Weekend Chat
22/23/24/25 August 2025
With hardly anything happening in the market today (Friday), and a bank holiday on Monday, we’re effectively getting a 4-day weekend, very nice! Anyway, let’s chat away here if we’re missing the adrenaline fix from the markets!
I know there’s a lot excitement about use of AI currently but as someone who spent an entire lifetime working in the technology industry I’d held off using it as I suspected I would be underwhelmed. And so it is. I woke early yesterday and decided to try out ChatGPT for the first time.
Now I’m sure it is helpful for many basic tasks, but I found it was often wrong or didn’t have the latest information available. I’m currently researching Adobe and it couldn’t even find the revenue numbers for FY 11/24 let alone the first two quarters of FY25 that have already been reported. Not very useful for share research then.
Worse though, I asked it about a UK Gilt I hold (T27A). Initially, it was fine and it knew the details of the instrument i.e. the coupon and duration details were correct and it got the YTM calculation right when asked. I then interjected with a few queries on other matters and then went back to another question about T27A. At this point it got the coupon, duration and semi-annual payment basis incorrect in calculating the YTM. In particular it told me it was 2.5 years until February 2027!! This is terrible, because being inconsistent is much worse than being wrong IMHO. Anyway, I will stick to Sharescope and my own spreadsheet from now on for making financial decisions.
All the best, Si
Paul, I know you have said previously you don't like eEnergy but it was a good mover yesterday - up 9% on news that Harwood Capital have acquired 4.5% of the shares - surely a good sign. eEnergy provides a very useful service - perhaps worth another look. I see Luceco own 9.9% and Jon Hornby is on their Board. I own. BTW as I've said before your podcasts are excellent - have taught me so much and you make them fun too - keep up the good work! Chris