A browser side panel keeps market data beside the page you are reading, instead of in a tab you have to switch to. The Artha Terminal extension shows the exchange’s own market status, index levels, the day’s largest moves and headlines with no account at all, and adds your own portfolio once you sign in and approve one permission.
Key takeaways
- A side panel is part of the browser window, so it stays open while you move between tabs.
- The market block needs no account, which makes it usable before you decide to trust anything with your data.
- Market status should come from the exchange, not from a clock: a clock reports "open" on a trading holiday.
- Portfolio figures in a panel are as of the last broker sync, and a well-built panel prints that time beside them.
- An extension that reads no page you visit needs no permission for any site other than its own.
Why a side panel rather than a tab?
A tab has to be switched to, and switching is what makes people stop checking. A side panel is part of the browser window: it sits beside whatever you are reading and stays there as you move between tabs.
For market data the difference is practical rather than aesthetic. You are usually reading something else — a filing, a news story, a spreadsheet — and the question you want answered is small: where is the index, is the session open, what moved. A panel answers those without taking the screen away from the thing that raised the question.
What should it show before you sign in?
Everything that is public. Index levels with the change for the session, the day's largest gainers and losers, the most-traded names, headlines, and the state of the session itself.
The session state is the part most tools get wrong. Deriving it from the clock produces a panel that says "open" at 10 a.m. on a trading holiday, and every figure under that heading then reads as live when it is not. The exchange publishes its own status, and a panel that reports what the exchange says is right on the days a clock is wrong. The Artha panel renders all of this with no sign-in, which also means you can judge it before granting anything.
What the panel shows, how to install and pin it, the single permission it asks for, and how to withdraw it.
What does signing in add, and what does it cost you?
It adds your own positions: what the portfolio is worth, what it made or lost today, and your largest holdings by value. In Artha's extension that costs exactly one permission, `portfolio:read`, approved on a consent screen and revocable from Settings.
Two honest limits. The figures are as of your last broker sync rather than a live broker session, so they move when you sync rather than second by second, and the panel prints that timestamp rather than hiding it. And if you have not connected a broker, the panel has nothing to show and says so, which is a normal state rather than an error.
What can an extension like this see on the pages you visit?
That depends entirely on what it asked for at install time, and it is worth reading. An extension that requests access to all websites can read the pages you open; one that requests a single host cannot.
The Artha extension requests two hosts: arthaterminal.com and the sign-in host behind it. It injects no script into any page, records no address you visit, and has no order path. Those are checkable claims — an extension's permissions are listed on its Chrome Web Store listing — and checking them is the right habit for any extension that sits next to your financial data.