[Forge36]

Having spoken with few people, the process is still mostly people, building algorithms in Excel. Much of what drives decisions is research, and personal decision's, not automation.

I've heard AI trading has done very poorly as the system isn't predictable, it's people making decisions in ways which can become self fulfilling prophesies.

Algorithms when distributed would also fall victim to the fastest person benefiting the most

[biggestdecision]

An index fund isn't doing research or making decisions though.

They invest in companies that make up an index. When a company enters the index they buy units in that company, when a company leaves the index they sell those units.

[dkarras]

But this is not supposedly true for index funds by definition. They are passive. They just buy whatever is in the index. No other decisions made.

[echelon]

What sorts of things do you track and model in Excel? I've been looking at fundamentals and the business landscape. What should I add?

[kqr]

> I've heard AI trading has done very poorly as the system isn't predictable

So have humans, which is one reason index funds exist.