# AI and the Future of Fundamental Investing Jack Woodruff, Vinoo Ganesh · AI Engineer NYC 2026 · October 13 [Watch recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21341s) [05:55:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21341s) Hi, I'm Jack Woodruff. [05:55:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21344s) I am the founder and former CIO of Candlestick Capital Management, a long short equity hedge [05:55:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21350s) fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Before founding Candlestick, I was a partner and [05:55:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21357s) portfolio manager at Surveyor Capital, which is a division of Citadel. [05:56:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21362s) Very cool. Thanks, Jack. So the reason we did this this way is we've had this conversation [05:56:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21368s) before, and I think this is one of the most enlightening folks to chat with, given that [05:56:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21372s) Jack has spent his career picking stocks in an environment that's changing more than it [05:56:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21377s) ever was before. So we'll treat this really as a fireside shot. So Jack, paint the picture for us. [05:56:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21384s) What does fundamental investing look like in the age of AI, say five years from now? [05:56:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21389s) Well, it's hard to say. Like long-term stock picking, I don't believe is really going to [05:56:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21396s) change much at all. There's always been a mosaic and there's always been alpha creation by finding [05:56:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21403s) a divergent view. So that isn't going to change at all. I think that that still will stay the same. [05:56:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21410s) Now, how people synthesize all of the information and where table stakes go to in terms of what [05:56:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21418s) everybody has and then how you synthesize that data is going to change completely. [05:57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21425s) The traditional roles of, say, a portfolio manager or an analyst are going to be completely thrown [05:57:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21430s) upon their heads. And I still think it's too early to say what that's all going to look like [05:57:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21438s) as these tools are just so new, especially to the users. You've got a lot of people doing [05:57:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21444s) a few things, but it's just not clear to me that it's like we're there and oh my gosh, [05:57:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21451s) it's going to be these new things. We have a bunch of other things to kind of talk about, but [05:57:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21455s) But I think it's going to be super fascinating to watch how it all plays out. [05:57:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21461s) Very cool. [05:57:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21463s) So at Citadel, you had 18 people covering 400 stocks. [05:57:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21466s) And at Candlestick, you had 30 stock pickers. [05:57:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21468s) Could one great analyst cover all 400 by 2030? [05:57:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21473s) So the biggest issue is humans are still the [05:57:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21478s) I mean, like at the end of the day, you have to get the information into your head. [05:58:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21485s) So it's really all about sort of how man and machine can work together. [05:58:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21493s) Investment management is a time management exercise. [05:58:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21496s) What I mean by that, if I spent all of my time working on one stock, that'd be great. [05:58:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21502s) I'd probably know it better than anyone else in the world. [05:58:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21505s) But if there wasn't anything to do in that stock, there isn't much to do. [05:58:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21510s) Well, if I do two, well, then I have half as much time and so forth until I go. [05:58:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21515s) So you start getting diminishing returns on how much time you could spend on any particular stock. [05:58:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21523s) So, you know, what can AI do? [05:58:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21527s) Can AI help me cover more names? [05:58:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21530s) Perhaps. [05:58:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21531s) Maybe it allows me to raise the table stakes on what I just kind of like have as a general knowledge [05:58:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21539s) because that work used to take me hours to prepare, [05:59:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21543s) to get me ready for what it was. [05:59:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21545s) And now maybe an AI program can help me prepare a lot of that work [05:59:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21550s) in five minutes, which used to take me six to eight hours. [05:59:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21554s) So that allows me to do other things. [05:59:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21556s) Again, it's a very competitive industry. [05:59:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21559s) So it's not like if I get rid of all these people [05:59:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21562s) or if I have five analysts, whereas before I had 30, [05:59:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21566s) yeah, maybe those people can do more. [05:59:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21567s) but now all of a sudden this opens up time [05:59:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21572s) that I could spend doing either more proprietary research, [05:59:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21576s) channel checks, more sort of like industry backdrop work [05:59:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21581s) because again, like you're going to need to find these divergent views. [05:59:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21584s) So it's like if I do the exact same thing I was doing before [05:59:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21589s) and it's like, hey, wow, I can get my work done in two hours, [05:59:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21591s) well, someone else is going to be still working 16 hours a day [05:59:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21594s) trying to find that extra thing [05:59:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21598s) that's going to [06:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21600s) make you money. [06:00:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21602s) Because just doing this stuff is obviously like what we used to pay an analyst to do a year or two ago is not what we're going to be paying an analyst to be doing in a year. [06:00:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21616s) Very cool. And on that, what is something today that a junior analyst does that you think will be absurd if they're still doing in five years? [06:00:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21624s) Well, it's funny. [06:00:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21626s) It's like, oh, you're not going to be reading 10Ks. [06:00:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21629s) You're not going to be reading transcripts. [06:00:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21631s) I actually don't believe that to be true. [06:00:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21633s) If you're truly close to a name, [06:00:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21638s) you're going to still need to process a lot of that information. [06:00:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21641s) Now, you might be able to get summarized versions [06:00:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21644s) that can cut down the time it takes you to do those things, [06:00:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21647s) but you still need to get that information sort of into your head. [06:00:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21652s) we used to have a lot of analysts [06:00:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21654s) that would be going through a lot of big data [06:00:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21657s) and things like that [06:00:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21657s) I definitely think that can be outsourced [06:01:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21660s) and that will be super easy [06:01:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21662s) I would be surprised if a lot of these guys [06:01:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21664s) aren't necessarily doing that stuff [06:01:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21666s) but [06:01:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21669s) what I believe [06:01:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21671s) the AI is going to do [06:01:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21672s) or the agent or whoever it is [06:01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21674s) is going to be [06:01:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21678s) pushing you in the right direction [06:01:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21680s) to work on the right names. [06:01:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21681s) Like I said, this is time management. [06:01:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21683s) It's all about how do I know to work on the right things, [06:01:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21686s) and that's where the winners are going to be, [06:01:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21688s) is the people who can figure out how to use these tools [06:01:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21691s) to get you to spend the right amount of time [06:01:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21694s) working on potentially finding a divergent view. [06:01:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEqiXFo3GM&t=21699s) Very cool.