WHEW! If you are an active investment manager at Blackrock, and a human, it seems you can breathe easier..................for now. Just a week ago (or less) Blackrock announced it was going more the "robot" investing way. But, it seems currently machines do not outperform human analysts so Larry Fink (Blackrock CEO) is tamping down the rhetoric and says robot 'fear' is way overblown. Note to Blackrock humans; don't share too much information with that "tin box" next to you. Its up to no good.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink told CNBC on Thursday it is not substituting stock-picking computers for humans.
Right now, machines do not outperform human analysts, Fink said.
Against the backdrop of a fiercely competitive trading environment, BlackRock said last week it is overhauling its active management business by cutting jobs, reducing fees and increasing its use of computers to pick stocks.
BlackRock, the world's biggest money manager, has $5.1 trillion in assets under management.Fink said on "Squawk Box" he was surprised by the media coverage of the reshuffling because it's only a small part of BlackRock's business.
"We are reorienting some of the humans' jobs in terms of doing more data science and data analysis," Fink said. "We'll have the same amount of employees in our equity division a year from now than we do today."
The move to incorporate more computing power into investment decisions is a recognition that there are so many sources of information that need to be analyzed quickly, Fink said..."
Source: CNBC