---
title: "Get started with Fincanva in five steps"
description: "Create your first strategy, pick a strategy type, set it up in Step by step, run a backtest and read the result — the five steps on a new account."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/get-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps"
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/get-started/get-started-with-fincanva-in-five-steps.md"
---

# Get started with Fincanva in five steps

You get started by creating a [strategy](/glossary/strategy), choosing how it is built, setting it up, running a backtest and reading the result — about ten minutes on a new account.

The app's sidebar: Create new… at the top and, under Strategies, the Single and Combined libraries where a strategy lives.

## Steps

1. **Open a new strategy.** Signed in, with nothing else needed yet, open **Single** in the sidebar and select **New strategy**.
2. **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](/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 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**.
3. **Set it up.** In **Step by step**, the [walk](/glossary/step-by-step) 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](/glossary/all-at-once) shows all of these on one page.
4. **Save it and run its backtest.** On **Summary**, name the strategy, check the [benchmark](/glossary/benchmark) and [starting year](/glossary/simulation-start-year), select **Save**, then **Run the 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 such as [CAGR](/glossary/cagr) and [max drawdown](/glossary/max-drawdown) — what they compute is in [Backtest](/glossary/backtest).

   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](/docs/get-started/read-home-after-you-sign-in), the page Fincanva opens first, summarises it. A closer look at building one: [Create a strategy](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments); how the four types differ: [Strategy type](/glossary/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](/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**. 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](/glossary/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?](/docs/strategies/create-a-strategy-and-choose-its-instruments#why-cant-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](/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.

Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)