Delphia Review: Portfolio Management Meets Machine Learning

Investors can get the most from their data with Delphia’s AI managed portfolios. Users can sign up for the full-service broker for free but must agree to share a wide variety of data. With that data, Delphia’s algorithms attempt to predict the future. Delphia’s two portfolios are built around these predictions, allowing users to cash in on correct predictions. Read our full Delphia Review to see if it's right for you.

This stock broker is a good fit for: Passive investors comfortable with algorithms taking the driver’s seat.

Top perks

AI investing

While robo-advisors are not a new concept, an entirely algorithm-driven portfolio certainly is. Seeking to outperform the market in the long run, Delphia’s “algo” predicts future fundamental metrics of a company, such as their sales or profits. With these predictions in hand, the algorithm attempts to find inefficiencies in the stock market, and it makes small adjustments to the portfolios accordingly.

An algorithm is only as good as the data it analyzes. With over 50 billion data points, Delphia says its algorithms churn out hundreds of thousands of new predictions daily and has over 43 million active predictions.

Low fees

Delphia doesn’t charge a sign up fee or account maintenance fees. This is possible because Delphia serves both retail investors and accredited investors.

Retail investors sign up for Delphia, connecting a few apps and providing the algorithm with clean data. This clean data is used by Delphia's exclusive hedge fund to create predictions.

Accredited investors, like high-net worth individuals, pay premiums to invest in the Delphia hedge fund, part of which goes toward keeping the app free for retail investors.

While users aren't charged a dollar in account opening or ongoing fees, their data is transferred to Delphia instead.

Low barriers to entry

Many actively managed portfolios require hundreds of dollars to get in the door. Delphia’s two portfolios have a minimum investment of only $10. With zero fees, retail investors can get started without breaking the bank.

What could be improved

Limited investment options

Compared to many discount online brokers, Delphia offers fewer options when it comes to investing.

Delphia users are only able to invest in two portfolios, Flagship and Collective:

• The Flagship portfolio tracks 200 consumer-familiar stocks using a long-only approach.
• The Collective portfolio encompasses 11 asset classes as a long-only global balanced portfolio.

Investors seeking aggressive, long-short, or more targeted portfolios may be disappointed by what Delphia has to offer. Users can't buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, derivatives, or cryptocurrency on the app.

Data privacy concerns

Delphia users are asked to share brokerage data, email accounts, credit card transactions, social media posts, and more. This data is not sold or shared outside of Delphia, and it's used to make informed investment decisions in both retail-facing and hedge fund portfolios. For users who value privacy, Delphia’s data sharing requirement may seem invasive.

Amid the rising popularity of robo-advisors, Delphia offers actively managed portfolios with a twist. For the small price of your data, Delphia allows users to invest in portfolios driven by machine-learning algorithms. As these algorithms receive metadata, they predict future movement within the stock market, up to one hundred thousand times each day. Using these predictions, portfolio holdings are automatically readjusted by hundredths of a percent. Backed by a powerful machine-learning algorithm, Delphia turns data into predictions and investment decisions.

Delphia offers only actively managed portfolios, and as such does not allow customers to purchase individual mutual funds or ETFs.

Learn more: Best ETF brokers

Delphia takes a unique approach to fee structure. For retail investors, the price of admission is your data. There is no sign-up fee with Delphia, and neither Delphia portfolio charges management fees. Delphia also charges no annual maintenance fee. However, outgoing account transfers cost $75.

Similar to many of the best free stock trading apps, Delphia offers an exclusively mobile platform. Functionally, the app allows users to invest in one of the two portfolios offered by Delphia. Users are encouraged to connect other mobile apps through the Delphia platform. The trading platform offers few features but is well suited to the data-driven, passive investment approach boasted by Delphia.

Delphia does not offer trading on margin. If you're looking for more investment options, check out our full list of the best stock brokers for more options to consider.

Actively managed portfolios, like Delphia’s, take the stock picking out of investing. For that reason, Delphia doesn’t offer its users anything by way of market research.

AI investing is your cup of tea: With tons of data and predictions guiding its decisions, Delphia’s investment process is among the most data-driven we've found.

You seek an actively managed portfolio at a low cost: Delphia’s holdings are frequently tweaked in response to new data. While many full-service brokers charge hefty wrap fees for their portfolios, Delphia users can buy in for the price of sharing their data.

At The Motley Fool Ascent, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

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