How you add instruments to a strategy
You add instruments in Asset selection by searching and adding them one at a time, or by adding a saved list that brings several in at once. The search field reads "Search instruments or lists…"; type a ticker or name, pick a result, and it joins the strategy's selection. A list adds all of its members together, and any already in your selection are skipped.
You are not required to name instruments individually. If you pick nothing, the strategy draws from the entire market and you narrow it with filters instead — the card says so directly: "Nothing picked yet, so the strategy draws from the entire market. Search above to narrow it to specific instruments or lists. Filters below screen whatever is in scope at every rebalance." You can also scope the market by asset class using the Universe control's Asset class field.
To have the instruments chosen for you by a rule rather than named by hand, attach a screener instead — that path has its own page, attach a screener.
What "All" and "3 selected" mean on the card
The count badge on Asset selection shows how many instruments you have named. It reads "All" when you have picked nothing — the strategy is scoped to the whole market — and "3 selected" (or however many) once you have added specific instruments. "All" is therefore a real state, not an empty one: the strategy still has a universe to draw from, just not a hand-picked basket.
What the "Delisted" and "Not tradable" badges mean
An instrument in your selection can carry one of two badges. "Delisted" marks an instrument that no longer trades on a live exchange — for example a company that was acquired, went private, or went bankrupt — but whose historical data is still in the catalogue. "Not tradable" marks an instrument that exists in the reference data for coverage but is not one you can trade as a live position. Both badges are informational: they tell you why an instrument behaves differently from a currently trading one.
Why delisted instruments stay in the catalogue
Delisted instruments are kept in the data and stay usable, rather than being dropped once they stop trading. That keeps a backtest free of survivorship bias — it can include names that later delisted, instead of testing only the survivors that still exist today. For why leaving them out distorts results, see which biases Fincanva helps you avoid.
What the instrument catalogue covers
The catalogue spans multiple asset classes, so a strategy can hold instruments across more than one market. The underlying market data is refreshed daily, and a backtest runs to the latest available market close. Because coverage and freshness set the boundary of what any strategy can hold or test, they apply to every strategy regardless of how you select its instruments.
Limits and edge cases
A strategy needs at least one instrument — or, on the screener path, at least one attached screener — before it can be backtested or saved; Create a strategy covers the exact gate messages. Leaving Asset selection empty is allowed and means "the whole market" rather than "nothing". There is no fixed upper limit on how many instruments a strategy can hold today. On a public strategy you can open the card but not save changes — make your own copy first, as in Editing a strategy.
Related
To choose instruments while building, follow Create a strategy; to change them later, see Editing a strategy. To have a rule select instruments for you, see attach a screener. For how a run uses the instruments you selected, read How a backtest works; for what a strategy is as a whole, see What is a strategy?. Fincanva does not tell you which instruments to hold — see Is this financial advice?.
Terms on this page
GeneratedEvery defined term this page uses, matched against the corpus — including the alias forms the prose actually says.