By Andrew Rice, Partner and Portfolio Manager
We may often come off as skeptical about AI in our newsletter. Our skepticism is primarily centered on the AI capital spend and AI company valuations rather than the AI tools themselves, which we have found both useful and exciting. In that spirit, I’m going to walk you through a simple example of how we have used AI tools in our research process.
Our portfolio has had a fair amount of international exposure over the last 9 months, so I wanted to create a monitor of how various countries have been performing of late. I can pull a list of foreign ETF trailing returns with no effort, but what I really wanted was a map so I could easily see regional variations vs. single country variations.
There’s no driving business need for this map and it’s unlikely to generate a dollar of revenue. And so just a few years ago, I would not have bothered to take the week or so of time it would have taken to write and debug the map code myself. With ChatGPT (or Claude or Gemini or your LLM of choice), I no longer needed to consider whether making that map was worth a week of my time because I could now accomplish it with about 30-60 minutes of active time while ChatGPT did the brunt of the work.
I began by double checking with the LLM whether I had an exhaustive list of single-country ETFs. It suggested three countries I hadn’t included, but it turned out these had been de-listed anyway. I ended up with a list of 44 countries that have dedicated US-listed ETFs.
Next, I simply told the LLM I wanted Python code to be able to generate a daily map of trailing 1-month returns for each of the countries in my list relative to the all-world index. I got semi-workable Python code within about 90 seconds. The rest of the minimal time invested was spent debugging and tweaking the output.
If I was doing this myself, any error would have resulted in combing line-by-line through the code, and if nothing obvious jumped out at me, searching for documentation on the map or data retrieval libraries and/or combing through old Stack Overflow posts. Each bug could have taken 1-4 hours to resolve on its own. Instead, I got workable, fixed code back within 30-120 seconds of LLM thinking time after sharing the error messages in the chat.
And with minimal effort, I now have a script I can run every day that generates the map below, allowing me to check in on the latest foreign stock market performance as part of my morning routine.
This is an excerpt I wrote for the May 2026 edition of our Monthly Newsletter, Un-Herd. Also in this edition:
- Memory Monopoly: DRUM Beggers Can’t Be Choosers
- (Not so) Dire Straits?
- The Wire Fraud Epidemic and How to Protect Your Firm (Podcast)
- Herd Behavior: ETF Leaders and Laggards
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This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell or solicit any security or financial product. Inherent in any investment is the risk of loss.
The information presented in this report is based on data obtained from third party sources. Although it is believed to be accurate, no representation or warranty is made as to its accuracy or completeness. The charts and infographics contained in this blog are typically based on data obtained from third parties and are believed to be accurate. The commentary included is the opinion of the author and subject to change at any time.
Certain information contained herein constitutes “forward-looking statements,” which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” or “believe,” or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or actual performance may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Nothing contained herein may be relied upon as a guarantee, promise, assurance or a representation as to the future.
The views and opinions expressed throughout this presentation are those of the presenter as of date the podcast is episode is published. The opinions or outlooks may change over time with changing market conditions or other relevant variables.
Algorithmic Investment Models (AIM) is an asset manager registered with the SEC and provides ETF portfolios to financial advisor and institutions.
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