Ups and downs of that sort can spark emotional buying and selling responses. Prompted by the thought of losing all our money, we exit our investments to cut out losses – often only to repent at leisure when markets recover. Between 1986 and 2015, for example, the US S&P returned 10.35 per cent annually, but the average investor only made 3.66 per cent per year, according to investor behaviour analysts Dalbar.
But what if an external fiscal partner prevented us from such ad hoc choices by keeping our investments in line with our more rational values? Historian and author Yuval Noah Harari described the concept in a seminal 2019 TED interview, suggesting that artificial intelligence could work as a benign second brain to stop us from acting against our preferred risk profiles. Data proves that algorithms make superior decisions to humans, Mr Harari explained – something that may not be beneficial in romance or politics, but is certainly welcome in finance.