3S-Trader: A Multi-LLM Framework for Adaptive Stock Scoring, Strategy, and Selection in Portfolio Optimization

TL;DR

3S-Trader is a novel, training-free multi-LLM framework for adaptive stock portfolio construction that effectively scores, strategizes, and selects stocks, outperforming existing methods across multiple stock universes.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, multi-module framework that enables adaptive portfolio management using large language models without additional training.

Findings

Achieves 131.83% return on DJIA stocks

Outperforms existing multi-LLM and time-series baselines

Demonstrates strong results across various stock sectors

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) have recently gained popularity in stock trading for their ability to process multimodal financial data. However, most existing methods focus on single-stock trading and lack the capacity to reason over multiple candidates for portfolio construction. Moreover, they typically lack the flexibility to revise their strategies in response to market shifts, limiting their adaptability in real-world trading. To address these challenges, we propose 3S-Trader, a training-free framework that incorporates scoring, strategy, and selection modules for stock portfolio construction. The scoring module summarizes each stock's recent signals into a concise report covering multiple scoring dimensions, enabling efficient comparison across candidates. The strategy module analyzes historical strategies and overall market conditions to iteratively generate an optimized selection strategy. Based on this strategy, the selection module identifies and assembles a portfolio by choosing stocks with higher scores in relevant dimensions. We evaluate our framework across four distinct stock universes, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) constituents and three sector-specific stock sets. Compared with existing multi-LLM frameworks and time-series-based baselines, 3S-Trader achieves the highest accumulated return of 131.83% on DJIA constituents with a Sharpe ratio of 0.31 and Calmar ratio of 11.84, while also delivering consistently strong results across other sectors.