The familiar ritual of seeking stock tips from a trusted, if somewhat hapless, broker over a brown liquor at the Club is a fading memory. For decades, figures like 'George' provided a comforting, if not particularly profitable, service to a circle of friends. Today, that world has been decisively overturned by the silent, relentless hum of algorithms executing trades for cents in the dollar.
The Relentless Rise of the Machines
According to ASIC's '597 Report', roughly 85 per cent of all trades in Australian listed equities are now sourced via programs and apps. The vast majority of market activity – quotes, orders, and cancellations – is fired off by code in the cloud. This shift isn't confined to Australia. JP Morgan estimates over 80 per cent of global equity turnover is program-driven, with European research house GreySpark Partners putting the figure for European markets at nearly 70 per cent.
The human intermediary for basic execution has become as obsolete as the fax machine. Retail traders, particularly the younger generation, are bypassing brokers entirely. CommSec now boasts over three million users, with nearly half under 40. When combined with platforms like Stake and Superhero, Australia has more than four million app-based accounts driving about three-quarters of retail flow. The phone call to a broker has been replaced by a thumb swipe.
A Profession in Rapid Decline
The collateral damage of this automation is starkly visible in the financial advice sector. In 2019, Australia had almost 28,000 licensed financial advisers. By mid-2025, that number had plummeted to fewer than 15,500 – a collapse of more than 40 per cent in just over five years. While scandals like AMP's fees-for-no-service and tighter regulation played a part, the technological upheaval has been the primary force. Treasury's 2023 'Quality of Advice Review' labelled it a 'crisis of accessibility', turning professional guidance into a luxury good.
Today's surviving brokers increasingly rely on complex, relationship-driven work like corporate finance, capital raisings, and IPOs. The simple 'buy and sell' order that once paid their fees has been automated into oblivion.
The Irreplaceable Human Element
Yet, for all the efficiency of algorithms, markets are not purely mathematical. They are driven by human psychology: panic, ego, optimism, and fear. This is where the human adviser retains critical value. Major institutions like Vanguard, Fidelity, and Russell Investments have published research showing that advised clients outperform self-directed ones by 2–3 percentage points annually. The key reason? A human adviser prevents emotionally catastrophic decisions like panic selling or overtrading.
As one market observer noted, 'The broker’s greatest value is often preventing a trade, not executing one.' Try getting an app to talk you out of a terrible idea based on a CEO's nervous body language or a gut feeling from a site visit. Algorithms excel at speed and pattern recognition, but judgement, context, and restraint still reside with people.
Furthermore, markets thrive on the 'long lunch factor' – the whisper networks, gossip, and shared hunches that no algorithm can yet parse. Fortunes are still made and lost on human relationships and intuition.
The automation tide is undeniable, and regulators like ASIC and the US SEC are now examining 'kill-switches' for runaway algorithms, acknowledging the systemic risks. The profession of the old-school stockbroker, as exemplified by 'George', is undoubtedly over. However, the role of the strategic human adviser – the one who provides a filter for noise and a guardrail against impulse – may be more valuable than ever in a market dominated by machines. They are not extinct, but evolving into a rarer and more specialised service.
