---
title: "Change a strategy's type"
description: "Change a strategy's type from the Type key or the Strategy type chapter: what the confirmation resets or removes, and why nothing goes until you save."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/change-a-strategy-s-type"
last_updated: "2026-10-07"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/docs/strategies/change-a-strategy-s-type.md"
---

# Change a strategy's type

You change a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) from its **Type** key or its **Strategy type** chapter; a confirmation says what will change, and nothing is removed until you save.

The Type key at the left of a strategy's settings strip names the strategy's current type; pressing it opens the menu of the four types.

## Steps

1. **Open the type.** In [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once), press the **Type** key at the left of the settings strip: a menu lists the four types, each with its one-line description, and notes "Changing type is not a conversion: you will see what changes before it happens." In [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), open the **Strategy type** chapter, which lists the same four. Both run the same switch.
2. **Pick the new type.** On the Free plan, **Screener** carries its plan mark and opens the plan dialog instead — see [Which strategy types can you create on the Free plan?](/glossary/strategy-type#which-strategy-types-can-you-create-on-the-free-plan)
3. **Read the confirmation.** "Switch to" the new type opens with "This changes which sections your strategy uses.", then **Requires:** — the sections the new type needs — and **Resets to defaults:** — any section you had configured that it does not require. On a [Combined](/glossary/combined) the type is one setting for every strategy in it, so the list reads "Resets to defaults, in all" its strategies. What the switch removes from your selection, and how it moves Step by step, follow — see the questions below.
4. **Confirm or back out.** Press **Switch**, or **Cancel** to keep the current type.
5. **Save.** The switch changes nothing stored: the next save is what applies it. Switch back before saving and everything is kept.

**Done.** The strategy shows its new type on the **Type** key and in the **Strategy type** column of your list, and its cards and chapters follow the new type. Changing type never changes how a [backtest](/glossary/backtest) is computed.

## What happens to your selection when you switch strategy type?

Anything the new type's Asset selection cannot hold is removed — only when you save, and the confirmation counts it first under "This removes part of your selection": "5 selected instruments will be removed — a Screener strategy builds its selection from rules, not from a basket.", or, for a strategy with two Qualify screeners switched to **Screener**, "1 screener will be removed — this strategy type keeps at most one." — the switch sticks and the second [screener](/glossary/screener) is set aside. Its last line: "Nothing is removed until you save. Switch back before saving to keep it."

Fincanva never trims a basket to make a narrower type fit. Five picked instruments switched to **Single instrument** are not cut to one: the dialog says "Your setup needs more than this type offers, so nothing else is removed — the strategy will keep showing as Multiple instruments.", and the strategy keeps all five and reads back as that type. Which views each type offers: [asset-selection modes](/glossary/asset-selection-modes#which-modes-does-each-strategy-type-offer).

## How does a type switch move the chapters of Step by step?

Each type requires a different set of chapters, so the confirmation says which way the walk moves. Chapters that join carry no review yet, so a walk you had finished stops being complete — "You had reviewed every step. 2 steps you have not reviewed join Step by step, so it is no longer complete." A switch that takes the unreviewed chapters out can leave nothing to review — "4 steps leave Step by step, and every step it still asks for has already been reviewed."

That decides where Step by step lands when you reopen the strategy; it never decides whether the Backtest can run, which only the run gate refuses. Nothing you reviewed is discarded: each chapter keeps its mark, so switching back costs no progress. Which chapters each type requires: [Build a strategy step by step](/docs/strategies/build-a-strategy-step-by-step#which-chapters-does-each-strategy-type-require).

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)