Google Finance gets a refresh to suit the needs of new retail investors

Google announced a revamp of its Finance product today, making it easier for casual investors to see, organize, and track their stock portfolios. The new interface has a nice new splash of color to better differentiate stocks, but there’s also some functional additions that will genuinely make a difference.

Abner Li at 9to5Google:

A “Watchlists” feature helps users group stocks and find “relevant news, stats and earnings details.” This is intended to provide context on stock movements, while Google “later this year” will add model portfolios to let you “track daily gains or losses and review news that is relevant to your portfolio.”

To me this feels like catch up with Robinhood. That product has certainly won the hearts and minds of young retail investors in the midst of this year’s economic crisis, and Google Finance, up to now, wasn’t offering anything close to an alternative. Now, Google says you’ll even be able to create portfolios in Finance that reflect your actual portfolio… but that feature isn’t coming til later this year.

The comparison quickly breaks down because, obviously, Google Finance is not a brokerage.

The redesign is rolling out to the US over the coming weeks. More at 9to5Google.