---
title: "Attach a screener to a strategy"
description: "Attach a screener on a strategy's Asset selection card — one on Screen, Qualify and Reject pools on Compose — and why later edits to the saved one stay out."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/attach-a-screener-to-a-strategy"
last_updated: "2026-10-07"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/attach-a-screener-to-a-strategy.md"
---

# Attach a screener to a strategy

You attach a [screener](/glossary/screener) on a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s **Asset selection** card, so that a rule rather than a hand-picked list decides which instruments it may hold.

## Steps

1. **Open the place the screener goes.** On the **Asset selection** card's **Screen** view the strategy holds a single screener: select **Browse library**, or **Change** beside the one attached. On **Compose** — a **Full setup** [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) — select **Add screener** under **Qualify** to bring instruments in, or under **Reject** to take them out. Which view your strategy offers: [asset-selection modes](/glossary/asset-selection-modes).
2. **Find a screener.** The **Attach a screener** sheet opens — "Pick a screener to attach to this strategy." Switch between **My screeners** and **Templates**, or search; selecting one previews its filters.
3. **Attach it.** Select **Attach screener**. Or select **Insert empty screener**, give it a name, and build its filters on the strategy. On Compose the sheet stays open, so you can attach several in a row.
4. **Save the strategy** to keep the attachment — see [Save, run and copy a strategy](/docs/strategies/save-run-and-copy-a-strategy).

**Done.** On Screen the screener's name shows with **Saved screener** under it, beside **Change** and **Remove**. On Compose each screener sits by name in its pool, under "Match any" and their count, and opens again for editing without being detached. A strategy on the Free plan holds no screener — see [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#how-does-fincanva-handle-it).

## What do Qualify and Reject screeners do?

A **Qualify** screener brings in the instruments that match it; a **Reject** screener removes any [instrument](/glossary/instrument) that matches it. Within a pool one match is enough: an instrument matching any one Qualify screener is a candidate, and one matching any one Reject screener is out, which is what the pool's "Match any" says. The filters inside one screener still all have to pass together. Only **Compose** has both pools; **Screen** can carry a single screener. How the two pools combine, with the set formula and a worked example: [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#how-do-the-qualifying-and-rejecting-pools-combine).

## Does editing the saved screener update strategies that already use it?

No. Attaching copies the screener's filters into the strategy at that moment, so a later edit to the saved screener in your library does not reach strategies that already hold it. Each attachment is its own copy: edit its filters on the **Asset selection** card and the change affects this strategy only — the same copy-on-use rule as [Duplicate and Copy to Mine](/glossary/duplicate-and-copy-to-mine).

One manual action goes the other way. From the strategy, **Update source screener** pushes its copy back onto the library screener it came from, overwriting that screener's filters and [universe](/glossary/universe); nothing ever pushes from the library into strategies. An attachment with no library origin — one inserted empty, or one whose original was deleted — cannot do this and reads "No source screener tracked — use Save as new instead": use **Save as new…** to add it to your library.

## What happens to my extra screeners if I leave Compose?

They are kept, not deleted. Leaving **Compose** for a view that cannot show them opens a **Switch to Easy mode** dialog that reads "Easy mode hides these Pro settings. They're kept and restored if you switch back to Pro:" and lists what applies to your strategy — Qualify screeners beyond the first, any Reject screeners, and a custom **Max hold** or **Reinvest delay**. They stop applying, and returning to Compose brings them back as you left them.

One item is the exception: with picked instruments and [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) on the first Qualify screener, the dialog adds "Your screener's universe filters will be dropped — in Easy, your picked instruments are the universe." Those filters do not come back.

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)