** with **Min weight** 0% or more, whose maximum weight, times the number of instruments it holds, is below 100% — see [MPT (Markowitz)](/docs/strategies/limit-mpt-s-weights#what-happens-when-the-weight-limits-do-not-add-up-to-100). With an entry screener the number of instruments is Max positions, the most it can hold; with picked instruments it counts at most those, because a screener over picked instruments chooses only among them. Raise the maximum, add instruments, or Leave as is. - **To review · The engine uses only part of your weights — "With 5 instruments the engine uses only the first 5 levels and the later weights do not count, negative ones (short sales) included: reduce the levels or add instruments."** A Ranking-based allocation on fewer than ten picked instruments, with no entry screener, carries weights on levels past the number of instruments, and those weights are never read. It stays silent when every level carries the same weight, which reads the same either way, and when the previous control already says nothing is invested. Move the weights onto the levels that count, add instruments, or Leave as is. ### Which controls belong to the Risk section? The Risk section's controls are about the [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) and the Risk-Off allocation they switch to. They sit on the **Risk** card; the two about the Risk-Off allocation are answered on the Allocation card's Risk-Off tab, and the two marked below also appear on a Combined's own Risk card, naming "the Combined" instead of "the portfolio". - **Blocking · Nothing set for when the risk triggers — "You turned on a risk condition but have not chosen what to do when it triggers. Choose a Risk-Off allocation: until you do, the backtest cannot run."** The strategy has an active risk condition but no Risk-Off allocation, so there is nothing to switch to. The alert's action button reads "Choose the Risk-Off". Choose the Risk-Off allocation to clear it. - **To review · Nothing changes when the risk triggers** — two causes, each with its own sentence: - "When the risk condition triggers, nothing changes, because Risk-Off is the same as Risk-On. Change the Risk-Off allocation, or leave it if that is intended." — both allocation profiles carry the same method and parameters — see [Risk-Off canonicalization](/glossary/risk-off-canonicalization). - "With one instrument the method does not matter and Risk-Off can only change the leverage; with the same leverage the engine removes the rule, so set a different leverage (0 = all in cash)." — the strategy holds one picked instrument and no entry screener, and both profiles carry the same leverage — see [What does Risk-Off change on a single instrument?](/glossary/risk-condition#what-does-risk-off-change-on-a-single-instrument). Change the Risk-Off allocation, or Leave as is if the identical profile is a deliberate placeholder. - **To review · When the risk triggers, the portfolio changes late — "When the rule triggers, the portfolio changes only at the next rebalance, up to 3 months later, and a shorter dip passes with no effect; turn on “Auto-rebalance” if you want it to act the same day."** Every active risk condition has **Auto-rebalance** off and the strategy rebalances monthly with rebalances more than one month apart. The number is the rebalance interval. Turn on **Auto-rebalance**, or Leave as is. Also on a Combined's own risk rule, with the Combined's own rebalance interval. See [auto-rebalance on flip](/glossary/auto-rebalance-on-flip). - **To review · The portfolio would keep flipping between Risk-On and Risk-Off — "With values between 30 and 40 the rule would go from Risk-On to Risk-Off at every observation; separate the thresholds so that Risk-On triggers only where Risk-Off does not."** A **Single series** condition whose Risk-Off and Risk-On thresholds overlap: a value that meets both switches the regime at every observation. When both thresholds point the same way the sentence opens "With values above 30" or "With values below 30" instead. Separate the thresholds, or Leave as is. Also on a Combined's own risk rule. See [How do the Risk-Off and Risk-On thresholds work?](/glossary/risk-condition#how-do-the-risk-off-and-risk-on-thresholds-work). ### Which controls belong to the Exits section? The Exits section's controls are about what makes a position leave: [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss), [take profit](/glossary/take-profit), [maximum holding period](/glossary/max-hold-months) and the [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay). A Combined has no exits of its own, so none of these appears on its own tab. - **To review · Once full, the portfolio stops changing — "The entry screener only fills free slots. With no exit rule, once the portfolio is full it never changes instruments, even when the screener finds better ones. To make it rotate, add an exit screener, a stop loss, a take profit or a maximum holding period."** The strategy has an entry screener and nothing that ever makes a position leave: no stop loss, no take profit, no maximum holding period, no exit screener, and no Risk-Off allocation that differs from Risk-On. It does not fire when the Risk-On method is Ranking-based, which re-ranks its holdings at every rebalance, and it does not fire without an entry screener: a hand-picked basket held for good is a buy-and-hold, not a mistake. Add one of those exits, or Leave as is. - **To review · After a stop the title can come straight back — "If at the next rebalance the title still passes the screener, the engine buys it again: set «Reinvest delay» to keep it out."** A stop loss or a take profit is on, an entry screener feeds the strategy, and the **Reinvest delay** is off. Turn it on, or Leave as is. See [position exits](/docs/strategies/position-exits#what-happens-after-a-stop-loss-or-take-profit-closes-a-position). - **To review · The wait after a stop is shorter than it looks — "The wait is counted in calendar months and checked only at rebalances, so with 3 months a title stopped out in the month of the last rebalance is back already at the next one: to always skip at least one you need 6 months."** A stop loss or a take profit is on, the strategy rebalances on a monthly cadence — here every 3 months — and the **Reinvest delay** equals the rebalance interval, the shortest wait the field allows. Double the wait, or Leave as is. See [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay#when-does-the-clock-start-at-the-exit-or-at-the-rebalance-that-records-it). ## What do the grey notes on a Settings card mean? A note is the third, quiet level of the same controls system: a title and its consequence, saying what the engine will do with the current setup. A card's notes are folded into one row at the end of its body, above a thin line — a small grey square with an "i" and **What the engine will do · `{count}` notes** — which starts closed; clicking it opens every note with its title and consequence, and clicking again closes them. Every section card can carry notes — Asset selection, Allocation, Risk and Exits, and a Combined's own Allocation and Risk — and a card with none shows no row. A note never asks for a decision, is never counted in a header total, and never marks the section strip or the lists' Controls column. The Strategy controls popover does list it, though, last, under **Notes** (see [What happens when I click the section strip?](#what-happens-when-i-click-the-section-strip) above). On the **Asset selection** card: - **"The screener chooses among your 5 instruments" — "At each rebalance, only those that pass it enter"** (singular: "your one instrument" — "At each rebalance it enters only if it passes"). Shown when you have both picked instruments and an [entry screener](/glossary/screener-attach): the screener filters your picked list rather than searching its whole [universe](/glossary/universe). - **"Passing any one of the screeners is enough to enter" — "A title enters if it passes at least one of the screeners, not all of them; to ask for both conditions, put them in the same screener."** Shown when the strategy has two or more entry screeners. - **"2 instruments only exist after the backtest starts" — "The engine cannot pick each one before the first rebalance on or after its own start date, shown beside the instrument."** (singular: "One instrument only exists after the backtest starts" — "The engine cannot pick it before the first rebalance on or after its start date, shown beside the instrument."). Shown when you have picked instruments and no entry screener, and the data of at least one of them starts after the backtest's first rebalance — the first Friday of January of the start year. That date is a lower bound, not a promise: before it the instrument is not a candidate at all, and after it the instrument can still wait — an [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) that reads a window of past prices gives no weight to an instrument with less history than that window, and a full set of [positions](/glossary/max-positions) leaves no slot. Each such instrument shows its first day beside it in the instrument list, as **from `{date}`** — for example "from Jun 30, 2015" — with or without a screener. Moving the start year past every first day makes the note and the dates disappear. On the **Allocation** card: - **"With costs off, the levered return is higher than the real one" — "As long as the analysis runs without costs, borrowed money pays no interest: the levered return comes out higher than the real one."** Shown when an allocation the engine reads has a [leverage](/glossary/leverage) above 1 or a negative weight — a short sale. It appears on the Allocation card only, not on the analysis. - **"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."** On a Combined's own Allocation card, when a member strategy in use has its risk condition on and a Risk-Off allocation with leverage 0. When several do, it names the first and adds "or one other strategy" or "or one of the other 2 strategies". See [per-strategy risk layer](/glossary/per-strategy-risk-layer#what-happens-when-only-one-strategy-goes-risk-off). On the **Risk** card: - **"When the risk triggers, the portfolio changes at the rebalance" — "A change of regime changes the portfolio at the next rebalance, the first Friday of the month, unless you turn on “Auto-rebalance”."** Shown when every active risk condition has **Auto-rebalance** off and the strategy rebalances every month; at a longer interval it is the control "When the risk triggers, the portfolio changes late" instead. On a Combined's own Risk card it reads "the Combined". - **"With one instrument, risk only changes how much you invest" — "Risk-Off decides how much to invest in the instrument: leverage 0 means cash, 0.5 means half."** Shown when a risk condition is active on a strategy holding one picked instrument and no entry screener, and the control "Nothing changes when the risk triggers" is not already raised. On the **Exits** card: - **"After a stop the capital stays in cash" — "Stop and target are checked every day; after the exit the capital stays in cash and at the next rebalance the engine buys the instrument again (with a screener: if it still passes)."** Shown when a stop loss or a take profit is on, with no entry screener and no wait; with an entry screener it is the control "After a stop the title can come straight back" instead. ## How do controls appear on the strategy lists? On the Single strategies, Combined strategies and Portfolios lists, the column once labelled **Warnings** is now **Controls**: it shows the same section strip described above — one small mark per section — always, with every mark grey on a row with nothing left to decide. It no longer opens a clickable chip with its own popover and Accept/Reopen actions. Hovering the strip states the count in words: `{count} to review` or `{count} blocking`, or **All clear** on a clear row (a row with only reviewed alerts also reads All clear here — the list does not separate the two). A Combined's controls are counted per member strategy: two member strategies carrying the same alert count as two, not one. Opening a row's detail panel adds a **Controls** section — shown only for your own strategies — with the strip, then each of the strategy's own alerts with **Go →** to the card that fixes it and, for one to review, **Leave as is**; a closed one reads **Reviewed by you · `{title}`** with **Reopen**. A Combined's blocked roster — too few strategies, or too few switched on — appears there too, in the run gate's own sentence. In a Combined's panel, its **Strategies** list shows, under each member strategy with something left to decide, a mini strip, its most severe alert's title (plus `· +{count}` for more), and **Open →**. The **Portfolios** page's To do list carries its own **Controls** group for a live portfolio whose only open item is a strategy alert — see [Keep your live book in order](/docs/portfolio-holdings/keep-your-live-book-in-order#which-portfolios-appear-under-controls). The [Public](/glossary/mine-public) board shows none of this: no Controls column, none in the Columns chooser, and none in the panel — a public strategy's alerts are not the viewer's to decide. ## What does it look like in practice? You build a strategy with an entry screener, equal-weighted, Max positions 10, rebalancing monthly, and you set no exit rules at all. In All at once, the section strip marks Exits violet and reads `1 to review`; opening it lists "Once full, the portfolio stops changing" under Exits with **Go →** to the Exits card. Once the screener has filled the ten slots, no rule ever frees one, so the portfolio keeps the same ten instruments however the screener's results change. Nothing is broken — the strategy will still backtest. You have two routes: add an exit (a stop loss, a take profit, a maximum holding period, an exit screener, or a Risk-Off allocation that differs from Risk-On), which makes the alert stop firing; or press **Leave as is**, which moves it to **Reviewed by you · 1** and turns the strip grey, reading `1 reviewed`. Clicking the strip afterwards still lists the alert under Reviewed by you, with **Reopen**. The contrast case: the same strategy built on ten hand-picked instruments and no screener raises no alert at all. With nothing to rotate to, holding the basket is the design, not an oversight. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-analytics # Strategy analytics Strategy analytics is the per-strategy page of a [Combined](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined), reached from its **Components** tab: every [strategy](/glossary/strategy) the [Combined](/glossary/combined) holds is read across four cards, measured on that strategy's own returns inside the run. It compares the pieces of a Combined with each other and with the whole, beyond the Combined's single blended result. **Also seen as:** per-strategy metrics, per-strategy analytics ## How does Fincanva handle it? Included from Advanced upwards. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - Like every Combined-only page, it is reached only on a plan that includes Combined strategies. - Each strategy's metrics come from its own share of the one Combined [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — not from running that strategy standalone — so a strategy's figures here can differ from the numbers on its own standalone run. - Daily returns are annualised by ×√252, the same [annualization](/glossary/annualization) convention used for volatility and the Sharpe ratio across the product — including for tracking error and the information ratio. - The cards follow the [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) toggles: switching costs, taxes or reinvestment changes every strategy's figures, as it changes the Combined's own metrics. - A strategy that is not part of a Combined has nothing to be compared with, so the page shows it alone on each card. - Above the four cards, the tab opens with a fifth, "Strategies: where the result comes from", which splits the Combined's own return, volatility, Sharpe and [daily VaR](/glossary/value-at-risk) among its strategies so the parts add up to the whole. See [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics). - The pieces of a Combined are **strategies**, and that is the word this page's own copy uses for them throughout, on every axis and every row label. The tab that opens the page is labelled **Components**, which names the page rather than renaming its rows. ## What does strategy analytics report for each strategy? Eight figures per strategy, spread across three cards rather than gathered into one row of columns, with a fourth card for the profit each strategy brought. Six of the figures describe the strategy on its own terms, and two describe it relative to the Combined. Every card lists the strategies in the same order, so one strategy can be followed down the page with your eye. | Metric | What it says about the strategy | Where it is drawn | |---|---|---| | [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) | its annualised growth rate | the vertical axis of **Return and oscillation** | | [Volatility](/glossary/volatility) | how much its returns varied | the horizontal axis of the same card | | [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio) | return per unit of total risk | the slope of that strategy's line on the same card, and the figure on its point label | | [Max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) | its deepest peak-to-trough fall | the **Worst fall** card | | [Information ratio](/glossary/information-ratio) | whether moving differently paid off | the **Each strategy, against the Combined** card | | [Tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error) | how differently it moved from the Combined | the same card | | [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) | return per unit of downside risk | the same card | | [Return-to-drawdown ratio](/glossary/return-to-drawdown-ratio) | return against its deepest fall | the same card, under the shorter label **Return / fall** | The first six carry exactly the definitions they carry on the Combined's own [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table), so the same name means the same thing in both places — read one strategy across the cards and you are reading it the way you would read a whole portfolio. ## How do the four cards draw the strategies? In prose: the first card plots each strategy as a dot, return upwards against oscillation sideways, with the Combined drawn as a diamond and a line through each dot whose steepness is that strategy's Sharpe ratio. The second card draws the worst fall each strategy took, in that same shared order. The third puts the four comparison figures side by side as bars, one row per strategy. The fourth, **How much profit each one brought, over time**, is not a metric at all: it draws the cumulative profit each strategy contributed to the Combined, all of them on one scale. - A **Period** selector above the cards narrows the whole page to one calendar year, or back to **All period**. In a year view the Sharpe lines are not drawn: the [risk-free rate](/glossary/risk-free-rate) the engine reports is a whole-period figure, and Fincanva does not invent a per-year one to replace it. - The profit card always covers the whole period, whatever the **Period** selector says; selecting a year shades that year on it rather than cropping the curves. ## Why are tracking error and information ratio measured against the Combined? Because on this surface both metrics answer a question about membership, not about the market: they compare a strategy to the **parent Combined it sits inside**, not to the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark). This is the single most misread fact on the surface — elsewhere in finance tracking error and the information ratio are usually quoted versus a benchmark index, so a reader who assumes that here will draw the wrong conclusion from the number. A strategy with a high tracking error is one that diverges from *its own Combined*, and an information ratio near zero means it contributed little relative to *the Combined*, whatever either of them did against the benchmark. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined returns 6.2% a year. Strategy A inside it returns 9.0% with a tracking error of 7%, so its information ratio is (9.0% − 6.2%) ÷ 7% ≈ **0.40** — it moved differently from the Combined, and the difference went its way. Strategy B returns 5.8% with a small tracking error, giving a slightly negative information ratio: it tracked the Combined closely and still ended just behind it. Now read the trap: a reader who took A's 7% tracking error as "7% away from the benchmark" would be measuring against the wrong thing entirely — the 7% is A's divergence from the Combined it belongs to. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined # Strategy in a Combined A strategy in a Combined is one of the strategies a [Combined](/glossary/combined) holds and allocates capital across — the same object you build on its own. It keeps its own rules, instruments, and allocation; the capital it receives is set one level above, at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level). **Also seen as:** member strategy, sub-strategy A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) joins a Combined as a snapshot copy taken at the moment it is added, so later edits to the standalone original do not change the copy that now lives inside the Combined. Earlier versions of the product called these pieces a *model* or a *component*. Both names are retired — they are strategies. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A strategy joins a Combined as a snapshot copy taken when it is added; from that point the original and the copy are independent. - Editing the standalone strategy afterwards does not update the copy inside the Combined, and editing the copy does not change the standalone. - Where the whole and its pieces appear together, the whole is called the Combined; destructive actions name their level — "Remove this strategy from the Combined" versus "Delete Combined". - A strategy inside a Combined can be closed on its own if it loses enough of the capital allocated to it, and can resume at a later [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) — the permanent-versus-restartable difference is covered in [bankruptcy rules](/glossary/bankruptcy-rules). - A strategy inside a Combined can be kept aside — switched off without being removed — and switched back on later with its settings and its weight unchanged; see [Can you switch a strategy in a Combined off without removing it?](#can-you-switch-a-strategy-in-a-combined-off-without-removing-it). ## Can you switch a strategy in a Combined off without removing it? Yes — a strategy in a Combined can be kept aside: switched off, still inside the Combined, and left out of every backtest until you switch it back on. On the Combined's **Strategies** card each strategy in use has a pause button ("Keep … aside") beside its remove ×. A kept-aside strategy moves to a group under the table titled "Kept aside (n) — left out of the simulation", with a play button ("Switch … back on") and the same remove ×. - **Nothing is lost while it is kept aside.** Its own settings and its weight at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) stay exactly as they were, and switching it back on brings both back unchanged. Removing it, by contrast, takes it out of the Combined. - **It is left out of the run.** The Combined's capital is split across the strategies in use only; the table on the card lists those, and its weight total covers those alone. - **Its own page says so.** Opening a strategy kept aside shows "This strategy is kept aside: it stays in the Combined but is left out of the simulation." with **Switch back on**, which follows the same plan limit as the play button. ## How does keeping a strategy aside count against your plan? - **It does not count toward your plan's limit** on strategies in use in a Combined — only the ones switched on do, and a Combined always counts as at least two. Its own settings (positions, attached screeners, risk conditions, allocation method) are still held to the plan; see [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). - **At the plan's limit it cannot be switched back on.** Pressing play leaves the strategy kept aside, and the card says "The Advanced plan allows 5 strategies in use. To switch another one back on, keep one aside first, or switch to Ultimate." — naming your own plan, its limit and the first plan that allows the number you asked for, or leaving the last clause out when no plan does. A Combined saved with more strategies in use than your plan allows — one carried over from the previous platform, say — can still switch strategies back on up to the number it was last saved with; only going beyond that is refused. - **On a plan without Combined strategies nothing can be switched back on.** A Combined always counts as at least two, so on a plan allowing one strategy in use the card says "The Starter plan does not include Combined strategies. To use one, switch to Advanced." instead. ## What limits apply when you add a strategy or run the Combined? - **Adding a strategy counts too.** A strategy you add joins in use, so at the plan's limit choosing one to add leaves the roster as it is, and the card says "The Advanced plan allows 5 strategies in use. To add another one, keep one aside first, or switch to Ultimate." The **Add a strategy** window opened from the + beside the Combined's tabs follows the same rule: choosing a strategy or **Create a blank strategy** there adds nothing and shows the same sentence. - **A Combined still needs two strategies in use to run.** With fewer switched on, **Backtest** is refused with "Running this needs 2 strategies switched on." - **Kept aside or in use, a Combined holds at most 20 strategies.** At 20, choosing one more to add leaves the roster as it is, and the card says "A Combined holds at most 20 strategies, in use or kept aside." ## What does it look like in practice? You build a momentum strategy and run it on its own. You then add it to a Combined alongside two other strategies, and the Combined takes a snapshot copy of the momentum strategy exactly as it stood at that moment. A week later you change the standalone strategy's rebalance cadence. The copy inside the Combined keeps the old cadence — it was frozen at add time — so the standalone and the in-Combined copy now [backtest](/glossary/backtest) differently. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-type # Strategy type Strategy type is the shape you pick when you create a strategy — **Single instrument**, **Multiple instruments**, **Screener**, or **Full setup**. It decides which chapters of [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) are required and what the strategy must contain before it can be backtested; it never changes how a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is computed. There are exactly these four types, and you can change a strategy's type later. ## What are the four strategy types? Each type describes *what you are building*, and each carries a content requirement the app enforces before you can continue: | Strategy type | Described in the app as | Must contain | |---|---|---| | Single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) | "Trade a single instrument." | exactly 1 instrument | | Multiple instruments | "A basket of instruments you choose." | 2 or more instruments | | [Screener](/glossary/screener) | "Let a screener pick the instruments." | at least 1 screener | | Full setup | "Every setting, built from scratch." | no count requirement | If the content does not match the type, the app blocks you and says which way to fix it: "Pick exactly 1 instrument.", "Pick 2 or more instruments.", or "Add at least 1 screener." The message offers **Change strategy type** as the alternative to changing the content. **Full setup** is the only type with no content requirement, because it exposes every setting rather than trimming the build to a shape. ## Can you change a strategy's type later? Yes, in either view. In [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once), the **Type** key opens a menu of the four types, each with its one-line description, and the menu notes "Changing type is not a conversion: you will see what changes before it happens." In Step by step the type is the first chapter, **Strategy type**, which lists the same four types. Both run the same switch: choosing another type opens a confirmation that spells out what the switch changes: - Any section you had configured that the new type does not require is reset to its defaults. The type is one setting for the whole strategy, so on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) that reset lands on every strategy inside it, not only the one you were editing — the confirmation says so, and the sections it lists are the ones configured anywhere in the Combined. - If the new type's Asset selection surface cannot hold what you have already selected, it says how much will go — for example "5 selected instruments will be removed" when you switch a hand-picked basket to **Screener**. - If your setup needs more than the new type offers, it says that instead: nothing further is removed, and the strategy keeps showing as the wider type. - It says how the switch moves the required chapters of [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), because each type requires a different set. Chapters that join the walk have not been reviewed yet, so a walk you had finished stops being complete — "You had reviewed every step. 2 steps you have not reviewed join Step by step, so it is no longer complete." — while a switch that takes the unreviewed chapters out of the walk can leave nothing to review. That decides where Step by step lands when you reopen the strategy; it never decides whether the Backtest can run. Nothing you already reviewed is discarded: each chapter keeps its mark, so switching back costs you no progress. Nothing is removed until you save — switching back before saving keeps everything. The strategy type shapes what a strategy can hold, not only which chapters you see: each type offers exactly one Asset selection surface — a basket you pick, or a screener that picks for you — and only **Full setup** offers all of them. That is why narrowing to **Screener** drops a hand-picked basket: a Screener strategy builds its selection from rules, so it has nowhere to keep one. Fincanva never trims your setup just to make a narrower type fit. Two Include screeners will not survive as a **Screener** strategy, and five instruments will not survive as **Single instrument** — so rather than delete the extras, the strategy stays as the wider type and keeps everything. The confirmation tells you which type that will be before you commit. For how each type reshapes Step by step, see [How does the strategy type shape what you build?](#how-does-the-strategy-type-shape-what-you-build). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - You pick the type at creation, in the **Create new** popup under the question "How do you want to build this strategy?", and there the picker's subheading reads: "You can change anything later." The popup is the same whether you work in Step by step or All at once. - **Screener** starts from Starter: on the Free plan its tile and its entry in the **Type** menu carry the plan mark and open the plan dialog instead. **Full setup** is open on Free, starting on its **Basket** surface — see [Which strategy types can you create on the Free plan?](#which-strategy-types-can-you-create-on-the-free-plan). - The type shows as a **Strategy type** column value in your strategies list. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) is not one of the four — it displays as **Combined** in that column instead. - The type does not change what a backtest computes, and it hides no *section*: in [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) every section is either required by your type or offered as an optional add-on, whichever type you started from. - What the type does constrain is the Asset selection surface. **Compose** and its **Include**/**Exclude** screener pools exist only on **Full setup**, and [max positions](/glossary/max-positions) is not a control anywhere you pick instruments by hand — on Single instrument, on Multiple instruments and on Full setup's **Basket** surface it is simply the number you picked. ## What does it look like in practice? You have a list of five stocks and you want to see how holding all five would have done. That is the **Multiple instruments** type: it wants 2 or more instruments, so five qualifies, and it gives you the **Allocation** chapter you need to decide how capital is split across them. Picking **Single instrument** instead would stop you with "Pick exactly 1 instrument.", because that type holds exactly one. If you later replace your hand-picked five with a screener that chooses the holdings each period, switch the type to **Screener** — it requires at least 1 screener, and your fixed basket is no longer what defines the strategy. The confirmation warns that those five instruments will be removed, because a Screener strategy has no basket to keep them in. They are still there until you save, so you can back out. ## How do you choose a 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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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**. ## How does the strategy type shape what you build? 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: | Strategy type | Required chapters in Step by step | |---|---| | Single instrument | Asset selection · Summary | | Multiple instruments | Asset selection · Allocation · [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) · Summary | | Screener | Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Summary | | Full setup | Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Risk and exits · Summary | 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](/glossary/step-by-step#which-chapters-does-each-strategy-type-require) for how required and optional chapters work. ## Which Asset selection surface does each strategy type give you? 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. | Strategy type | Asset selection surface | Compose, Exclude pool, a second Include screener | |---|---|---| | Single instrument | Basket, one slot that replaces on pick | no | | Multiple instruments | Basket | no | | Screener | Screen | no | | Full setup | Basket, Screen or Compose — you switch between them | yes | 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. ## What is the Single instrument type for? 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." ## What is the Multiple instruments type for? 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." ## What is the Screener type for? 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. ## What is the Full setup type for? 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](/glossary/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](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards) surface, with every card on one page instead of the chapters. ## Which strategy types can you create on the Free plan? 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](/glossary/screener-attach). 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](/glossary/plan-compliance#what-happens-to-a-strategy-with-a-screener-on-the-free-plan). ## Can you change the strategy type later? 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. ## What happens to your selection when you switch strategy type? 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. ## What are the limits and edge cases of strategy types? 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](/glossary/strategy). ## Which pages go further on strategy types? To build one, follow [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments). To change settings on an existing strategy, see [Editing a strategy](/docs/strategies/editing-a-strategy-the-settings-cards). 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-s-own-performance # Strategy's own performance Strategy's own performance is a quantitative risk rule for a [Combined](/glossary/combined) that watches the Combined's own value instead of a market series, and switches it to its Risk-Off allocation when that value becomes too volatile, falls too far from its peak, or drops below its [moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma), whichever of the three metrics you pick. **Also seen as:** portfolio-based rule, equity-curve trading, portfolio stop $$ \text{Realized volatility:}\;\; {\sigma_t} \ge {\theta} \qquad \text{Drawdown:}\;\; 1 - \frac{{P_t}}{{\max_{s \le t} P_s}} \ge {\theta} \qquad \text{Trend vs moving average:}\;\; {P_t} < (1 - {g}) \times {\overline{P}_{t,n}} $$ where: - the watched value's annualised volatility over the window - the threshold you set - the watched value on day t - its highest value so far - its average over the last n days - the gap from the average In words: Risk-Off while the Combined swings more than you set, sits at least the set share below its [peak](/glossary/max-drawdown), or trades below its moving average by more than the gap. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - It is one of three rules under **Quantitative regimes** in the [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition) builder, described as "Watches your combined strategy itself, not an index: you move to Risk-Off when it gets too turbulent, falls too far from its peak or breaks its trend." It is offered at the [Combined level](/glossary/combined-level) and never inside a single [strategy](/glossary/strategy), and there is no series to choose. - **About twice the calculation time**: the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) first simulates the Combined held Risk-On with no costs, then runs it for real. The builder says "About twice the calculation time." and "That is why the simulation does not start on its own: you start it." — after a change, the Combined waits for you to start the backtest. - It stays Risk-On until its window is full, and each test uses only data up to the day it judges. One threshold, no hysteresis: the [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) is the brake ("This rule has a single threshold: the delay is your brake against switching too often. 0 = immediate."); **Auto-rebalance** works as on any condition. - **Strategy's own performance is included from the Ultimate plan**, at the Combined level; on Advanced it still appears in the list, tagged with the [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that includes it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holding two strategies gets a Strategy's own performance rule with **Drawdown** at 15% and a confirmation delay of 1 week. Its always-Risk-On version peaks at 120,000. Over the next two months it falls to 108,000 — a 10% drawdown, under the threshold, so nothing happens. It keeps falling to 101,000: $1 - 101{,}000 / 120{,}000 \approx 15.8\%$, at or above 15%, so the rule asks for Risk-Off, and a week later the Combined switches to its Risk-Off allocation. It returns to Risk-On once the always-Risk-On version climbs back within 15% of its peak — above 102,000 — and the delay has passed. With **Realized volatility** at 20% instead, the same stretch would have switched only if the Combined's 21-day [volatility](/glossary/volatility) rose to 20% a year, however far it had fallen. The figures are illustrative, not a suggested setting. ## What does the rule watch? The rule watches your Combined as it would have run if it had always stayed Risk-On, with no costs — the app's note reads "Always held Risk-On, with no costs. No series to choose." It does not watch the Combined's actual curve, because that curve already reflects the rule's own switches: judging it would make every switch change the signal that caused it. Holding the watched version permanently Risk-On keeps the signal independent of the decision it drives. ## Which metrics can it use? The rule reads one **Metric**: | Metric | Window | Threshold | Risk-Off when | |---|---|---|---| | **Realized volatility** (default) | 10–252 trading days, default 21 | annual volatility, 5%–100%, default 20% | "volatility exceeds this value" | | **Drawdown** | none — "Not needed: measured from the previous peak." | loss from peak, 2%–50%, default 10% | "the Combined loses at least this share from its peak" | | **Trend vs moving average** | moving average of 10–252 days, default 200 | gap from the average, 0%–10%, default 0% | "the Combined falls below its moving average by more than this gap" | Volatility uses a trailing window and a yearly figure; drawdown needs no window because it is always measured from the running peak; the trend test with a gap of 0% fires as soon as the Combined is below its average. In the list of risk conditions a saved rule shows "Strategy's own performance" with its metric and threshold, for example "≥ 20%" with "21-day window", or "< average" with "200-day moving average". 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/stress-test # Stress test The stress test is the panel of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Robustness** tab that asks how its risk figures would change under a scenario you set — an average return of −20% a year, [volatility](/glossary/volatility) twice as high, or both. It invents no data: it reweights the strategy's own historical days toward the scenario, and two gauges say how far history was bent. **Also seen as:** stress testing, scenario analysis, what-if analysis, entropy pooling ## How does Fincanva handle it? - It runs on request, from the **Robustness** tab's **Stress test** panel. Pick one of the **Ready-made scenarios** — "A −20% year", "Double volatility", "A flat year", "Crash: −40% and volatility ×2" — or set **Assumed annual return** (−50% to +50%) and **Volatility multiplier** (0.5× to 3×) yourself, then press **Apply scenario**. At least one of the two has to differ from normal; a volatility multiplier alone keeps the average return where it was. - The result is a table, **On the strategy's historical days**, with the **Base** figures beside **With the scenario**: average annual return (arithmetic), annual volatility, [daily VaR](/glossary/value-at-risk) 95% and daily [CVaR 95%](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk). VaR and CVaR are daily losses, shown as positive numbers; they are defined on [Performance Metrics](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). - The **Base** column is computed on the same footing as the scenario column, not the way Performance Metrics computes its figures, so it does not match that page. Compare **Base** with **With the scenario**. - The figures follow the tab's **Simulation settings**: with **Costs & interests** or **Taxes** on, the test runs on the net returns. - A simulation stored before the panel existed has to be run again first. The stress test is included from Advanced upwards, on the same plans as [backtest reliability](/glossary/backtest-reliability), so the **Robustness** tab opens as one. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## How can a stress test work without inventing data? By changing how much each past day counts rather than what happened on it. Normally every day of the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) counts equally. To make the history average −20% a year, the test counts the losing days a little more and the winning days a little less — just enough for the weighted average to hit the target, and no more. To double volatility, it leans on the large days, up and down, over the quiet ones. The textbook name is **entropy pooling**: among all the ways of reweighting the days that satisfy the scenario, it picks the one closest to the original, equal weighting. Every figure it reports is still made of days the strategy really lived. $$ \min_{{q}} \sum_t {q_t} \ln \frac{{q_t}}{{p_t}} \quad \text{such that the } {q}\text{-weighted history matches } {\text{the scenario}} $$ where: - the new weight of each past day - its original, equal weight - the scenario's average return and volatility That is also its limit. A scenario can only be reached with the kinds of day the history contains: a strategy that never had a bad day cannot be made to average −40% a year, and the panel then says "We couldn't calculate this scenario." ## How do I read the two gauges? They are the honesty check on the result, and they are the first thing to read. - **How far we bent history** measures how different the reweighted history is from the original. "A little" means the scenario is plausible for this strategy; "Noticeably" means it asked visible effort of the history — read the result with care; "A lot" means the scenario is far from anything the strategy has lived through, and the result is not very reliable. - **Days that still count** measures how much of the history still carries real weight. It reads, from best to worst: the result rests on almost the whole history; on a good part of it; on a small part of it — read it with care; on a few extreme days — read it with great care. A result with both gauges in their first reading is the one to lean on. When the worst 5% of days shrinks to a single day, the VaR and CVaR rows are marked "· a single day": the two are then equal and say little. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's history averages 8% a year with 15% volatility, and a worst-5% day loses 1.4%. Apply "A −20% year": the table shows the average return moved to −20%, volatility up slightly to 17%, and the daily VaR at 2.1% — the reweighted history leans on its bad days, and the bad days are bigger than the average ones. **How far we bent history** reads "Noticeably" and **Days that still count** says the result rests on a good part of the history: a plausible, if demanding, scenario for this strategy. Try "Crash: −40% and volatility ×2" on the same strategy and both gauges drop to their last readings — the history holds too few days like that for the answer to mean much. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/survivorship-bias # Survivorship bias Survivorship bias is the error of testing only on the instruments that survived until today, so the companies that went bankrupt, were acquired, or were delisted never appear in the test at all. With the worst outcomes removed before the test begins, returns come out too high and risk too low. **Also seen as:** Survivor bias The bias is built into the *list of names*, so no amount of care in the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s rules removes it. It is one of the largest and most easily overlooked distortions in backtesting, precisely because a list of today's tradable instruments looks like a perfectly reasonable starting point. ## How does Fincanva's data handle delisted companies? Fincanva's market data includes [delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments and [point-in-time index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents), so names that later failed or were removed from an index remain available to a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) rather than disappearing from history. Each instrument is used only across the span in which it actually existed — a company that listed in 2011 and delisted in 2018 is present for those years and absent on either side — which is what makes a run measurable against the market as it stood on each historical date. The widest [universe](/glossary/universe) — "All" — therefore still contains instruments that have since delisted, and an [instrument](/glossary/instrument) that no longer trades can still appear in a historical run. Data that retains its failures does not by itself make a given test unbiased: the universe and the period you choose still decide which names the test can hold. A hand-typed list of instruments you know today, for example, reintroduces the bias regardless of what the underlying data contains. ## Why does survivorship bias make results look better than reality? Survivorship bias inflates results because failure is the one outcome that removes a name from the list. Every company that fell to zero, was taken over at a discount, or was delisted for non-compliance leaves the surviving set, while every company that merely did well stays in it. The test therefore samples from a population that was defined *by having done well enough to still exist* — a condition that could not be known in advance. Two things follow: average return is overstated, and the depth and frequency of large losses are understated, because the events that produce the very worst losses have been filtered out. The same logic applies to funds and strategies, not just single stocks: a study of the funds available today has quietly excluded every fund that closed after poor performance. ## What goes wrong in an S&P backtest on today's index members? Consider a ten-year backtest that buys "the S&P 500" but sources its instrument list from the index as it stands today. Every name in that list has, by definition, survived a decade and still met the index's inclusion criteria at the end of it. The companies that were in the index at the start and were removed after collapsing — the ones that would have produced the worst positions in the run — are simply absent. The [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) rises more smoothly than the real index did, the maximum [drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) is shallower than the real index's, and the strategy looks as though it beat the market when in fact it was handed a list of winners. Running the same rules on the index's membership *as it stood on each historical date* produces a materially lower result. ## How is survivorship bias different from selection bias? Survivorship bias and [selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias) both produce an unrepresentative sample, but for different reasons. Survivorship bias is imposed *by the data*: the failures were already missing before you made a single choice, so it happens even to a careful researcher who picks names at random from the list in front of them. Selection bias is introduced *by the researcher*: the sample is narrowed by a hindsight-informed choice. [Cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) is a third, later step — choosing which of your existing results to *report*. A single test can carry all three at once. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/symbolslist # SymbolsList A SymbolsList is a named group of [instruments](/glossary/instrument) that Fincanva's market data maintains as a single unit, so a set of tickers that belong together can be referred to by one name instead of listed one by one. The curated groups cover recurring cuts of the market — sectors, countries, currencies, industries, commodities, fixed income, real estate and a few others. A SymbolsList is a data-layer grouping rather than a control you build: the lists ship with Fincanva's market data and refresh with it. **Also seen as:** symbols list, named ticker group ## What is inside a SymbolsList? A SymbolsList holds a name and its member instruments, and nothing else — no weights, no rules, no dates. Members are referenced by their [permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier) rather than by ticker symbol, so a list keeps the same membership when one of its members is renamed. Sizes vary widely: some lists hold under ten instruments, others several dozen. Not everything in the catalogue is holdable, though — some entries are reference-only series — so see [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable) for that distinction. ## How is a SymbolsList different from a universe or an index list? The three are separate ideas that all describe a set of instruments. | Concept | What defines the set | Does it carry history? | |---|---|---| | SymbolsList | A curated group that ships with Fincanva's market data, referred to by name | No — membership is current only | | [Universe](/glossary/universe) | Your own filters (country, exchange, index, sector, [asset type](/glossary/asset-type)) | No — it is resolved for the run you are setting up | | [Index list](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) | Membership of a real market index | Yes — membership is recorded as of each historical date | So a SymbolsList is the simplest of the three: a stable, named bundle of tickers with no history attached to the grouping itself. If you need to know who belonged to a group *on a past date*, that is an index list, not a SymbolsList. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - SymbolsLists ship with Fincanva's market data and refresh with it; they are not created or edited by you. - A list stores its members by their permanent instrument identifier, so a ticker rename never drops a member. - Membership is current, not point-in-time: a SymbolsList records the group as it stands, with no record of when a member joined or left. - SymbolsLists are part of the data layer and are not surfaced as a pickable control in the app today. The term is documented here because docs and Learn material use it. ## What does it look like in practice? "Sectors" is one of the shipped lists: rather than naming one instrument per sector every time a sector-by-sector comparison is needed, the group is referred to by its list name and resolves to its members. If one of those members is renamed — its ticker changes while the company continues — the list still resolves to exactly the same instruments, because membership is stored by permanent instrument identifier and not by the ticker symbol that changed. A list built by hand from ticker strings would quietly lose that member instead. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/take-profit # Take profit Take profit is an automatic exit that closes a position once its gain reaches a threshold you set, such as +20%, locking in the return at that level. It is the gain-side exit: it looks only at how far one position is up, not at time held ([max hold](/glossary/max-hold-months)) or a fall ([stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss)). **Also seen as:** profit target, TP. $$ {r_t} \ge {\text{TP}} $$ where: - the position's return since it was first opened - your take-profit percentage The position closes on the first day its own return since entry meets or passes your take-profit percentage. ## How does Fincanva handle it? On a strategy's Settings page, the Exits key among the strategy rules shows the take profit beside the stop loss, the gain as a positive percentage. - Off by default; when you turn it on it starts at **150%**. - Adjustable from **5% to 1000%**, entered as a positive percentage (suffix "%"). - It sits on the **Position exits** card, described there as "Auto-close rules applied to each position". - Values outside the band are blocked with a "Take profit must be between 5% and 1000%." message. - A position closed by this rule is recorded with the [exit reason](/glossary/exit-reason) **Take profit**. The [instrument](/glossary/instrument) can be bought again only at a later [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), and not before the [reinvest delay](/glossary/reinvest-delay) has passed if you set one. ## What does it look like in practice? A position is opened at a price of 100 with take profit set to **20%**. When the price reaches 120, the position's return is +20%, which meets the threshold, so the position is closed and the +20% gain is locked in. Had take profit instead been set to 25%, the same position at +20% would stay open and keep running toward the higher target. *Fincanva does not recommend a take-profit level, or whether to use one at all.* ## How does take profit decide when to close? Take profit closes a position once its return since entry meets or passes the take-profit percentage you set. The return it measures is the position's own gain from the price it was opened at, not the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s overall return, so each holding reaches its target on its own schedule. A higher number means the position has to gain more before the rule closes it; a lower one closes it sooner. The gain is counted from the price the position was **first** opened at, and it keeps counting through every rebalance that keeps the position: resizing a holding at a rebalance does not restart it. For a [short position](/glossary/direction-long-only-long-short-short-only), a fall in price is the gain. The check is not tied to the rebalance schedule: the return is read on the position's own price bars, so a take profit can close a position between two rebalances. It closes on the first bar that reaches the threshold — at the threshold level itself, or at that bar's open when the bar opens already past it; [execution time](/glossary/execution-time#when-does-a-modelled-trade-fill-within-a-bar) has the full fill rule. If the same bar also reaches the stop-loss level, [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss#what-if-one-bar-reaches-both-the-stop-loss-and-the-take-profit-level) explains which of the two closes the position. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/target-allocation-treemap # Target allocation treemap The target allocation treemap is the mosaic on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [Positions](/glossary/positions) view that shows what the target portfolio is made of, with each tile's area proportional to that piece's share of your capital. Biggest tile, biggest position. It fills the right side of the `Target allocation` card, beside a headline `capital invested` percentage and a count of how many assets are held, and on a [Combined](/glossary/combined) it is interactive: click a strategy's tile to see the assets inside it. **Also seen as:** Target allocation, allocation treemap ## What the treemap shows, in words The card is split in two. On the left sit the title `Target allocation`, the number of holdings (`{n} assets`), and one large percentage captioned `capital invested`. On the right sits the mosaic: rectangles filling the card, largest first, each labelled with its name and its own percentage. Area is the only thing that encodes a value — a tile twice the size of another is twice the share of capital. The colours only separate neighbouring tiles from each other and carry no meaning of their own. Two tiles are deliberately muted rather than coloured: the `Cash` tile, which appears whenever some capital is not put to work, and the `Others (N)` tile below. Nothing in the mosaic is visual-only: every tile prints its own label and its own percentage, so the whole allocation is readable as text. ## What does "Others (N)" mean? `Others (N)` is one tile standing in for all the pieces too small to draw, where **N** is how many were folded into it. The treemap draws the seven largest pieces at a level and groups everything after that into this single tile, whose percentage is their combined share. `Others (12)` therefore means twelve holdings share that tile's area — it is a grouping, never a holding of its own, and there is no [instrument](/glossary/instrument) called "Others". ## How does the drill-down work? On a Combined, the top level of the treemap is the **strategies** inside it: one tile per strategy, sized by its share of your capital. Clicking a strategy's tile replaces the mosaic with that strategy's own assets, and a back control labelled with the strategy's name returns you to the top level. A single strategy has nothing to drill into, so its assets are shown flat from the start. Percentages do not re-scale when you drill in. A strategy's asset tiles stay shares of your whole capital, so they add up to that strategy's own tile — not to 100%. The `Cash` tile appears only at the top level, because cash belongs to the whole book rather than to one strategy's asset list. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Tile area = share of the [Capital](/glossary/capital) you entered; the tiles plus the `Cash` tile account for the whole 100% (see [Cash % and capital invested](/glossary/cash-and-capital-invested)). - At most seven tiles are drawn per level; everything beyond that folds into `Others (N)`, at the top level and inside a drill-down alike. - `{n} assets` counts distinct instruments held, so a holding shared by two strategies is counted once. - The mosaic redraws when you change the [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date or the capital, and dims while it refreshes. - The treemap shows targets for a paper portfolio — nothing in it is an order sent to a broker (see [Order plan](/glossary/order-plan) and [Portfolio](/glossary/portfolio)). ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds two strategies. At the top level the treemap shows `Growth 61%`, `Defensive 31%`, and a muted `Cash 8%` — so roughly two thirds of the mosaic's area is the Growth strategy, and you can see at a glance that the book is not evenly split. Click the `Growth` tile. The mosaic becomes Growth's own holdings: its seven largest, plus `Others (9)`. The biggest reads `9.4%` and `Others (9)` reads `7.1%`, so nine holdings together take less area than the single largest one. Those eight tiles add up to the same `61%` the Growth tile showed, because they are still shares of your capital, not of Growth's slice. The back control now reads `Growth`; clicking it returns you to the two-strategy view. *The treemap describes the allocation a strategy's own rules produce; it is not a recommended mix and Fincanva does not tell you how to divide your money.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/target-notional # Target notional Target notional is the money amount a holding is meant to take in your portfolio: its target weight multiplied by your capital. It is the ideal position value the [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s allocation aims for at a [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), before Fincanva rounds that amount to a whole number of shares. On the Positions view, the portfolio's total target appears as the "Target notional" KPI, and each holding's own target appears as the "Target value" column of the "Target positions & exits" sheet. **Also seen as:** target position value ## How is target notional calculated? Multiply the holding's target weight by your [capital](/glossary/capital). A target weight is the share of the portfolio the allocation method assigns to that holding, so its target notional is simply that fraction of the capital you set for the strategy. $$ \text{target notional} = \text{target weight} \times \text{capital} $$ where target weight is the holding's share of the portfolio (0–1) and capital is the amount entered on the Positions view — not the strategy's [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital), which is a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) input. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The "Target notional" KPI adds up every holding's target and follows the capital figure the Positions view is working from. - Target notional is the ideal, pre-rounding figure; the amount actually put to work is a little smaller once each position is rounded to whole shares. - Changing your capital rescales every holding's target notional proportionally — the weights stay the same, only the money behind them changes. - Nothing is traded: these are the target figures Fincanva monitors on paper for a [live-followed strategy](/glossary/portfolio), not real orders. ## What does it look like in practice? A holding has a target weight of 10% and you set 25,000 of capital. Its target notional is 0.10 × 25,000 = 2,500 — the position is meant to be worth 2,500. If the [instrument](/glossary/instrument) trades at 412, that 2,500 only buys 6 whole shares, so slightly less than the full target ends up deployed. The difference between the target and what fits in whole shares is covered by [target vs deployed](/glossary/target-vs-deployed). *A target notional is the money amount a paper target portfolio implies, never a real order, and it is not a recommended amount to invest in that instrument.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/target-vs-deployed # Target vs deployed Target vs deployed is the gap between what a holding is meant to be worth and what actually gets put to work in it, which appears because you can only buy whole shares. The target value is the ideal money amount for the holding (its [target notional](/glossary/target-notional)); the deployed amount is what that becomes once the position is expressed as a whole number of shares at the latest price. On the Positions view these are the "Target value" and "Deployed" columns of the "Target positions & exits" sheet. ## How is the deployed amount calculated? Divide the holding's target value by the [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s price, round down to a whole number of shares, then multiply back by the price. You cannot buy a fraction of a share, so the deployed amount is the target rounded down — the leftover is a small amount of cash, not a trade. $$ \text{shares} = \left\lfloor \frac{\text{target value}}{\text{price}} \right\rfloor \qquad \text{deployed} = \text{shares} \times \text{price} $$ where the brackets round down to the nearest whole share and price is the instrument's latest price. A `Short` position works the same way: the share count is floored on its magnitude before the side is applied, so a short's deployed amount is normally no larger than its target either. Rounding moves both sides toward zero, and the gap is under one share's worth either way. Two cases are exceptions: a quantity within a hair of a whole share is counted as that share, so deployed comes out a hair over; and a [Combined](/glossary/combined) whose strategies hold one instrument on opposite sides rounds each side before netting, so its net deployed amount can land well above or below the net target. [Accuracy](/glossary/accuracy) explains both, with an example. ## What counts as a large gap? The gap is normally small — under one share's worth of value for each [strategy](/glossary/strategy) that holds the instrument. It is largest for high-priced instruments held with little capital, where a single share is a big slice of the target, and negligible for low-priced instruments or large capital. On a long it is leftover cash; on a short it is a slightly smaller position than the target. Neither is a loss. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Deployed is normally at or below the target value, long or short — the share count is floored on its magnitude, so rounding moves toward zero; the two exceptions are above. - On a long, the difference (target value − deployed) is leftover cash that stays uninvested for that holding — no partial-share position is taken. - Share counts follow each instrument's own price, so the gap differs from one holding to the next. - [Accuracy](/glossary/accuracy) averages ratios, not these gaps: each holding's deployed amount divided by its target value, with every holding counting equally. ## What does it look like in practice? A holding has a target value of 2,500 and the instrument trades at 412. Dividing gives 2,500 ÷ 412 = 6.06, which rounds down to 6 shares. Deploying 6 × 412 = 2,472, so 2,472 is deployed against a 2,500 target — 28 stays as cash, because a 7th share (another 412) would overshoot the target. *Both figures describe a paper target portfolio, never real orders, and neither is a recommended amount to put into any instrument.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/tax-regime # Tax regime The tax regime is the mode — **Declarative** or **Administered** — that governs how the taxable gains in your simulation are reported and settled. These are the two retail regimes used in Italy: under the Declarative regime you report your gains yourself in your own tax return, while under the Administered regime an intermediary calculates, withholds, and files the tax on your behalf. In the app the setting is "Tax regime", described as "How taxable events are reported in your jurisdiction." **Also seen as:** regime fiscale ## How the two regimes compare The regimes change *who reports and settles* the tax, not the rate on a given gain. The table shows the difference as it works in real life; the next section says what the regime changes inside a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). | | Declarative | Administered | |---|---|---| | Who calculates the tax | You | The intermediary | | Who files it | You, in your tax return | The intermediary, at source | | When it settles | At tax-return time | As events occur | | Your visibility of gross gains | Full (you report each) | Handled for you | ## What does the tax regime change in a backtest? Under **Italy** residency the regime changes three things in the simulation — when the tax is charged, how losses offset gains, and how a partial sale is valued — so two runs that differ only in regime can end with different tax figures even at the same rate. - **When the tax is charged.** Under **Declarative** the year is settled as a whole: the year's net result is taxed once, when the next year begins. Under **Administered** each gain is taxed as it is realized. - **How losses offset gains.** Under **Declarative** a loss offsets any non-ETF gain of the same year, whatever order they came in. Under **Administered** a loss only offsets gains realized after it; a gain taxed before the loss happened is not revisited. The window during which a loss stays usable is counted differently too — [capital-gains tax](/glossary/capital-gains-tax#what-happens-to-a-realized-loss) has both rules. - **How a partial sale is valued.** When a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) sells only part of a position it built up over several purchases, **Declarative** treats the most recently bought shares as sold first, while **Administered** uses the average price of every share held. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The regime is chosen from two options, "Declarative" and "Administered"; the default is Declarative. - The regime only changes a result under **Italy** [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency). - The field is shown only for the **Italy** and **Other** residencies. Under **United States** it is not displayed at all, because the Declarative/Administered distinction is an Italian one. Under **Other** the field is shown, but the simulation applies the same rules as United States — tax settled once a year, on the year's net result — whichever regime you pick. - For Italian residency the capital-gains rates are set by tax law for the selected regime and shown as "Auto-updated" rather than edited by hand. - The regime only reaches your results through the [Taxes assumption](/glossary/taxes-toggle). With Taxes off, no regime changes any figure. ## What does it look like in practice? Two simulations under Italian residency realise the **same 1,000 gain** in March and a **400 loss** in September, and differ only in regime. Under the **Declarative** regime nothing is charged during the year: the year is settled as a whole when the next one begins, the September loss is set against the March gain, and the tax is 26% × 600 = **156**. Under the **Administered** regime the March gain is taxed when it is realized, 26% × 1,000 = **260**, and the September loss cannot reach back to it — it is carried forward, and only reduces gains the strategy realizes later. Same rate, same trades: the regime changed when the tax was paid and how much of the loss had been used by the end of the year. *This describes what Fincanva models in a simulation, not tax advice for your own situation — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/tax-residency # Tax residency Tax residency is the country whose tax rules Fincanva applies to your simulated trades. It is the setting that decides *which* tax rates a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) uses — and, less obviously, *what shape* those rates take, because not every jurisdiction taxes gains by how long you held them. In the app it is the "Tax residency" field, described as "Country whose tax rules apply to your simulated trades", with three options: **United States**, **Italy**, and **Other**. **Also seen as:** fiscal residency, country of residence ## What does changing tax residency change? Picking a residency re-seeds the whole tax card: the [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime) and each rate are set to the values that jurisdiction uses, and the fields the cascade touched are flagged with an "Auto-updated" badge so you can see what moved. The starting values are: | Residency | Short-term capital gains | Long-term capital gains | [Dividend tax](/glossary/dividend-tax) | |---|---|---|---| | **United States** | 35% | 20% | 20% | | **Italy** | *not applicable — field hidden* | 26% (locked) | 26% (locked) | | **Other** | 20% | 20% | 15% | Residency also decides which of those fields you can still edit. Under **Italy** the long-term and dividend rates are read-only, with the hint "Set by Italian tax law for the selected regime." Under **United States** and **Other** all the rates are yours to set. Residency, regime and rates are saved together, as one group, on **Settings → Simulation defaults** under **Fiscal profile**. Changing any of them — the residency included — saves nothing yet: a bar appears in the card with the count of changes, such as `{count} unsaved changes`, and **Save** or **Cancel**. **Save** stores the whole group and the toast `Tax settings saved` confirms it; **Cancel** puts back what was saved. That is why a new residency is never saved without the rates it re-seeded. ## Does the holding period change the tax rate? Whether the holding period matters at all depends on your residency. Under **United States** and **Other** rules both rates exist and the holding period decides between them; the threshold is **more than one year — more than 365 days between opening and closing the position.** A position held for exactly 365 days is still short-term; it has to pass the threshold, not merely reach it. Under **Italy** there is no short/long split: the app hides the short-term field entirely and a single rate applies to realized gains however long they were held. See [capital-gains tax](/glossary/capital-gains-tax) for how the rate is then applied — it is charged on your net result for the year, not on each winning position, so that page is also where the loss-offsetting rules live. ## Does residency change what happens to my losses? Yes, and it is the part of this setting people are most often caught by. A realized loss reduces the gains you are taxed on, but **how long it stays usable, and against what, is set by your residency**: - **United States** and **Other** — losses carry forward with no time limit, and a carried loss keeps its short-term or long-term character. - **Italy** — losses stay usable for five years, counted in a way that depends on the [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime); there is a single rate so there is no character to keep; and **a gain on an ETF cannot be reduced by any loss, while a loss on an ETF can be used to reduce other gains.** [Capital-gains tax](/glossary/capital-gains-tax#what-happens-to-a-realized-loss) is the full account of all three, including what the Italian ETF asymmetry does to a portfolio built mainly of ETFs. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The default residency follows your interface language: an English interface starts on **United States**, an Italian one on **Italy**. That is why one fresh account shows a 35%/20% short-and-long pair and another shows a single 26% rate. - A saved residency that does not fit your language and results currency is flagged. **United States** is flagged when you use Italian or read results in EUR, and Fincanva suggests **Italy**; **Italy** is flagged when you use English and read results in USD, and it suggests **United States**; **Other** is never flagged, because it is a deliberate choice of your own rates. The warning on **Simulation defaults** reads `Your tax residency is {residency}`, says which of the two facts point elsewhere — for example "You read results in euros and use Italian: switch to Italian tax rules?" — and offers `Switch to {residency}`. That button saves nothing: it puts the suggested residency into the **Fiscal profile** group, whose rates re-seed, and the warning then reads `You are switching it to {residency} below: confirm with Save.` The same case appears on the settings **Overview** under **Needs attention**, with a **Review** button that leads to **Simulation defaults**. - Every residency starts on the **Declarative** [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime). Under **Italy** and **Other** you can switch it; under **United States** the regime field is not shown, because the distinction is an Italian one. Only under **Italy** does the regime change a result: **Other** is taxed by the same rules as United States whichever regime is selected. - Residency only affects results when the [Taxes assumption](/glossary/taxes-toggle) is on. With Taxes off, no rate of any residency is applied. - It is a saved setting, not a view toggle: changing it flips existing runs to **Needs re-run**, and the new rates apply after a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) runs again. - Dividends can also be reduced by [withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax) deducted at source, which Fincanva applies automatically and which has no rate field of its own. - In earlier versions of the app this setting was also labelled "Country". That name now belongs only to the geographic filter used when selecting instruments, so the two are unrelated controls. ## What does it look like in practice? The same strategy realizes a **5,000 gain on a briefly held position**, and only the residency differs. - **United States** — the position was held less than a year, so the gain is short-term and meets the 35% rate: 35% × 5,000 = **1,750 of tax**. - **Italy** — there is no short/long distinction, so the single 26% rate applies whatever the hold was: 26% × 5,000 = **1,300 of tax**. Hold the same position for more than a year and the US answer changes — the 20% long-term rate applies instead, so 20% × 5,000 = **1,000 of tax** — while the Italian answer does not move at all. The holding period is only a lever where the residency's rules make it one. Change one more thing and the residencies part company again: give the strategy a **2,000 realized loss** in the same year. The loss is set against the gain first — under Italy, on the default Declarative regime — so the taxable gain becomes 5,000 − 2,000 = **3,000** under both. The short-held US case now pays 35% × 3,000 = **1,050**, and the Italian case 26% × 3,000 = **780**. But if that 5,000 gain had been on an **ETF**, the Italian answer would not move at all — an ETF gain cannot be reduced by a loss, so it stays 26% × 5,000 = **1,300**, and the 2,000 loss waits instead for a non-ETF gain to reduce. Under **Italy** the unused remainder of a loss also expires after five years rather than carrying indefinitely. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/taxes-toggle # Taxes toggle The taxes toggle is the [simulation assumption](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) that decides whether a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) deducts tax, or shows its results gross of tax. In the app it is the switch labelled **Taxes**, described as "Tax on dividends & realized gains" and shortened to "Taxes" in the assumptions summary. Like the other assumptions it switches what the *same run* is showing; the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and its history are untouched. **Also seen as:** Taxes, taxation ## What does turning taxes on change? Turning **Taxes** on applies your saved tax settings to the run and deducts the resulting tax from its results. Those settings are your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency), your [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime), the short-term and long-term [capital-gains](/glossary/capital-gains-tax) rates, and the [dividend tax](/glossary/dividend-tax) rate. Two kinds of event are taxable, and one is not: - **Realized gains** — a position closed at a profit is taxed at the applicable capital-gains rate. - **Dividends** — dividend income is taxed at the dividend rate, applied to the dividend as received after any [withholding tax](/glossary/withholding-tax) at source. - **Open (unrealized) gains** are not charged tax: no tax leaves the account for a holding you still own, however far it has risen. Open gains still show in the after-tax figures, though. With Taxes on, the value a run reports each day is **net of the tax the strategy would owe if it sold everything that day** — the tax on its still-open gains together with the tax on what it has realized but not yet paid. So the after-tax curve reflects a gain's tax while the gain is still open, and selling the position does not suddenly cut the curve by that tax. With the toggle off, the tax line is zero and every figure is gross of tax — dividends are credited in full, with no withholding at source either. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Taxes are included from the Advanced plan.** Free and Starter run every backtest with the assumption off and cannot turn it on; Advanced, Ultimate and Professional include it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). - **Taxes is off by default**, so the first figures you see are gross of tax. - Flipping it switches the displayed result immediately, with no new run — the after-tax variant was pre-computed when the strategy ran (see [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions)). - The tax deducted appears as the "Taxes" band in the capital and [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown). - The rates behind the toggle are saved settings: editing one is a settings change that takes effect only after the strategy runs again. - The toggle is independent of the [costs toggle](/glossary/costs-toggle) — you can view a run after tax but before costs, or any other combination. - The Positions view does not follow this toggle: it always reports with taxes off, one of its [Positions forced assumptions](/glossary/positions-forced-assumptions). ## What does it look like in practice? One run, two views. With **Taxes** off a strategy's curve ends at a [total return](/glossary/total-return) of +42.0%, gross of tax. Flip Taxes on and the same curve ends lower — say +34.8% — because the gains the strategy realized along the way were taxed at the capital-gains rate, each dividend was taxed at the dividend rate, and the [final value](/glossary/final-value) sets aside the tax still owed on the gains open at the end. When that tax actually leaves the simulated account depends on the [tax regime](/glossary/tax-regime) — as each gain is realized under Administered, once a year under Declarative and under United States and Other residency — rather than at the moment of every individual gain. The 7.2pp difference is not a different strategy or a different period: it is the same run with the tax that its trades and dividends would have triggered taken out. A strategy that realizes gains often meets that deduction more often than one that holds its winners. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/time-zone # Time zone A time zone is the offset from universal time that decides what clock reading a moment is written as, and Fincanva writes every date and time in the app in the time zone **your browser reports**. Nothing is saved on your account: the browser you are signed in on decides, every time a page loads. **Also seen as:** local time, browser time ## How does Fincanva handle it? - [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) dates, the times your strategies were computed, "as of" dates and the dates along a simulation are written in your browser's zone while you are signed in. - There is no setting for it: Fincanva stores no time-zone preference and has no control to change one. To change what you see, change the time zone of the device or browser you are reading in. - A panel embedded in another site is the exception — it is read outside your session, so it falls back to UTC. - The very first page of a first visit is written in UTC, before your browser has reported its zone ([why that first page can show another date](#why-did-a-date-look-wrong-for-a-moment-when-i-first-arrived)). ## What does it look like in practice? You are in Tokyo (UTC+9) and a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) finishes at 08:00 on 12 March, London time. Fincanva shows it to you as 17:00 on 12 March, because that is the same instant on your clock. A colleague in New York (UTC−4) opens the same [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and sees 04:00 on 12 March. The three of you are looking at one backtest. Now run it at 23:30 London time on 12 March. You see 08:30 on **13 March** — a different date for the same backtest, and the correct one for where you are. This is the case that made the rule worth stating: before Fincanva followed the browser, that backtest could be labelled with a day nobody reading it had actually been in. ## Which time zone are Fincanva's dates shown in? Yours — the one your browser reports — so a moment recorded late in the evening is shown on the evening you experienced it rather than on the day it fell on somewhere else. Because the browser decides, the same account read from two machines in two zones shows the same moment as two different local readings. Neither is wrong: they are one instant written on two clocks. ## Why did a date look wrong for a moment when I first arrived? Because the very first page loaded on a first visit is written in **UTC**, before your browser has had a chance to report its own zone. Near midnight that can put the date a day out: east of Greenwich, just after local midnight, the first page can still show yesterday's date; west of Greenwich, late in the evening, it can already show tomorrow's. That first page does not correct itself — it stays in UTC until you move on — and the next page you load is written in your own zone, as is every page after it. It is one page on one visit. If a date still looks a day out on a later page, it is not this. ## What does the time zone not change? The moments themselves. A rebalance, a backtest and a simulation date are the same instants whatever zone you read them in — only how they are written down moves. Nothing Fincanva computes depends on your zone, so two people in two countries reading the same strategy see identical numbers and identical results, written against their own clocks. Relative wordings are unaffected too. A countdown or an age — how many days until the next rebalance, how long ago a backtest finished — measures a distance between two moments, and a distance is the same in every zone. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/total-p-l # Total P&L Total P&L is the money a [symbol](/glossary/instrument) or a single position made or lost over a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — its trading result after costs, plus the dividends it received — reported in the account's currency. The Trade History tables show it as the final column, "Total P&L", after Gross, Costs, Net and Dividends, both in the "By symbol" table and in the per-symbol position rows underneath it. Because it is an amount of money rather than a rate, Total P&L tells you the size of a result but not how efficiently the capital was used. **Also seen as:** total PnL, profit and loss, P/L ## How does Total P&L differ from total return? Total P&L is a money amount for one symbol or position; [total return](/glossary/total-return) is a percentage for the whole [strategy](/glossary/strategy). This column was previously labelled "Total return" as well — the same wording used for the percentage in **Performance Metrics** — and was renamed to Total P&L so the two can never be confused. Reading a Trade History row, "Total P&L 1,245" means that symbol contributed 1,245 of currency to the run. Reading the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table), "Total return (%) 40.0" means the whole strategy finished 40% above the value it started with. One is per-instrument and in money, the other is per-strategy and in percent, so they are never two views of the same number and never add up to each other. ## What the Total P&L column adds up Total P&L is the last of five money columns that build the result up [step by step](/glossary/step-by-step). | Column | What it holds | |---|---| | Gross | the position's trading gain or loss before any costs | | Costs | the trading fees and [slippage](/glossary/slippage) charged to it | | Net | Gross minus Costs — the trading result after costs | | Dividends | the dividends the position received while it was held | | Total P&L | Net plus Dividends — the position's whole result | In words: start from the raw trading gain, subtract what it cost to trade, then add the income the holding paid you. The five columns are identical in the "By symbol" table and in the per-symbol position rows — the first summarises every position in one symbol, the second breaks that symbol down position by position. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Total P&L is money in the account's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency), formatted like the other P&L columns and coloured by sign; a negative value is a loss. - What lands in the Costs column, and therefore in Total P&L, follows the run's [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — with **Costs & interests** off, no trading costs are deducted. - Dividends are the realized dividend income of the position, so a symbol that pays none has a Total P&L equal to its Net. - The whole-strategy version of this money view is not this column but the [P&L breakdown](/glossary/p-l-breakdown), whose net "Portfolio" line traces the strategy's total P&L across the period. - Positions that are still open at the end of the run carry a mark-to-market result, so part of a Total P&L can be unrealized — see [realized vs open P&L](/glossary/realized-vs-open-p-l). ## What does it look like in practice? A position in one symbol closes with a gross trading gain of 1,200. Fees and slippage charged to it come to 45, so Net is 1,200 − 45 = 1,155. While it was held, the symbol paid 90 of dividends. Total P&L is therefore 1,155 + 90 = 1,245 — the price gain plus the income, minus what the trading cost. Notice what the figure does not say: 1,245 is money, so whether it is a large result depends on how much capital the position tied up and for how long, which the percentage figures in **Performance Metrics** answer instead. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/total-return # Total return Total return is the percentage a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) gained or lost across its whole [backtest](/glossary/backtest) — the change from its starting value to its [final value](/glossary/final-value) over the entire simulated period. It is the percentage measure of the strategy as a whole, shown as "Total return (%)" in the **Performance** group of the [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table), stored as a fraction (`0.153`) and formatted for display as a percentage ("15.3%"); the money figure for one [symbol](/glossary/instrument) or position is a separate column, [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l). Total return is not annualized, so a three-year run and a ten-year run cannot be compared by it; [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) is the annualized view of the same result. **Also seen as:** cumulative return, whole-period return ## How does total return differ from Total P&L? Total return is a percentage for the whole strategy; [Total P&L](/glossary/total-p-l) is a money amount for one symbol or one position. A money column in the Trade History tables was once labelled "Total return" as well; it now carries its own name, so the two figures no longer share one word. Total return answers "by what percentage did this strategy grow or shrink over the run?" and lives in **Performance Metrics**. Total P&L answers "how much money did this symbol or position make or lose, after costs and including dividends?" and lives in the Trade History tables. The two measure related things at different scopes and in different units, which is why the money column carries its own name: if a figure is in currency it is Total P&L, and if it is a percentage of the strategy's starting value it is total return. ## How is total return calculated? Total return divides the strategy's final value by the value it started with and subtracts one. $$ \text{total return} = \frac{\text{final value}}{\text{starting value}} - 1 $$ where: starting value is the capital the backtest began with, and final value is the capital on the last simulated day. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Total return appears as "Total return (%)" in the **Performance** group of the metrics table, shown to one decimal place and coloured by sign. - It is never annualized. The annualized slot beside it holds [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) when **Reinvest profits** is on and [AAGR](/glossary/aagr) when it is off. - The by-year metrics table reports the same measure one calendar year at a time, under the header "Annual return (%)". - Total return is read off the strategy's [capital curve](/glossary/equity-curve), so which costs and taxes are already deducted follows the run's [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions). - It can be negative, and it does not depend on how much [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital) you chose — it is a ratio. ## What does it look like in practice? A backtest starts with 10,000 and finishes with 14,000. Its total return is 14,000 ÷ 10,000 − 1 = 0.40, displayed as +40.0%. If that run covered four years, the total return is still +40% — the annualized view is CAGR, roughly +8.8% a year. A ten-year run that also ended at 14,000 would read +40% as well, which is exactly why total return on its own never tells you how fast the money grew. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/tracking-error # Tracking error Tracking error is the [volatility](/glossary/volatility) of the return differences between a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) and the [Combined](/glossary/combined) it belongs to — the standard deviation, period over period, of how far the strategy's return strays from its parent Combined's return. It measures a strategy against its **parent Combined**, not against a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark): the common assumption that tracking error is always measured versus a benchmark does not apply here. **Also seen as:** active risk, tracking risk ## How is tracking error calculated? Tracking error is the standard deviation of the difference between the strategy's return and its parent Combined's return in each period. A strategy that moves almost in step with the whole produces small, steady differences; one that often diverges produces wide, variable differences. The daily return differences are annualised by multiplying by √252 (252 trading days a year), the same convention Fincanva uses for volatility and the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio). $$ \text{Tracking error} = \operatorname{stddev}\big(r_{\text{strategy}} - r_{\text{parent}}\big) \times \sqrt{252} $$ where $r_{\text{strategy}} - r_{\text{parent}}$ is the per-period gap between the strategy's return and the return of the Combined it sits inside, and the daily differences are annualised by ×√252. ## What counts as a high tracking error? A low tracking error means the strategy moves closely in line with its parent Combined; a high tracking error means it diverges from the whole. Neither is inherently good or bad — the value tells you how much a given strategy pulls the Combined away from its own average path. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Reported on the [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page only, in its **Each strategy, against the Combined** card: one bar per strategy in the **Tracking error** column. A strategy analysed on its own still appears there, but it has no parent Combined to be measured against, so its tracking error carries no meaning — read it only for a strategy inside a Combined. - Measured between a [member strategy](/glossary/strategy-in-a-combined) and its parent Combined — the strategy's return relative to the whole, **not** relative to a benchmark. - Reported as the standard deviation of the daily return differences, annualised by ×√252 — the same convention as volatility and the Sharpe ratio. - Pairs with the [information ratio](/glossary/information-ratio), which divides a strategy's excess return over the Combined by this tracking error. ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined holds three strategies. Two of them tend to move closely with the Combined as a whole; the third often zigs when the Combined zags. Month to month, the third strategy's return differs from the Combined's by a wide, shifting margin, while the first two barely differ at all. The standard deviation of those monthly differences — much larger for the third strategy — is its tracking error. A high tracking error flags the strategy that pulls the Combined around the most, independent of whether that strategy made or lost money. *A tracking error is not a limit on how far a strategy can diverge in future.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable # Tradable and Not tradable Tradable and Not tradable say whether a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can actually hold an instrument. A tradable instrument can be bought and held; a **Not tradable** instrument exists only as a reference series — your rules can read its price, but no position can ever be taken in it. Fincanva labels only the exception: instrument search results carry a **Not tradable** badge on reference-only instruments and no badge at all on tradable ones, so the absence of a badge is what "tradable" looks like. **Also seen as:** reference-only, non-tradable ## Where does the Not tradable badge appear? The **Not tradable** badge appears in instrument search results, next to the instrument's exchange code — and only on the surfaces where reference-only instruments can be searched at all. Fincanva searches two separate slices of the catalogue depending on what you are choosing: - **Choosing what a strategy holds.** The pickers for a strategy's instruments and for a [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) search only tradable instruments, so a Not tradable instrument never appears there in the first place. - **Choosing a series for a risk condition.** That picker searches the reference slice, which is where indices and [macro series](/glossary/special-data-series) live. This is the surface where you actually see the badge. A separate **Delisted** badge marks an instrument that no longer trades. The two are independent: [Delisted](/glossary/delisted) is about a history that has ended, Not tradable is about never having been holdable. ## Why can't you buy an index? An index is a calculated number, not a security — nobody issues shares in the S&P 500, so there is nothing for a strategy to hold. What you can buy is a fund that tracks the index: an ETF whose price follows it. That fund is a separate, tradable [instrument](/glossary/instrument) with its own ticker, its own costs, and its own small difference from the index it tracks. That is why the index itself is Not tradable while the fund tracking it carries no badge. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Tradable is the unbadged default; only Not tradable is labelled, because it is the exception. - Instrument pickers that decide what a strategy holds are restricted to tradable instruments, so a reference-only instrument cannot be added to a portfolio by accident. - The reference slice used by risk conditions contains both kinds: ordinary tradable instruments appear there unbadged, and indices and macro series appear with the **Not tradable** badge. - Tradable status is a property of the instrument itself — independent of whether it still trades today (that is Delisted), of its [asset subtype](/glossary/asset-subtypes), and of which [universe](/glossary/universe) you are screening. The facets you set are how you narrow that same catalogue — see [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets). ## What does it look like in practice? You want a strategy driven by the S&P 500. Searching the index itself in a risk-condition series picker finds it with a **Not tradable** badge: the strategy can compare the index's level against its own [moving average](/glossary/simple-moving-average-sma) to decide when to de-risk, but it can never hold it. To take that exposure instead, you search the instrument picker for an ETF that tracks the index — an ordinary tradable instrument, no badge — and add that. Same market, two entirely different roles: one is a reference series your rules read, the other is a position your strategy takes. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/transaction-cost # Transaction cost Transaction cost is the flat fee Fincanva charges once for each trade execution in a [backtest](/glossary/backtest). It is a fixed amount per fill — **not** a percentage of the order's value and **not** a charge per share — so a large order and a small one carry exactly the same fee. It models the commission a broker charges to execute a trade, and it is the fee half of trading costs; the price half is [slippage](/glossary/slippage), which *is* proportional. **Also seen as:** transaction fee, commission, brokerage commission ## How is transaction cost charged? One execution, one flat fee, added to the cash flow of that execution. Because a buy and a sell are two separate executions, a full round trip on one holding costs the fee twice. Nothing about the fee scales with the order: doubling the size of a trade does not double its fee. That has one practical consequence worth reading off directly — a flat fee is a **larger share of a small order than of a large one**. The same fee is a rounding error on a 20,000 order and a visible bite out of a 200 one, so it weighs most on strategies that trade small amounts often. Slippage works the other way round: it is proportional, so it scales with the value traded. The two are separate components and both are switched in by the same [costs toggle](/glossary/costs-toggle). ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The fee is a flat **1.2 per fill**, in the simulation's [base currency](/glossary/base-currency). - It is a fixed platform assumption today — there is no setting in the app for changing the per-trade fee. - It is charged only when **Costs & interests** is on; with costs off, the modelled transaction cost is zero. - Every execution counts separately, so the total for a period follows the number of fills, not the amount of money traded. - In results it is aggregated with slippage: the "Trading costs" figure and the "Costs" column in the positions view carry both. ## What does it look like in practice? A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds 10 positions and [rebalances](/glossary/rebalance) monthly, and each rebalance replaces about half the book — 5 sells and 5 buys, so 10 fills a month, 120 fills over a year. At 1.2 per fill that is 120 × 1.2 = **144** in transaction cost for the year. What that costs depends entirely on the capital, because the fee does not scale with it. On 10,000 of [starting capital](/glossary/starting-capital), 144 is about 1.4% of capital consumed by fees in one year. On 100,000 running the identical strategy, the same 144 is about 0.14%. Same trades, same fee count, ten times less drag — which is why per-trade fees hit small accounts and high-turnover strategies hardest. *The figures on this page describe what Fincanva models, not what you should do with your money — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/ttm-and-yoy # TTM and YoY TTM and YoY are two shorthands you meet in fundamental filters and in the **Unit line** under a [results column header](/glossary/fundamental-metric-columns). **TTM (trailing twelve months)** sums the last four reported quarters into a rolling one-year figure that always ends at the most recent report, rather than at a fiscal year-end. **YoY (year over year)** compares a figure to the same figure one year earlier, showing the change over a full year and cancelling out seasonal ups and downs. **Also seen as:** LTM ## How is a year-over-year change calculated? A year-over-year change is the difference between the current figure and the figure one year earlier, divided by that earlier figure. $$ \text{YoY} = \frac{V_{t} - V_{t-1\text{yr}}}{V_{t-1\text{yr}}} $$ where: $V_{t}$ is the current value and $V_{t-1\text{yr}}$ is the value one year earlier. ## Why TTM and YoY are used TTM gives an up-to-date annual figure between fiscal year-ends: instead of waiting for the full-year accounts, it adds the four most recent quarters, so the number moves every reporting season. YoY strips out seasonality: comparing this quarter to the same quarter last year avoids the distortion of holding a holiday quarter against a summer one. ## What does it look like in practice? Suppose a company's fiscal year ends in December. After it reports Q3, its **fiscal-year revenue** still shows last December's full-year total — up to nine months stale. Its **TTM revenue** instead sums Q4 of last year plus Q1, Q2, and Q3 of this year, giving a rolling twelve-month total that already reflects the most recent quarter. If that TTM figure is 8% above the TTM a year earlier, its revenue **YoY** is +8%. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/two-condition-combination # Two-condition combination Two-condition combination is how a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s two [risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) work together: they combine with **Or**, so the strategy switches to its Risk-Off allocation as soon as *either* condition triggers — the two never have to agree. A strategy holds at most two conditions, a first and a second. **Also seen as:** Or logic ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Risk card stacks its two conditions one under the other, with a divider reading Or between them, and below them what Risk-Off holds: either condition alone switches the strategy. - At most two conditions; there is no third slot. Removing the first moves the second into its place rather than leaving a gap. - The join is always Or and is not configurable: no And/Or picker exists in the app. - Because either condition alone is enough, a second condition makes a strategy flip to Risk-Off *more* often, not less. - Each condition keeps its own behaviour settings, so one can act immediately while the other waits out its [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay). - In [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), the **Risk and exits** chapter lists the conditions on its **When** page under the line "Go Risk-Off when any trigger fires:". ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy watches two things. The first condition is a single-series condition on a volatility index that triggers when the index crosses the Risk-Off threshold you set. The second is a "Double series" condition pitting a long-dated Treasury series against a short-dated one, triggering when the operator you chose is satisfied. In a month where volatility spikes but the two Treasury series barely move, the first condition alone is enough — the strategy goes Risk-Off. In a later month where volatility is calm but the Treasury comparison flips, the second condition alone does it. There is no month in which both are needed, and no way to ask for both. If you wanted the strategy to hold its Risk-On allocation until *both* signals agreed, the two condition slots cannot express that; [Risk-Off canonicalization](/glossary/risk-off-canonicalization) explains what does happen when there is nothing to switch into. ## How do two risk conditions combine? They combine with Or: whichever condition triggers flips the strategy to [Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off), and the other one's state does not matter. On the Settings page the **When** section stacks the conditions one under the other, and the divider drawn between the two condition rows reads "Or". With no condition the **When** section holds only **Add condition**, and the **Then** section shows Risk-Off switched off with "switches on when a condition fires" — until then the strategy stays in Risk-On. ## Can you require both conditions to fire? No. There is no And option in the app today, so you cannot ask a strategy to go defensive only when both conditions are triggered at once — two conditions always combine with Or. A stricter trigger has to come from the conditions themselves rather than from the way they are joined: a tighter threshold, a longer confirmation delay before a flip counts, or a single **Double series** condition that already encodes a relationship between two instruments. What one condition can watch is on the [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition#what-is-a-single-risk-condition-made-of) page. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/two-factor-authentication # Two-factor authentication Two-factor authentication is a second proof of identity that Fincanva asks for after your first sign-in step succeeds, so that an email address or password on its own is not enough to reach your account. Fincanva accepts three kinds of second proof: a 6-digit code from an authenticator app, one of your saved backup codes, or — on some sign-in routes — a code emailed to you. It is off until you turn it on, and once on it applies to every way into the account. **Also seen as:** 2FA, two-step verification, TOTP ## What does two-factor authentication protect against? It protects against someone who already has your first factor. A password can be guessed, reused, or leaked in another company's breach; an inbox can be left open on a shared machine. With a second factor on, none of that is sufficient on its own, because the attacker also needs the phone in your pocket or the codes you saved. It does not protect against handing the second-factor code to someone who asked you for it. Fincanva never asks for your 6-digit code or a backup code outside the sign-in screen — not by email, not in a chat. ## How do I turn two-factor authentication on? Fincanva walks you through a three-step wizard titled "Set up two-factor authentication". First it shows a QR code: "Scan the QR code with your authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password…)." — and if the camera route fails, "Can't scan? Enter this code manually" reveals the same secret as text. Second, you prove the pairing worked: "Enter the 6-digit code" and press **Verify**. Third, Fincanva shows your backup codes and makes you tick "I have saved my backup codes" before **Done** unlocks. Before the wizard starts, Fincanva confirms it is really you. If your account has a password, it asks for it ("We ask for your password to confirm it's you."). If it has no password — a Google-only or email-only account — it emails you a confirmation link instead. Turning 2FA off and regenerating codes go through the same confirmation. ## What are backup codes and when do I use them? Backup codes are ten one-time recovery codes, shown once during setup, that stand in for your authenticator app when you can't reach it. The screen states the rule: "Save these one-time recovery codes somewhere safe. Each works once if you lose your authenticator app." You can **Copy all** or **Download .txt** on the spot. At the sign-in screen, **Use a backup code instead** swaps the 6-digit field for a backup-code field, which takes the code in the two five-character groups it was issued in. A wrong or already-spent code returns "That backup code did not work. Try another." You can issue a fresh set at any time with **Generate new backup codes**; doing so kills the old set outright — "Your old backup codes will stop working. Save the new set somewhere safe." ## What does "Trust this browser for 30 days" do? Ticking **Trust this browser for 30 days** at the code screen tells Fincanva to skip the second-factor prompt for the next 30 days on that browser, for **email + password** sign-ins. The scope is narrower than the label suggests, and it matters: an emailed link, an emailed code, or **Continue with Google** asks for the second factor every time, even on a browser you trusted. Trust is stored per browser, so a different browser, a different device, or a private window starts untrusted. ## What if I lose my phone? Use a backup code. At the code screen, **Use a backup code instead** takes one of the ten codes you saved during setup, and one code is all it takes to get in — then you can pair a new authenticator app and generate a new code set from your account settings. If your first step was **Continue with Google**, one more door is open: "Can't access your authenticator app?" offers **Email me a code**, which sends a 6-digit code valid for 5 minutes. That offer is deliberately absent when you signed in by emailed link or emailed code, because a code sent to the same inbox would not be a second factor at all. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Two-factor authentication is off until you turn it on. There is no plan requirement and no forced enrolment. - Once on, it applies to every sign-in route — password, emailed link, emailed code, and **Continue with Google**. - An authenticator-app code is 6 digits and rotates on your device's clock; an emailed second-factor code is valid for 5 minutes. - Setup issues ten one-time backup codes. Generating a new set invalidates the previous set. - **Trust this browser for 30 days** suppresses the prompt only on email + password sign-ins from that browser. - Turning 2FA on or off, and regenerating codes, always requires a confirmation — your password, or an emailed link if your account has none. - Disabling it is reversible: "Your account will only require a password to sign in. You can re-enable 2FA later." ## What does it look like in practice? Your phone goes into a river on Tuesday. Your authenticator app went with it, and its codes are not recoverable from the app store — they lived on the device. You sign in from your laptop with email and password, reach "Two-factor verification", and instead of typing a code you press **Use a backup code instead**. You paste the first unused code from the ten you filed away at setup. You are in, and that code is now spent: nine remain. Still signed in, you go to your security settings, turn 2FA off with your password, then turn it straight back on to pair the authenticator app on your replacement phone. The wizard's third step hands you a fresh set of ten codes, and the nine leftovers from the old set stop working the moment the new set is issued. Had you had no backup codes and no password — a Google-only account — the recovery path would have been **Email me a code** at the challenge screen, which is offered on that route precisely because your inbox was not your first factor. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/universe # Universe A universe is the set of instruments a [screener](/glossary/screener) or [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is allowed to draw from. "All" means the whole market; you narrow it with [filters](/glossary/filter) — on country, exchange, index, sector, [asset type](/glossary/asset-type) and asset subtype — until only the instruments you want remain. Anything outside it can never be selected. **Also seen as:** investable assets Everything a strategy screens, ranks, or buys comes from this universe: the universe is the boundary, and the filters inside a screener then choose from within it. The filters that narrow a universe were previously surfaced under the label "Restrictions"; that name is retired. ## How does Fincanva handle it? A strategy's Asset selection card lists its basket: each instrument with its ticker, its name and its asset type. - "All" is the widest universe — the whole searchable market, including instruments that have since [delisted](/glossary/delisted), so a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is not limited to today's survivors. - Each filter you add (country, exchange, index, sector, asset type, asset subtype) shrinks the universe, and combining filters narrows it further. - A screener and its strategy draw only from the resulting universe; changing the universe changes what can be selected and can change results. - A strategy's universe is what it picked, or, with nothing picked, its entry screener's universe. With nothing picked and no entry screener it has no universe at all: the instrument list reads **No instruments**, it buys nothing, and its backtest does not start — see [Choosing the instruments your strategy holds](/docs/strategies/choosing-the-instruments-your-strategy-holds#what-does-the-card-show-when-nothing-is-picked). ## What does it look like in practice? You start from "All" — roughly the whole catalogue of tradable [instruments](/glossary/instrument), tens of thousands of them. You add a country filter for the United States and an asset-type filter for stocks. The universe shrinks to US-listed stocks only. From then on the screener ranks, and the strategy buys, solely within that reduced set — a non-US stock or an ETP can no longer appear, however well it would have scored. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/universe-facets # Universe facets Universe facets are the fields a [screener](/glossary/screener) uses to narrow its [universe](/glossary/universe) before any metric filter runs: **Country**, **Exchange**, **Asset subtype**, **Index**, **Sector**, and **Currency**, all sitting under a single [**Asset type**](/glossary/asset-type). Each facet is a multi-select chip on the filter strip, and a facet with nothing selected reads **All**, which restricts nothing. Facets decide *which instruments a screener may consider*; they never test a metric, so they run ahead of every [metric filter](/glossary/filter) and set the pool the [match count](/glossary/matches) is drawn from. **Also seen as:** universe filters ## What each universe facet narrows [Asset type](/glossary/asset-type) is chosen first, and it decides which facets exist below it — the facets for stocks are not the facets for exchange-traded products. | Facet | Narrows the universe to | Available on | |---|---|---| | Asset type | Stocks, ETPs, or Crypto — exactly one at a time | always | | Country | USA Domestic, Canadian, ADR, EU (stocks); USA, EU (ETPs) | Stocks, ETPs | | Exchange | NYSE, NASDAQ, NYSE MKT, OTC, EU listed — plus NYSE ARCA and BATS for ETPs | Stocks, ETPs | | Asset subtype | Common, Common (secondary), Preferred (stocks); ETF, ETN, ETC, CEF, ETD, ETMF, Unit (ETPs) | Stocks, ETPs | | Index | NASDAQ 100, Dow 30, S&P 100, S&P 400, S&P 500, S&P 600, Russell 2000, STOXX 600 | Stocks | | Sector | the eleven sectors, from Basic Materials to Utilities | Stocks | | Currency | USD, EUR, GBP | ETPs | Crypto exposes no facets at all: choosing it selects the whole crypto set with nothing further to narrow. The [asset-subtype](/glossary/asset-subtypes) abbreviations have their own page, because ETF, ETN, ETC, CEF, ETD, and ETMF describe genuinely different [instrument](/glossary/instrument) structures. ## What "All" on a facet means **All** on a facet means "no restriction on this field" — every value passes, and the facet takes nothing out of the universe. Selecting *every* option in a facet has the same effect as All, because a facet only narrows anything when some, but not all, of its options are chosen. That is also why a facet you have opened up completely stops behaving like a restriction: its chip may still read a count, but nothing is being excluded. ## How Reset differs from Remove on a facet chip **Reset** (the ↺ button inside the facet's list) returns that one facet to its **default** selection, which may itself be a restriction. **Remove** (the ✕ on the chip) clears the facet to **All** and drops the chip from the strip. The two therefore end in different places: on Country, Reset returns you to USA Domestic + Canadian + ADR, while Remove opens the screener to every country group. The ↺ button appears only while a facet is away from its default, so its presence is itself the signal that you have changed that field. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Asset type starts on **Stocks**. - For stocks, Country starts at **USA Domestic, Canadian, ADR** (EU off) and Asset subtype starts at **Common**; Exchange, Index, and Sector all start at **All**. - For ETPs, Country starts at **USA**; Currency, Exchange, and Asset subtype all start at **All**. - Switching asset type hides the other type's facets rather than deleting them — the app warns "Switching to `{target}` hides these universe filters: `{filters}`. You can restore them by switching back." — and switching back restores exactly what you had. - Facets combine with AND, and with each other and the metric filters, so adding a facet can only lower the match count or leave it unchanged. ## What does it look like in practice? You want large US technology names listed on one exchange, expressed in three chips. Start from the stock defaults, then set **Country: USA Domestic** — one selection instead of the default three, so ADR and Canadian listings drop out. Add **Exchange: NYSE**, which moves that facet from All to a single venue and removes every NASDAQ, OTC, and EU-listed instrument. Add **Sector: Technology**, again from All to one value. The universe is now "US-domestic technology stocks listed on NYSE", and only then do metric filters such as `Market cap > $10B` start testing what is left. Press ✕ on the Exchange chip and it returns to All — every venue is back; press ↺ inside the Country facet instead and it returns to USA Domestic + Canadian + ADR, not to All. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/value-at-risk # Value at Risk Value at Risk (VaR) is the loss threshold that a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s worst days reach: at the 95% level Fincanva uses, it is the daily loss that only the worst 5% of trading days met or exceeded. On the other 95% of days the strategy lost less than the VaR, or gained. It answers "how bad is a bad day?" with one number, and says nothing about how much worse the very worst days were — that is what [Conditional Value at Risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk) adds. **Also seen as:** VaR, VaR 95%, daily VaR, historical VaR, parametric VaR ## How is Value at Risk read off a backtest? The historical VaR takes every daily return of the [backtest](/glossary/backtest), lines them up from worst to best, and reads the return at the 5% mark. That loss, written as a positive number, is the historical VaR: no assumption is made about the shape of the returns, so whatever the strategy actually lived through — calm years, crashes, fat tails — is in the figure. Its weakness is the sample itself: a backtest of a few hundred days rests its 5% mark on a handful of days, so the figure moves noticeably when the history is short. ## How is the Gaussian VaR calculated? The Gaussian VaR assumes the daily returns follow a normal distribution with the backtest's own average and volatility, and reads the 5% mark off that curve instead of off the history: $$ \text{VaR}_{95\%} = 1.645\,\sigma - \mu $$ where: $\sigma$ is the daily volatility, $\mu$ is the average daily return, and 1.645 is the number of standard deviations that leaves 5% of a normal distribution below it. In words: start from the average day, go 1.645 standard deviations down, and the distance below zero is the Gaussian VaR. ## Why do the historical and the Gaussian VaR differ? The two agree when the strategy's returns really were close to normal, and part ways when they were not. A normal curve makes very large days rare, and markets produce them more often than it expects, so a historical VaR clearly above the Gaussian one means the strategy's bad days were worse than a normal distribution predicts — its losses have fat tails, and the Gaussian figure understates them. A historical VaR below the Gaussian one is rarer and usually means a short or unusually calm history. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Daily, at 95%.** Every VaR in the app is a one-day loss at the 95% level, written as a positive number: "2.1%" means a loss of 2.1% in one day, and a larger number is a larger loss. - **Performance Metrics** shows both forms in the **Worst days · 95%** group, as **Daily VaR · historical** and **Daily VaR · Gaussian** — see [what every number in Performance Metrics means](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means). - **Contribution analytics** shows the [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s **Daily VaR 95% · Gaussian** above the table and splits it among the strategies in the **VaR 95% contribution** column — see [contribution analytics](/glossary/contribution-analytics). - The **Stress test** sets the **Daily VaR 95%** of the strategy's historical days beside the same figure under the scenario — see [stress test](/glossary/stress-test). - A simulation computed before these rows existed does not carry them, and shows "n/a" rather than 0%: a 0% loss would claim a safety the figure does not show. ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy's Performance Metrics read **Daily VaR · historical** 2.4% and **Daily VaR · Gaussian** 1.8%. On 95% of its trading days it lost less than 2.4% or gained; on roughly one day in twenty it lost 2.4% or more. The normal-curve estimate of the same threshold is 1.8%, so the strategy's bad days were deeper than its volatility alone suggests — a fat left tail. A second strategy with the same volatility but both figures near 1.8% had bad days that behaved as a normal curve expects. ## What counts as a good value? Lower is a smaller loss on a bad day, but VaR is only comparable between strategies over the same period: a history that includes a crash has a higher VaR than one that does not, whatever the strategy. Read it beside [volatility](/glossary/volatility) and the [Conditional Value at Risk](/glossary/conditional-value-at-risk): VaR marks where the bad days begin, CVaR says how bad they are once there, and neither is a limit on what a single future day can lose. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/volatility # Volatility Volatility is the annualized standard deviation of a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s returns — a measure of how widely those returns swing around their own average. Wide swings in both directions mean high volatility; returns clustered close to their average mean low volatility. Volatility counts **all** variability, up as well as down, which is what separates it from a drawdown measure: a strategy that rose in violent jumps and one that fell in violent jumps can have the same volatility. **Also seen as:** standard deviation, Std Dev, Vol, sigma ## How is volatility calculated? Volatility starts as the standard deviation of the return series — the typical distance of a return from the series average — and is then scaled up to a per-year figure. $$ \text{annualized volatility} = \text{daily volatility} \times \sqrt{252} $$ where: daily volatility is the standard deviation of the strategy's daily returns, and 252 is the conventional number of trading days in a year. Because a standard deviation grows with the square root of the time span, not linearly with it, the daily figure is multiplied by the square root of 252 rather than by 252. ## Why is volatility annualized with the square root of 252? Fincanva uses the standard **252-trading-day** convention: a year is treated as 252 trading days, and a daily standard deviation is turned into an annual one by multiplying by the square root of that count. Stating the convention matters because the same underlying returns produce a different-looking number under a different one — 365 calendar days, or 12 months, would each give a different figure for identical data. The 252 basis is used consistently across the risk figures built on volatility, including the [Sharpe ratio](/glossary/sharpe-ratio), the [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) and [tracking error](/glossary/tracking-error), so those ratios are all built on the same annualization. See [annualization](/glossary/annualization) for how *returns*, as opposed to dispersion, are put on a yearly scale. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - The [metrics table](/glossary/metrics-table) shows volatility in the **Volatility and risk** group as the row **Volatility**, as a percentage, and the group heading and the KPI strip use the same name for the same quantity. - The [Strategy analytics](/glossary/strategy-analytics) page uses it as the horizontal axis of its **Return and oscillation** card, labelled **Annual oscillation (volatility)**: the further right a strategy's dot sits, the more its returns varied. - The by-year table repeats it per calendar year, so you can see whether the ride was bumpier in some years than others. - It is always the annualized figure, using the square-root-of-252 convention — never a raw daily or monthly dispersion. - Volatility is also selectable as the **Risk measure** in the [Inverse volatility](/glossary/inverse-volatility) allocation method, under the label **Annualized volatility**, where it decides weights rather than reporting a result. - Because it is a dispersion measure, volatility is never negative. ## What does it look like in practice? Two strategies both average +1% a month over a year. The first posts months of +1.2%, +0.8%, +1.1%, +0.9% — a tight spread around its average. The second posts +9%, −7%, +8%, −6% — the same kind of average, from a far wider spread. Their average return is nearly identical; their volatility is not. The first strategy's returns sit close to their average, so its standard deviation is small and its annualized volatility is low. The second strategy's returns are scattered far from theirs, so its standard deviation — and therefore its volatility — is several times higher. Volatility is the number that tells these two apart when the average return cannot. ## What counts as a good value? Lower volatility means returns were more tightly clustered around their average, and higher volatility means they were more scattered. Volatility says nothing on its own about *direction*: a strategy with high volatility may have swung mostly upward, and volatility does not distinguish that from swinging mostly downward — which is exactly the gap the [Sortino ratio](/glossary/sortino-ratio) exists to close by counting only downside variability. Volatility is also not the same as loss. It measures spread around an average, while [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) measures the worst actual fall from a peak; a strategy can have modest volatility and still have suffered one deep, sustained decline. Read the two together, and read volatility against a comparable window, since it is measured over the [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s own period. Volatility is also measured without reference to any [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark): how much of a strategy's movement tracks the market is [beta](/glossary/beta), a separate reading. *Past volatility is not a limit on future variability.* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/volatility-target # Volatility target A volatility target is a setting on a [Combined](/glossary/combined)'s allocation profile that rescales the [invested portion](/glossary/invested-portion) at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) so the Combined's [volatility](/glossary/volatility) stays close to a yearly level you choose: when the Combined has been calm it invests more, up to a maximum leverage you set, and when it has been turbulent it invests less. It keeps the risk steady rather than the amount invested — the app's note reads "Keeps risk steady, not the capital invested." It is not the same as [leverage](/glossary/leverage), which is one fixed multiplier on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s positions: a volatility target changes the Combined's exposure over time, which is why it is also called dynamic leverage. **Also seen as:** volatility targeting, vol targeting, volatility scaling, risk targeting, dynamic leverage ## How does a volatility target set the exposure? At each rebalance a scaling factor compares the target with the volatility the Combined has actually shown, and the invested portion is multiplied by it: $$ k = \min\!\left(\frac{\sigma^{*}}{\hat{\sigma}},\; L_{\max}\right) \qquad e = \min\left(p \times k,\; 300\%\right) $$ where $\sigma^{*}$ is the **Target volatility (annual)**, $\hat{\sigma}$ is the annualised volatility of the Combined's own invested holdings — the assets it actually holds, per unit invested, measured over the **Measurement window** — whatever share of the Combined sits in cash beside them, $L_{\max}$ is the **Maximum leverage**, $p$ is the invested portion, $k$ is the scaling factor and $e$ is the effective exposure — the share of capital actually invested until the next rebalance. Because $\hat{\sigma}$ reads the holdings' own volatility rather than the scaled account, it does not move just because $k$ moved it the rebalance before: when $\hat{\sigma}$ lands back at the target, $k = 1$ and exposure returns to exactly $p$, the invested portion you set. In words: if the holdings have been twice as volatile as the target the Combined invests half as much; if they have been half as volatile it invests twice as much, but never more than the maximum leverage allows, and never more than 300% of its capital. ## How is a volatility target different from leverage? Leverage and a volatility target both let exposure differ from capital, and they differ in what stays fixed. [Leverage](/glossary/leverage) is set once on a strategy's allocation profile and holds the same multiple of capital through calm and storm, so the strategy's risk rises and falls with the market. A volatility target sits on a Combined and moves the exposure so the *risk* stays roughly level, investing more in quiet markets and less in turbulent ones. The two can be combined: a strategy inside a Combined keeps its own leverage, and the Combined's volatility target then scales how much of the Combined's capital reaches its strategies. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Where it sits.** On the **Settings** page **Volatility target** is a section of its own in a Combined's allocation card, after the invested portion, with its switch on the section's title row; in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) the same control sits in the Combined's **Allocation** chapter. Its help reads "Raises or lowers the invested portion to keep the portfolio's volatility close to the target." It belongs to the profile, so the [Risk-On and Risk-Off](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off) profiles can each have their own. - **Target volatility (annual)** runs from 2% to 40%, default 10%. - **Maximum leverage** runs from 1× to 3×, default 1×, and never above your plan's leverage ceiling. Its help reads "How far the invested portion may rise when volatility is low. At 1× the target can only reduce it." - **Measurement window** runs from 20 to 250 trading days, default 60 ("The trading days over which the portfolio's volatility is measured."). - **Recalculated at every rebalance.** Between rebalances the factor stays as the last rebalance set it. Until the window holds enough history to measure the Combined's volatility, the factor is 1 and the invested portion runs unscaled. - **Effective exposure.** Under the fields the editor shows the range the setting can produce — from 0% to the invested portion times the maximum leverage — with a sentence such as "100% × a factor from 0 to 2×, recalculated at every rebalance." - **The 300% ceiling.** When the invested portion times the maximum leverage would exceed 300%, the editor warns "Part of the leverage will never be used" and offers a button, such as "Set 2×", that lowers the maximum leverage to the largest value that still has an effect. - **Above 100% the Combined borrows.** Exposure above the capital is financed exactly like an [invested portion above 100%](/glossary/invested-portion) — see there for the borrowing and its cost. - **The summary chip** under the allocation method reads, for example, "Vol target 10% (max 2×)". - **The volatility target is included from the Advanced plan**, the first [plan level](/glossary/plan-level) that includes a Combined; Free and Starter do not offer it. See [what each plan includes](/docs/account-security/what-each-plan-includes). ## What does it look like in practice? A Combined is **50%** invested with a volatility target of **10%**, a maximum leverage of **3×** and the default 60-day window. At three rebalances the measured volatility of its holdings is different: | Measured volatility | Factor $k$ | Effective exposure | |---|---|---| | 20% | 10 / 20 = 0.5 | 25% | | 10% | 10 / 10 = 1 | 50% | | 5% | 10 / 5 = 2 | 100% | In the turbulent period the Combined halves its exposure, to 25%. Once the holdings' volatility lands exactly back on the 10% target, $k = 1$ and exposure returns to exactly **50%** — the invested portion you set, not 100%: the factor rescales *your own* invested portion, not the whole account. In the calm period it doubles that same 50% to 100%. Now raise the invested portion to **150%** with the same maximum leverage of **3×**: that asks for up to 450%, above the 300% ceiling, so the editor warns that part of the leverage will never be used — at 150% the useful maximum is 2×. The numbers are illustrative, not a suggested setting. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/walk-forward-replay # Walk-forward replay Walk-forward replay is the way a backtest moves through history: forward one step at a time, in strict chronological order, with each simulated decision using only the information that existed on that date and never anything later. It is the structural defence against [look-ahead bias](/glossary/look-ahead-bias). **Also seen as:** Forward replay, chronological replay, point-in-time replay ## How does Fincanva handle it? - A [backtest](/glossary/backtest) replays your rules in chronological order, from the earliest year your chosen instruments allow, to the latest available market close — never into the future. - The end point follows the newest data, not today's calendar date. A [strategy](/glossary/strategy) you follow [Live](/glossary/mark-live) is recomputed by the [daily warm](/glossary/daily-warm-of-live-strategies) on your first visit of the day; one you only saved shows **Needs re-run** until you re-run it — see [run status](/glossary/run-status). - Rebalance-driven trades are modelled to fill at the Open of the first trading day after the rebalance date, which keeps the decision date and the fill date distinct. - The rules replayed are the ones you stated: Fincanva does not tune or optimize your parameters to fit the past for you. - [Screener](/glossary/screener) analysis re-centres each match on its own selection date instead of the calendar — see [event-time path](/glossary/event-time-path) — which is a different alignment of the same forward-only data, not an exception to it. ## What does walk-forward replay not protect you from? Walk-forward replay fixes *when* information reaches a decision. It does nothing about what you tested, how many times you tested it, or how you read the answer: | Still possible after a clean replay | Why the replay does not touch it | |---|---| | [Selection bias](/glossary/selection-bias) | you chose the instruments and the period; the replay honours that choice faithfully | | [Cherry-picking bias](/glossary/cherry-picking-bias) | the replay produces the full result; which part of it gets quoted happens afterwards | | [Confirmation bias](/glossary/confirmation-bias) | the replay reports; reading is yours | | [Cost-ignoring bias](/glossary/cost-ignoring-bias) | a correctly ordered replay of a cost-free world is still cost-free | | [Data-quality bias](/glossary/data-quality-bias) | replaying wrong numbers in the right order still gives a wrong answer | A backtest can therefore be entirely free of look-ahead bias and still be misleading, which is why the replay is a floor rather than a guarantee. See [Backtest](/glossary/backtest) for the run in more detail. ## Why does replaying forward prevent look-ahead bias? The simulation holds a position in time — a cursor — and at every step it can read the past and the present but not the future, because from the cursor's point of view the future has not happened yet: a decision dated 2015 cannot draw on 2016 data, not because a rule forbids it but because the replay has not reached 2016. Replaying forward takes look-ahead out of the computation by making future data unavailable rather than merely off-limits. The distinction matters, because look-ahead bias is almost never deliberate — it slips in when a value carrying a later date is joined to an earlier one, and a test that has the whole history in hand at once has no way to notice. Formally, the constraint is that the decision at each date is a function of that date's information only: $$ {w_t} = {f}({\mathcal{F}_t}) $$ where: - the set of target weights the strategy holds at date t - the strategy's rules - the information available up to and including t — prices already printed, filings already published, indicators computable from both A test whose decision at $t$ uses any part of $\mathcal{F}_{t+k}$ for $k > 0$ has look-ahead bias, however small the leak. Walk-forward replay enforces the constraint by construction: at step $t$, nothing after $t$ has been read. ## What happens at each step of the replay? Each step is the same four operations, repeated for every date in the period: 1. **Advance the cursor** to the next date in the period. 2. **Read what is knowable** at that date — the prices and reported figures already available on it. 3. **Apply the rules** to that information: derive target weights, check exit conditions, decide whether this date is a [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) date. 4. **Record the outcome** — the resulting positions, the trades, and the portfolio value that becomes one point on the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve). Then the cursor moves on, carrying the positions it just recorded and nothing else. Because step 2 always precedes step 3, the information a decision uses is fixed before the decision is made, and because step 4 only writes, no later date can reach back into an earlier one. ## What can the replay cursor see on one rebalance date? A strategy rebalances monthly, and the replay's cursor reaches the close of **28 February 2018**. | At that step the replay | | |---|---| | **can** read | every price printed up to and including the 28 February close; every company filing published on or before 28 February; any indicator computable from those | | **cannot** read | the 1 March price; a filing dated 20 March that describes the quarter ending 31 December; anything at all from 2019 | From that information it derives the month's target weights. The resulting rebalance trades are modelled to fill at the **Open of the first trading day after the rebalance date** — so the decision is taken on the 28 February close and the fill happens at the 1 March open, a price the decision did not know. See [execution time](/glossary/execution-time) for which bar price a fill books at. The cursor then advances to 1 March and repeats. When it reaches December 2018 it still knows nothing about 2019, even though the run as a whole will continue to the present — the strategy meets each year for the first time, in order, exactly once. ## How is walk-forward replay different from walk-forward optimization? They are different things that share a name, and confusing them is common: - **Walk-forward replay** is *how one simulation moves through time*. No parameters are chosen and nothing is fitted; the rules are fixed before the run and applied at every step. Every honest backtest is a walk-forward replay. - **Walk-forward optimization** — also called walk-forward analysis — is a *research procedure* that repeatedly fits a strategy's parameters on one window of history and then tests those parameters on the window immediately after it, rolling both windows forward. It contains replay, but it adds parameter fitting on top. The two answer different questions. A replay answers "what would these rules have done?"; walk-forward optimization answers "would parameters chosen from the past have held up in the period after?" A Fincanva backtest is the first: it replays the rules you stated and does not auto-tune or optimize your parameters against the past, so the result reflects your rules rather than a fit to the history they ran on. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/weight-drift # Weight drift Weight drift is the gap that opens between a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s target weights and its actual weights between two rebalances: holdings that rise take a growing share of the portfolio, holdings that fall a shrinking one. No trade causes it — every weight is a share of a moving total. Drift is corrected at the next [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance), not continuously. **Also seen as:** drift, portfolio drift, allocation drift $$ w_i = \frac{{V_i}}{{\sum_j V_j}} $$ where: - the current value of holding i - the portfolio's total value, all holdings together A weight is a holding's value divided by the portfolio's total, so any price move changes every weight at once. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Between rebalances nothing is bought or sold on the strategy's own schedule, so drift accumulates until the next rebalance date; at each rebalance the strategy trims what has grown past its target and tops up what has fallen below. - The targets that drift are the weights the [allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) produced, so drift is always measured against that method's output rather than against a fixed mix. - One method treats drift as the point rather than the problem: [Floating](/glossary/floating) leaves existing holdings where the market has moved them and resets them only at a realignment. - Rebalancing follows a cadence in months, not a drift threshold — how far weights may drift follows from the cadence you choose; see [What frequencies can I choose?](/glossary/rebalance#what-frequencies-can-i-choose). ## What does it look like in practice? A strategy targets 60% in an equity ETP and 40% in a bond ETP, and starts a period with 60 and 40 on a total of 100. Over the period the equity sleeve rallies 30% while the bond sleeve slips 3%: the equity sleeve is now worth 78, the bond sleeve 38.8, and the total is 116.8. The actual weights are 78 ÷ 116.8 = 66.8% equity and 38.8 ÷ 116.8 = 33.2% bonds — the 60/40 strategy is now running roughly 67/33 without a single trade being placed. To restore the target at the next rebalance the strategy sells 7.9 of the equity sleeve (down to 60% of 116.8 = 70.1) and buys 7.9 of the bond sleeve (up to 46.7). Had the same rally happened under a slower cadence, the weights would have kept drifting past 67/33 before anything corrected them. *No drifted portfolio shown here is a recommendation to rebalance or to leave it alone.* ## Why do actual weights drift away from their targets? A weight is a holding's value divided by the portfolio's total value, so a single price move changes every weight at once. When one sleeve rallies, its own value rises and it also lifts the total — but its numerator rises faster than the shared denominator, so its weight climbs. Every other holding's weight falls even if its price never moved, because the same value is now a smaller share of a larger total. The effect compounds the longer a strategy goes without rebalancing. ## What does weight drift do to a strategy's risk? Drift moves a strategy away from the risk profile it was designed with. The holdings that grow are, by definition, the ones that have recently risen, so drift concentrates the portfolio into whatever has just performed best — a strategy built as a balanced mix gradually behaves more like its strongest sleeve. That cuts both ways: the drifted portfolio captures more of a continuing rally in that sleeve, and more of a reversal in it. Fincanva reports what the drifted portfolio actually did; it does not tell you how much drift to tolerate. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/whipsaw # Whipsaw Whipsaw is what happens when a rule flips a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) one way, the market reverses shortly after, and the rule flips it back: the strategy sells near a temporary low and buys back near the recovery high, ending where it started, poorer by the round trip. It is the cost of a rule's sensitivity, not a property of the market. **Also seen as:** getting whipsawed, false signal, chop ## What does Fincanva give you to reduce whipsaw? A risk condition's sheet for the VIX template: go Risk-Off when the value of the CBOE Volatility Index is above 25, back to Risk-On when it is below 20, and the behaviour sentence saying when the rule flips, the strategy switches immediately without rebalancing. Fincanva gives you two controls on a [risk condition](/glossary/risk-condition), both of which make a flip harder to complete: - **[Confirmation delay (weeks)](/glossary/confirmation-delay)** sets how long a flipped condition must hold before the strategy acts on it — 0 to 12 weeks, its hint reading "0 = act immediately." When each dip reverses within three weeks, a three-week delay lets it pass unacted on. - **Two thresholds** rather than one: the Risk-Off threshold is where the strategy switches out, the Risk-On threshold where it switches back. Set apart, a series hovering around one point does not flip the strategy repeatedly — see [condition types](/glossary/condition-types) and [the two thresholds](/glossary/risk-condition#how-do-the-risk-off-and-risk-on-thresholds-work). Neither control removes whipsaw: both trade it against reacting later to a flip that turns out to be real — the trade-off in [When risk management changes a strategy](/docs/strategies/when-risk-management-changes-a-strategy). Fincanva does not flag whipsaws in a [backtest](/glossary/backtest)'s output, so a backtest gives no count of how many round trips a condition produced. ## How does a fast trigger get whipsawed twice? Take a strategy that goes defensive whenever the index it watches falls 5% below its recent average, and returns to normal as soon as the index recovers, with no waiting period. | Week | Index | What the rule does | Result | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | 100 | invested | — | | 3 | 94 | condition triggers, strategy sells into cash | out at 94 | | 6 | 101 | condition clears, strategy buys back | back in at 101, having missed 7 points | | 9 | 95 | condition triggers again, strategy sells | out at 95 | | 12 | 102 | condition clears again, strategy buys back | back in at 102, having missed 7 points | The index ended the twelve weeks 2% above where it began. The strategy sat out both recoveries and bought back higher both times, giving up roughly 7% of the position on each round trip — around 14% in total — plus four sets of trading costs, and it holds exactly what it held in week 1. Nothing in the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve) labels this as whipsaw; it shows up only as an unexplained gap between the strategy's result and the market's over a period in which both ended up. A three-week [confirmation delay](/glossary/confirmation-delay) would have let both dips pass unacted on, because each had reversed before the delay elapsed. ## Why does a fast trigger cause whipsaw? A fast trigger causes whipsaw because it cannot tell a brief dip from the start of a lasting decline — both look identical at the moment the threshold is crossed. So the trigger fires on both, with opposite consequences: on a lasting decline the early exit avoids further losses, while on a brief dip the exit is followed by a re-entry at a higher price, so the strategy pays the gap between the two prices plus two rounds of trading costs. Because brief dips are far more common than regime changes, a very sensitive rule collects many small round-trip losses in exchange for occasionally being early on a real one. The same choppy stretch whipsaws a fast trigger repeatedly and leaves a slower one untouched. The damage compounds in a *choppy* market — one that moves sharply up and down without trending. Each swing crosses the threshold again, so a strategy can be whipsawed several times inside a few months, and the market can finish the period higher than it started while the strategy finishes lower. ## What counts as a good value? Whipsaw has no metric attached to it, so there is no value to read. What a backtest lets you compare is the same strategy run with different confirmation delays and thresholds: a rule whipsawing heavily tends to show a lower [total return](/glossary/total-return) than the market over stretches when the market rose, alongside a [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) no smaller than a strategy that never flipped. Which trade-off between responsiveness and whipsaw suits a given strategy is a judgement Fincanva does not make for you. 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/withholding-tax # Withholding tax Withholding tax is tax deducted at source from a dividend before the cash ever reaches you. It is most common on foreign holdings, where the country the dividend is paid from takes its cut first, so the amount that lands in your account is the dividend **net** of the withheld portion. Fincanva applies this automatically in the simulation — you never enter a withholding rate yourself. That is what separates it from [dividend tax](/glossary/dividend-tax), the rate you *do* set: withholding happens at source before the cash arrives, dividend tax is applied to the income afterwards. **Also seen as:** dividend withholding, tax withheld at source ## How is withholding tax calculated? The dividend you receive is the gross dividend reduced by the withholding rate. $$ \text{Net dividend} = \text{Gross dividend} \times (1 - r) $$ where $r$ is the withholding rate applied at source. Because the deduction happens before you receive the cash, the simulation credits only the net amount, and the difference is the tax withheld. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Withholding on dividends is applied automatically, based on your [tax residency](/glossary/tax-residency) and where the dividend is paid from. **There is no withholding-rate field anywhere in Fincanva** — no setting to enter one, and none to switch withholding off independently of the rest of the tax model. - The dividend credited in your results is already net of the withheld amount. - Withholding is part of the tax model, so it follows the [Taxes assumption](/glossary/taxes-toggle): with Taxes off, a dividend is credited in full, with nothing withheld. - Where [dividend tax](/glossary/dividend-tax) also applies, it is charged on the amount left after withholding, never on the gross dividend. - The withheld portion is visible per event in the positions drill-down, under "Dividends & splits", as the "Withholding tax rate" beside each dividend's gross and net figures. That panel is where you read the rate that was actually applied to a given dividend. ## What does it look like in practice? A holding pays a **100 gross dividend** from a foreign market that withholds tax at source. The withheld portion is taken before the cash reaches the simulated account, so instead of the full 100 the [strategy](/glossary/strategy) is credited the net amount. Take an illustrative 15% withholding — a round number chosen to show the arithmetic, **not** the rate Fincanva applies to any particular holding: that is 85 received and 15 withheld. In the positions drill-down the event shows the gross dividend, the withholding, and the net that actually reached the strategy — read the rate off that panel rather than assuming one, because it depends on your residency and on where the dividend was paid from. *This describes what Fincanva models in a simulation, not tax advice for your own situation — see [Is this financial advice?](/docs/investing-theory/is-this-financial-advice#is-this-financial-advice).* 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) --- URL: https://fincanva.com/glossary/your-privacy-choices-and-notice-at-collection # Your Privacy Choices and Notice at Collection "Your Privacy Choices" and "Notice at Collection" are the two controls Fincanva shows to meet US state privacy law (California's CCPA/CPRA and the similar statutes modeled on it). "Your Privacy Choices" is a button in **Settings → Privacy and data** that lets a US resident opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information at any time; "Notice at Collection" is a link shown beside the consent checkbox at the exact point Fincanva starts collecting data, on sign-up and on re-consent. Both names are quoted here exactly as the app renders them, and both stay in English in every locale Fincanva ships — including Italian — because a US privacy statute names the control by that literal string, not by a description Fincanva is free to translate. **Also seen as:** CCPA opt-out, "Do Not Sell" link ## Why do Your Privacy Choices and Notice at Collection stay in English? Both names are pinned as literal strings in Fincanva's translation catalogues rather than left to translation. The English and Italian catalogues carry the identical value for each, and an automated test guards exactly that pairing, so a future cleanup pass cannot translate either name by mistake. This is not a blanket rule against translating the surrounding copy. The row label and description around the "Your Privacy Choices" button ("Sale and sharing of personal information" / "Vendita e condivisione dei dati personali") are fully localized, and so is every other sentence on the page — only the two proper names named by the law hold still, because translating them would sever the control from the exact legal term a US resident is entitled to see. ## Who sees these two controls? Only a visitor Iubenda — the consent-management platform Fincanva already loads — has determined is covered by a US state privacy law. Nothing in Fincanva's own code decides this — no check on your address, your language, or your country. Fincanva reads the verdict Iubenda has already reached and shows or hides the controls accordingly. The gate wraps the whole "Privacy" section of Settings → Privacy and data, heading included: someone the check does not apply to never sees an empty "Privacy" section, and the settings navigation drops its anchor for the same reason. The same principle governs "Notice at Collection" — the link renders nothing for a visitor the check does not cover, and nothing for a covered visitor until Iubenda has actually supplied the notice URL to link to. When the verdict cannot be read at all (an unexpected response from Iubenda's script), Fincanva treats that as "does not apply" and hides both controls rather than risk showing a US-only control to the wrong visitor. Iubenda answers two related questions: whether a US state privacy law covers the visitor at all, and whether California's own law does. Where those two answers differ, Fincanva follows the broader one — does a US state privacy law apply — because that is the question this pair of controls is about; whether California in particular is involved is a narrower question, and the wrong one to gate them on. Under the Iubenda configuration Fincanva runs, the two answers agree for every visitor, so this changes nothing anyone sees today; it decides which answer wins if they ever differ. ## Does this mean Fincanva applies different privacy rules by location? No. The underlying consent regime — what Fincanva asks a visitor to agree to, and what the default is — is the single strictest standard (EU-style opt-in) for every visitor everywhere, with no geographic branch anywhere in the product. Geography decides only whether these two extra controls are visible, never what the consent rules themselves are. A visitor in Germany and a visitor in California both start from the identical opt-in default; the Californian additionally sees a sale/sharing opt-out button and a notice at the moment of signup, because US state law grants that specific pair of rights on top of a baseline that is already stricter than what US law alone would require. A separate, ungated control exists for the regime everyone already has: "Manage cookie preferences" on the same Privacy and data page reopens the general cookie-consent layer for withdrawal, visible to every signed-in user regardless of location — it answers the GDPR-style "make withdrawing consent as easy as giving it" requirement, which is not a US-only right. ## Where do I find Your Privacy Choices? In **Settings → Privacy and data**, in its own "Privacy" section — present only for a visitor the check above applies to. The button carries the official CCPA/CPRA opt-out mark next to its label and opens Iubenda's preferences layer, where the opt-out is exercised. If that layer cannot be reached, the button shows an inline error rather than doing nothing silently. ## Where do I find Notice at Collection? Beside the consent checkbox, on the sign-up page and again on the "accept terms" re-consent screen — the two places Fincanva collects data, so the notice appears at the point collection starts, as US law requires. It links out to Iubenda's own Notice-at-Collection page — one address Fincanva configures with Iubenda, not a different page per state. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - Both controls are shown only when Iubenda's jurisdiction check reports that US state privacy law covers the visitor; no verdict, or one that cannot be read, hides both. When Iubenda's own second answer — whether California's law applies — disagrees with it, Fincanva follows the broader US state privacy verdict, the question these two controls actually serve. The two answers agree for every visitor under the configuration Fincanva runs, so no visitor's experience differs because of this today. - "Your Privacy Choices" lives in Settings → Privacy and data and is reachable at any time, matching the "exercisable whenever" requirement US state law places on this specific right; "Notice at Collection" appears only at the point of collection (sign-up, re-consent), never elsewhere. - Both strings are identical, character for character, in the English and Italian translation catalogues. - The consent regime that "Your Privacy Choices" and "Notice at Collection" sit beside is the same strict opt-in default for every visitor; nothing in the regime itself varies by geography. - A separate "Manage cookie preferences" control, ungated by geography, is available to every signed-in user for withdrawing general cookie consent. ## What happens to two visitors who sign up on the same day? A visitor in Los Angeles opens the sign-up page. The consent checkbox is there from the start — it never waits on anything — and once Iubenda's script resolves her jurisdiction, "Notice at Collection" appears linked beside it. She creates the account, and later, from Settings → Privacy and data, she finds a "Privacy" section with a "Your Privacy Choices" button she can use at any time to opt out of the sale or sharing of her data. A visitor in Milan opens the same sign-up page the same day. His consent checkbox is identical — the same opt-in default, the same required agreement — but no "Notice at Collection" link appears beside it, because Iubenda's verdict for his jurisdiction does not trigger US state privacy law. Later, in his own Settings → Privacy and data, the "Privacy" section itself does not render at all: no heading, no button, and no anchor for it in the settings navigation, because that right is not one Italian law grants him. He can still reach "Manage cookie preferences" on the same page, since that control answers a different, geography-independent question. ## Related - [Account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion) — the other Settings → Privacy and data control governed by a strict, no-exceptions timeline. - [Two-factor authentication](/glossary/two-factor-authentication) and [Active sessions](/glossary/active-sessions) — account-security controls that live on the neighbouring Settings → Access and security page. 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)