Computer Charlatans?

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; One cannot ignore the number of people who are pretending to have AI computer systems when they have no computer skills whatsoever and wouldn’t know the first thing about AI. I have investigated the industry and nobody has employed any machine learning capability to even match what your Global Market Watch does. Do you believe that your system will evolve so profoundly to replace all analysis and funds management making them obsolete?

PJ

ANSWER: It is a shame that there are so many charlatans out there claiming to have artificial intelligence when in fact it is nothing more than a standard program that follows a specific code. That technology has been around since the 1980s. Yes, they have done far more damage to the field because they are just bullshit artists. You can create a trading program and call it “Thor” if you like, but it will still be a flat model working on a single market.

There is absolutely no one in the industry who has dared to step into the field of machine learning. So few people (probably 97% of all programmers) are even aware of how to create such systems. Creating a system that adapts and learns by writing its own code is so advanced that it is not understood in mainstream. It defies normal programming techniques.

To accomplish what we have done took decades of work. It also took a countless amount of data that no individual could possibly review in a lifetime. So how can anyone come up with such a system in a few months? Impossible. The cost runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not some $500 program out of the box. There is so much more; it is really incredible.

Yes, I believe the computer will displace all analysis as well as fund management. Most hedge funds have lost money. Why? They inject too much human analysis. The same with analysts. The days of “I think” are seriously numbered. You cannot win with a program that only tracks a single market.