- Artificial intelligence measurably improved the performance of execution algorithms in US equities
- David Mechner, co-founder and chief executive of Pragma, told Markets Media the firm decided to apply modern artificial intelligence tools
- He explained the firm began to test the neural network in late 2019 with orders sent to the AI algos on a randomized basis
- Following a number of controlled trials with clients, the AI algos found to improve performance by between 33% and 50%
- The AI algos react to signals to improve micro-trading decisions, such as whether to be aggressive or passive, routing, sizing
- Algos also have to adapt to changes in US equity market structure
