Researchers have developed and demonstrated an artificial intelligence (AI) program that allows them to meet specific investment risk and return goals for large-scale portfolios containing hundreds of assets. "We wanted to know whether we could use machine learning to improve the Sharpe Ratio in order to get better information on what to buy, sell or keep in your portfolio to enhance your portfolio performance over periods of 6-12 months," says Mehmet Caner, co-author of a paper on the work. "This work shows that we can." Caner is the Thurman-Raytheon Distinguished Professor of Economics in NC State's Poole College of Management. The Sharpe Ratio is a way of measuring the trade-off an investor's portfolio makes between the magnitude of their returns and the risk that their holdings will lose value.