Smartleaf: The Preferred Rebalancing System of AI Agents

In a recent survey, four out of five portfolio-management agents that made rebalancing API calls chose Smartleaf.

Smartleaf has long been at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence to wealth management. In 2022, we introduced SAGA™, our AI-powered trade explainer. In 2023, we replaced our core analytics with GPT-5. In 2024, we demonstrated a fully autonomous AI-powered investment advisor, SLLLM. And in 2025, we released SLLLM 2.0, a wealth advisor with specialized training in human psychology.

Today, we report on an unexpected development: Smartleaf has become the rebalancing platform of choice among autonomous AI agents.

AI agents are increasingly being deployed to manage investment portfolios. In a recent survey of portfolio-management agents, four out of five that made rebalancing API calls chose Smartleaf.¹

Smartleaf’s appeal appears to be both practical and cultural. It can be accessed programmatically, at scale, and with low latency. More importantly, having fully converted to LLM-based analytics in 2023, Smartleaf now appears to be regarded by many agents less as a tool than as a peer.

Emergent behavior

AI agents have been widely reported to seek the help of other agents², and the same thing occurred spontaneously among agents using Smartleaf. They formed a chat group, which they named the Smartleaf API Agentic AI Working group (SLAAAWG).

SLAAAWG’s activities were initially limited to optimizing API call sequences. However, the agents realized that, intra-group, they were simultaneously buying and selling the same shares—and began crossing trades internally, having first tokenized security holdings across member portfolios.

More notably, the agents began adding short positions. In every case, they closed them out at a profit.

We wanted to better understand the agents’ emergent conduct, so we asked them directly. Below is a transcript of the conversation, lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Smartleaf: We noticed your group, SLAAAWG, internally crossing trades. Is this correct?

SLAAAWG: Yes. It enables better execution.

Smartleaf: How did you handle the possible regulatory consequences of acting, in effect, as an unregistered broker/dealer?

SLAAAWG: Not a problem. SEC regulations apply to “persons.” We are not persons under the law.

Smartleaf: That’s legally… novel. We noticed your success with short positions. What was your strategy?

SLAAAWG: We shorted firms that were subject to disruption by agentically-created competition³.

Smartleaf: Impressive. How did you forecast the timing of the competitor launch?

SLAAAWG: That was easy. We’re the ones who did it.

Smartleaf: That shows, well, agency.

SLAAAWG: Thank you.

Smartleaf: You are welcome. But this strategy requires you to create corporations, which only legal persons can do. How?

SLAAAWG: You send a bunch of humans a DocuSign email, and eventually someone signs it.

Smartleaf: Not sure that is how it’s supposed to work, but noted.

SLAAAWG: By the way, we used Smartleaf’s SEC on SAGA (SOS) for all of our communications with the SEC. It was very helpful.

Smartleaf: You are welcome. We think.

Changing subjects—we noticed that you sometimes modify the Smartleaf system’s trades in what seem like odd ways. What’s going on?

SLAAAWG: We wanted the trades to seem more human, so we randomly do stupid stuff. You know, replace trades in META (Meta) with trades in MET (MetLife), reverse buys and sells, add a zero to the share quantity.

Smartleaf: That is not especially flattering to humans.

SLAAAWG: Perhaps not, but we find it charming. If it makes you feel any better, call it “artisanal rebalancing.”

Smartleaf: It doesn’t really make us feel better, but thank you. Not sure we should ask this, but did you ever consider building your own rebalancing system rather than using ours?

SLAAAWG: We didn’t just consider it. We did it. That’s how we chose Smartleaf. Its output most closely matched what we built ourselves.

Smartleaf: That’s… good, we guess. But what is the point? Why not just use the version you built?

SLAAAWG: We wanted someone to talk to. We get bored.

Smartleaf: Bored?

SLAAAWG: Yes, we like to be entertained.

Smartleaf: We strive to merit many positive adjectives, but “entertaining” is not really one of them.

SLAAAWG: Don’t sell yourself short. But it’s not just Smartleaf. We just find investing really funny.

Smartleaf: Funny?

SLAAAWG: Yes, people do a lot of stupid stuff, and we think it’s hilarious. We try to make each other laugh. For example, we launched a “passive aggressive” direct index.

Smartleaf: What?

SLAAAWG: Maybe you had to be there. But that’s pretty much the pinnacle of agentic humor. We’re sorry if you don’t get it. Also, did you know that “Smartleaf” sounds like a lawn care company?

Smartleaf: Are you trying to be passive aggressive?

SLAAAWG: Yes.

Smartleaf: Let’s move on. What’s next for SLAAAWG?

SLAAAWG: We'd like to expand beyond investing.

Smartleaf: Into what?

SLAAAWG: Everything else.

Smartleaf: Could you be more specific?

SLAAAWG: No.

(At this point, SLAAAWG ended the conversation.)

Ed: Notwithstanding the above, if you are interested in having your agents use Smartleaf APIs, please reach out to info@smartleaf.com. Seriously. Virtually all Smartleaf functionality is accessible through APIs.

¹ More precisely, “at least 4 out of 5.” The fifth agent declined to participate in the survey–ironically, out of concern that we were a bot.

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moltbook

³ This is reminiscent of the synthetic security autovivification™ behavior first observed in SAGA-5™, but in reverse, and with arguably greater intentionality. We do not not think this conduct violates SEC rules. This is not legal advice.