What is agentic trading?
Agentic trading in one sentence
Agentic trading means an AI agent, not you, watches the markets and places trades within rules and limits you set. Instead of clicking every order, you decide the strategy, the money it may use and the controls around it, and the agent does the repetitive work around the clock.
Why it took off in 2026
Large language models became good enough to read markets, write strategy code and follow instructions, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) gave them a standard way to call tools such as a brokerage or exchange account. In 2026 Gemini launched agentic trading through its exchange API, Robinhood let customers connect AI agents to a dedicated account, and onchain platforms such as Circuit let agents trade perps, prediction markets and tokens from a wallet the user controls.
Three ways platforms offer it
Brokerage agents: you connect an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT to a separate funded brokerage account, and it places stock orders there. Exchange agents: an assistant calls a crypto exchange's API through MCP to read markets and trade on that exchange. Self-custodial agents: the agent is a program that runs on your own wallet and trades onchain venues, and the platform signs only what you have authorized with a key you hold. The three differ most in who holds the money, what the agent can reach and how much you can verify.
What agents actually do
Typical agents follow a trader's positions, grid trade a range, harvest funding rates, rebalance a basket, buy on a schedule, fade extreme readings or trade prediction markets on news. The best agents are deterministic code with explicit rules, so the same inputs always produce the same orders and you can inspect, backtest and paper trade them first. A language model is most useful for writing and explaining that code, not for improvising each trade.
The risks
Robinhood's own disclosure warns that agents may make errors, misinterpret instructions or act on outdated information, and that you can lose your entire investment. Those risks apply everywhere. On top of them, custody matters: if a platform or bot holds your keys or broad API keys, a breach or insider can move your money. Prompt injection matters too: an assistant that reads the web can be tricked unless the system around it refuses unsafe actions.
Questions to ask any agentic trading platform
Who holds the keys, and can the agent ever see them? Does every trade need your approval, or can approvals be switched off? Can you read the exact code or rules the agent runs, and test them on past and live markets before real money moves? Which markets can it reach: stocks only, one exchange, or onchain venues across networks? And can you stop it instantly without losing control of open positions?
How Circuit does agentic trading
Circuit agents run on your own wallet, created in Circuit or imported. Agents never see private keys: they request typed actions, and Circuit signs only under a permit you sign with your passkey. Strategies are code you can read, written for you by the Builder from a plain-English description, then backtested on recorded Hyperliquid and Lighter markets and paper traded on live markets before you switch to real money. Agents reach Hyperliquid perps and spot, Polymarket, Lighter, Papertrade and Kraken, and swap across 18 networks including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Solana and Polygon. You can also connect Claude or another assistant, which can build agents and suggest trades but never trade or move funds without your approval.
Self-custodial by design
Agents run on a wallet you create in Circuit or import from Phantom, Rabby or MetaMask. Agents never see private keys: they request typed actions through Circuit's SDK, and Circuit signs outside the agent's sandbox only under a permit you sign with your passkey. Pause, resume or stop any agent at any time; stopping leaves your positions in your wallet.