Build a strategy step by step

Steps

1. Open the walk. A new strategy opens here when your preference is Step by step; any strategy opens here for one visit with See step by step. You land on the first required chapter not yet complete — confirmed, with nothing the run gate refuses pointing at it — or, all complete, on the first optional chapter holding a refusal, otherwise on the Summary.
2. Follow the map. Required chapters are numbered in the order you do them, each with its answer under its title. Under the Optional divider sit the others, with their answer but no number: set beside one you set, its default after Default: otherwise; a walk with no optional chapter, such as Full setup, has no divider. A dimmed chapter cannot be opened yet, and hovering says why — "Confirm “Asset selection” first". Forward reaches up to the first required chapter you have not confirmed, that one included; optional chapters are always reachable.
3. Answer the chapter. Each holds All at once's own controls. Asset selection takes a search and Your selection, or a screener's universe, filters and Max positions; on a single instrument it notes "The other chapters are optional: you can go straight to the Summary and run the backtest." Allocation asks "What matters most to you?", then "How do you split the capital?", then the method's settings, never skipped since they include those every method shares — only "How much leverage do you use?" on a single instrument; with a risk condition, a quiet row on it leads to Then: Risk-Off. Risk and exits sets When — the risk condition — then Then: Risk-Off, then Exits: take profit and stop loss. With no condition yet, Then: Risk-Off reads "There is no risk condition yet, so the Risk-Off never comes into play."
4. Move on. Next: names the next page; Confirm with the chapter's name closes it; an optional chapter offers Skip this chapter, and leaving it either way returns you to the required path. Back goes to the chapter before, and is always free. The counter reads "Chapter 2 of 5", counting required chapters only, or "Optional". Next is off only while a required answer is missing.
5. Fix what the map flags. A chapter holding an alert shows it on the map — a coloured base and its title, "+N" when there are more — and again above its buttons, with its fix where one exists (Choose the Risk-Off) and Leave as is on one to review. The Summary has no alert list of its own: the section strip, in every chapter, totals them and opens Strategy controls.
6. Run it from the Summary. Under Backtest settings set the name, benchmark, starting year and description; the large button reads Save while changes are unsaved, then Run the backtest — Run the backtest again once results exist.

Done. An alert reads Backtest running, with the percentage once it is known, then Results ready with View results, which opens the strategy's Analysis; nothing navigates by itself.

What does the explanation pane show?

The pane on the right of a chapter explains the choice in front of you and never holds a control or a selection. It appears only where a choice needs explaining — the Goal and Method pages of Allocation — and shows, under What it means for a goal or a heading naming the method, one plain sentence, a schematic marked "A sketch, not a calculation on your holdings", and Read the guide, which opens the concept's page in a panel inside the app or on the docs site. Pages with nothing to explain — Rebalance, Settings, Asset selection — use the full width. The pane reads written explanations, never your strategy's numbers: computed figures come only from the backtest.

Which chapters does each strategy type require?

Each strategy type has its own required chapters; the others are optional, never block you, and sit under Optional on the map.

Strategy type	Required chapters	Optional chapters
Single instrument	Asset selection · Summary	Allocation, Rebalance, Risk and exits
Multiple instruments	Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Summary	Risk and exits
Screener	Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Summary	Risk and exits
Full setup	Asset selection · Allocation · Rebalance · Risk and exits · Summary	none

Strategy type is in every walk and is already confirmed when the strategy is created from Create new. On a single instrument, Next from Asset selection goes straight to Summary, and the map shows Allocation with the leverage rather than a method. Changing type moves these chapters: Change a strategy's type.

Does the Backtest wait for Step by step?

No. You can run it from the Summary, or with Backtest in the header, from any chapter as soon as the strategy can run; no chapter you have skipped and no mark you have not earned stops it. Two things can: the run gate, whose reason is stated beside the button, and a selection that does not match the type — two instruments on Single instrument, for example — which opens a dialog stating the fix ("Pick exactly 1 instrument.") with OK and Change strategy type. If the run cannot start, Fincanva shows "Couldn't start the run" and leaves you on the page.