---
title: "Aggregate comparisons"
description: "An aggregate comparison tests an instrument's metric against a Market or Sector figure — its Index, Average, Median, 75th, or 25th percentile."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/aggregate-comparisons"
last_updated: "2026-10-06"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/aggregate-comparisons.md"
---

# Aggregate comparisons

An aggregate comparison tests an [instrument](/glossary/instrument)'s metric against a population figure rather than a fixed number — the **vs Aggregate** relation on a [screener](/glossary/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](/glossary/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.

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)