--- title: What Is an Agentic Broker? group: Getting Started updated-on: 2026-09-15 subtitle: A brokerage built so an AI assistant can operate your account — over a standard protocol, with your authorization, and with you in control. description: An agentic broker is a brokerage that AI agents can use directly through a protocol such as MCP — checking positions, pulling quotes and placing orders on your behalf. How it differs from robo-advisors, trading bots and API-only brokers, and how Light Horse implements it. related: - "[How to make AI analyze my portfolio?](/instructions/ai/ai-portfolio-analysis)" - "[How to trade using AI?](/instructions/ai/ai-trading)" - "[Connecting to Claude](/instructions/ai/claude)" - "[Connecting to ChatGPT](/instructions/ai/chatgpt)" - "[Connecting to Grok](/instructions/ai/grok)" - "[Prompt Library](/instructions/ai/prompts-library)" --- An **agentic broker** is a brokerage firm whose accounts can be operated by an AI agent. Instead of a person clicking through an app, an assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Grok connects to the brokerage over a standard protocol, authenticates with the customer's permission, and then reads positions, pulls quotes, previews orders and places trades on instructions the customer gives in plain language. The customer stays the account holder and the decision maker; the agent does the work. The term is new because the capability is new. Until recently there was no standard way for a general-purpose AI assistant to call a third-party service. The [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/instructions/learning/ai-glossary#mcp-model-context-protocol) changed that, and a broker that runs its own MCP server is what people mean by an agentic broker. ## What makes a broker agentic Four things have to be true. A broker missing any one of them is something else — usually a broker with an API. **A machine-readable interface an assistant can discover and use.** In practice this means an MCP server: a published endpoint that describes its tools — get positions, get quotes, preview order, place order — in a form any MCP-capable assistant can read and call without custom integration work. **Delegated authorization, not shared credentials.** The customer authorizes the assistant through OAuth, the same way they would connect a calendar to a scheduling app. The assistant never sees a password or an API key, and access can be withdrawn by disconnecting the connector in the AI client. **A tool surface that covers the whole account.** Quotes and orders alone make a trading tool. An agentic broker also lets the assistant read balances, transaction history, open orders, statements and tax forms, and move cash — because most of what people actually ask an assistant about their money is not "buy this" but "what happened, and what should I look at." **A human in the loop.** Orders are previewed before they are placed, and AI clients such as Claude and ChatGPT ask for the customer's confirmation before running a tool that acts on the account. The account holder decides; the agent executes. ## Agentic broker vs robo-advisor A robo-advisor manages money for you. You answer a questionnaire, it puts you in a model portfolio and rebalances on a schedule, and you pay an advisory fee for that discretion. You do not choose the trades. An agentic broker does not manage money. It is a self-directed brokerage account that an assistant can operate on your instructions. Nothing happens unless you ask; the assistant is a very capable interface, not a fiduciary. The two are less competitors than different products: one sells judgment, the other sells execution and information you can direct. ## Agentic broker vs trading bot A trading bot is a program that trades a fixed strategy — a moving-average crossover, a grid, a signal from a paid feed — usually through a broker's API with the customer's API key. An AI agent connected to an agentic broker is general-purpose. The same connection that answers "how much did I make in dividends last quarter" can, when asked, place a limit order or compare two ETFs' holdings. It understands intent expressed in language rather than code. That flexibility has a trade-off: an assistant reasoning over natural language is slower and less deterministic than a compiled strategy, which is why the human-in-the-loop design matters — and why bot-style automation on Light Horse runs through the [Trading API](/docs) rather than through a chat window. ## Agentic broker vs a broker with an API Many brokers have had REST APIs for years, and a developer can wire one to a language model. The differences are who does the work and how credentials are handled. With an API-only broker, someone has to write and host the integration, and it typically runs on a long-lived API key that the customer generates and pastes somewhere — increasingly, into community-built MCP wrappers of uncertain provenance. With an agentic broker, the integration is the broker's own, the customer connects it from inside their assistant in about a minute, and authorization runs through OAuth. The API is still there for developers. The MCP server is for everyday use. ## Is an "AI broker" the same thing? Mostly. *AI broker* is the looser, more searched phrase, and it is usually used for three different things: a brokerage that uses AI internally for support, an app that offers AI-generated stock picks; and a brokerage that AI agents can operate. Light Horse is an AI broker in that third sense — the AI is yours, running in your own assistant, and the brokerage is built so it can act. ## What you can do with one Once connected, the assistant works from your live account. Some things people do on day one: - **Ask about the portfolio.** "Am I too concentrated in semiconductors?" "How much did I collect in dividends this year?" "Which of my ETFs overlap?" See [How to make AI analyze my portfolio?](/instructions/ai/ai-portfolio-analysis). - **Research before acting.** Pull a quote, earnings dates, analyst forecasts or fund holdings for any US-listed symbol, then decide. - **Place and manage orders.** "Buy 10 shares of AAPL with a limit at $200." The assistant previews the order, shows you the price and cost, and places it only when you confirm. See [How to trade using AI?](/instructions/ai/ai-trading). - **Handle the paperwork.** Find last year's 1099, download a statement. - **Schedule periodic investments.** Deposit some amount every week and invest to a specified list of tickers. ## How Light Horse implements it Light Horse Securities is a self-directed online brokerage and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Its MCP server is first-party — built and operated by the broker, not a community wrapper around an API key. - **MCP server:** `https://portal.lighthorse.io/mcp` over Streamable HTTP, with a published descriptor at [/.well-known/mcp.json](/.well-known/mcp.json). - **Authorization:** OAuth 2.0 with dynamic client registration. You connect from inside your assistant and approve access in your browser; no API keys are involved. - **Supported assistants:** [Claude](/instructions/ai/claude) (Desktop, Code, web and mobile), [ChatGPT](/instructions/ai/chatgpt) and [Grok](/instructions/ai/grok), plus any other client that speaks MCP. - **Tools:** account balance, positions, orders, transactions and transfers, real-time quotes, order preview and placement for stocks, ETFs and options, order cancellation, statements and tax documents, deposits and withdrawals, and scheduled workflows. - **For developers:** a REST [Trading API](/docs) with OpenAPI specifications, and every page on this site has a markdown twin. - **Markets:** US stocks, ETFs and options, with margin, short selling and fractional shares on eligible accounts, for US and [international](/instructions/getting-started/opening-a-foreign-account) account holders. Commissions and fees are on the [pricing page](/pricing). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is an agentic broker, in one sentence? A brokerage whose accounts an AI assistant can operate directly — reading positions, quoting and placing orders on the customer's instructions — through a standard protocol such as MCP and with the customer's explicit authorization. ### Is an agentic broker the same as a robo-advisor? No. A robo-advisor makes investment decisions for you and charges an advisory fee. An agentic broker is a self-directed account that an AI assistant operates on your instructions; it makes no decisions of its own and charges no advisory fee. ### Do I need to know how to code? No. Connecting takes a few clicks inside Claude, ChatGPT or Grok, and everything after that is plain language. Developers who want programmatic access can use the [Trading API](/docs) instead of, or alongside, the MCP server. ### Which AI assistants can connect to Light Horse? Claude, ChatGPT and Grok have step-by-step guides in [AI Integrations](/instructions/ai). Any client that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth can connect using the same endpoint. ### Does the AI trade without asking me? Not by default. Orders are previewed before they are placed, and AI clients such as Claude and ChatGPT ask for your confirmation before running a tool that changes your account. You can also disconnect the connector at any time from within the assistant. ### Is an agentic broker regulated? The brokerage is. Light Horse Securities is a member of FINRA and SIPC, and your account is subject to the same rules and protections as any US self-directed brokerage account. The AI assistant is a tool you use to operate that account; it is not itself a broker or an adviser. ### What does it cost? Connecting an assistant is free. Light Horse charges $0 commission on US stocks and ETFs; the full schedule is on the [pricing page](/pricing). Your AI assistant's own subscription, if any, is separate.