Page 2 of 2

 

It has become highly unlikely for an individual investor to make the one big deal at a time when companies span the globe with a tightly knit network of process chains and news make the round within seconds with the help of social media.

It took a stock guru to realize the change, Paul Tudor Jones. In 2016, he said «no man is better than a machine, and no machine better than a man with a machine.»

Learning Machines

Michael Appenzeller, a Swiss fintech entrepreneur, agrees. He builds portfolios with the help of artificial intelligence. «The world has become too closely interconnected and the financial markets too complex for a singly man being able to make competent investment decisions. Therefore, we are using learning machines that support human beings in making investment decisions.»

This suggests that the stock guru of tomorrow will have to share his claim to fame with a machine, in fact maybe even will have to let algorithms to take center stage. The funds of Renaissance Technologies for instance have become widely admired, but the founder of the firm, mathematician James Simons, is virtually unknown.

Anonymous Gurus?

Remaining anonymous has also become a habit among activist investors, who some see as the gurus of tomorrow. Cevian, a Swedish holding company, is currently pursuing the sale of Swiss logistics firm Panalpina at all cost. But apart from its founder, Lars Foerberg, nobody of the driving forces behind the firm has emerged to defend their strategy in public – they prefer to remain anonymous.

At the end of the day, it is not the trader as such that is biding his farewell, but the individual investor. When Carmignac handed his Patrimoine funds over to David Older and Rose Ouahba, he said that he was happy to be able to support such a talented team in the management of the business.