Do stock-pickers have a future?

Published: March 4, 2020, 9:40 a.m.

Research suggests that they underperform robot traders, and most can't even beat the market, so are the days of the celebrity investors and stock market tipsters numbered? Ed Butler speaks to David Aferiat, whose computer-based trading system Holly has been picking the best performing stock picking algorithms since 2016. He claims that Holly consistently outperforms the market. So why rely on humans to make these decisions? Among those weighing the case for man versus machine are an old hand of the City of London, Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management; financial journalist Robin Powell; Ken Merkley of the Kelley School of Business in Indiana; and the veteran fund manager and robo-sceptic Paul Mumford. Producer: Joshua Thorpe (Picture: CNBC's Jim Cramer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange; Credit: Steven Ferdman/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)