Tradable and Not tradable

Also seen as: reference-only, non-tradable

Where does the Not tradable badge appear?

The Not tradable badge appears in instrument search results, next to the instrument's exchange code — and only on the surfaces where reference-only instruments can be searched at all. Fincanva searches two separate slices of the catalogue depending on what you are choosing:

• Choosing what a strategy holds. The pickers for a strategy's instruments and for a benchmark search only tradable instruments, so a Not tradable instrument never appears there in the first place.
• Choosing a series for a risk condition. That picker searches the reference slice, which is where indices and macro series live. This is the surface where you actually see the badge.

A separate Delisted badge marks an instrument that no longer trades. The two are independent: Delisted is about a history that has ended, Not tradable is about never having been holdable.

Why can't you buy an index?

An index is a calculated number, not a security — nobody issues shares in the S&P 500, so there is nothing for a strategy to hold. What you can buy is a fund that tracks the index: an ETF whose price follows it. That fund is a separate, tradable instrument with its own ticker, its own costs, and its own small difference from the index it tracks. That is why the index itself is Not tradable while the fund tracking it carries no badge.

Defaults in Fincanva

• Tradable is the unbadged default; only Not tradable is labelled, because it is the exception.
• Instrument pickers that decide what a strategy holds are restricted to tradable instruments, so a reference-only instrument cannot be added to a portfolio by accident.
• The reference slice used by risk conditions contains both kinds: ordinary tradable instruments appear there unbadged, and indices and macro series appear with the Not tradable badge.
• Tradable status is a property of the instrument itself — independent of whether it still trades today (that is Delisted), of its asset subtype, and of which universe you are screening. The facets you set are how you narrow that same catalogue — see universe facets.

Worked example

You want a strategy driven by the S&P 500. Searching the index itself in a risk-condition series picker finds it with a Not tradable badge: the strategy can compare the index's level against its own moving average to decide when to de-risk, but it can never hold it. To take that exposure instead, you search the instrument picker for an ETF that tracks the index — an ordinary tradable instrument, no badge — and add that. Same market, two entirely different roles: one is a reference series your rules read, the other is a position your strategy takes.