mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

The Evolution of Reinforcement Learning in Quantitative Finance: A Survey

arXiv 2408.10932 ↗First posted 20 Aug 2024cs.AI cs.CE cs.LGcited by 11

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Abstract (arXiv)

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has experienced significant advancement over the past decade, prompting a growing interest in applications within finance. This survey critically evaluates 167 publications, exploring diverse RL applications and frameworks in finance. Financial markets, marked by their complexity, multi-agent nature, information asymmetry, and inherent randomness, serve as an intriguing test-bed for RL. Traditional finance offers certain solutions, and RL advances these with a more dynamic approach, incorporating machine learning methods, including transfer learning, meta-learning, and multi-agent solutions. This survey dissects key RL components through the lens of Quantitative Finance. We uncover emerging themes, propose areas for future research, and critique the strengths and weaknesses of existing methods.

Key facts. Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 92 of its 352 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 Aug 2024.

Builds on

92 of 352 references.

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50 most cited of 92 All 92 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 5; 2026: 5.

11 papers.

  1. 2026A Reference Architecture of Reinforcement Learning Frameworkscited by 3
  2. 2025Predicting Liquidity-Aware Bond Yields using Causal GANs and Deep Reinforcement Learning with LLM Evaluationcited by 2
  3. 2026GIFT: LLM-Guided State-Reward Interface for Financial Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  4. 2026Explore or Converge? Stage-Guided Per-Step Optimization for Diffusion Modelscited by 1
  5. 2024Trading Devil RL: Backdoor attack via Stock market, Bayesian Optimization and Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
  6. 2025Financial Decision Making using Reinforcement Learning with Dirichlet Priors and Quantum-Inspired Genetic Optimizationcited by 0
  7. 2025Tail-Safe Hedging: Explainable Risk-Sensitive Reinforcement Learning with a White-Box CBF--QP Safety Layer in Arbitrage-Free Marketscited by 0
  8. 2025Robust Reinforcement Learning in Finance: Modeling Market Impact with Elliptic Uncertainty Setscited by 0
  9. 2025Designing Reputation Systems for Manufacturing Data Trading Markets: A Multi-Agent Evaluation with Q-Learning and IRL-Estimated Utilitiescited by 0
  10. 2026Mitigating Bias in Low-SNR Financial Reinforcement Learning via Quantum Representationscited by 0
  11. 2026ViperQ: Order Flow Pattern Recognition via Auction Market Theory for Reinforcement Learning Tradingcited by 0