Comparing Inconsistent Stock Charts on the Internet

As I discussed a few weeks ago, finding stocks making new all-time highs underscores the potential inconsistencies of free stock charts on the internet. One of my recent posts identified Pioneer Southwest Energy (PSE), a US stock making an all-time new high price. As you will see, the stock charts were inconsistent to the extent that some sources show it reaching a new all-time high, whereas other sources show it is below its all-time high price. Here is a comparison of several free stock charts:

Finviz clearly shows that the stock is making a new all-time high on multiple time-frames (daily, weekly)

BigCharts shows an all-time new closing high on a weekly time-frame in the first week of October, but the price has not exceeded several of the highest daily closes in June 2008.

FreeStockCharts (by Worden) confirms the chart from BigCharts...

so does the chart from Google Finance ...

and the chart from Yahoo! Finance.

I'm giving the final word to the company's website which provides the chart below, showing a new closing weekly high, but no high on a daily basis. This suggests that the Finviz chart is incorrect.

Conclusion:

In this comparison of multiple internet-based stock charts, one source shows a stock well above resistance and making a new all-time high, whereas the other sources show a stock near, but below, its all-time high price. According to most of the charts, this stock still needs to move higher to breakout and overcome remaining overhead resistance. As I said before: caveat emptor.

An interesting twist on this, however, is that technical analysis and trading strategies depend on what the other market participants are doing, so if some traders are using inaccurate data for their decisions then shouldn't that data still be useful?