Instrument

UPDATED 2026-07-24

01 · Build

02 · Prove

03 · Hold

An instrument is a single tradable or reference security, identified by a ticker — its short symbol — such as a stock, an ETP (an exchange-traded product like an ETF), or a crypto asset. It is the smallest thing a strategy can hold: strategies screen, rank, buy, and sell instruments. Each instrument carries its own price history, and that history is what a backtest replays.

Also seen as: ticker, symbol, security

Defaults in Fincanva

Instruments are grouped by asset type; today Fincanva offers three — Stocks, ETPs, and Crypto.
Each instrument is identified by its ticker symbol and carries its own price history and first available date, which set how far back a backtest that uses it can run.
Delisted instruments are kept and stay searchable, so a strategy can include securities that no longer trade — this is what keeps a backtest from seeing only today's survivors.

Worked example

AAPL, SPY, and BTC are three instruments of different types. AAPL is a single company's stock; SPY is an ETP that itself tracks the S&P 500 index; BTC is a crypto asset. A strategy can hold any mix of them, and each brings its own price history — so a backtest that includes BTC can only reach back as far as BTC's own history allows, even if AAPL's stretches decades further.

Where this term is used

Generated · 15 pages

The pages that reference this term — so a term page is somewhere you pass through, not somewhere you land and stop.

How backtesting works

Backtesting · A backtest replays your strategy's rules across real market history to produce an equity curve and the metrics that summarise it: evidence, not a forecast.

Is this financial advice?

Investing theory · No — Fincanva is a research and simulation tool and gives no financial or investment advice; backtests show what would have happened, not what will.

The nine biases Fincanva helps you avoid

Getting started · The nine research biases that distort backtests — look-ahead, survivorship, overfitting and more — and the Fincanva behavior that reduces each one.

Get started with Fincanva in five steps

Getting started · Create your first strategy, pick a strategy type, complete the guided stepper, run a backtest and read the result — the five steps on a new account.

The Fincanva loop

Getting started · The Fincanva loop is the product's core workflow: build a strategy, backtest it on real market history, analyze the result, then refine and go round again.

Choosing the instruments your strategy holds

Strategies · Choose the instruments a Fincanva strategy holds: search and add symbols or lists, scope by asset class, and read the Delisted and Not tradable badges.

Attaching a screener to a strategy

Strategies · Attach a screener to a strategy to pick its instruments by rule: Easy vs Pro mode, In/Out screeners, and why editing the saved screener later doesn't change it.

Create a strategy and choose its instruments

Strategies · Create a Fincanva strategy: pick a strategy type, then complete the guided stepper — assets, risk, allocation, exit rules — and save it to backtest.

Editing a strategy: the settings cards

Strategies · Edit an existing strategy in its Settings — change Strategy type, Asset selection, Rebalance, Risk, Allocation, or Position exits, then re-run a backtest.

Guided mode and the Full editor: two ways to edit the same strategy

Strategies · Guided mode and the Full editor edit the same Fincanva strategy: one walks you through it step by step, the other puts every settings card on a single page.

How often your strategy rebalances

Strategies · The rebalance frequency is your strategy's master clock: pick 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, or 24 months with Rebalance every, and it sets how often a backtest re-checks.

Risk conditions

Strategies · A risk condition watches a market signal and switches your strategy to its Risk-Off allocation when it triggers — and back to Risk-On when the signal clears.

Set up a risk condition

Strategies · Set up a risk condition from a strategy's Risk card: start from a template, choose the instrument and indicator, then set the Risk-Off and Risk-On thresholds.

Choosing a strategy type: what each of the four changes

Strategies · Fincanva's four strategy types — Single instrument, Multiple instruments, Screener and Full setup — shape the guided build and what a strategy can hold.

What is a strategy in Fincanva?

Strategies · A strategy in Fincanva is a saved, reusable set of instruments plus allocation and exit rules that you backtest and follow over time on real market data.

Also referenced by 86 terms

Account deletion Active sessions Adjusted beta Aggregate comparisons Allocation and allocation method Asset-selection modes Asset subtypes Asset type Average momentum Base currency Beta Beta Neutral Capital Cherry-picking bias Comparison modes Condition types Contracts Cost-ignoring bias Coverage window Data freshness and frontier Data-quality bias Data-tier gating Delisted Direction: Long-only, Long + Short, Short-only Dividends and splits Equal Weights Event-time path Exit reason Factor roster Filter Filter condition anatomy Filter taxonomy Fixed Weights Fundamental metric columns Gross vs net Guided mode Holdings columns Index lists and point-in-time constituents Inverse Volatility Market Cap Weighted Market-day and trading-calendar alignment Matches Max positions Max-symbols cap Mimicking Min Correlation Modern Portfolio Theory Order plan Passkeys Passwordless sign-in Permanent instrument identifier Positions detail drill-down Positions summary table Ranking-Based Reinvest delay Risk condition Risk measure selection Risk Parity Risk templates Screener Screener attach Screener execution and caching Seed universe Selection bias Sequential filtering and Top-N ranking Shared compute Simple moving average (SMA)Simulation start year Single-asset simplification Special data series Special relations Standard operators Starting capital Strategy Strategy alerts Strategy type Survivorship bias SymbolsList Target allocation treemap Target notional Target vs deployed Total P&L Total return Tradable and Not tradable Two-factor authentication Universe facets

Deep diveChoosing the instruments your strategy holds

CompareUniverse · Asset type · Backtest

← Previous termHoldings Next term →Live book

Fincanva provides no financial advice. Backtests show what would have happened — not what will.

GLOSSARY · 193 TERMS