Robo-advisors haven't had much experience with market routs. When confronted with one on Monday, they struggled.
The websites of two of the country's biggest robo-advisors — Wealthfront Inc. and Betterment LLC — crashed as the S&P 500 Index sank 4.1%. Complaints quickly spread across Reddit and other internet sites from people who had trouble logging onto their accounts. "Really?" wrote @jlpatel23 after he received a message from Wealthfront saying its site was down.
The glitches represent a setback for a niche of the financial market industry that has been booming of late as people have become more comfortable making investment decisions without speaking to human advisors.
