What is a strategy in Fincanva?

What does a strategy contain?

A strategy contains the instruments it trades plus the settings that govern how they're weighted and when they change. Each controls a different part:

• Asset selection — the instruments the strategy trades, chosen as a basket you pick by hand or by attaching a screener that selects them for you.
• Allocation — how capital is distributed across those instruments.
• Rebalance every — how often the weights are refreshed.
• Risk (optional) — conditions that switch the strategy to its Risk-Off allocation when they trigger.
• Position exits (optional) — conditions that close a position.

Together these settings define exactly what the strategy would have done over any historical period.

Why build a strategy instead of picking instruments by hand?

A strategy is reusable, testable, and modular, which a one-off hand-picked list of instruments is not. Because it is saved as a defined set of rules, you can backtest it over history to see how those same rules would have behaved, re-run it as new data arrives, and reuse it later without rebuilding it. It is also a building block for a combined strategy (formerly a portfolio), covered in the next section. To start one, follow Create a strategy; to pick the shape that fits your idea, see Choosing a strategy type.

How is a strategy different from a combined strategy?

A strategy holds instruments directly, while a combined strategy holds other strategies as its building blocks. Use a single strategy for one coherent idea; use a combined strategy to blend several strategies into one book. In the app the two are separated in the Strategies navigation under "Single" and "Combined".

Limits and edge cases

A strategy needs at least one instrument before it can be backtested or saved. If it selects instruments through a screener instead of a fixed basket, at least one screener must be attached; Create a strategy covers the exact gate messages. There is no fixed upper limit on the number of instruments a strategy can hold today.

Related

To build one, follow Create a strategy. To choose the right shape, see Choosing a strategy type. For a headline result metric a backtest reports, see CAGR.