--- title: "Get started" description: "What Fincanva is — a research and simulation tool to build, backtest and refine investment strategies — and where to start: Home, Create new… and search." canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/get-started" last_updated: "2026-10-08" md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/get-started.md" --- # Get started Fincanva is a research and simulation tool for investment strategies: the unit you work with is a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) — a saved set of instruments with the rules that weigh them and change them — which you build, [backtest](/glossary/backtest) on historical market data, read, and refine until it holds up. In the app you start from these three places: touch one. Get started in the app: Home, Create new…, Search — each is a group below. ## Home The page Fincanva opens after you sign in: what your Live strategies did, what needs you, and what you were last working on. - [Read Home after you sign in](/docs/get-started/read-home-after-you-sign-in): Home is the page Fincanva opens after you sign in: a summary of your Live strategies and your latest edits, each part linking to the page that acts on it. - [Act on what needs you on Home](/docs/get-started/act-on-what-needs-you-on-home): The top card of Home says whether a strategy you follow Live needs you: a Needs you list when one does, a dated verdict when none does. Key terms: [Strategy](/glossary/strategy), [Screener](/glossary/screener), [Live strategy](/glossary/live-strategy), [Backtest](/glossary/backtest), [Instrument](/glossary/instrument). [All 9 terms](/glossary?subject=get-started&group=home) ## Create new… In the sidebar, it starts a strategy, a [screener](/glossary/screener) — which picks instruments by rule — or a [Combined](/glossary/combined), which blends several strategies into one: from an empty account to your first strategy and its first backtest result. - [Get started with Fincanva in five steps](/docs/get-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps): You get started by creating a strategy, choosing how it is built, setting it up, running a backtest and reading the result — about ten minutes on a new account. Key terms: [Strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type), [Combined](/glossary/combined), [Universe](/glossary/universe), [Screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach). [All 11 terms](/glossary?subject=get-started&group=create-new) ## Search Find any strategy or screener you own by its name, or jump to any page of the app. - [Find your strategies and screeners with search](/docs/get-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-search): Search finds any strategy, Live strategy or screener you own by its name, and opens any main page: press ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K elsewhere and type. Key terms: [Folder](/glossary/folder), [Mine / Public](/glossary/mine-public), [Duplicate and Copy to Mine](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine). [All 9 terms](/glossary?subject=get-started&group=search) ## Frequent questions - [Why does Home show me only "Recently edited"?](/docs/get-started/read-home-after-you-sign-in#why-does-home-show-me-only-recently-edited) - [Why is the backtest button disabled?](/docs/get-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps#why-is-the-backtest-button-disabled) - [How do I find my strategy?](/docs/get-started/find-your-strategies-and-screeners-with-search#how-do-i-find-my-strategy) ## What are the three stages of the Fincanva loop? The Fincanva loop is how every idea moves through the product: you **build** a strategy, **backtest** it on real market history and **analyze** the result. The forward path runs one way, Build → Backtest → Analyze; refining — changing the strategy and running it again — is the only edge that goes back, and it has no screen of its own: it is the same saved strategy, edited and run again. - **Backtest** replays the strategy's rules over market history: nothing is traded and nothing is forecast. - **Analyze** is a decision point: you read the [equity curve](/glossary/equity-curve), [metrics](/docs/analysis/what-every-number-in-performance-metrics-means) such as [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and the [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown), then refine or leave the loop; [Why a backtest can mislead](/docs/backtesting#why-a-backtest-can-mislead) lists the biases to read a result against. An idea enters at Build; a strategy leaves when you [Mark Live](/glossary/mark-live) to follow it from today forward, which **Unfollow** reverses at any time — Live is monitoring only, and nothing is traded. A [Combined](/glossary/combined) runs the same three stages one level up, over several strategies. Nothing along the way is a commitment: what you build stays yours to remove, and even [account deletion](/glossary/account-deletion) is a scheduled request you can cancel within its 14-day window. ## What do you configure in the Build stage? Build is the one stage where [a strategy is defined](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments), choosing what it holds included. You set what it may hold (instruments you choose, or a [screener](/glossary/screener) that picks them from a [universe](/glossary/universe)); how capital is spread ([allocation method](/glossary/allocation-and-allocation-method) and [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance)); when it turns defensive ([risk conditions](/glossary/risk-condition) that switch it to its [Risk-Off allocation](/glossary/risk-on-and-risk-off)); and the [take profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop loss](/glossary/stop-loss) rules that close positions. Its [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) — **Single instrument**, **Multiple instruments**, **Screener** or **Full setup** — decides which of these it requires; the rest stay optional. You build in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), one chapter at a time with explanations, or in [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once), every card on one page — the same strategy either way; **How you build strategies** in your preferences decides which view opens. The [simulation assumptions](/glossary/simulation-assumptions) — [Costs & interests](/glossary/costs-toggle) (trading costs and [interest](/glossary/interest-received-and-paid)), [Taxes](/glossary/taxes-toggle) and [Reinvest profits](/glossary/reinvest-profits) — shape what a run reports, not what the strategy does, and are not set in the editor: you switch them in **Simulation assumptions**, in the simulation bar at the bottom of the results, and their rates are saved in **Settings → Simulation defaults**. ## How current is the data behind a backtest? Fincanva's market data is refreshed daily, so a backtest runs to the latest available market close: its end date follows the newest data, not today's calendar date. Re-running the same strategy on a later day can produce a different result, simply because there is more history to run over. A strategy you follow Live is re-run for you as new data arrives; one you have only saved reads **Needs re-run** until you run it again — see [run status](/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)