Public.com launches AI agents for investing

Public.com launched no-code AI agents that can monitor markets, move cash, and place trades inside brokerage accounts.

Public says the system lets users describe a strategy in plain language, then review, approve, and activate an agent that can act on stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, bonds, and cash workflows. The company is pitching the feature as an “agentic brokerage” built into its own platform, with no API keys required.

What changed

Public’s new AI Agents for Investing page says users can create recurring instructions for trading strategies, risk controls, and cash management. Examples on the site include covered calls, CPI hedges, idle-cash sweeps, and automated crypto buys tied to technical indicators.

The workflow is simple: type a prompt, review the AI-generated plan, then activate the agent. Public says agents can monitor real-time market data, execute orders when conditions are met, and stay inside the user’s authenticated brokerage environment.

• Supports equities, ETFs, options, crypto, and bonds
• Includes market and limit orders, single-leg and multi-leg options, and shorting
• Uses indicators such as EMA, SMA, RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands, and ATR
• Can move cash between brokerage accounts, bond accounts, and bank-linked balances
• Shows every action in Activity Feed and Transaction History

Public also says several features are still pending, including assignment and expiration handling, tax lots, and some data sources such as company financials, earnings calls, dividends, and portfolio performance. The company labels many sample agents as illustrative rather than live workflows.

Why it matters

For retail investors, the pitch is less about chatbots and more about automation: users do not need to code, watch charts all day, or connect third-party tools to place trades. That lowers the barrier for rule-based investing, especially for recurring strategies like rebalancing, hedging, and cash sweeps.

For the market, Public is trying to turn brokerage into a software layer that reacts to user intent, not just button clicks. If it works at scale, the pressure moves to platforms that still treat automation as an add-on rather than a native feature.

Public frames the product around control, transparency, and security, saying users approve each agent before it goes live and can pause or edit it later. The open question is whether investors will trust an AI system to run live trades with enough discipline to outweigh the convenience.

The launch is another sign that brokerage apps are moving from execution tools toward programmable financial assistants, but the real test is whether users want agents that can trade for them, or only ones that can draft the trade plan.