Online Finance Wishlist: Can you show a brother some love?

by on February 2, 2010

So much progress has been made in online finance, but man,  we still have so much more to do! While the amount of investing information has exploded online, there are still major gaps in many of the top sites that seem like no-brainers to fix.

The following list — submitted to me over the past 12 months by investors using online financial research tools — is just a smattering of some of the low hanging fruit that the largest investment sites can improve upon:

  • General lack of ETF information: With the (strange) takedown of ETFConnect last year, how come so little information about ETFs is available for free on the major finance portals?  Google Finance (example) and AOL’s DailyFinance (example) — ETFs appear to be an afterthought.  I’m thinking we need some of the same info XTF provides through SeekingAlpha (example): things like tracking errors and expense ratios are the most basic.
  • Long live live quotes: Without beating a dead horse, if you have free live quotes on sites like Yahoo Finance, why would you bother to display delayed quotes as well (example)?  That’s like having your GPS set 15 minutes ago.  Why, Yahoo Finance, do you continue to display the delayed quotes so prominently??
  • Google Finance ‘news’: You call that news? I am a fan of Google Finance but the news module on the site’s quote pages (example) is far from adequate.  I use Google Finance for quotes and charting and then literally have to leave the site to go find a recent press release on another site.
  • MarketWatch quote page trainwreck: Can you say trainwreck on MarketWatch’s quote pages (example)? While the site used to be a must-read most mornings, it feels like the Dow Jones/News Corp site has lost much of its relevancy over the past 1-2 years.
  • DailyFinance stuffed to the gills:  Everything you could possible want (and more) on AOL Money’s new incarnation, but where the hell is it (example)?  Trying to research stocks on Daily Finance is like trying to find Waldo.  That said, kudos to the team for their recent launch of a serious competitor.  I predicted the nice, new site will be a worthy contender in 2010.

Do you have a wishlist?  Pet peeves?  Let me know in the comments below.

Tagged as: AOL, finance, google, investing, marketwatch, yahoo

  • better aggregation is always a need. AbnormalReturns is a great example of a human cultivating the landscape for great reads. There needs to be a quant based aggregator as well based on pageviews, retweets on twitter, or some form of user 'approval.' There are a few great 'digg-like' examples, but no one has truly mastered this space yet.
  • newrulesofinvesting
    great comment. yes, like what AR is doing in real time. Are you saying we also need the techmeme for finance as well?
  • hmm, I'm not sure if techmeme-style is the solution, but it could be. I'm thinking financial aggregation needs to be different solely because everything is needed in real-time. Important information can move markets and as such it needs to be shifted to the top instantly and put in front of viewer's eyes.
  • I think there's a need for two different products - a realtime news solution (SkyGrid and I believe some others are working on this) and a views/opinion solution that is organized like TechMeme, around conversations, with editorial oversight. I started something in the latter direction but it's on hold right now - the idea is here: http://dailycurator.com/?page_id=72
  • mick, i'm with you and hear what you are saying. lots of stuff to be done in this industry.
  • newrulesofinvesting
    marketfolly/MickWe:
    Interesting conversation but even if we get the real-time aspects down for financial news (whether automated or editorially driven), does this actually help the average investor who probably shouldn't be trading on every news story that comes his/her way? I guess what I'm asking is whether this only benefits investment pros and traders?
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