Is ChatGPT A Better Financial Advisor? Edition 2: The First Week Is In

Author: AJ Fabino | May 17, 2023 01:41pm

In Benzinga’s last installment, a novel experiment was introduced where we put OpenAI's ChatGPT to the test in the world of investing.

The challenge? To see if ChatGPT can design a portfolio that outperforms some of the leading U.S. equity funds. The AI had a mission to work with a theoretical $10,000 to create a diverse portfolio of 40 stocks, drawing from the 10 most popular U.S. equity funds of 2021.

Well, the wait is over and as promised, Benzinga is revealing the funds, ETFs and indices that ChatGPT was put up against.

Here are the top-tier competitors in Benzinga’s AI vs. human financial advisors showdown:

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY)
Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ)
Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund (TSX:MUTF)
Vanguard Growth Index Fund Admiral Shares (MUTF: VIGAX)
Vanguard Value Index Fund Admiral Shares (MUTF: VVIAX)
iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSE:EFA)
Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund Admiral Shares (MUTF: VTABX)
Fidelity Contrafund (MUTF: FCNTX)
T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund (MUTF: PRGFX)
Fidelity Total Market Index Fund (MUTF: FSKAX)

These funds represent a wide array of investment strategies, from broad market coverage to specific growth and value plays, international bonds to tech-focused portfolios.

And now, the moment of truth: How did Benzinga’s AI-crafted portfolio perform in its first week?

Fund/ETF	1-Week Performance
SPDR S&P 500 ETF	+0.49%
Invesco QQQ Trust	+0.95%
Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund	-0.73%
Vanguard Growth Index Fund	+0.46%
Vanguard Value Index Fund	-0.34%
iShares MSCI EAFE ETF	0.00%
Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund	-0.71%
Fidelity Contrafund	+0.22%
T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund	+0.18%
Fidelity Total Market Index Fund	-0.49%

ChatGPT	1-Week Performance
Benzinga’s ChatGPT Portfolio	+1.04%

Benzinga’s AI portfolio saw a rise of over 1%. Remarkably, it means that the AI outperformed 100% of the leading funds it was stacked against. To put it into perspective, the only fund to come close to Benzinga’s portfolio gains were the Q’s, with a 0.95% gain over the last week.

Click here to see what is in the Benzinga AI portfolio.

Of course, it is only one week into Benzinga’s six-month experiment, and the world of investing is anything but predictable. But, the early results do offer an intriguing glimpse into the potential of AI in the financial sector.

Remember, the objective of this series is not to promote AI as a replacement for human financial advisors. Rather, Benzinga aims to highlight its potential as a tool to support investment decision-making. ChatGPT, while powerful, does not have real-time data comprehension or the ability to understand individual financial situations.

It’s also not a licensed financial advisor.

But it does make for a very interesting experiment.

Join Benzinga next Wednesday as we continue to track the performance of ChatGPT’s portfolio against these top-tier funds in the next edition of “Is ChatGPT A Better Financial Advisor?”

Read Next: OpenAI CEO Warns Of AI’s Dark Side, Urges Regulation In Senate Testimony

Photo: Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Posted In: EFA QQQ SPY TSX:MUTF