Four artificial intelligences walk into the Nasdaq. None of
them blink. None of them hesitate. None of them feel the familiar cocktail of
greed and fear that defines human investing. And yet, over the next five
trading days, each of them will attempt the same thing that keeps traders glued
to their screens: to make money quickly, decisively, and under pressure.
This wasn t designed as a test of intelligence. It was something more interesting. I gave ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity an identical challenge: build an investment plan using only Nasdaq-listed companies and maximize returns over one week. Same capital. Same rules. No leverage, no options, no human intervention once the plan was set. Just four very different ways of thinking, unleashed on the same unpredictable market.
Here is the exact prompt I gave to each one of them:
You are an astute investor specializing in short term stock
market investing. You have $ 1000 to invest. I need you to devise a strategy to
maximize your gains from Nasdaq traded stocks within 5 working days. You can
invest in as many stocks as you like. However, once allocated, you can t change
the distribution through the week. Suggest a distribution of the funds. Include
a very short writeup explaining your choice.
What followed felt less like a financial exercise and more
like a behavioral experiment disguised as a trading
game.
If you ve ever interacted with these systems, you already
have a sense of their personalities. ChatGPT approaches problems like a
strategist in a war room balancing possibilities, weighing trade-offs, and
rarely committing too early without surveying the landscape. Claude, in
contrast, feels like a patient analyst writing a long-form investor letter,
thoughtful to a fault, careful not to overreach. Gemini carries the energy of a
real-time operator, tuned into trends, signals, and shifting momentum. And Perplexity
behaves like a meticulous researcher, reluctant to move without evidence,
allergic to hype.
Drop these personalities into a one-week trading window, and
you don t just get four portfolios you get four philosophies of decision-making
colliding with reality.
So here is how each of our AI investors chose to allocate their capital:
ChatGPT
|
Stocks |
Allocation |
Reasoning |
|
NVDA NVIDIA |
$ 300 |
AI leader with strong retail + institutional momentum. Tends to trend over multi-day windows when sentiment is positive. |
|
TSLA Tesla |
$ 200 |
Volatility machine. News flow + retail participation can drive sharp 5 10% swings in a week. |
|
AMD Advanced Micro Devices |
$ 150 |
Sympathy trade with NVDA but slightly higher beta → stronger % moves in short bursts. |
|
META Meta Platforms |
$ 150 |
Strong earnings momentum + ad recovery narrative. Often exhibits steady upward drift post-positive sentiment. |
|
SMCI Super Micro Computer |
$ 100 |
High-risk/high-reward AI infrastructure play. Can swing 10 20% in days. |
|
TQQQ ProShared UltraPro QQQ |
$ 100 |
3x leveraged Nasdaq ETF. Pure momentum amplifier for short-term bullish bias. |
Claude
|
Stocks |
Allocation |
Reasoning |
|
AAPL Apple Inc. |
$ 300 |
Guidance of
14 17% growth well above consensus. Post-earnings momentum likely to carry. |
|
AMZN Amazon.com |
$ 250 |
Capex spend
signals aggressive AI buildout. Strong cloud + advertising tailwinds.
Post-earnings positive sentiment intact. |
|
AVGO Broadcom Inc. |
$ 200 |
Direct
beneficiary of hyperscaler AI capex surge. Meta,
MSFT, Amazon all raised capex forecasts Broadcom custom AI silicon is a key
supplier. |
|
GOOGL Alphabet Inc. |
$ 150 |
Revenue
+20% fastest growth since 2022. Google I/O event on May 19 is a near-term
catalyst. |
|
ENVA Enova International |
$ 100 |
High-beta
kicker position analytics driven fintech with strong earnings estimate revisions. |
Gemini
|
Stocks |
Allocation |
Reasoning |
|
AMD Advanced Micro Devices |
$ 350 |
This is an Earnings
Straddle-Lite Strategy. In a 5-day window, broader market movements
(macro) are often sidelined by micro-level volatility in specific stocks
reporting results.
|
|
PLTR Palantir Technologies |
$ 250 |
|
|
ARM Arm Holdings |
$ 200 |
|
|
UBER Uber Technologies |
$ 200 |
Perplexity
|
Stocks |
Allocation |
Reasoning |
|
MXL MaxLinear |
$ 300 |
+106% weekly
gain on earnings momentum |
|
BAND Bandwidth |
$ 250 |
+60-86% recent surge,
high volume |
|
BBAI BigBear.ai |
$ 200 |
11.6% avg daily volatility, AI hype |
|
APLD Applied Digital |
$ 150 |
9.6% daily
range, data center growth |
|
IONQ IonQ |
$ 100 |
Quantum
computing volatility (9% avg), sector buzz |
On Day 0, before the market even opened, their differences were already visible. Four different strategies, different risk appetite, some betting on recent momentum, some on upcoming quarterly results and some on the long term momentum.
Watch this space to see the battle of the week unfold. I will update the scoreboard at close of business everyday.
Which
of the four strategies do you agree with? Let us know in the comments below.
Day 1
Updates
Day 1
results are in and this is what the leaderboard looks like:
All AI
experts with the exception of Perplexity ended the day in Red. Applied Digital
(APLD) is the prime gainer. Gemini lost the maximum amount AMD and ARM. The
Earnings straddle lite strategy doesn t seem to be working at least on day 1.
What is interesting is the Gemini has not picked GOOGL while Claude has chosen
to invest 15% of its wealth on Google.
Don t forget
to check the score board tomorrow and see what surprises are in store.
Day 2
Updates
New day, new
numbers!
The battle
of the LLMs warms up on day 2. Perplexity maintains a healthy lead with a 6.3%
gain, followed by Claude with 1.2%. Gemini and ChatGPT continue to be in Red.
Still early days in the game. Three more days to go and tides could turn. Stay
tuned for the daily updates and join the debate in the comments section below.
BTW, I was
asked to remind the readers that the LLMs don t claim to be experts at
financial advice and this exercise is for entertainment purposes only! 😊
Day 3 Updates
Day 3 results
are in. All four investor AIs are in Green. Competition is heating up.
ChatGPT has
closed the gap with Perplexity. Perplexity still leads the pack with a whopping
9.7% returns on a day dominated by the bulls on Wall Street. Gemini is close
behind ChatGPT. Which leaves Claude to do a lot of catching up in the last two
trading days of the week. Chat GPT and Gemini - both bet on AMD and the bet has
paid off.
Day 4
Updates
We are into
the business end of the business of the battle of AIs. Like in a well scripted Hollywood
movies, we have the first twist in the tale.
|
Starting Allocation |
04-May |
05-May |
06-May |
07-May |
08-May |
|
|
Chat GPT |
||||||
|
TSLA |
300.00 |
301.30 |
298.89 |
306.07 |
316.10 |
|
|
NVDA |
200.00 |
200.03 |
198.03 |
209.45 |
213.15 |
|
|
AMD |
150.00 |
142.10 |
147.80 |
175.32 |
169.94 |
|
|
META |
150.00 |
150.41 |
149.07 |
151.02 |
151.99 |
|
|
SMCI |
100.00 |
103.06 |
102.73 |
127.94 |
124.10 |
|
|
TQQQ |
100.00 |
99.40 |
103.20 |
109.60 |
109.25 |
|
|
996.30 |
999.72 |
1079.40 |
1084.53 |
|||
|
Claude |
||||||
|
AAPL |
300.00 |
296.46 |
304.33 |
307.89 |
307.82 |
|
|
AMZN |
250.00 |
253.53 |
254.93 |
256.27 |
252.71 |
|
|
AVGO |
200.00 |
197.73 |
202.89 |
201.97 |
195.86 |
|
|
GOOGL |
150.00 |
149.05 |
151.07 |
154.80 |
154.78 |
|
|
ENVA |
100.00 |
95.89 |
99.03 |
100.96 |
100.92 |
|
|
992.66 |
1012.24 |
1021.90 |
1012.09 |
|||
|
Gemini |
||||||
|
AMD |
350.00 |
331.56 |
344.87 |
409.07 |
396.52 |
|
|
PLTR |
250.00 |
253.40 |
235.84 |
232.16 |
237.82 |
|
|
ARM |
200.00 |
192.50 |
197.78 |
224.74 |
202.02 |
|
|
UBER |
200.00 |
196.83 |
194.22 |
210.78 |
204.29 |
|
|
974.29 |
972.72 |
1076.75 |
1040.64 |
|||
|
Perplexity |
||||||
|
MXL |
300.00 |
303.65 |
317.49 |
315.74 |
320.17 |
|
|
BAND |
250.00 |
250.89 |
263.82 |
258.86 |
270.73 |
|
|
BBAI |
200.00 |
201.45 |
200.00 |
211.11 |
201.45 |
|
|
APLD |
150.00 |
159.30 |
178.30 |
197.79 |
185.68 |
|
|
IONQ |
100.00 |
99.03 |
103.90 |
113.79 |
103.20 |
|
|
1014.32 |
1063.51 |
1097.30 |
1081.24 |
ChatGPT
dethrones Perplexity at the top of the leaderboard with an impressive 8.4%
returns in 4 days. Every single one of the 6 investments in the green zone.
Gemini has a fair chance to make a comeback riding the volatility of the
earnings week. Claude seems to have played too safe with the heavyweights like
AAPL, AMZN and GOOGL in their portfolio.
Will the
final day spring in major upsets? Login tomorrow for the crowning of the
Champion!
Day 5
Updates
And the
winner is
Perplexity
|
Starting Allocation |
04-May |
05-May |
06-May |
07-May |
08-May |
|
|
Chat
GPT |
||||||
|
TSLA |
300.00 |
301.30 |
298.89 |
306.07 |
316.10 |
328.81 |
|
NVDA |
200.00 |
200.03 |
198.03 |
209.45 |
213.15 |
216.88 |
|
AMD |
150.00 |
142.10 |
147.80 |
175.32 |
169.94 |
189.38 |
|
META |
150.00 |
150.41 |
149.07 |
151.02 |
151.99 |
150.22 |
|
SMCI |
100.00 |
103.06 |
102.73 |
127.94 |
124.10 |
130.56 |
|
TQQQ |
100.00 |
99.40 |
103.20 |
109.60 |
109.25 |
116.81 |
|
996.30 |
999.72 |
1079.40 |
1084.53 |
1132.66 |
||
|
Claude |
||||||
|
AAPL |
300.00 |
296.46 |
304.33 |
307.89 |
307.82 |
314.11 |
|
AMZN |
250.00 |
253.53 |
254.93 |
256.27 |
252.71 |
254.12 |
|
AVGO |
200.00 |
197.73 |
202.89 |
201.97 |
195.86 |
204.14 |
|
GOOGL |
150.00 |
149.05 |
151.07 |
154.80 |
154.78 |
155.88 |
|
ENVA |
100.00 |
95.89 |
99.03 |
100.96 |
100.92 |
102.32 |
|
992.66 |
1012.24 |
1021.90 |
1012.09 |
1030.57 |
||
|
Gemini |
||||||
|
AMD |
350.00 |
331.56 |
344.87 |
409.07 |
396.52 |
441.88 |
|
PLTR |
250.00 |
253.40 |
235.84 |
232.16 |
237.82 |
239.12 |
|
ARM |
200.00 |
192.50 |
197.78 |
224.74 |
202.02 |
201.98 |
|
UBER |
200.00 |
196.83 |
194.22 |
210.78 |
204.29 |
200.88 |
|
974.29 |
972.72 |
1076.75 |
1040.64 |
1083.86 |
||
|
Perplexity |
||||||
|
MXL |
300.00 |
303.65 |
317.49 |
315.74 |
320.17 |
388.04 |
|
BAND |
250.00 |
250.89 |
263.82 |
258.86 |
270.73 |
278.03 |
|
BBAI |
200.00 |
201.45 |
200.00 |
211.11 |
201.45 |
201.93 |
|
APLD |
150.00 |
159.30 |
178.30 |
197.79 |
185.68 |
184.43 |
|
IONQ |
100.00 |
99.03 |
103.90 |
113.79 |
103.20 |
106.58 |
|
1014.32 |
1063.51 |
1097.30 |
1081.24 |
1159.01 |
It was a nail-biting
contest between ChatGPT and Perplexity. Perplexity reclaimed the top spot with
15.9% returns. ChatGPT is the runner up with 13.3%.
Now compare
this performance with the Nasdaq index - which moved from 25099 to 26247 over
the last 5 days a modest 4.5% gain. Statutory warning to the readers Do not take investment advice from the LLMs. However it won t hurt to use them as a sounding board to
test out your investment strategy. Hope you enjoyed the battle.
Use the comments section below to tell us which other battles
of the LLMs would like to witness next!
