The self-driving car of investments

In October last year, fintech company NMRQL launched its first unit trust in South Africa. The NMRQL SCI Balanced Fund is the first local unit trust to exclusively use machine learning for managing its portfolio. Using computers in investment management is certainly not a new idea, as there are already a number of funds run using quantitative models and many active managers use these systems in their decision making. This is however the first fund giving South African investors the chance to see if machines on their own can make better investment decisions than humans. Proponents of artificial intelligence argue that this won't be much of a contest, given what has already been achieved.