Guides

These guides explain how Noctara works and how the parts fit together. If you want step-by-step tasks, use How-tos.

Contents

• Quick start (10 minutes)
• Organize: Watchlist, Portfolios, Notifications
• Charts: drag a ticker to replace a chart
• Icons and saving (important)
• Notifications (how they actually work)
• News: reading and triage
• Pinboard: save tickers, articles, notes
• Theme and motion
• Troubleshooting (common fixes)

Quick start (10 minutes)

1. Link Cloud Sync (required for Watchlist/Portfolios/Pinboard). Steps →
2. Add a few tickers to Watchlist using the Binoculars icon on a ticker’s Details page. Steps →
3. Star a few tickers to pin them in the left panel for quick access. Steps →
4. Turn on notifications only for tickers you truly want alerts for. Steps →
5. Save anything worth revisiting to Pinboard. Steps →

Organize: Watchlist, Portfolios, Notifications

Noctara gives you a few ways to track tickers. Use whichever matches how you think. (Most organization features require linked Cloud Sync in the web app.)

• Watchlist is your main list. It’s for anything you want quick access to, whether you own it or you’re still researching it.
• Portfolios are named groups (example: Long-term, Dividends, AI, Biotech). Portfolios support tracking and journaling, and they keep your organization visible.
• Notifications are independent: you can enable alerts even if a ticker isn’t in Watchlist or Portfolios. (Notifications persist locally on the web app even before Cloud Sync is linked.)

No matter where a ticker lives, the same core actions show up: Notifications (Bell) and Pinboard (Pin/Bookmark).

Charts: drag a ticker to replace a chart

The main page has four chart slots. You can replace any of them by dragging a ticker onto the chart.

• Drag a ticker from the left panel onto a chart slot.
• You can drag from:
  • Watchlist Favorites (Starred in Watchlist)
  • Portfolio Favorites (Starred in Portfolios)
  • Trending tickers

Auto-progressing chart intervals (intraday)

On the 4‑pane main charting page (the home screen on app load), any minute-to-minute interval will auto-progress using the increment you’ve selected. If you set the chart to 1 minute, the chart steps through history 1 minute at a time, and it will refresh forward with new data roughly every 1 minute. If you set it to 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 1 hour, it follows the same logic using that increment.

Timeframes that move in weeks, months, or years do not auto-increment.

Icons and saving (important)

Noctara uses icons to keep actions consistent, but some icons only appear in specific places.

• Binoculars: add/remove from Watchlist (on a ticker’s Details page)
• Briefcase: add/remove from a Portfolio (on a ticker’s Details page)
• Star: add/remove from Favorites (this star shows up in both Watchlist and Portfolios; starred tickers are pinned in the left panel)
• Bell: notifications
• Pin / Bookmark: Pinboard

Noctara keeps Watchlist Favorites and Portfolio Favorites separate in the left panel so each list stays focused.

Notifications (how they actually work)

Notifications are meant to be useful without getting annoying. They are not live tick alerts. They trigger based on your settings and they respect cooldowns.

Where notifications show up

• In-app banners appear in Noctara’s Notification Center (right-side stack).
• Sounds are optional (with a safe fallback tone).
• macOS Dock badge can show active banner count (desktop only).

Controls

• Per-ticker notifications: use the Bell icon to add/remove a ticker from your notified set.
• Master switch: Settings → Notifications → “Enable Notifications” turns off market notifications (price/news/volume banners, sounds, badges). System alerts (Cloud Sync health messages) still show.
• Thresholds: set what counts as “interesting” (Price Move, Large Move, news freshness).
• Cooldowns: limit how often categories can fire (volume, gaps, filings, earnings, dividends).

News: reading and triage

News is built for quick scanning. You’ll see a headline grid plus a market tape. Click a ticker in the tape to jump into its Details.

• Easy read: calmer typography and less dense cards for longer sessions.
• Paywall/account hints: some sources show access restrictions.
• Pinning for later: save anything worth revisiting so it doesn’t get buried.

Pinboard: save tickers, articles, notes

Pinboard is your “save it for later” space. It supports:

• Ticker pins (saved from Watchlist/Portfolio/Details)
• Article pins (saved from News)
• Note pins (quick reminders and context)

A simple way to use Pinboard is like a queue: save items as you go, then clear it during a focused review.

Theme and motion

• Light/Dark theme: switch to match your preference.
• Reduce motion: Settings → Technical → “Reduce motion” disables motion-heavy effects (ticker marquee scrolling, ticker value flips, and News card flip transitions).

Troubleshooting (common fixes)

Noctara is a free project and sometimes the web app can get into a weird state. These fixes solve most issues.

Fix #1: Sign out / sign back in

1. Close the web app tab.
2. Go to Noctara.org and sign out.
3. Sign back in.
4. Open the web app again.

Fix #2: Clear cache (and optionally cookies)

If the UI is stuck, loading wrong, or not updating correctly, a cache clear often fixes it.

• Clear cache first (recommended): this removes stored files so the app reloads cleanly.
• Clear cookies only if needed: this signs you out and resets site sessions.

In most browsers: Settings → Privacy/Security → Clear browsing data → choose Cached images and files. If you also clear cookies, you’ll need to sign back in.

Prefer short, task-focused instructions? See How-tos. Want to see what changed recently? See Release Notes.