The Fincanva loop

If you are new to Fincanva, 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.

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 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 that picks them by rule from a universe.
• When it turns defensive — the risk conditions that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation when they trigger.
• How capital is spread — the allocation method that weights capital across those instruments, and how often the strategy rebalances back to those weights.
• When a position closes — the take-profit and stop-loss exit rules applied to each position.

Which of those a strategy requires depends on its 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 editing modes: Guided mode puts one decision on screen at a time, while the Full editor lays every settings card out on a single page in any order. Same strategy, same settings; see Guided mode and the Full editor for which to use when.

One further set of choices shapes what a run reports rather than what the strategy does: the simulation assumptions — whether trading costs, tax, and profit compounding 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 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. How backtesting works 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, which shows the shape of the whole run rather than only its final number; the performance metrics; and the max drawdown, the deepest fall from a peak the strategy sat through. What every number on the metrics page 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 Out of date until you re-run. 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 turns it into something the app can actually run. 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. Guided mode shows them as separate steps on screen and the Full editor 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 Out of date after a data refresh and stays there until you run it again — see run status.

The loop is a workflow for testing ideas against history, not a recommendation to act on any result. Fincanva provides no financial advice — see Is this financial advice?.