Skeptics warn technology exposes less-experienced investors to new risks
Americans are building stock-trading algorithms through simple written prompts and handing their portfolios to AI agents that buy and sell assets autonomously, The Wall Street Journal reported in its What’s News newsletter.
The practice, which the Journal’s summary described as “vibe-coding” trading algorithms, lowers the barrier to strategies once accessible only to the technically skilled.
For retail investors, sophisticated trading approaches have historically required programming ability or access to professional tools. AI assistants can now build an automated strategy from written prompts, allowing retail traders to operate without watching the market, the Journal reported.
The technology lets traders “crunch numbers at a superhuman scale without even watching the market,” the Journal’s summary said.
AI agents can place buy and sell orders on their own, putting automated trading — previously restricted to traders with programming skill — within reach of ordinary retail users, according to the Journal.
Skeptics told the Journal the technology could expose less-experienced investors to new dangers.
The Journal’s newsletter did not name specific platforms, describe reported incidents, or estimate how many retail investors have turned portfolio decisions over to AI agents, leaving the scale and scope of the shift, and the new dangers skeptics flagged, undefined.