Welcome to the era of stock-picking AI chatbots

An Israeli startup just received approval for a chatbot that will pick stocks. Would you take its advice?

9/26/24 1:57PM

If you ask ChatGPT, “Which stocks should I buy,” the chatbot will reply with something like “I'm unable to provide specific stock recommendations as I'm not a licensed financial advisor.” (This is a verbatim response from my ChatGPT, I’m guessing you’ll receive something similar).

However, a Tel-Aviv-based startup just received approval from the Israel Securities Authority to release a chatbot designed to answer this very question, and later this month, users will be able to solicit the hottest stock picks from their digital aid. From Bloomberg:

Tel Aviv-based Bridgewise has been given the green light by the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) to release a chatbot called Bridget later this month that can offer recommendations for which stocks to buy and sell in response to user queries. The startup is working with one of the country’s largest banks, Israel Discount Bank, to roll out the product…
A spokesperson for the Israeli regulator said the approval came with restrictions. The tool cannot include advice “that is specific to the user,” for example, or have a conversation that appears to be “personal advice.”
When testing the chatbot, its responses included a disclaimer about the service’s limitations. “The information is not tailored to you specifically and is not a substitute for personal investment advice,” the disclaimer said.

I love everything about this. First, the point that Bridget can provide stock picks, but it can’t include advice “that is specific to the user” is just great. If something is considered a good stock pick for one person, wouldn’t that make it a good stock pick for everyone? If Bridget tells me that Cloudflare is a good investment for XYZ reason, wouldn’t that same reason apply to any other investor? If it’s a good investment, it’s a good investment. Period.

This disclaimer reminds me of when I see folks promoting different stock picks on X or Substack, before including a parenthetical phrase that says, “Not financial advice!” Like, that’s great, but it’s not actually a legal defense. I imagine that we’re around two months away from a headline that says “Investor sues Bridgewise after stock pick recommendation drops 20% in one week.”

That being said, I do think a stock picking tool like this, if its recommendations aren’t taken at face value, will be a valuable tool for investors that expedites research. According to the Bloomberg report, Bridget provides reasons for its buy and sell recommendations, allowing investors to more quickly find relevant data on different companies from which they can draw their own conclusions.

I will be interested to check back in a couple of years and see how a fully Bridget-recommended portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500.

Luke Kawa

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Cisco beats expectations for Q2 sales and EPS; Q3 margin forecast is light

Cisco beat Wall Street expectations for sales and earnings in its fiscal second-quarter results, which it released after the close of trading Wednesday.

Shares slid 7% in the after-hours session. A lighter-than-expected forecast for fiscal third-quarter profit margins may have played a role.

For the fiscal second quarter of 2026, the computer networking equipment giant reported:

Non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.04 vs. the $1.02 expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Sales of $15.35 billion vs. the $15.11 billion consensus expectation.
AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers of $2.1 billion vs. $1.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Revenue guidance for fiscal Q3 of between $15.4 billion and $15.6 billion vs. $15.19 billion consensus estimate.
Adjusted gross margin guidance for fiscal Q3 of 65.5% to 66.5%, compared with analysts’ forecasts for 68.2%.
Fiscal year 2026 sales guidance of $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion vs. previous guidance of between $60.2 billion and $61.0 billion.

Along with other companies like Lumentum, Corning, and new S&P 500 member Ciena, which provide things like the wiring and networking equipment needed to connect server racks, Cisco shares have had a strong start to 2026 as the AI data center boom continues to roll.

Through the end of trading on Wednesday they were up 11% for the year, compared to a 1.4% gain for the S&P 500.

This is a developing story.

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McDonald’s Q4 earnings, sales beat Wall Street estimates

McDonald’s reported Q4 results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, which the company attributes to its “value leadership.”

For the last three months of 2025, the fast-food giant reported:

Adjusted earnings per share of $3.12, compared to the $3.05 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.
Revenue of $7 billion, higher than the $6.8 billion analysts were penciling in.
Global comparable-store sales growth of 5.7%, compared to the 3.9% growth analysts were expecting. In the US, comparable sales grew 6.8% versus the 5.4% that was expected. The company said this was “driven by positive check and guest count growth primarily from successful marketing promotions.”

McDonald’s has emphasized discounts and promotions, such as its $5 meal deals. “McDonald’s value leadership is working,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a statement.

Shares were little changed in after-hours trading.

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The ad tech company just released Q4 results.