Investorial

google-finance-screenshot.thumbnail.jpg"/>I previously wrote about a data problem I noticed with Google Finance’s display of a stock’s timeframe. Turns out it was a designed feature! I’ve since leveraged Google Finance as a starting point to look at my watch list. However, I remain skeptical of Google’s ability to integrate data.

Today, I was looking at a Google Finance stock quote. Even though I have previously blogged negatively about Tim Horton’s IPO, there is no question in my mind that Tim Horton’s is still the strongest franchise name that Canada can offer. I have Tim Hortons (THI) in my watch-list for a possible entry point in the future. Take a look at the bigger screenshot after the jump to see the errors Google Finance displayed for me.

Now, I understand Google is not offering full data and information for stocks on foreign exchanges. However, this quote is for Tim Hortons on the NYSE! You can see that the 52 week highs and lows are nowhere near what is displayed on the chart. The chart shows a closing high of $28.78 where I indicated. Is Google making a prediction that THI will hit $30 within the next 52 weeks?

Meanwhile, Yahoo Finance is not only accurate with its numbers, but even derives its 52 week highs and lows from intra-day prices, rather than only closing prices. Yahoo’s record of THI historical prices confirms that, as of this writing, the 52-week closing high was only $28.78 achieved on May 3, 2006.

What Did We Learn?
The moral of the story is that nothing will replace an investor’s observation skills. If investors depend on other people’s data and do not seek to question them, then they have only themselves to blame for their investment failures. Google’s entry into finance may be welcomed by me, and well-intentioned. But besides making excellent use of my monitor’s display space with its well-designed interface, Google Finance need to seriously bump up their level of service in terms of data accuracy!

P.S. I was right about the IPO, wasn’t I?

Related Posts:

• Google Finance Finally Adds Pre-Bubble History, But Data Accuracy Still An Issue
• Google Finance Censoring Data?
• Goggle Spreadsheets: Very Close To Usable
• Who Manages The Indexes?