Event-time path
An event-time path lines up a screener backtest's matched instruments by when they were selected rather than by calendar date, so day 0 is always the pick date. It plots the average path of the matches afterwards: the shape of what followed a selection, where a holding horizon figure condenses one length of hold into one number.
Also seen as: event-study plot
How does Fincanva handle it?
A screener backtest draws the event-time path on its What happens after selection card. Two lines start together at Selection, the selection date, and run to the last month both lines reach, marked at the foot by a plus sign and that month count: Screener picks, the average path of the matches, and Benchmark, dashed, the benchmark over the same months. Beside each line's name sits its final return.
The large figure at the top is the gap between the two lines at the last month both of them reach, in percentage points, labelled edge at and the same month count:
- the large figure, in percentage points
- the picks' average return at that month
- the benchmark's return at the same month
When the two lines share no last month, the figure and both returns read as a dash rather than a number. The card appears only when the backtest's path carries points; without them, the Edge by holding horizon card takes the whole row.
Why is day 0 the selection date?
Setting day 0 to the selection date is what makes the picks comparable. Calendar-aligned, an instrument picked in 2015 and one picked in 2020 can't be averaged meaningfully; event-aligned, both start at their own day 0 and the chart can average "one month after selection", "six months after selection", and so on across every pick. Picks made in different years overlay on one timeline, and the line to the right of day 0 is the average of those aligned paths, so a single curve summarises many selections at once.
What does the path tell you, and what doesn't it?
The path shows the average behaviour after selection — not any single instrument's outcome, and not a forecast. It reads left to right from day 0: a curve that rises after day 0 means the matches, on average, moved up over the window shown, while a fall means the opposite. It is a way to inspect the after-selection behaviour of a screener's picks alongside the match count and the filters that produced them.
What does it look like in practice?
A screener's event-time path sets day 0 at each instrument's selection date. Reading right from day 0, the average line shows how the picks moved in the months after they were selected — a pick from 2016 and one from 2021 both counted from their own day 0. The point at day 0 is the selection moment itself, so the path starts flat there; everything to its right is the average journey afterwards.
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UPDATED 2026-10-06