Enhancements to ChatGPT now enable investors to leverage the tool more efficiently. With its launch on November 30, 2022, ChatGPT revolutionized artificial intelligence applications, quickly gaining over 100 million monthly active users within just two months, as reported by UBS, marking it the most rapidly expanding consumer application in history.
Previously, I explored how ChatGPT’s capabilities stirred curiosity about its potential role in investment strategies. Nevertheless, my central reservation revolved around its limitation in delivering real-time insights about companies’ financial states, prevailing market scenarios, sectorial trends, and other crucial details.
My concerns seem less significant now since ChatGPT recently included web browsing and plugins. These two features enable ChatGPT to stay updated and synchronize with other tools that supply real-time data.
These additions are, however, exclusive to ChatGPT Plus users, the premium subscribers of the AI tool. ChatGPT Plus users can access these facilities by visiting settings and beta features and activating the “Browse with Bing” and “Plugins” options.
Maximizing the Web Browsing Feature Being an informed investor necessitates having access to the latest available information. Lack of this might lead to undesirable investment decisions. Earlier, you could only access information as recent as the latest ChatGPT training data update. Now, the web browsing feature enables you to pull real-time data from the internet.
I experimented with this feature by asking ChatGPT to “find the latest news about Apple that an investor should know before making an investment decision.” It returned information about Apple’s Vision Pro Headset, new 15-inch MacBook Air, and new Mac Studio announced just the previous day.
In contrast, the original ChatGPT-4, when presented with the same query, acknowledged its inability to browse the internet in real-time or retrieve instant news updates, citing its training cut-off in September 2021.
Furthermore, the web browsing feature facilitates sentiment analysis by scanning news articles, social media posts, forums, and various web pages, thus providing a snapshot of public opinion about a particular company or industry. While public sentiment should not dictate investment decisions, understanding the general feeling can occasionally be beneficial.
Warren Buffett’s famed advice, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful,” captures the significance of gauging market sentiment in investment decisions.
Employing ChatGPT Plugins ChatGPT’s plugin feature enables the AI tool to directly engage with numerous platforms and services that provide valuable investment information about markets and corporations, which can be particularly beneficial for financial analysis.
For instance, by installing the Public plugin, I could ask ChatGPT to provide a summary of C3.ai Inc’s 2023 fiscal year financials, including data about the company’s revenue, gross profit, and many other metrics. Further analysis of C3.ai yielded the buy/sell ratio and current analyst recommendations, updated on June 6 and June 3, respectively.
You could also employ the plugins to gain insight into ratios such as price-to-earnings, debt-to-equity, price-to-sales, and price-to-book. Access to these metrics directly within the ChatGPT platform can prove highly convenient.
However, acquiring raw data is just the first step. It becomes precious when you can leverage ChatGPT to analyze and provide context to this information.
Balancing AI and Human Insight with ChatGPT While ChatGPT’s capabilities are impressive, it’s crucial to remember that it should serve as a resource, not replace your judgment. Despite its ability to retrieve information swiftly and break down complex topics, it cannot replicate your unique personal experiences and intuition, an often overlooked but integral aspect of investing.
The optimal approach is to balance AI and human insight that best suits your investment strategy. You could use ChatGPT for financial analysis while integrating your understanding of a company’s leadership and your impressions of its performance.
ChatGPT’s new features — web browsing and plugins — have enhanced its utility as a tool for investors. It can provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date view of investment opportunities by enabling real-time information retrieval and integration with other data sources. Nevertheless, it’s critical to remember that AI should supplement, not replace, human judgment and insight. The powerful combination of AI-powered analysis with individual intuition and experience can lead to more informed investment decisions. As we move forward, it will be exciting to see how investors continue to harness the power of AI and strike a balance with their intuition to drive successful investment strategies.
