Every page has the same two pieces of furniture: a sidebar down the left and a bar across the top. Neither ever changes, so once you know them you know how to reach everything.
The market clock
To the right of the bell is the New York time and the state of the US stock market: a green dot while it is open, blue while it is shut, and how long until that changes — so "opens in 2h 14m" during the morning, "closes in 40m" late in the session. Hover it for the whole sentence.
It knows about weekends and about the public holidays the market closes for, including the two half-days that end at 13:00 — the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. It does not know about an unscheduled closure, which is rare and announced in advance; on such a day the clock would read open.
On a phone
Below about 760 pixels wide the layout changes. Five destinations — Home, Chart, Portfolio, Feed and Channels — move to a bar along the bottom of the screen, where a thumb can reach them. Channels is there rather than News because a channel is where a conversation is waiting for you, while News is somewhere you go once you have decided to read. Everything else, News included, is behind the ☰ button at the top left, which slides the same menu in from the side. Tap outside it, press Esc, or go anywhere at all and it closes itself.
It is the same menu and the same pages as on a computer, not a reduced version — nothing is missing, it is only arranged for a narrow screen. The chart and the heatmap still want a larger one to be comfortable.
Backer badges
People who backed the crowdfunding campaign carry a small badge beside their name — on their profile, and on everything they post. There are five: Early Believer, Founding Member, Founding Creator, Design Partner and Patron. Each has its own shape as well as its own colour, so they can be told apart without relying on colour at all.
A badge buys nothing. Every tool in the app is free for everyone, backers included — it only says somebody helped pay for the place to exist before it was easy. It is awarded by an administrator and cannot be set by the person wearing it.
4.1 The sidebar
The menu is grouped into bands, separated by faint dividers. The grouping is the point — the first band is what is happening, the second is look something up, the third is your own things.
| Band | Entry | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Community | ◧ Home | The dashboard — chapter 4 |
| ⌗ Channel | Discussion channels — chapter 17 | |
| ≡ Feed | The live scroll — chapter 16 | |
| Market tools | ◲ Chart | Charts and company data — chapter 5 |
| ▩ Heatmap | The index board — chapter 6 | |
| ▦ Sectors | Sector performance — chapter 7 | |
| ◷ Earnings Hub | The earnings calendar — chapter 8 | |
| Yours | ◍ My Profile | Your public page — chapter 13 |
| ◑ Portfolio | Holdings and orders — chapter 10 | |
| ★ Watchlists | Symbol lists — chapter 9 | |
| People | ⚇ Friends | Requests and following — chapter 15 |
| ✉ Messages | Private conversations — chapter 15 | |
| Creators | ◎ Creator Hub | Creators and their tools — chapter 18 |
| Settings | ◔ Alerts & Notification | Price alerts and the inbox — chapter 12 |
| ⚙ Settings | Theme and layout — chapter 19 |
The ✉ Messages entry carries a number when you have unread messages. The « button at the very top of the sidebar collapses it to icons only, which is worth doing on the chart page; » brings it back. The choice is remembered.
4.2 The top bar
- The logo
- Clicking it goes Home from anywhere.
- The search box
- Searches stocks, ETFs and symbols. Results appear as you type; click one, or type a ticker and press Enter, and the chart for that symbol opens. Use ↑ ↓ to move through the list and Esc to dismiss it. The same box appears in eight other places in the app — anywhere you have to name a symbol — and behaves identically each time.
- The bell
- An outline when there is nothing waiting; filled, with a red dot, when there is. The dot counts unread notifications and unread direct messages together. Clicking it opens Alerts & Notification.
- ☾ / ☀
- Switches between the dark and light themes immediately. Remembered per browser.
- Your name and picture
- Opens a small menu with My profile and Sign out.
4.3 Things that work the same everywhere
- Esc closes whatever is open on top — a dialog, the symbol search dropdown, an indicator menu, a profile card.
- Clicking outside a dialog closes it too, as does its ✕.
- A ? or i next to a label explains that control where a longer label would not fit. They are worth clicking; several of them cover rules you would otherwise have to learn by being surprised.
- Any ticker symbol shown anywhere is clickable and opens its chart.
- Clicking somebody's name on a post opens a small card with who they are, a Follow button and a link to their full profile.
- A View all → link on a summary card opens the full page that card is a preview of.