Cashing in on ChatGPT
ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that generates human-like text responses when given a prompt, has been making waves in the tech world. While most of ChatGPT's outputs have been focused on linguistic tasks, it can also be used to optimize financial returns. In March 2023, Bentley University hosted its first-ever Fintech and ChatGPT Hackfest.
The competition saw students competing to develop currency trading strategies using ChatGPT and TradingView, a cloud-based market analysis platform for investment traders. The first-place team developed a trading strategy that paired the Swiss franc and Japanese yen and generated a 303.49% profit over a 10-year period.
The team consisted of graduating seniors Hiren Gugnani ’23, Tomás Hahn ’23, Diego Pardilla ’23 and Meghan Winslow ’23. Gugnani, a Finance major and Computer Information Systems (CIS) minor, who will be working as a business technology analyst for Deloitte after graduation, attributes the team’s success to a mix of “curiosity and ambition” combined with prior ChatGPT experience gained both in and outside of their Bentley classrooms.
“We trained ChatGPT to understand our desired outcome by feeding it targeted information, such as the investment persona our algorithm should emulate, the specific currencies we wanted to focus on, and our preferred programming language,” Hahn explains.
Hahn, a CIS major and president of the Bentley chapter of BRASA, a global association for Brazilian students, also credits events like the Hackfest and the CIS Sandbox’s long-running Topics in Tech series with “providing access to cutting-edge tools and offering hands-on opportunities to explore emerging technologies to find innovative business solutions.” With ChatGPT Plus now available for use on all LEAF computers, and the university’s Trading Room offering access to comprehensive financial databases such as Bloomberg Terminals and FactSet, he notes that Bentley University has made commendable efforts to help students comprehend disruptive technologies.
Bentley University’s March 2023 Fintech and ChatGPT Hackfest demonstrated how ChatGPT can optimize financial returns. The competition saw teams of students competing to develop currency trading strategies using ChatGPT and TradingView. The winning team developed a trading strategy that generated a 303.49% profit over a 10-year period.
