--- title: "Strategy alerts" description: "Strategy alerts are automatic checks on a strategy's setup at two levels: a blocking alert stops the backtest, an alert to review can be fixed or left as is." canonical_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-alerts" last_updated: "2026-10-07" md_url: "https://fincanva.com/glossary/strategy-alerts.md" --- # Strategy alerts Strategy alerts are the automatic checks Fincanva runs over a [strategy](/glossary/strategy)'s setup, at two levels: a **blocking** alert stops the [backtest](/glossary/backtest) until you change the setting behind it; an alert **to review** lets it run but flags a setup you probably did not mean, which you can fix or leave as is. ## What do the two levels of alert mean? The level decides whether the alert stops the run and whether you can leave it as is. - **Blocking** — the strategy cannot be backtested, and the section strip marks its section red. There is no "Leave as is": the setting has to change. - **To review** — the strategy runs, but the setup is likely unintended, and the strip marks its section violet. Fix the setting, or press **Leave as is** if it is deliberate. ## How does Fincanva handle it? - **Twenty-two alerts exist today** — eight blocking, fourteen to review — each belonging to one section: Selection, Allocation, Risk or Exits. Eight grey notes say what the engine will do without asking for a decision. - **They show where you work**: the section strip in the strategy's header, in [All at once](/glossary/all-at-once) and in every chapter of [Step by step](/glossary/step-by-step), and the footer of the card — or chapter — whose control resolves each. On a [Combined](/glossary/combined), a member's most serious alert also shows in its **Sub-strategies** chapter and as a mark on its tab: **Blocks the backtest** or **To evaluate**. - **How to read and clear them**: [Resolve a strategy's alerts](/docs/strategies/resolve-a-strategy-s-alerts). A Public strategy shows none: its alerts are not the viewer's to decide. ## Which alerts can appear, and what fixes each one? Each card's alerts, with the exact sentence the app shows, what triggers it and what clears it, are on the guide for that card: - **Selection** — [Fix the Asset selection alerts](/docs/strategies/fix-the-asset-selection-alerts), and the plan limits in [Bring a strategy within your plan](/docs/strategies/bring-a-strategy-within-your-plan) — see also [plan compliance](/glossary/plan-compliance). - **Allocation** — [Fix the Allocation alerts](/docs/strategies/fix-the-allocation-alerts). - **Risk** and **Exits** — [Fix the Risk and Exits alerts](/docs/strategies/fix-the-risk-and-exits-alerts). The [Rebalance](/glossary/rebalance) section has none today. The non-alert refusals are in [Why was my run refused?](/docs/strategies/save-run-and-copy-a-strategy#why-was-my-run-refused) ## Which controls belong to the Selection section? The Selection section's controls are about what the strategy chooses from — its picked instruments, its [universe](/glossary/universe), its entry and exit [screeners](/glossary/screener-attach) and [Max positions](/glossary/max-positions) — and sit on the **Asset selection** card, in whichever [asset-selection mode](/glossary/asset-selection-modes) it is. Blocking: **The strategy has no instruments**, **The strategy can't run on the Free plan**, **Your plan holds at most 10 instruments**, **The strategy uses 3 screeners, your plan includes 1**, **The strategy holds 25 positions, your plan includes 10**. To review: **An instrument exits as soon as it enters**, **Some instruments stay out**, **No rule decides which names enter**, **The engine does not keep the top of your ranking**, **The exit screener changes nothing**. What each says: [Fix the Asset selection alerts](/docs/strategies/fix-the-asset-selection-alerts) and [Bring a strategy within your plan](/docs/strategies/bring-a-strategy-within-your-plan). ## What do the grey notes on a Settings card mean? A note is the third, quiet level of the same controls: a title and its consequence, saying what the engine will do with the current setup. A card's notes fold into one row at the end of its body, above a thin line — a small grey square with an "i" and **What the engine will do · `{count}` notes** — closed until you click it, and closed again by a second click. Asset selection, Allocation, Risk and Exits, and a Combined's own Allocation and Risk, can carry notes; a card with none shows no row. A note never asks for a decision, is never counted in a header total, and never marks the section strip or the lists' Controls column; the Strategy controls popover lists it last, under **Notes**. Each card's notes: [Asset selection](/docs/strategies/fix-the-asset-selection-alerts#which-notes-can-the-asset-selection-card-show), [Allocation](/docs/strategies/fix-the-allocation-alerts#which-notes-can-the-allocation-card-show), [Risk and Exits](/docs/strategies/fix-the-risk-and-exits-alerts#which-notes-can-the-risk-and-exits-cards-show). ## What does it look like in practice? You build a strategy with an entry [screener](/glossary/screener), equal-weighted, Max positions 10, rebalancing monthly, with no exit rules. The section strip marks Exits violet and reads `1 to review`; opening it lists "Once full, the strategy stops changing" under Exits, with **Go →** to the Exits card. Once the screener has filled the ten slots, no rule frees one, so the strategy keeps the same ten. Nothing is broken — it still backtests. Add an exit, and the alert stops firing; or press **Leave as is**, which moves it to **Reviewed by you · 1** and turns the strip grey, reading `1 reviewed`, with **Reopen** still in the popover. The contrast case: the same strategy on ten hand-picked instruments and no screener raises no alert — with nothing to rotate to, holding the basket is the design. 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)