It's early days yet for technology in investing

IN THE use of technology to automate investing, there is often more hype than substance. But the power of innovation to upend markets cannot be underestimated.

Such is the situation in the robo-advisory space in Singapore, which The Business Times ran a feature on three weeks ago ("The robo revolution", Sept 23). A number of players have entered in the past year, attracted by the size of the under-served "emerging affluent" market here.

When you get down to it, robo-advisers are essentially funds of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which the robo-adviser distributes online and charges a spread for. The simplest ones give you a straight-out passive exposure to the market. The most complex are actively managed funds touting sophisticated algorithms.