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.
Steps
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Open a new strategy. Signed in, with nothing else needed yet, open Single in the sidebar and select New strategy.
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Choose how it is built. Under "How do you want to build this strategy?" pick the shape that matches what you are building:
- Single instrument — trade a single instrument.
- Multiple instruments — a basket of instruments you choose.
- Screener — let a screener pick the instruments.
- Full setup — every setting, built from scratch.
You can change it later; the type only shapes which chapters are required. The first time, the popup also asks "How do you prefer to work?": Step by step (one chapter at a time, with explanations, preselected) or All at once (every setting on one page). Your answer is kept; change it in Profile › Preferences under How you build strategies.
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Set it up. In Step by step, the walk opens on Asset selection: add the instruments or the screener the strategy trades. Then, depending on the type, Allocation (how capital is divided), Rebalance (how often) and Risk and exits (the conditions that switch it to its Risk-Off allocation, and take-profit and stop-loss rules). All at once shows all of these on one page.
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Save it and run its backtest. On Summary, name the strategy, check the benchmark and starting year, select Save, then Run the backtest. Any 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.
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Read the first result: an equity curve with headline figures such as CAGR and max drawdown — what they compute is in Backtest.
Demo data A backtest's Capital Growth page opens on four tiles: Final value, Vs benchmark, Max drawdown and CAGR.
Done. Your strategy is in the Single library with its first result, and from your next sign-in Home, the page Fincanva opens first, summarises it. A closer look at building one: Create a strategy; how the four types differ: Strategy type.
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, 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. To see every setting 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. See Step by step.
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? for those messages.
How do you sign in, and how do you keep the account yours?
The sign-in screen offers 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 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, which adds a second step to every sign-in, and active sessions, the list of devices currently signed in — that list is where you sign a forgotten laptop out from anywhere.
UPDATED 2026-10-06REVIEWED 2026-10-06