Watchlist

/watchlist is Tapeboard's first anonymous-by-default surface — build and use a watchlist with live quotes before you ever create an account. Add tickers by hand, one-tap a starter list to seed it instantly, or land here already populated via a shared link (?add=NVDA,TSLA). Save it later and it becomes a real account watchlist; skip that step and it just lives in your browser for the session.

What it is

Three different things render at /watchlist, depending on who's looking and what they already have:

• Guest, empty — three starter-list cards (desktop) or one-tap chips (mobile) to seed a list instantly, plus a manual add box.
• Guest or signed-in-with-no-saved-lists, populated — a live quick list: symbol, name, price, and % change per row, backed by your browser only (sessionStorage) until you save it.
• Signed-in with one or more saved watchlists — a real list switcher (a pill row of your watchlist names, each showing its symbol count) over your actual account data, read the same way the in-app sidebar watchlist panel reads it. Starter cards never show for this cohort — there's nothing to seed, you already have real lists.

The quick-list quotes come from a batched, cross-asset lookup (equities via one path, crypto and FX via their own), so a mixed list of stocks and BTC resolves correctly instead of one of them coming back empty. A quote outage on one symbol shows "Quote unavailable" on that row only — the rest of the list keeps working.

When to use it

As the landing spot for any "add this to your watchlist" link or agent action — it works instantly, no login wall. As a cold-start surface for a brand-new visitor who wants to see the product do something with real tickers before signing up. As your daily watchlist once you've saved one — the Dashboard's Watchlist Movers and Watchlist Earnings panels, and the in-app sidebar watchlist panel, all read the same saved lists.

Open it

• Path: /watchlist — or /watchlist?add=NVDA,TSLA to land pre-populated with specific tickers.
• Shortcut: none — it's a standalone page with no in-app AppShell chrome, reachable from the Dashboard's + BUILD YOUR WATCHLIST → CTA or any share link.
• Tier-gate: Free / unauthenticated — the whole page works with no account. Saving a list requires an account (created inline, on this page, if you don't have one).

Starter lists

For a guest or a signed-in account with no saved lists, the empty state offers a fast way in instead of a blank box:

• Desktop — three data-backed cards: This week's insider buys, Earnings this week, and Most-shorted leaders (the last one pulled live from the public Squeeze Leaderboard endpoint — the only one of the three that's genuinely live). Each has a Try this watchlist button.
• Mobile — three one-tap chips instead of cards: MEGA_CAP (AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, AMZN, GOOGL), AI_LEADERS (NVDA, AMD, PLTR, SMCI, ARM), PENNY_RUNNERS (SNDL, MULN, BBIG, GNS, ATER).

Picking a starter onto an empty list seeds it directly — nothing to choose between. Picking one onto a list that already has tickers (2026-07-09) opens an inline chooser instead of silently merging:

• REPLACE LIST — swap the whole list for the starter's tickers.
• ADD TO LIST — merge the starter's tickers into what you already have.
• CANCEL — back out, list untouched.

Either choice leaves a single-shot "Added N tickers — UNDO" notice that restores your exact prior list if you tap Undo. A manual edit after a seed (adding or removing a ticker by hand) clears the pending undo, since restoring an old snapshot after you've already changed things would silently discard that edit too.

Saved lists (signed-in)

If you're signed in and have at least one saved server watchlist, /watchlist renders that list — a switcher of pill buttons (one per watchlist, each showing its ticker count) above the rows for whichever one is active. Adding or removing a ticker here writes straight to that account watchlist (the same store the in-app sidebar panel and the Dashboard's watchlist panels read), so every surface stays in sync. This is a different render path from the guest quick-list view above; the two never mix for an authed user who already has real lists.

Save / claim a guest list

Save this watchlist turns a guest quick list into a real account. If you're not signed in, it asks for an email, a password, and an 18+/Terms confirmation, creates the account, and claims the guest list into it in one step — you land back on /watchlist seeing the exact list you just built, now saved. If you're already signed in (and haven't hit the saved-lists path above because you have none yet), the same claim call folds the guest list into your account.

How to use it

1. Open /watchlist — no login needed. A brand-new visitor sees starter cards (desktop) or chips (mobile) plus a manual add box.
2. Tap a starter list to seed the page instantly, or type a ticker into the add box and confirm.
3. If you already have tickers and pick another starter, choose REPLACE LIST or ADD TO LIST in the chooser that appears; use Undo if you change your mind.
4. Remove a ticker with the × (desktop) or the row's trailing remove button (mobile, 44px tap target).
5. Click Save this watchlist to create an account and keep the list permanently — or keep using it unsaved for the session.
6. Once signed in with a saved list, use the pill switcher at the top to flip between your watchlists; adds and removes now write to your account, not the browser.
7. Share a prefilled link (tapeboard.com/watchlist?add=NVDA,TSLA) to hand someone — or an agent — a working watchlist with zero setup.

Fields

Column	Notes
Symbol	Links to /chart/:symbol; up to 10 characters
Name	Company/asset name, blank on a quote failure
Price	Last price; · while loading or unavailable
% Chg	Signed, colored green/red; · while loading or unavailable

Limits

• The guest quick list caps at 50 tickers and lives in sessionStorage — it does not survive closing the tab (unless saved) and does not sync across devices.
• Signed-in account watchlists follow the same cap as the in-app sidebar watchlist panel: 10 symbols on Free, 50 on Pro, unlimited on Terminal.
• Two of the three desktop starter cards (insider buys, earnings this week) are illustrative picks, not a live daily feed; Most-shorted leaders is the one genuinely pulled from live squeeze-leaderboard data.
• The starter-list chooser and undo toast only apply to the guest / no-saved-lists path — an authed user with real saved lists never sees starter cards at all.
• /watchlist renders standalone, without the app sidebar/nav — use the ← BACK TO TAPEBOARD link (or the Dashboard//, depending on whether you're signed in) to return to the rest of the app.

Troubleshooting

I picked a starter list and it wiped my existing tickers. Only if you chose REPLACE LIST in the chooser — and even then, a single Undo restores exactly what you had before. If you didn't see a chooser at all, your list was empty at the time (nothing to choose between, so it seeds directly).

My watchlist disappeared after I closed the tab. You weren't signed in and hadn't saved it — a guest list lives in sessionStorage only. Click Save this watchlist next time (or sign in first) to make it permanent.

I'm signed in but I still see starter cards instead of my real watchlists. You don't have any saved watchlists on your account yet — that cohort intentionally gets the same guest-style quick-list-plus-starters experience as an anonymous visitor. Add and save a list once, and future visits show the real list switcher instead.

A ticker shows "Quote unavailable." That symbol's quote lookup failed transiently — the rest of your list is unaffected. Reload the page to retry.

Related

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