--- title: "Read your matches" description: "Read a screener's matches: the five column tabs, the Columns chooser, search and sort, the pager — and what to do with an empty or overlong list." canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/read-your-matches" last_updated: "2026-10-07" md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/screeners/read-your-matches.md" --- # Read your matches The **Matches** tab lists every instrument that passes all of a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s conditions, in a table you can re-column, search, sort and page through. A screener's workspace band with the Matches view open beside the filter strip: the asset type, two filter chips and the key that adds a filter. ## Steps 1. **Open the screener and select Matches.** The count of instruments passing every condition right now sits at the right end of the action row, labelled **Matches**. A screener with no filters at all still matches the whole [universe](/glossary/universe) of its [asset type](/glossary/asset-type), so the table has something to show from the start; narrowing it is [Build a screener](/docs/screeners/build-a-screener). 2. **Pick a set of columns** with the tabs above the table: **Overview**, **Returns**, **Fundamentals**, **Ratios**, **Dividend**. Each is a different set of [results columns](/glossary/fundamental-metric-columns) over the same matches, not a different result — **Returns**, for one, holds the [return windows](/glossary/return-windows) with **Sharpe** and **Beta** — and [Read the columns of your matches](/docs/screeners/read-the-columns-of-your-matches) says what each column shows. 3. **Turn columns on or off** for that tab with **Columns**. 4. **Find one instrument** by typing in "Search ticker or name". 5. **Sort by a column** by selecting its header. A numeric column sorts high-to-low first, a text column A-to-Z; selecting the same header again reverses it. Until you select one, the list is ordered by **Market Cap**, largest first. 6. **Page through the list** with the pager at the foot of the table. Pages hold 25, 50 or 100 rows and open at 50; the range beside it, `{from}–{to} of {total}`, tells you where you are. **Done.** The table lists one row per matching [instrument](/glossary/instrument), under the columns of the tab you picked, each beside [its own logo, or a flag for its recorded origin](/glossary/instrument-logo). While a run is in flight the area reads "Refreshing matches…" and the previous list stays on screen, dimmed, rather than blanking. ## What order does the list open in? Matches open ordered by **Market Cap**, largest company first, and every column tab opens the same way — so the instruments on page 1 of **Overview** are the instruments on page 1 of **Returns**, **Fundamentals**, **Ratios** and **Dividend**. Selecting a column header replaces that order with your own for as long as you stay on the tab; moving to another tab returns to Market Cap. An instrument with no market cap sits at the end of the list, in either direction — it is unknown, not small. Exchange-traded products, crypto and indices have no market cap at all, so a screener whose universe is one of those has nothing to order by: every row ties, and the table falls back to the tie it always uses, each instrument's [permanent instrument identifier](/glossary/permanent-instrument-identifier). That order is stable — the same screener opens the same way tomorrow, and paging never shows you a row twice — but it says nothing about the instruments, so sort by a column that means something to you. ## Why does the list change on its own between one day and the next? Because a screener always runs against the most recently loaded market close, not against a stored answer. The same filters over a new day's data produce a different list, and there is no option to run a screener as of some other date. [Screener execution and caching](/glossary/screener-execution-and-caching) covers what is recomputed each time and what is not. ## My screener matches more instruments than my strategy holds — why? Because a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) holds a capped number of positions and a screener caps nothing — it returns everything that passes. The control you set is **Max positions**, under **Selection rules** on the strategy's **Asset selection** card. It is not the only limit between the filters and the holdings, and the two are easy to confuse: [the max symbols cap](/glossary/max-symbols-cap) is the page that separates them and says which instruments survive when one bites. ## What if the list is empty, fails, or is far too long? ### The list is empty: "No instruments match your filters" The body reads "Try removing or relaxing one of your filters." Your conditions are too tight together, or two of them cannot both be true. The empty state itself offers `Remove: {name}` for the filter you added last, and **Clear all filters**. ### The results area says "Couldn't run the screen." The message continues with the reason. Your screener and its filters are unchanged — nothing was lost — so run it again once the reason it names is dealt with. ### The list is far too long to be useful Add a **Highest / Lowest** condition with a **Rank** on the metric you care about, which keeps only the top or bottom N of what still passes. That is a change to the screener rather than to this table: the pager only pages the list, it never shortens it. Fincanva is for education and illustration only. It is not personalised financial advice, and past or simulated results do not predict future ones. [Read the Terms Addendum](https://fincanva.com/terms/addendum#section-3)