La Sapienza - Università di Roma

The invention of money produced a great change in society and mankind redefined itself: it cut out the flaws of barter, eased valuation and counting, and enabled trades over long periods and geographical distances.

With the industrial revolution the machines moved from being a simple tool and became a principle for the organization of human activity.

With the information revolution, machines are being used in place of humans to manage finance. What will the consequences be?

This workshop will look at various aspects of the relationship between men, money and machines. The testing point for this relationship is stock market trading so we will look in particular detail at the issues that arise there. Should machines be trusted with our money? What are the practical limits for machines management?  And what are the ethical considerations? How is the financial ecosystem changed after the introduction of algorithms?

At a more technical level, the workshop will discuss practical and theoretical issues of trading using algorithms, high-frequency trading, automatic trading and, in part, sentiment analysis.

At a more theoretical and general level, the workshop will deal with the relationship between men and machines, and will examine both the effects that innovation and the rise of computers have had on human activity, and how to exploit this change.

The workshop comprises debate between three teams each made up of students of physics, mathematics and philosophy, and led by a tutor. They must defend distinct and even conflicting positions with the help of the selected resources. 

The teams are the following:

Team 1. ‘Supremacy of humans’ 

tutor Giulia Cinque (B.S. Philosophy)

Team (12): [Philosophy]: Matteo D’Uffizi, Adriano Manca, [Mathematics]: Lucia Gagliarducci, Chiara Marullo, Sara Sinibaldi, Ilaria Pantaloni, Claudia Scalmani, Ludovica Sparapani, Danila Iadeluca, Valentina Mancini, Chiara D’Onofrio, Pietro D’Angelo

The team will defend the thesis of the supremacy of humans and, accordingly, that machines cannot replace human beings in the management of stock markets and, in a sense, they should not. The team will examine whether men generate behaviour in stock markets that is different from that generated by machines, and, if so, the team will have to examine the benefits of markets run by humans and the disadvantages of automatized management—e.g. by arguing that the 'bots' are detrimental to the financial markets since they generate instability, asymmetries, and crashes. The team may also consider what role machines can still have in financial markets. The team will clarify in which situations men are different or better than machines. Moreover, they should examine what it means to be human (an individual trader, a coordinated group of people or a financial institution), and determine how different answers to this question affect their thesis. In particular, the team will investigate how human agents’ decisions vary with different liquidity and time horizons.

Team 2. ‘Supremacy of machines’

tutor Eleonora De Caroli (M.S. Philosphy)

Team (11): [Mathematics]: Francesca Torre, Desirée Conte, Alessio Campus, Luigi Cafarelli, Annalisa Cafaro, Arianna Grasso, Ambra Gallozzi, Eleonora Zizzi, Valentina Zullo, [Philosophy]: Daniele Medici, Ludovica Tranquilla

The team will defend the thesis of supremacy of machines, according to which the markets can, and in a sense have to, be run by machines. The team will examine whether machines generate behavior in stock markets that is different from that generated by humans, and, if so, the team will have to examine the benefits of computer-traded markets, e.g. by arguing that by the primary use of 'bots' markets are managed better since this gives stability and control that are not obtainable by human agents who have strong cognitive and emotional limitations to their decision-making. The team may also consider what role humans will still have in financial markets. The team will examine what it means to be a machine (a simple algorithm, etc.), and determine how different answers to this question affect their thesis. In particular, the team will investigate how computer-generated decisions vary with different liquidity and time horizons.

Team 3. ‘Hybridization’

tutor Rossella Carapellese (M.S. Philosophy)

Team (12): [Mathematics]: Leonardo Antichi, Daniele Bertotto, Giacomo Colarieti, Francesca Dell’Osa, Antonia Saponaro, Davide Lattanzio, Rita De Santis, Stefano Galati, Ilaria Chiaretti, Giorgia Cillara, [Philosophy], Caterina Beverati, Matteo Rapone.

The team will defend the thesis of the hybridization of humans and machines, according to which men and machines work together to manage financial markets. The team will examine if the hybrid model generates behavior that is different from that generated by humans or machines alone and, if so, they have to determine how this hybrid should best be comprised.