Aggregate comparisons
An aggregate comparison tests an instrument's metric against a population figure rather than a fixed number — the vs Aggregate relation on a screener filter. You choose a Scope (Market or Sector) and an Aggregate statistic, and the filter keeps instruments on your chosen side of that figure: a screen relative to peers instead of an absolute threshold.
Also seen as: vs Aggregate, peer-relative screening
How does Fincanva handle it?
- The scopes available today are Market and Sector; no other scope is offered on any filter.
- The aggregate statistic is one of Index, Average, Median, 75th percentile, or 25th percentile.
- The comparison is relative — the threshold is recomputed from the population rather than typed in as a number.
How is an aggregate comparison built?
You set two things. The Scope names the group the figure is drawn from — Market or Sector. The Aggregate sets how that group is summarised into one number:
- Index — the index-level figure for the chosen scope.
- Average — the mean across the group.
- Median — the middle value of the group.
- 75th percentile — the value three-quarters of the way up the group.
- 25th percentile — the value one-quarter of the way up the group.
The filter then keeps instruments above or below that figure, according to the direction you set. Because the reference is a population statistic, the pass/fail line moves with the group as data updates, unlike a fixed value that stays put.
It is not the same thing as the Market & Sector filter category: those filters read a market or sector figure instead of the instrument's, while an aggregate comparison reads the instrument's own metric and only borrows a market or sector figure as the threshold (see filter taxonomy).
What does it look like in practice?
A screener over technology stocks adds a Price/Earnings filter in vs Aggregate mode, sets Scope = Sector and Aggregate = Median, and keeps instruments below that figure. The filter now passes only technology names whose P/E sits under the sector's median P/E — a peer-relative screen that shifts as valuations move, where a fixed P/E < 15 would not.
Used in 4 pages
UPDATED 2026-10-06