Sebi to use AI to scan stock tips on TV shows

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is stepping up its vigil over stock recommendations aired by various television channels as part of efforts to crack down on any wrongdoing. The regulator has developed a system based on artificial intelligence (AI) that scans various stock market shows and builds a database of recommendations made, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.

This database will be a part of the big-data network Sebi is employing to conduct comprehensive surveillance for securities market offences, such as insider trading and front running.

The inhouse system developed by Sebi is called Picture based Information News Accumulator and Key Information Analyser (Pinaka). Television channels typically display suggestions made inhouse or by an external analyst. These include buy or sell calls along with price recommendations and who has made them. More detailed guidance such as stop-loss recommendations are also provided at times.

Pinaka combs through programming frame by frame and extracts details of such recommendations, processing it into a standard format. This data is compared with the trading pattern of the person who gave the recommendation.