Free real-time stock quotes coming soon

Tired of dealing with 15- or 20-minute delayed stock quotes on the internet? Now you won't have to. The Associated Press reports that CNBC, Google, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and Xignite are teaming up with the NASDAQ OMX Group to offer free real-time stock quotes, without a subscription.

This isn't that exciting: most retail investors are already to get free real-time quotes through the websites of the brokerages they use -- Fidelity, Schwab, E*Trade, Ameritrade, ScottTrade and every other broker I can think of already offers this service.

The question is whether investors should be excited and, I believe, the answer is a resounding no. Warren Buffett has said that investors should only buy stocks they would be comfortable owning if the market closed for 10 years. Online trading has led to many investors checking their stocks hourly, turning it into a video game atmosphere of overtrading, speculative buying, and panic selling. I cringe when I think about how much money retail investors have lost because of "free real-time stock quotes!"