http://www.barrons.com/articles/alexa-get-me-an-apple-quote-1486794340 Interactive Brokers has introduced IBot, an artificial-intelligence-enabled tool that understands oral commands. It arrives just as a number of online brokers are providing answers to much more basic requests over voice-activated systems like Amazon’s ubiquitous Alexa. IBot can respond to plain English requests such as, “What’s my account margin?” and “What’s my P&L for today?” with written online answers (no Alexa or Siri voice here). It can also answer inquiries about price quotes, option chains, order placement, and upcoming corporate events. Asking, “What are Apple’s most recent earnings?” brings you a display, and from there you can say, “Buy 200 shares of Apple.” The latter opens an order entry screen that you can edit or submit. Thomas Peterffy, Interactive Brokers’ chairman and founder, says he has been working on the firm’s flagship platform, Trader Workstation, or TWS, for more than a quarter of a century. “We spend more and more on development every year, which gives the platform an increasing amount of functionality,” Peterffy says. “As we add features, it’s difficult for the average client to figure out what TWS can do, and how to get to the various features.” He recently realized that though the platform is his creation, even he isn’t certain how to navigate to some features. Interactive Brokers’ clients can now give their accounts verbal commands via IBot. The initial implementation of IBot offers basic answers to natural language questions. But future iterations will allow richer interactions. “Eventually, you will be able to talk to your system as though you were talking to a wealth advisor,” says Peterffy. The learning curve for using TWS effectively should flatten significantly. The IBot feature, he says, is “the ultimate in user friendliness.” He believes that it’s the best way to smooth the customer experience as Interactive Brokers continue to build the platform.
Yeah... except my computer won't take me out for a nice lunch. More seriously though, I think it's all a bunch of hype. I don't see the point of it. There are far too many complexities and nuances to make it useful. Maybe for the sort of people who use Robinhood, but not for the typical IB customer !
The highlighted above is a very disturbing statement. He's been working on it for over 25 years, yet does not know all the ins-and-outs of his flagship platform? Run away, pass GO and forget the $200. GTFO of that company.
He's in his 70s and worth $10- 15 billion. Does Warren Buffett knows the terms of every deal his insurance companies underwrite?
Yep. Here's a similar example. User A with the mouse... *Clicks "buy 100 shares of AAPL at $100.00"* Order filled. Done. At same time, user B with voice recognition... "Buy 100 shares of Apple at $100.00". "Buy 100 shares of Snapple at $100.00. Is this correct?" "No, buy 100 shares of APPLE." "Please cancel you previous order request before making a new order request." "Cancel order." "Order cancelled." "Buy 100 shares of APPLE." "Buy 100 shares of Snapple. Is this correct?" "No. Cancel order" "Order cancelled." "Buy 100 shares of Apple computer." "Buy 100 shares of Apple Computers. Is this correct?" "Yes." "Order placed for Buy 100 shares of Apple Computers, symbol AACP". "What? No, Apple Computer, symbol AAPL!" "Please cancel previous buy order if you made an error." "I didn't make the error, YOU DID!" "No need to get testy, sir/ma'am." "I'm a guy, by the way." "As you say, SIR." *sighs* "Cancel buy order for 100 shares of Apple Computers." "Order cancelled." "Buy 100 shares of APPLE COMPUTER, AAPL." "Buy 100 shares of APPLE COMPUTER, AAPL. Is this correct?" "Yes" "Order placed for buy 100 shares of Apple Compu....Order filled." (User A with the mouse clicked *sell 100 shares AAPL at $101.00 per share*. Order filled.) "What was my entry price?" "$101.00 per share." "Thank you". A silly example, but something that people should think of when thinking of relying on voice-recognition technology and rudimentary AI to trade their live accounts. ;-)
TWS is millions of lines of code. I have written UI programs with less than 20,000 lines of code for users and i cant remember all the functionality they provide just a few months later.
Well, in Peterffy's example, wouldn't it be a good thing to get regular updates from the dev team on the functionality of the flagship platform, so you can explain to people how it works? Taking ownership of that which you own? Like once-per-week updates or something?
What is the point of this? we have trading apps on our phones if we need to manage our positions while away. I for sure do not want to be having to deal with a robot on the other side of the phone if i really need help.