Licensing agentic trading software
Why a licence rather than a subscription
A subscription means the software works while you keep paying and stops when you stop. For something running your capital, that is a dependency worth thinking about carefully. A licence means you hold the right to run it, and the arrangement survives a disagreement about price.
This matters more than usual here because the switching cost is not just installation. It is the accumulated record. Software that has been running for a year knows things about its own behaviour that a fresh install does not, and losing access means losing that.
What a licence should cover
What a licence should cover
At minimum it should say what you may run it on, how many people may operate it, whether live trading is permitted or only paper, how long you receive updates, and what happens when the term ends. Whether the software keeps working after the term is the question most worth asking, and the one most often left vague.
It should also be explicit that you supply your own brokerage account and your own capital, and that the vendor never touches either. If a vendor is taking custody of anything, that is a different kind of business with a different kind of regulation attached.
Evaluation should come first, and be real
Nobody should commit to autonomous trading software they have not watched run. A serious vendor will let you run the complete product against a paper account, not a demo with features removed, and for long enough to see it behave through more than one kind of market.
During that period, watch the refusals rather than the returns. A short paper run tells you almost nothing about profitability and a great deal about discipline.
Source access
Source is the answer to the question nobody likes asking, which is what happens if the vendor stops existing. With source and build rights, the software is maintainable regardless. Without them, its lifespan is the vendor's lifespan.
Expect source to cost meaningfully more than a licence to run, and expect it to come with restrictions on redistribution. Both are reasonable. What is not reasonable is source access that does not include the right to build and run what you have been given.
Support that reaches a person
For software of this kind, a ticket queue is not support. What is useful is a direct channel to someone who wrote it, because the questions that matter are not usually about how to use the product.
Terms worth settling in writing
Terms worth settling in writing
Whether the licence is perpetual or termed. Whether updates continue after the term. Whether you may move it to a different machine. Whether a second broker connection is included or extra. Whether white labelling is permitted, and under what conditions.
Settle these before money moves. They are cheap to agree at the start and expensive to argue about later.
Per operator, per machine, or per account
Licences are usually scoped one of three ways, and the difference matters if you intend to grow. Per operator follows a person. Per machine follows an installation. Per account scales with what you are running.
Ask which you are buying, and ask what a second one costs, before you need it rather than after.
What updates should mean
Updates that keep the software working, such as changes forced by a brokerage altering its interface, are maintenance and should be included for as long as the licence runs. New capability is a different thing and may reasonably cost more.
Get the distinction in writing. A licence that includes updates but leaves the definition open is a conversation waiting to happen at renewal.
Evaluation and commercial terms
What evaluation should actually include
The complete product, against a paper account, for long enough to see it through more than one kind of market. Not a limited build, not a guided demo, and not a fortnight.
If a vendor will not let you run the real thing unsupervised before you pay, that tells you something about how it behaves unsupervised.
Where the money should and should not go
You supply the brokerage account and the capital. The vendor supplies software and support. Any arrangement where a vendor takes custody of funds, or takes a share of trading results, is a materially different business with different regulation attached, and should be treated as such.
Practical questions for the contract
Is it perpetual or termed. What stops working at the end. Can it move to a new machine. Is a second broker connection included. Is white labelling permitted. What happens to the licence if the vendor is acquired. Six questions, cheap to settle now.
Common questions
- Is a licence better than a subscription?
- For software running your capital, a licence means the arrangement survives a disagreement about price. A subscription means the software stops when payment stops, which is a dependency worth thinking about.
- Should evaluation cost anything?
- Evaluation should be the complete product against a paper account, for long enough to see it through more than one kind of market. A vendor unwilling to let you run the real thing unsupervised is telling you something.
- What should a source licence include?
- The right to build. Source you cannot compile into a working product is a document rather than a deliverable, so expect the complete engine, the research code and documentation good enough to build from a clean machine.
TradeAgentic is an autonomous trading desk for macOS, with a Windows build on request, licensed to operators and firms who intend to run it themselves.
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