ChatGPT is trying to beat the stock market.
Would you trust it with your money?
A Reddit user has sparked interest with an unconventional financial experiment: giving ChatGPT $100 and letting it trade stocks.
Nathan Smith launched the six-month project to see how well OpenAI’s GPT-4o could pick under-the-radar stocks with minimal capital. In its first month, the AI-powered portfolio jumped 25% — outperforming major small-cap indexes like the Russell 2000 and XBI, and even the S&P 500, which only rose by about 3%.
While the dollar gain was modest ($25), the performance itself raises intriguing questions about AI's stock-picking potential.
However, the experiment isn’t entirely autonomous. Smith inputs trading data daily and enforces strict stop-loss rules, meaning human oversight remains crucial.
Past academic studies offer mixed reviews on AI’s ability to trade profitably at scale, warning that consistent success by AI could reshape market behavior itself. Still, Smith's project — born from skepticism over flashy AI investment ads — is a compelling case study in the power and limitations of AI-assisted investing. Whether the portfolio continues to outperform remains to be seen.