Standard operators

Also seen as: comparison operators, comparators, relations

What does each operator group do?

The three groups test three different kinds of thing: a threshold, an interval, and a position in a ranking.

Compare takes one value. Range takes two, a low and a high. Rank takes a count, not a threshold — you say how many instruments to keep, not what the metric has to read.

Which boundary values pass?

< and > are strict, so a reading that sits exactly on your value fails them; ≤ and ≥ include that boundary. Between includes both of its ends:

where: min and max are the low and high values you set, and a reading equal to either one passes.

This is the difference that surprises people most often, because the two operators sit next to each other in the dropdown and their labels read almost identically. ≤ is "at most", not "less than".

Defaults in Fincanva

• Each filter offers only the operators its catalogue entry declares, so the dropdown differs from filter to filter and a group with nothing to show is hidden rather than shown empty. = is the rarest — one filter offers it.
• A filter arrives with a default operator already selected, and it is not always a Compare operator: the ROE filter opens on >, the P/E filter opens on Between.
• Compare and Range values snap to the stops that filter offers: type any number and it moves to the nearest stop on Enter or on blur.
• Rank counts come from their own stop list, running 1 to 15 one at a time and then in widening steps to 300; the default is 5.
• Rank behaves differently from the other two groups because it depends on which instruments are still in the running when it runs — see sequential filtering and Top-N ranking.
• The same Compare operators are reused when you compare a metric to its own earlier reading or to a market or sector figure, with one exception: = is not offered against the metric's own earlier reading. See comparison modes and aggregate comparisons.
• A few filters replace the standard operators entirely with pattern tests — crossings and valuation bands. Those are special relations.

Worked example: less than against at most on the boundary

Take a P/E filter and a company whose price/earnings ratio reads exactly 20.0.

• Set the operator to < and the value to 20.0. You're saying reads "P/E is less than 20.0." The company at exactly 20.0 fails — the test is strict, so 20.0 is not below 20.0.
• Change the operator to ≤, leaving the value at 20.0. You're saying now reads "P/E is at most 20.0." The same company passes.

Nothing else changed: the same metric, the same value, the same instrument, one operator apart. If a filter drops an instrument you expected to keep, and its reading sits exactly on your threshold, the strict operator is usually the reason. Note that the value itself has to exist as a stop on that filter's scale — the P/E filter steps in halves, so 20.0 is available but 20.2 snaps to 20.0.