The Messy, Booming, Unproven World of AI-Powered Day Trading

Jake Nesler’s AI trading bot got one big decision right in its first week. It ignored the chase.

When Nvidia Corp.’s earnings sent the stock surging in late November, the agent — trained on Nesler’s own trading instincts — argued with itself over whether to follow the momentum. Fortunately, the bot decided against it, as chasing the high would have lumbered Nesler’s portfolio with an estimated $10,000 loss that week.

Nesler, a 29-year-old software engineer in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had burned himself out trying to trade options around his day job. He found himself inspired by an Anthropic experiment in ...