--- title: "Data and methodology" description: "What a Fincanva backtest reads: one daily-refreshed market-data catalogue kept as history stood, how far back it reaches, and what coverage figures count." canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/data-and-methodology" last_updated: "2026-10-08" md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/data-and-methodology.md" --- # Data and methodology Every Fincanva [backtest](/glossary/backtest) reads one shared market-data catalogue: daily price history for the [instruments](/glossary/instrument) a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) can hold, reference-only series it can measure against but never buy, and [special data series](/glossary/special-data-series) such as interest rates and inflation. It keeps history **as it actually stood** — companies that later stopped trading stay in it as [delisted](/glossary/delisted) instruments, and [index membership](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents) is recorded per date — the property, more than the catalogue's size, that keeps a result free of [survivorship bias](/glossary/survivorship-bias). How far back the price history reaches: Asset-class index series from 1793, Stocks (daily prices) from 1962, ETPs (daily prices) from 1978. ## What a backtest reads The kinds of series in the catalogue — refreshed daily, so a run ends at the latest available market close, not at today's date — the identity each instrument keeps, and how [exchanges with different holidays share one date axis](/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment). Key terms: [Special data series](/glossary/special-data-series), [Index lists and point-in-time constituents](/glossary/index-lists-and-point-in-time-constituents), [Permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier), [Market-day and trading-calendar alignment](/glossary/market-day-and-trading-calendar-alignment), [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable). [All 5 terms](/glossary?subject=data-and-methodology&group=what-a-backtest-reads) ## Coverage How far each instrument's history reaches, how far back your plan lets a run start, and the [lists that ship with the data](/glossary/instrument-lists), with the per-date index membership the **Index** filter reads ("Index membership"). Key terms: [Coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window), [Delisted](/glossary/delisted), [Data-tier gating](/glossary/data-tier-gating), [Instrument lists](/glossary/instrument-lists). [All 4 terms](/glossary?subject=data-and-methodology&group=coverage) ## Which instruments do the coverage figures count? The investable [universe](/glossary/universe): the three [asset types](/glossary/asset-type) a strategy can hold — **Stocks**, **ETPs** and **Crypto** — delisted ones included, because a backtest can hold a delisted instrument for the period it traded and a survivors-only count would describe the very bias the catalogue avoids. Reference series — indices, macro indicators, long-run asset-class return series, currency series — are there to measure against or to feed a simulation, never to be held, and are not counted; see [Tradable and Not tradable](/glossary/tradable-and-not-tradable). ### What counts as an exchange? A trading venue on which at least one investable instrument is listed. Crypto and macro series trade on no venue: the data still gives them an exchange label, but those labels are not counted. The **OTC** market is counted — its instruments trade on a venue, though OTC is a market rather than an exchange in the strictest sense. A venue counts once whether one instrument or thousands trade there. The [screener](/glossary/screener)'s **Exchange** filter shows fewer options, because it groups every European venue into one **EU listed** option — see [universe facets](/glossary/universe-facets). ### What counts as a country? The country an investable instrument originates in: the United States and a group of European countries. Crypto belongs to no country — the data gives it a global origin, which is not counted. ## How far back does the data reach? It depends on what you read: the asset-class index series start in 1793, stocks in 1962 and ETPs in 1978. Three distinctions decide how to read any depth figure: - **Each instrument starts at its first price in the data** — its listing date or the start of the data, whichever is later — so a figure for the depth of the catalogue is the start of its deepest histories. The app does not show an instrument's first date; see [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window) before trusting a long backtest. - **Each asset type has its 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 a series you measure against, never a stock or ETP you can hold. The depth of the data is not the length of a backtest either. A run goes 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) — and your plan sets how early that start year may be ([data-tier gating](/glossary/data-tier-gating)). ## Which coverage figures does the documentation print? Only the history floors — where the asset-class index series, stocks and ETPs start. They are not typed into the page: they come from the same measurement the Fincanva website publishes, so both state the same years and change together when the measurement is re-run. The counts of instruments, exchanges and countries are left out, because the catalogue is refreshed daily and instruments list and delist: a count copied into a page is wrong from the day the next measurement differs. What each figure counts does not change, so that is what this page carries. Two limits hold for any count you meet. **A coverage count is not a match count**: a screener only considers what its universe filters leave, so no single screener reaches the whole universe. And **the figures describe the catalogue, not any one instrument**: whether an instrument has prices for the dates your backtest covers depends on its own [coverage window](/glossary/coverage-window). ## Why does an instrument keep its history when its ticker changes? Because the catalogue identifies an instrument by a [permanent identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier), not by its ticker: a renamed or reassigned ticker never splits one company's history in two or joins two companies under one symbol, and lists and index membership are recorded against the same identifier. You never type it, but you can see its absence: a strategy that references an instrument the catalogue 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. Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)