JPMorgan will soon be using a first-of-its-kind robot to execute trades across its global equities algorithms business, after a European trial of the bank’s new artificial intelligence (AI) programme showed it was much more efficient than traditional methods of buying and selling.

The AI — known internally as LOXM — has been used in the bank’s European equities algorithms business since the first quarter and will be launched across Asia and the US in the fourth quarter, Daniel Ciment, JPMorgan’s head of global equities electronic trading, told the Financial Times. 

LOXM’s job is to execute client orders with maximum speed at the best price, by using lessons it has learnt from billions of past trades — both real and simulated — to tackle problems such as how best to offload big equity stakes without moving market prices.