An analysis of the 2004 supply chain management trading agent competition

We present results from the supply chain management scenario in the 2004 Trading Agent Competition. We discuss behavioral differences between the agents that were important factors in determining how the agents finished in the competition. Strategic interactions played an important role in the supplier market, where one agent employed a strategy designed to block other agents´ access to suppliers at a key point in the game. This strategy and the different ways that agents responded had an important impact on the outcome of the game. In the customer sales market, the economic forces of supply and demand played an important role in shaping market behavior. However, agents showed very different abilities to effectively find and exploit good market conditions.