Matches

How the match count changes as you add filters

Every filter narrows the pool: a screener starts from its universe and keeps only the instruments that satisfy all of its filters together. Adding a filter can lower the count or leave it unchanged, but never raise it; removing or loosening a filter can only raise it. This is why a screen with more filters usually shows fewer matches — each condition is one more test an instrument must pass. Where a Highest or Lowest filter sits in that chain also matters, because it ranks only the instruments still passing at its own position — see sequential filtering and Top-N ranking.

What a zero count means

A zero count means no instrument in the universe passes all the filters together, and the Matches badge turns red to flag it. It usually points to filters that are too tight or that contradict each other rather than to an error. Widen a range, remove a filter, or broaden the universe to bring instruments back into the set.

Defaults in Fincanva

• The match count is the single count surface — it appears as the number on the Matches tab and updates live as you edit filters.
• At zero it switches to the destructive (red) badge style; above zero it shows as a plain count.
• Before a screener has run, the count can read "Run to see matches" instead of a number.
• The set of matches is what a backtest or an attached strategy draws from. It is not the same as what a strategy ends up holding: a simulation trims the candidate list with the max-symbols cap and then holds only as many as Max positions allows.

Worked example

A screener over US stocks starts from its whole universe. You add a first filter, P/E < 20, and the count drops to, say, 620 matches; a second, Sector = Technology, brings it to 90; a third, Market cap > $10B, leaves 47. The readout now shows "47 matches" — the 47 instruments that satisfy all three filters at once. Remove the sector filter and the count rises again, because fewer conditions have to be met.