The era of AI outperforming stock trading

In the interview, Duan Yongping once again touched on a familiar topic: stock trading.

He stated directly that in the AI ​​era, ordinary people simply cannot outperform Liang Wenfeng in stock trading.

I believe those who hear this will understand what Duan Yongping means, but how many truly agree with this sentiment?

Most readers are familiar with Liang Wenfeng and DeepSeek, and many will also be familiar with him and his company's predecessor: they started in quantitative trading. After earning a certain amount of money, they used their interest to develop large-scale models.

In an earlier article, I wrote a dedicated piece introducing Simons and his Renaissance Capital. Simons and Renaissance Capital can be considered pioneers in quantitative trading on Wall Street.

Simons' autobiography is available online. In that autobiography, the author not only introduces Simons' life but also his team members—mostly PhDs in mathematics, physics, and computer science from top American STEM universities.

Liang Wenfeng's team is similar, including several Olympiad gold medalists. Why use such top-tier STEM talent? Because they're engaged in high-risk, high-reward trading, using algorithms to capture rapidly changing price fluctuations and profit from the difference. In the computer age, they already left ordinary traders behind. In the age of artificial intelligence, they are even more unattainable for ordinary traders. Under these circumstances, is there still a chance for ordinary traders to make money from trading? Of course.

In my article, I listed two types of people: geniuses and those who are lucky enough to be favored by God.

Besides these, for others, making money in this field is basically the same as going to a Macau casino.

For ordinary people, the sooner they understand this principle, the fewer pitfalls they will make.

Generally speaking, almost everyone who enters the investment market will first test the waters in this field. Some people, after testing the waters, realize that they are neither geniuses nor lucky enough to be favored by God and immediately turn back; but most people may never admit that they are neither geniuses nor lucky enough to be favored by God, and thus spend their whole lives struggling in this field.

In the crypto ecosystem, such examples are even more numerous and sensational. In every market cycle, we always see various "stars." Their astonishing performances are frequently featured on crypto media. But basically, every such "star" is like a shooting star, with only a fleeting moment of brilliance before disappearing forever. Recently, an online article summarized eight major stars who shone brightly in the trading field during this market cycle. They all once achieved brilliant results, but now, without exception, their positions are either zero or close to zero. One article detailed the experience of one of them: he once turned $3 million into $100 million in just one month, only to lose it all in a week on HyperLiquid. He himself eventually admitted that he was gambling. The article concludes with the statement: "An irrefutable truth in the crypto market: Remember to take profits and avoid high-frequency trading." In my opinion, this is utter nonsense, because this trader's values ​​and behavioral patterns dictate that he's gambling. Telling him "take profits and avoid high-frequency trading" is like telling a gambler "gambling will bankrupt you" or a smoker "smoking is harmful to your health." This path is truly not suitable for most ordinary players to fully commit to.