Technology

Man vs machine

Welcome to the world of machine investment. We look at two South African companies that offer fully computerised investment. Is this the future?

03 June 2020

For the better part of two decades, there’s been raucous debate in the investment community as to whether machines can beat humans at investing.

And machines are certainly making their case. High-frequency traders (HFTs) using algorithms that look for pre-determined trading signals now account for the bulk of market trades around the world. The holy grail for HFTs is to detect opportunities and execute trades at the speed of light, which explains why so many of them are located within metres of the stock exchange trading engines. An advantage of a millisecond or two in speed over your competition means the difference between profit and loss.

ITWeb Premium

Get 3 months of unlimited access
No credit card. No obligation.

Already a subscriber Log in