---
title: "Asset-selection modes"
description: "Asset-selection modes are the three ways a strategy decides what it may hold — Basket names instruments, Screen picks them by rule, and Compose combines both."
canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/asset-selection-modes"
last_updated: "2026-10-07"
md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/asset-selection-modes.md"
---

# Asset-selection modes

Asset-selection modes are the three ways a [strategy](/glossary/strategy) decides which instruments it may hold: **Basket**, where you name them; **Screen**, where one screener picks them by rule at every [rebalance](/glossary/rebalance); and **Compose**, where a basket and screener pools work together. They are the views of the strategy's **Asset selection** card, and what survives the mode is the strategy's [universe](/glossary/universe).

**Also seen as:** Easy and Pro, Build a screen

## What do Basket, Screen, and Compose do?

Each mode answers "what may this strategy hold?" a different way.

| Mode | How instruments are decided | What you edit |
|---|---|---|
| **Basket** | you name them — the instruments you add are the whole universe | a search field and the list of what you added (on a Single [instrument](/glossary/instrument) strategy, one slot with **Change**) |
| **Screen** | one [screener](/glossary/screener) selects them by rule, re-evaluated at every rebalance | that screener's [filters](/glossary/filter) and its universe |
| **Compose** | a basket sets the scope, then screener pools qualify and reject inside it | the basket, the **Qualify** and **Reject** pools, and the **Selection rules** |

An empty Basket with no entry screener buys nothing: the list says **No instruments** and the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) does not start. With an entry screener an empty basket is a real state — the screener searches its own whole universe — and the list says **All instruments**.

## How does Fincanva handle it?

- Only **Full setup** shows the **Basket · Screen · Compose** control, in [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step) and [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) alike; other types have one mode — see [Which modes does each strategy type offer?](#which-modes-does-each-strategy-type-offer)
- The card prints no count; its sections are **Assets** (**Universe** in Screen), **Filters** and **Selection rules**, each where the mode has it.
- On the Free plan, Screen and Compose stay visible as a switched-off preview — see [screener attach](/glossary/screener-attach#how-does-the-free-plan-show-screeners-in-a-strategy).
- A switch sets aside what the new mode cannot use — picked instruments with a [Fixed weights](/glossary/fixed-weights), [Mimicking](/glossary/mimicking) or [Beta neutral](/glossary/beta-neutral) allocation built on them, a screener's [universe filters](/glossary/universe-facets) — and the save will not carry what you leave aside: [what each switch does](/docs/strategies/choose-the-instruments-a-strategy-holds#what-happens-when-you-switch-between-basket-screen-and-compose).
- On Basket, [**Max positions**](/glossary/max-positions) follows how many instruments you picked; a basket over your plan's limit is kept whole and raises a [blocking alert](/glossary/strategy-alerts#which-controls-belong-to-the-selection-section).
- Every mode needs at least one instrument or one attached screener to be saved and run.

## How do Easy and Pro relate to the three modes?

**Easy** and **Pro** are the two screening modes the three asset-selection modes are built on — underlying state, not a control you operate: no surface shows an Easy/Pro toggle. The mapping is exact: **Basket** is Easy applied to instruments you name, **Screen** is Easy applied to a screener, and **Compose** is Pro. That is why Pro-only settings survive a trip through Easy — they belong to the same strategy, just to controls Easy does not show — and why the confirmation you get when leaving Compose is titled **Switch to Easy mode** and still names both ([what it keeps](/docs/strategies/attach-a-screener-to-a-strategy#what-happens-to-my-extra-screeners-if-i-leave-compose)).

## Which modes does each strategy type offer?

The card offers only the modes the [strategy type](/glossary/strategy-type) supports — no greyed-out placeholder for the others.

| Strategy type | Modes offered |
|---|---|
| **Single instrument** | Basket |
| **Multiple instruments** | Basket |
| **Screener** | Screen |
| **Full setup** | Basket · Screen · Compose |

**Compose is therefore reachable from Full setup alone**, and with it the Qualify and Reject [screener pools](/glossary/screener-attach): a Screener strategy that needs a rejecting pool becomes a Full setup one. Inside Basket, **Single instrument** is one slot whose **Change** replaces the instrument held, and the Basket's **Filters** strip exists only under **Full setup**.

Changing type is not how a saved strategy loses a mode. A strategy whose content needs a wider surface than its type offers — instruments and a screener together, a second qualifying screener, a rejecting pool — is read as the wider type, so the card still shows everything it holds. Nothing is trimmed to fit, and the widening never runs the other way: a Full setup strategy holding one instrument stays Full setup.

## What is the working scope in Compose?

In Compose the basket is the working scope — the set of instruments the attached screeners are evaluated against. With instruments in the basket the screeners judge those instruments alone; with an empty basket each screener searches its own whole universe. It is the one mode where naming instruments and screening by rule are not alternatives: the basket bounds the search, and the [screener pools](/glossary/screener-attach) decide who inside it is held.

Compose also groups the **Selection rules** beside the pools: [**Max positions**](/glossary/max-positions), the cap on how many instruments are held at once; [**Max hold**](/glossary/max-hold-months), how long a position may be held; and [**Reinvest delay**](/glossary/reinvest-delay), how long an instrument stays out of the strategy's choices after its position closes.

## What does it look like in practice?

Take the same ten US large caps and build the same idea three ways.

- **Basket** — you add all ten by name. The strategy's universe is exactly those ten, every rebalance, whatever the market does.
- **Screen** — you name nothing and write one screener whose filters describe the ten. The strategy holds whatever matches at each rebalance: nine of them one quarter, thirteen names the next, because membership is recomputed rather than fixed.
- **Compose** — you put the ten in the basket and attach one screener to **Qualify**. The candidate set never grows beyond your ten, but only those that qualify at that rebalance are held — six of ten in a quiet quarter, all ten in a strong one.

Same idea, three answers to "what may this hold?": a fixed list, an open rule, and a rule applied inside a fixed list.

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)