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I have been underwhelmed with AI other than the ability to summarize long documents and generate answers to specific questions like " Can I have two apple iphone accounts at once"
Has anyone found a site or method of asking investment questions about management of a specific portfolio, such has determining active share of a fund or comparing the overlap between two funds over time?
For what it is worth I have tried it on ChatGPT. There are bugs. It gets the wrong fund multiple times but when finally corrected it can calculate active share but only uses top five or ten positions
I am using Perplexity Pro more and more for internet research and basic analysis. I especially like how it "cites its sources" so you can see for yourself where the results are coming from.
For example I will ask things like
"Speaking as a [TYPE OF INVESTOR] (eg, conservative institutional investor (or portfolio manager), growth investor, retiree, etc.)
.... compare ABC, DEF, and XYZ as potential [growth/income] investments.
... analyze ABC and DEF's role in [COUNTRY]'s [SECTOR]. Pay particular emphasis on their export capabilities and destinations. Also list the major leaders in this sector.
... what is ABC's footprint in [REGION] market and what are the anticipated risks due to currency fluctuations...
I've been pretty impressed w/Perplexity since it has VERY current information for its web searches, and isn't usually just regurgitating what it's been trained on. To wit: It's managed to include 4 hour old press releases in its responses, too.
It's like Google, but with better presentation and less noise. Is it perfect? No. But it's rare that I've encountered OMGWTF! responses that gave me serious pause.
I use the free version of Perplexity. So far I can click right past requests to log in.
My experience is similar to @rfono's. I don't need it to write anything for me, so it is mercifully brief, unlike some of the others that seem to feel compelled to write ten-page seventh-grade book reports. I think of it as better internet search without the ads--so far.
The ai on duckducketc can also be useful for simple queries, though it often points to wikipedia.
"The ai on duckduck etc can also be useful for simple queries"
Yes, I find the duckduck version to save a lot of time not having to sort through repetitive and useless url "hits". It's succinct, yet detailed enough to allow expanse of the inquiry most of the time, and cites it's resources. I may be asking somewhat different types of questions, as not all that many responses have cited the big wick.
For example, a while ago I asked about the relationship between Peter Thiel and Vance. I obtained a good overview, citing Forbes and The Globalist as sources- two sources that I would never have found on my own. Even if I had managed to find those sources, trying to use them would only have resulted in running into various problems with subscriptions, cookies, and lord knows what else.
I use the free version of Perplexity AI as kind of a "supercharged" search engine. It works pretty well in this role when good input parameters are provided. I've had mixed results seeking historical market/mutual fund/ETf information. Sometimes Perplexity AI makes blatant mistakes (e.g., wrong fund(s) cited) or suggests going to the SEC website for answers instead of providing the results itself.
Perplexity gives me the information it can find on the web for the active share of AVLAX comes from... MFO! It will not calculate it
Duck duck Go ( using ChatGPT I think ) will actually calculate it using the top portfolio holdings. It does not work for every fund I tried though. IT can retrieve the portfolio holdings and the appropriate index however.
I don't often utilize Active Share statistics when analyzing funds. Funds which exhibit high Active Share could be excellent funds or the funds could be terrible. Active Share doesn't appear to be an effective indicator of potential alpha. Having said that, investors probably shouldn't purchase "closet index funds" with high expense ratios.
The T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research Fund (PRCOX) maintains sector and style exposures that closely resemble the S&P 500. The fund strives to add value via its stock selection within industries. PRCOX had an Active Share of only 18.2% vs. the S&P 500 as of 12/31/2025. The fund produced top quintile category returns over the trailing 3Y and 5Y periods. Category returns over the trailing 10Y and 15Y periods were in the top decile.
PRCOX’s top 10 holdings resemble that of S&P500 index. Is 18% active enough to differentiate it from being a closet indexer fund ?
Here is the 5 year performance comparing it to VOO (tracks S&P500) and VUG (Vanguard Growth index). PRCOX mirrors VOO closely and it performed better in several years than that of VUG. https://morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prcox/chart
I don't often utilize Active Share statistics when analyzing funds. Funds which exhibit high Active Share could be excellent funds or the funds could be terrible. Active Share doesn't appear to be an effective indicator of potential alpha. Having said that, investors probably shouldn't purchase "closet index funds" with high expense ratios.
The T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research Fund (PRCOX) maintains sector and style exposures that closely resemble the S&P 500. The fund strives to add value via its stock selection within industries. PRCOX had an Active Share of only 18.2% vs. the S&P 500 as of 12/31/2025. The fund produced top quintile category returns over the trailing 3Y and 5Y periods. Category returns over the trailing 10Y and 15Y periods were in the top decile.
I pay some attention to active share once it starts sneaking down to %50. I pay more attention to the makeup of the top ten positions, their percent of the total portfolio, to the price the fund is charging, and to the stated thesis of the fund.
In the taxable the result has been to buy some tech sector funds so that I have flexibility with the rest of my choices. For the IRA I'm leaving the tech to FMILX, and somewhat to PRWCX. The other 2/3's to 3/4's is given over to US and world value/low volatility equities.
I certainly noticed that PMAIX got through the excitement of last week in the black while PRWCX ended in the red. I do give credit to Giroux for picking up six of the usual Seven Suspects at times when their prices were likely beaten down. Buying at opportune times is the kind of activity I like to see from a manager.
Comments
For example I will ask things like
"Speaking as a [TYPE OF INVESTOR] (eg, conservative institutional investor (or portfolio manager), growth investor, retiree, etc.)
.... compare ABC, DEF, and XYZ as potential [growth/income] investments.
... analyze ABC and DEF's role in [COUNTRY]'s [SECTOR]. Pay particular emphasis on their export capabilities and destinations. Also list the major leaders in this sector.
... what is ABC's footprint in [REGION] market and what are the anticipated risks due to currency fluctuations...
I've been pretty impressed w/Perplexity since it has VERY current information for its web searches, and isn't usually just regurgitating what it's been trained on. To wit: It's managed to include 4 hour old press releases in its responses, too.
It's like Google, but with better presentation and less noise. Is it perfect? No. But it's rare that I've encountered OMGWTF! responses that gave me serious pause.
My experience is similar to @rfono's. I don't need it to write anything for me, so it is mercifully brief, unlike some of the others that seem to feel compelled to write ten-page seventh-grade book reports. I think of it as better internet search without the ads--so far.
The ai on duckducketc can also be useful for simple queries, though it often points to wikipedia.
Yes, I find the duckduck version to save a lot of time not having to sort through repetitive and useless url "hits". It's succinct, yet detailed enough to allow expanse of the inquiry most of the time, and cites it's resources. I may be asking somewhat different types of questions, as not all that many responses have cited the big wick.
For example, a while ago I asked about the relationship between Peter Thiel and Vance. I obtained a good overview, citing Forbes and The Globalist as sources- two sources that I would never have found on my own. Even if I had managed to find those sources, trying to use them would only have resulted in running into various problems with subscriptions, cookies, and lord knows what else.
It works pretty well in this role when good input parameters are provided.
I've had mixed results seeking historical market/mutual fund/ETf information.
Sometimes Perplexity AI makes blatant mistakes (e.g., wrong fund(s) cited)
or suggests going to the SEC website for answers instead of providing the results itself.
Duck duck Go ( using ChatGPT I think ) will actually calculate it using the top portfolio holdings. It does not work for every fund I tried though. IT can retrieve the portfolio holdings and the appropriate index however.
Funds which exhibit high Active Share could be excellent funds or the funds could be terrible.
Active Share doesn't appear to be an effective indicator of potential alpha.
Having said that, investors probably shouldn't purchase "closet index funds" with high expense ratios.
The T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research Fund (PRCOX) maintains sector and style exposures
that closely resemble the S&P 500. The fund strives to add value via its stock selection within industries.
PRCOX had an Active Share of only 18.2% vs. the S&P 500 as of 12/31/2025.
The fund produced top quintile category returns over the trailing 3Y and 5Y periods.
Category returns over the trailing 10Y and 15Y periods were in the top decile.
https://www.troweprice.com/literature/public/country/us/language/en/literature-type/portfolio-update/sub-type/portfolio-update?currency=USD&productCode=COF
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prcox/performance
Here is the 5 year performance comparing it to VOO (tracks S&P500) and VUG (Vanguard Growth index). PRCOX mirrors VOO closely and it performed better in several years than that of VUG.
https://morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prcox/chart
In the taxable the result has been to buy some tech sector funds so that I have flexibility with the rest of my choices. For the IRA I'm leaving the tech to FMILX, and somewhat to PRWCX. The other 2/3's to 3/4's is given over to US and world value/low volatility equities.
I certainly noticed that PMAIX got through the excitement of last week in the black while PRWCX ended in the red. I do give credit to Giroux for picking up six of the usual Seven Suspects at times when their prices were likely beaten down. Buying at opportune times is the kind of activity I like to see from a manager.