# Agentic Empirical Asset Pricing: Methodological Foundations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00731 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00731/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Financial trading and forecasting agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 35 of its 55 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Financial trading and forecasting agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/financial-trading-and-forecasting-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06292/) (2024)
- [AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13131/) (2025)
- [The AI Scientist-v2: Workshop-Level Automated Scientific Discovery via Agentic Tree Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08066/) (2025)
- [TradingAgents: Multi-Agents LLM Financial Trading Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20138/) (2024)
- [FinMem: A Performance-Enhanced LLM Trading Agent with Layered Memory and Character Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13743/) (2023)
- [INVESTORBENCH: A Benchmark for Financial Decision-Making Tasks with LLM-based Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18174/) (2024)
- [Alpha-GPT: Human-AI Interactive Alpha Mining for Quantitative Investment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00016/) (2023)
- [R&D-Agent-Quant: A Multi-Agent Framework for Data-Centric Factors and Model Joint Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15155/) (2025)
- [AlphaAgent: LLM-Driven Alpha Mining with Regularized Exploration to Counteract Alpha Decay](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16789/) (2025)
- [Generating Synergistic Formulaic Alpha Collections via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.12964/) (2023)
- [LLMFactor: Extracting Profitable Factors through Prompts for Explainable Stock Movement Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10811/) (2024)
- [AlphaEvolve: A Learning Framework to Discover Novel Alphas in Quantitative Investment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16196/) (2021)
- [Assessing Look-Ahead Bias in Stock Return Predictions Generated By GPT Sentiment Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17322/) (2023)
- [Automate Strategy Finding with LLM in Quant Investment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06289/) (2024)
- [FactorMiner: A Self-Evolving Agent with Skills and Experience Memory for Financial Alpha Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.14670/) (2026)
- [QuantaAlpha: An Evolutionary Framework for LLM-Driven Alpha Mining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07085/) (2026)
- [Cognitive Alpha Mining via LLM-Driven Code-Based Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18850/) (2025)
- [Profit Mirage: Revisiting Information Leakage in LLM-based Financial Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07920/) (2025)
- [AlphaEval: A Comprehensive and Efficient Evaluation Framework for Formula Alpha Mining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13174/) (2025)
- [GPT-Signal: Generative AI for Semi-automated Feature Engineering in the Alpha Research Process](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18448/) (2024)
- [Chain-of-Alpha: Unleashing the Power of Large Language Models for Alpha Mining in Quantitative Trading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06312/) (2025)
- [Alpha-R1: Alpha Screening with LLM Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.23515/) (2025)
- [Toward Expert Investment Teams:A Multi-Agent LLM System with Fine-Grained Trading Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.23330/) (2026)
- [From Feedback Loops to Policy Updates: Reinforcement Fine-Tuning for LLM-Based Alpha Factor Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15412/) (2026)
- [CLQT: A Closed-Loop, Cost-Aware, Strategy-Consistent Benchmark for Diagnostic Evaluation of LLM Portfolio-Management Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29771/) (2026)
- [AlphaLogics: A Market Logic-Driven Multi-Agent System for Scalable and Interpretable Alpha Factor Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.20247/) (2026)
- [Hubble: An LLM-Driven Agentic Framework for Safe, Diverse, and Reproducible Alpha Factor Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.09601/) (2026)
- [SHARP: A Self-Evolving Human-Auditable Rubric Policy for Financial Trading Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06822/) (2026)
- [AlphaPROBE: Alpha Mining via Principled Retrieval and On-graph biased evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11917/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in LLM agents enable a new paradigm for asset pricing, which we call Agentic Empirical Asset Pricing (AEAP): systems that autonomously conduct the scientific discovery process itself. We define AEAP and identify its core building blocks. Existing evaluation practices backtest only the outputs (factors or trades), not the autonomous discovery system that produced them. We focus on factor discovery, contributing a reference architecture, a rigorous evaluation standard for discovered factors, and a method for out-of-sample backtesting the discovery system. As a concrete instance of that architecture, we evaluate SEADS against five re-implemented baselines on two US equity panels using this standard: no single metric ranks the systems consistently, motivating evaluation on multiple axes at once. A separate rolling re-execution then asks the complementary question of whether the discovery process itself, not one static output, is reliable. We also report negative findings and limitations that surface further evaluation pitfalls for future AEAP systems.