The Invisible Handshake: Tacit Collusion between Adaptive Market Agents
Luigi Foscari, Emanuele Guidotti, Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, Tatjana Chavdarova, Alfio Ferrara
我们研究在一个具有内生价格形成的随机市场中适应性交易代理之间出现默契勾结。 使用做市商和市场接受者之间的双人重复游戏,我们描述了可行和串通的战略特征,将价格提高到超过竞争水平。 我们表明,当代理商遵循简单的学习算法(例如梯度提升)来最大化自己的财富时,由此产生的动态会汇聚到勾结策略配置文件,即使在贸易规模较小的高流动性市场中也是如此。 通过强调简单的学习策略如何自然地导致默契勾结,我们的结果为人工智能驱动市场的动态提供了新的见解。
We study the emergence of tacit collusion between adaptive trading agents in a stochastic market with endogenous price formation. Using a two-player repeated game between a market maker and a market taker, we characterize feasible and collusive strategy profiles that raise prices beyond competitive levels. We show that, when agents follow simple learning algorithms (e.g., gradient ascent) to maximize their own wealth, the resulting dynamics converge to collusive strategy profiles, even in highly...