Financial markets embrace brave new world of AI - France 24

Artificial Intelligence has spread rapidly across markets in recent years as traders constantly strive to gain the upper hand, while regulators have given a guarded welcome to the cutting-edge technology. High-frequency trading propelled by algorithms has reigned over the past decade, as banks and funds take advantage of small price fluctuations on many markets to carry out thousands of deals in a fraction of a second. Complex mathematical equations have long been used to conduct certain operations -- for example, selling or buying a security if it breaches a certain level. Yet algorithms have come under fierce criticism over "flash crashes", such as a dizzying slump in the British pound in October 2016 that was widely blamed on high-frequency deals. Artificial Intelligence now seeks to take trading into new realms, where "machine learning" (ML) software compares dozens of databases in the blink of an eye to monitor risk.