The age of AI is here, but it’s too early to know what impact it will have on investing. How might this powerful technology be leveraged for financial wellness and greater returns?
After a few queries, I stumbled upon Magnifi. It’s one of the first of what will *likely* be a new generation of investment apps that harnesses artificial intelligence for smarter investment decisions. Whether you’re just dipping your toe into investing for the first time or have decades of experience managing a portfolio, Magnifi’s AI-assisted experience is worth checking out. Its conversational chatbot combined with a commission-free brokerage offers a glimpse of how DIY investors plan and invest in the future.
In this review, I take a closer look at what Magnifi has to offer, share my personal experience, and evaluate whether AI is all hype or actually helps individuals invest more intelligently.
What makes Magnifi different?
Simply put: AI. CNBC referred to Magnifi as “ChatGPT meets Robinhood”, and for good reason. It’s one of the very first AI-powered investment tools designed for individuals. In plain English, you can ask Magnifi to help you plan for a financial goal, find investments aligned with said goal, and even get its help pulling the trigger on transactions – all directly from the chat.
And for anyone with pre-existing investments: simply ask Magnifi to keep you up to speed on macroeconomic news, imbalances, and real-time opportunities to take advantage of shifts in the market. You can integrate multiple brokerage accounts and ask Magnifi to analyze them to uncover opportunities and help manage them.
Even after just a couple months using the app, I’m still discovering new ways Magnifi’s AI can help me understand emerging opportunities and optimize my positions.
Magnifi Alternatives: How does it compare to traditional investment apps?
While online brokerages, robo advisors, and traditional advisors each provide value in different ways, Magnifi offers DIY investors the best of all worlds: the ability to invest for themselves, with real-time expert advice, faster than a human can provide, all for a relatively low cost.
While robo advisors (like Betterment or Wealthfront) can help automate tedious but impactful investment decisions (like tax-loss harvesting, rebalancing, etc.), they require blind trust. By contrast, Magnifi’s chatbot interface puts you in the driver’s seat, offering guidance and helpful data so YOU can make better decisions without sacrificing control to the bots.
For investors like me, a “set and forget” robo advisor is scary (read: too hands-off) and perhaps only slightly better than coughing up high fees for a traditional (human) advisor. If you lack confidence to invest entirely on your own via an online brokerage (like Robinhood or eTrade) but aren’t ready to hand over the reins to a fully automated robo advisor, Magnifi offers a great middle ground. Full automation when helpful, plus the ability to “converse” with a trusted advisor for up to date guidance 24/7.
How Magnifi helps me invest
After getting a feel for Magnifi’s conversational interface over the last few weeks, there are several key features that afford greater confidence (despite being a novice) than traditional investment apps:
Personalization
Start with a question as simple as “How do I invest $1,000?” and within moments Magnifi will work with you to create a diversified portfolio to get you started. And it only grows from there. Magnifi will work with you to understand your investing style, help you plan for goals, and show you optimized investments with just a conversation. Traditional robo advisors don’t work quite so flexibly…
Efficiency
The best part about having an AI assistant is its ability to quickly analyze real-time data a lot more efficiently than humans can. With Magnifi that includes equipping you to do faster and better research by analyzing thousands of data points from industry leading financial data partners like Morningstar, Factset, Fi360, FRED, and more. Instead of spending hours researching and cross-referencing reports from different sources, It brings it all to you on demand via a conversational chatbot.
Unsure about one of Magnifi’s recommendations? Simply ask it to explain its reasoning, data sources, or terminology to get a better understanding. You can even pushback and debate the AI to expand your knowledge and build even more confidence before adjusting positions.
Goal Optimization
Whether you want to save for a dream vacation, college tuition, or buy a home, Magnifi can help you get there. Its planning tool will help you identify a worthwhile goal, and provide a series of steps for how to get there. Magnifi will work with you to understand your needs, show your probability of achieving your goals, and then help you find the investments that are most likely to get you there.
Personality
Have you ever wondered what kind of investor you are? Aggressive, conservative, purpose driven, or someone who wants a lot of control. Magnifi offers a quick and fun investing personality quiz that tells you the type of investor you are.
High interest
Magnifi offers customers leading rates on uninvested cash. In today’s environment, allocating a percentage of your portfolio to interest earning cash is popular given high yields. Magnifi offers leading rates by optimizing your cash account into the top interest bearing savings accounts across the country, historically beating yields offered by online savings accounts.
Cross-brokerage analysis
While Magnifi does offer a commission free brokerage (does not participate in pay for order flow) that allows you to seamlessly take action, Magnifi also allows you to import your portfolio from other brokerages like Robinhood, Fidelity, eTrade.
Once linked, the AI is able to provide analysis and guidance across your accounts, including uncovering pockets of unnecessary risk, detecting high concentrations of stocks within your ETFs, and even keeping you up to speed on relevant news and trends related to your holdings.
The Verdict: Should you use use chatGPT to invest via Magnifi?
Ethics aside, the question we face in the modern age isn’t if you should use artificial intelligence, but how. When it comes to personal investing, I’ve now invested with the help of Magnifi’s AI assistant and without, and for me there’s no going back.
It’s chatbot investment advisor delivers more actionable insights, much more quickly than any human or traditional robo advisor I’ve ever worked with. I love that it puts me fully in control to explore many different financial plans, investment strategies and portfolio optimization ideas – all conversationally.
After using Magnifi, I recommend it to DIY investors of all kinds. For me, it helps build conviction in potential investments (and therefore ready to act much more quickly) and ultimately invest with confidence. It makes my portfolio adjustments feel less random, and more deliberate.
Overall, Magnifi has helped me lower fees, increase interest earnings, and better align my investments with personal goals given a holistic view of my assets. I have accounts at a handful of robo advisor + DIY brokerage apps, and Magnifi helps me proactively optimize my holdings across all of them given short and long term goals.
Want to start a free trial to see its chat interface for yourself? You can play around with it for free for 7 days, and it’s just $11-$14 per month thereafter if you decide you like it.
Instead of waiting for a traditional advisor to find, ingest, and distill a bunch of research over the course of a few days or weeks, Magnifi uses the power of both ChatGPT and proprietary Magnifi AI, empowering you to make better decisions in seconds.
Access to information is always the secret to better returns, and given how fast the news cycle and macroeconomics trends spin, I think it’s only a matter of time before people wonder how they ever invested without the help of AI-powered assistant. It’s only been a few weeks, but I’m already starting to feel that way.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) are sold by prospectus. Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus, which contains this and other information about the investment company, can be obtained from the Fund Company or your financial professional. Be sure to read the prospectus carefully before deciding whether to invest.
Methodology
We conduct extensive research to evaluate the pricing, effectiveness, accessibility, overall quality, and user experience of each product we review. This also included examining and comparing them to several alternatives.
| Review Process | Key Metrics | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase online | – ease to complete intake form – affordability – upfront commitment or subscription required? – money back guarantee or refund policy? | 1 |
| Shipping + unboxing | – shipping cost – time from order to treatment delivery – sustainable packaging | 1 |
| Testing + journal for 1-3 months | – ease of use – transition into habitual use – taste / smell / feel / pain | 1.5 |
| Results after 3 months of use | – efficacy / results – ease of forming a health habit – requires additional purchae? – responsive customer support – willingness to recommend to a friend | 1.5 |
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