Recently listened to the CEO of Castle Securities talk about the connection between AI and investing—pretty interesting stuff. The rise of AI won’t replace traders; instead, it’ll make trading decisions faster and more efficient! Back in the day, the image of financial markets was all about a bunch of people crammed into a trading floor, shouting orders, making calls, slamming phones—competing with their voices and hand speed. Then computers came along, and trading gradually shifted to humans vs. machines (like typing commands into Bloomberg Terminals). Fast forward to today, and most of it has become machines trading with machines, with speeds down to milliseconds or even microseconds. If traders in the ’90s were like “track and field athletes,” relying on physical stamina and endurance, today’s traders are more like “fighter pilots.” They sit in a “cockpit” surrounded by analysis tools, real-time data, and AI model outputs. Machines handle a ton of repetitive, mechanical calculations and executions, while human traders focus on making critical decisions—when to take risks, when to pull back, and when to adjust the models. To put it simply, AI is the “amplifier,” and human traders are the “decision-makers.” So, in my view, the relationship between AI and financial markets is more about “collaboration” rather than “replacement.” Machines solve efficiency problems, while humans bring judgment and creativity. Let AI handle the mechanical mental labor, so humans can focus on higher-value tasks: strategy innovation, cross-market analysis, macro trend forecasting, and risk management.