---
title: "Build a strategy step by step"
description: "Walk a strategy's chapters in Step by step: follow the map, answer each chapter, skip optional ones, fix what it flags, and run the backtest from Summary."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/build-a-strategy-step-by-step"
last_updated: "2026-10-07"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/build-a-strategy-step-by-step.md"
---

# Build a strategy step by step

In [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) you build a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) one chapter at a time from a map, then run its [backtest](/glossary/backtest) from the **Summary** — or from the header, whenever the strategy can run.

## 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](/glossary/all-at-once)'s own controls. **Asset selection** takes a search and **Your selection**, or a [screener](/glossary/screener)'s [universe](/glossary/universe), filters and [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions); on a single [instrument](/glossary/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](/glossary/risk-condition) — then **Then: Risk-Off**, then **Exits**: [take profit](/glossary/take-profit) and [stop loss](/glossary/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](/glossary/strategy-alerts) 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](/glossary/benchmark), [starting year](/glossary/simulation-start-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](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/leverage) rather than a method. Changing type moves these chapters: [Change a strategy's type](/docs/strategies/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.

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)