ATTac-2000: An Adaptive Autonomous Bidding Agent

TL;DR

ATTac-2000 is an adaptive autonomous bidding agent that successfully competed in the Trading Agent Competition by employing a robust, adaptive bidding strategy tailored for complex e-marketplace environments.

Contribution

This paper introduces ATTac-2000, the first autonomous bidding agent with a principled, adaptive strategy that outperforms competitors in a benchmark e-marketplace competition.

Findings

ATTac-2000 achieved first place in TAC.

The adaptive strategy proved robust across different scenarios.

Empirical results demonstrate effectiveness of adaptivity.

Abstract

The First Trading Agent Competition (TAC) was held from June 22nd to July 8th, 2000. TAC was designed to create a benchmark problem in the complex domain of e-marketplaces and to motivate researchers to apply unique approaches to a common task. This article describes ATTac-2000, the first-place finisher in TAC. ATTac-2000 uses a principled bidding strategy that includes several elements of adaptivity. In addition to the success at the competition, isolated empirical results are presented indicating the robustness and effectiveness of ATTac-2000's adaptive strategy.