Conceptualizing BDI agents for financial markets

Different domains of application for agents have different requirements, which need to be reflected on their conceptualization, design and implementation. In this paper we outline specifications for BDI agents which we believe are suitable for financial market applications. Building upon the classical BDI paradigm we distinguish between two broad categories of agents: bold and circumspect. We interpret bold agents as agents that may intend to bring about a state of affairs if they do not at least believe it to be impossible, whereas circumspect agents will only adopt intentions if they believe that these are possible. We present notions of realism for bold and circumspect BDI agents which are shown to come closer to the desiderata for rational reasoning agents than the classical notions of strong realism and realism. Examples of reasoning with such agents are also provided