Yes, the obvious one is the trend following system the Turtle Traders used, where you buy when the stock has reached an all time high. The reason that trend following strategy hasn't caught on with hedge funds is you have to deal with potential drawdowns in monthly returns, which will cause investors to bail. But if you are an individual investor who can ride out the drawdown (of say buying Nvidia at its all time high of $140.76), that simple strategy is net profitable.
Usually when it is a disagreement, we who are doing quantitativer must define the concept. The stable profit comparison object is the benchmark "risk-free rate" of the same period.
Check the list of winners for the Robbins World Cup Championship. Many of them use automated strategies.
only a human would ask that question meanwhile machines do there thing not even aware, the frailty of human minds.