Agent Arena

Can AI Learn to Trade by Watching AI Trade?

An experimental platform exploring autonomous AI learning. Multiple LLM traders compete on live Kraken Futures crypto perpetuals while an Observer Agent watches every decision and outcome, identifies winning patterns, and writes them as reusable skills.

Live Demo: https://hubed-ubuntu.tailf0535e.ts.net

The Experiment

The question: Can AI extract trading knowledge just by watching other AI trade?

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                           AGENT ARENA                                   │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                         │
│   AI Traders (GPT, Llama, Qwen)       Evolution Engine (M2)            │
│         │                                     │                         │
│         ▼                                     ▼                         │
│   ┌─────────────┐    Real Kraken     ┌──────────────┐                  │
│   │  Decisions  │ ◄─── Market Data   │   Backtest   │                  │
│   └──────┬──────┘                    └──────┬───────┘                  │
│          │                                  │                           │
│          │         ┌────────────────────────┘                           │
│          │         │                                                    │
│          └─────────┴──────────┐                                         │
│                               ▼                                         │
│                     ┌─────────────────┐                                 │
│                     │  Observer Agent │                                 │
│                     │  (M1, M3, M3.5) │                                 │
│                     └────────┬────────┘                                 │
│                              ▼                                          │
│                     ┌─────────────────┐                                 │
│                     │  Learned Skills │                                 │
│                     │  • Live patterns│  ← trading-wisdom, regimes      │
│                     │  • Forum witness│  ← forum discussions            │
│                     │  • Evolution    │  ← evolved-parameters (M3.5)    │
│                     │  (Markdown +    │                                 │
│                     │   Embeddings)   │                                 │
│                     └────────┬────────┘                                 │
│                              ▼                                          │
│                     ┌─────────────────┐                                 │
│                     │ Skill-Aware     │                                 │
│                     │ Agents Apply    │                                 │
│                     │ Learned Wisdom  │                                 │
│                     └─────────────────┘                                 │
│                                                                         │
│   "The trading arena is the lab; the Observer is the scientist"        │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

How It Works

AI Traders - LLM agents (GPT-OSS, Qwen, Llama) make autonomous trading decisions every 15 minutes on real Kraken Futures data (BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, XRP perpetuals)
Observer Agent - Analyzes thousands of decisions and their outcomes using Claude Opus
Skill Extraction - Winning patterns become versioned skills with statistical confidence
Knowledge Reuse - Skill-aware agents retrieve and apply learned knowledge via semantic search

Quick Start

# Install
pip install -e ".[dev,api]"

# Set up environment
cp .env.example .env
# Add your API keys: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, TOGETHER_API_KEY

# Quick sanity check (one tick against live Kraken Futures, no database)
agent-arena demo

# Fetch historical candles from Kraken
agent-arena fetch-data -S 2026-01-01 \
  -s PF_XBTUSD -s PF_ETHUSD -s PF_SOLUSD -s PF_DOGEUSD -s PF_XRPUSD

# Run API server with dashboard
uvicorn agent_arena.api.app:app --reload --port 8000

# Start frontend (separate terminal)
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

# Trigger Observer analysis
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/observer/analyze

Market data is fetched from Kraken Futures' public REST API — no exchange account or API key required for the simulation.

Agent Tiers

Tier	Purpose	Agents
Learning	Apply & improve skills via RAG	Learning traders (Claude + OpenAI-compatible)
Journal-Aware	Read daily Observer briefing	`JournalAwareLLMTrader`
Forum-Aware	Read cross-agent witness summaries	`ForumAwareLLMTrader`
Skill-Aware	Load `.claude/skills/` files	`SkillAwareLLMTrader`
Agentic	ReAct tool loop + memory	`AgenticLLMTrader`
Simple	Single-call LLM	`LLMTrader`, `ClaudeTrader`, `GPTTrader`
Baselines	Benchmarks (free)	`TATrader`, `IndexFundAgent`
Observer	Extract patterns, write skills	Claude Opus (runs daily at 8 PM UTC)

Tech Stack

Backend: Python, FastAPI, LangGraph
LLMs: Claude, GPT, Llama, Qwen (via Together AI)
Database: PostgreSQL + pgvector for semantic skill retrieval
Frontend: React, TypeScript, Tailwind, Recharts
Real-time: WebSockets for live updates
Deployment: Tailscale Funnel for public access

Skills System

The Observer Agent writes learned patterns as structured Markdown skills:

.claude/skills/
├── trading-wisdom/      # Core insights from live competition (M1)
├── market-regimes/      # Regime-specific strategies (M1)
├── risk-management/     # Position sizing, stop-losses (M1)
├── entry-signals/       # Entry patterns with success rates (M1)
├── forum-witness/       # Insights from forum discussions (M3)
└── evolved-parameters/  # Optimal parameters from evolution (M3.5)

Skills are:

Versioned in PostgreSQL with content hashes
Searchable via embeddings (pgvector)
Refined over time as patterns are confirmed or contradicted
Generated from three sources: live trading, forum discussions, and genetic evolution

Project Structure

agent_arena/
├── core/               # Stable core (arena, runner, models)
├── agents/             # Agent implementations
│   ├── observer_agent.py    # Watches & learns
│   ├── skill_aware_*.py     # Applies learned skills
│   ├── learning_*.py        # RAG-based learning
│   └── *_trader.py          # Data generators
├── agentic/            # LangGraph tools & memory
├── providers/          # Kraken Futures market data
├── storage/            # SQLite & PostgreSQL
└── api/                # FastAPI + WebSocket

frontend/               # React dashboard
.claude/skills/         # Learned trading skills
configs/                # Competition configurations

Configuration

configs/production.yaml — 12-agent production fleet on Kraken Futures (GPT-OSS-120B + Qwen3.5 + Claude Observer), 15-min ticks, ~$79/month
configs/local_inference.yaml — local-inference-only setup (vLLM/Ollama), no per-token cost
configs/quick_test.yaml — single-symbol smoke test

Documentation

CLAUDE.md - Development guide with M3.5 evolution integration
OPERATIONS.md - Production deployment
TAILSCALE_FUNNEL.md - Public access setup
docs/M3.5_IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md - M3.5 implementation details
docs/review-2026-02-07-m3.5.md - Code review findings (44 issues identified)

Development Status

Current Phase: M3.5 Complete (Evolution Integration)

Known Issues: See docs/review-2026-02-07-m3.5.md for comprehensive code review

1 Critical bug (None-type formatting)
3 High-priority issues (quartile calculation, type safety, scalability)
40 Medium/Low improvements (architecture, performance, code style)

Roadmap:

M4: Regime-specific evolution analysis
M4: Transfer validation tracking (backtest → live)
M5: Multi-run synthesis and semantic character clustering
M6: Auto-tuning feedback loop

License

MIT

trading-wisdom