By Elsa Ohlen

Follow the herd or break away? The question is Wall Street's version of white noise.

When you're stumped or don't have the time or simply don't want to make the decision, leave it to an AI stockpicker.

It just might work out for you. It seems to be for an artificial-intelligence model developed by Softbank-backed Qraft Technologies.

In June, Qraft's AI stockpicker dumped weight-loss drugmaker Eli Lilly and scooped up more tech-focused names like Meta, Broadcom and Palantir.

The stockpicker has three U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds -- they have a combined asset value of roughly $50 million -- that it rebalances every month. It has one option for higher-risk investors, and another one for investors who want diversification.

Qraft's momentum fund, AMOM, allocates holdings that have performed well in the past based on the assumption that they will keep climbing. In May, AMOM sold off Meta Platforms -- only to buy back a large chuck of the Facebook parent in June.

Meta has gained 8% so far this month.

"[The model] is for sure seeing potential for Meta this month, and it's holding up for it so far," Justin Tam, Qraft's ETF Lead, told Barron's. "The model is very unbiased in the sense that it can rectify the decisions as it sees fit."

Meta is now AMOM's second largest holding, behind Nvidia. Also on the list is Broadcom, Netflix, Costco and Palantir, all with fairly similar allocations as last month.

AMOM has always been overweight on tech, even more so than its benchmark, the iShares MSCI momentum fund, or MTUM, and its more defensive fund QRFT.

AMOM is lagging MTUM, which handled the stock market's volatility better earlier this year.

Tam is optimistic, though, and noted the fund's strong performance and recovery this month, up about 1%. MTUM is down about 1% over the same period.

Tam and his team instruct the AI model to balance short- and long-term momentum to navigate volatility and to avoid the reversals that typically occur after big gains, or "hype."

"If we were very ' hype-focused' we'd be just looking at the short-term momentum and weighing that very heavily, but because we try to navigate the reversal factor, we do balance those two durations of momentum," he explained.

Then, Tam's team lets the model decide whether it should go for a momentum period of one to three months, or one between one and five years, based on market conditions.

What's keeping Wall Street's ' attention -- and the source of much uncertainty right now -- is the Israel-Iran War.

How that will play out for the AI stockpicker -- we'll have to wait and see.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 20, 2025 06:34 ET (10:34 GMT)

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