Let’s Identify a Replacement for Yahoo Finance – Conversation on the Fintech Genome

As Yahoo Finance was sold to Verizon and Matt Levine (Bloolmberg View) asked the existential question “What may become of the VerizAolHoo entity and LBRY (Left-Behind Remainder Yahoo)”; a great conversation started on the Fintech Genome:

“Is anybody working on a replacement of Yahoo finance?”

Bernard Lunn, a long time user of the free Yahoo Finance fundamental data services, had spotted the decline of the old-time disruptor (Yahoo Finance) close to 2yrs ago!

Rant Alert! Yahoo is getting worse and it is so simple to fix.  

Prathamesh Godbole, founder of Tradestream from Mumbai india and Eric Forgy, founder of Coherent Asia from Hong Kong, were actively involved in sharing their knowledge.

Yahoo Finance offers real time data for free and a fundamental statistics that are typically only available in paid services. Tip Ranks, that I have personally tested myself, when reviewing the Daily Fintech Index publicly traded stocks after the Brexit to identify those that dropped more than 10% and more than 7%; has limitations in the free version. The size of the portfolio, delayed data and limited fundamental and sentiment statistics.

Prathamesh points that real time data that Yahoo finance offers, is costly. Google Finance, Finviz, Marketwatch are the natural names that come to mind. Prathamesh makes the distinction between Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg. DIY investors are looking for a sweet spot between these two, whereas analysts are more demanding and concerned with a variety of efficiencies and naturally willing to pay for enhanced services.

From the recent dozen exchanges of the conversation, there are two companies to check out and decide which one fits the bill of replacing the simple Yahoo Finance service for DIY investors. Bernard Lunn is looking for:

• A UI that works.
• A service that is simple and needed (e.g. Bernard looks for PEG).
• A service that will entice experienced users into more complex functionality later.

Prathamesh, founder of the early stage Fintech Tradestream, demoes their service for a sample portfolio that I picked from the Daily Fintech Index holdings.

Some data is missing as they are seeding their databases from various sources and stocks traded on more alternative exchanges (like BATs) are not yet accommodated. This level of service will remain free at Tradestream and the monetization will come from Pay Per Action to brokers and Advisers, who use the free service to construct their own portfolios. Essentially, overlaying a robo-advisory type of service on top of a free but enhanced data service.

Tradestream is accessing financial data and digitizing it from sources like Quandl, Quotemedia, and Exchange Data International and the stock exchanges directly.

Eric Forgy suggests to check out Quandl, a Toronto-based Startup that I had read about in the Financial Revolutionist (#35) in early July. I initially thought it was very similar to to Thinknum, which I had profiled a year ago and which is really for analysts rather than DIY with a great UI and a simple clear focus.  As I personally checked out Quandl, I realized that they have a different focus that addresses the variety of technical integration needs of all professionals that need numerical data access. They cater to Python users, API, Excel, and any other tool (currently 25+) to make your access to hundred so databases seamless. Thinknum is focused on free structured financial data and subscriptions for easily accessing non-financial data. Quandl is focused on financial data and the integration process.

I suspect that Quandl is doing wonders on Excel, which is where I can start seeing the Yahoo Finance replacement. However, I cant test it because the Excel add-in download works only for Windows and I am a Mac user (with Office suite). The service seems simple and should entice experienced users since. Once the add-in is downloaded then it seems to function much like the GoogleFinance functions that we are all familiar with on Spreadsheets on GoogleDrive. The limited functions of the GoogleDrive functionality. I am sure are overcome by Quandl. I am looking forward to the Mac version.

You can check out more details on this conversation here and join with more innovations that fit the bill of a Yahoo Finance replacement with:

• A UI that works.
• A service that is simple and needed (e.g. Bernard looks for PEG).
• A service that will entice experienced users into more complex functionality later.

Which companies have we missed? Are brokers the ones that will fix this or robo-advisors? Does Robinhood fill in this gap (location restrictions don’t allow me access)? Will Asia fill in the gap and take the crown from the US?

Daily Fintech Advisers provides strategic consulting to organizations with business and investment interests in Fintech & operates the Fintech Genome P2P Knowledge Network.  Efi Pylarinou is a Digital Wealth Management thought leader.