You Can Time A Swim Meet With CNBC’s New Graphics — If You Can Read Them

“We’ve made a number of enhancements to our real-time data screens,” CNBC’s Bill Griffeth told viewers around 12:30pm. The network has added company names to the stock tickers on the bottom of the screen, and has added a “markets bar” at the top of the screen.

CNBC has also unveiled “new state-of-the-art three-dimensional displays for quotes and charts. We love this! And we know you do too,” Griffeth said. A minute later, Sue Herera said the tech staff did an amazing job, “and the viewers love it.” But I’m not sure that’s true. In an e-mail to TVNewser, a Manhattan investment banker writes:

“Real squawk boxes on Wall Street are simple intercom systems that are always on and idiot proof. Pick up the handset, squeeze-to-talk, talk! I wish I could say the same about CNBC’s new graphics. Don’t they realize most traders are watching CNBC from a TV 5-10 feet away (usually hanging from the ceiling)? The new graphics are too small. The scroll on top is totally useless since you can’t see it. Their intra-day graphs have a clock that goes down to a hundredth of a second? You’ve gotta be kidding me. From a distance, just let me know if it’s an intraday graph or historical graph (90, 180 days). Hundredth of a second? What am I going to do with that, time a swim meet?”

Speaking of the 3D charts: The screens are having trouble with noon and midnight. After 12pm, the hundred of a second time clocks said it was 12 AM, not PM…

> Also: Griffeth said that in the coming weeks CNBC will be “rolling out a new generation of never-before-screen graphics to make deciphering the markets and the news easier than ever.”