Owlhead Home Page

Owlhead

A trading agent for your own brokerage account. It does the reading and the watching, trades only inside rules you write, and writes down why it placed every order.

NewPrivate beta, opening a few people at a time. Sign the guestbook to ask for a place.

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1. What we're building

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Owlhead is a trading agent that works in your own brokerage account. It reads filings, news and prices, comes up with its own trade ideas, places the orders, and looks after each position until it closes.

It works inside rules you write in plain English, which we call your mandate. It can't change those rules, and it can't take money out of your account.

2. Why

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Most people who trade can't watch the market all day. The software that can is usually one of two things: a fund you hand your money to and can't see inside, or a bot you program yourself and hope you got right.

We want a third option. The agent does the reading and the watching. You decide how much it can spend, what it can buy and when it has to ask you. Every decision is written down before it acts, so you can always see why an order went out and who said yes.

Agents are going to handle more and more of people's money. We think the people whose money it is should stay in charge of the agents.

3. How it works

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You write its rules. For example: “US stocks only. No more than $2,000 on any one order. Ask me before buying anything you haven't held.” Owlhead shows you what it understood, in dollars, before you confirm.
It looks for ideas. It writes each one down with its reason and what would prove it wrong.
It places orders. Every order is sized and checked against your rules before it's sent. If your rules say to ask, the order waits on your phone for you. If you don't answer in time, it's skipped.
It looks after the position. Each idea comes with a time limit and the signs that would prove it wrong. Unless you turn protection off, each position also gets a stop that rests at your broker.

4. How it stays in check

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An agent that trades on its own should earn trust a step at a time. Every agent takes the same path to real money:

Backtest. Your rules run on past prices first, to check that orders are sized right and that anything breaking your limits is blocked.
Paper. Then it trades with simulated money, and each idea is scored when its time is up. An idea that keeps failing is retired.
Live. Real money only after both, and only when you switch it on, with your passkey.

And while it trades:

As losses reach levels you set, it trades smaller, then only sells, then closes out and pauses.
Orders above a size you choose wait for your approval, or a second person's.
Stop is on every screen. Pause one agent, or stop them all: each one cancels its orders, sells what it holds and ends.
If market data goes stale, or Owlhead's records and your broker's disagree, it stops adding risk and waits for you.

TradingInside your rules
Only sellingClosing, not opening
PausedWaiting for you
StoppedEnded for good

Each agent is an owl. Its eyes show what it may do right now, and nothing about how it's doing.

Limits can't prevent every loss. When a market gaps or halts, prices can move past a limit before an order fills, so a loss can end up larger than the limit. Owlhead tells you this, in dollars, before you confirm your rules.

5. Who it's for

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You trade your own account.: The agent does the watching, and asks you only when your rules say to.
You manage money for others.: Require a second sign-off above a size you choose. When an investor asks why a trade happened, send them the record.
You run a desk.: Set firm limits that each team can tighten but never loosen, and run Owlhead in your own cloud, so strategy and keys stay with you. Both are coming during the beta.
You've built your own agent.: Connect it through Owlhead's MCP server, coming during the beta. Its orders get the same checks, approvals and record, and it can't approve itself.

and tell us which of these you are.

guestbook.cgi

6. Where we are

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Owlhead is in private beta. Here is what works today and what we're building while the beta opens up.

Working now, on paper:

Writing your rules, and checking every order against them
Paper trading on Alpaca, with simulated money
Approvals on your phone, and the Stop button
The record of every decision

Under construction

Coming during the beta:

Agents that bring their own trade ideas. We're scoring the ideas on our own paper account first
Live trading, once it has legal sign-off
More brokers, starting with Robinhood and Kraken Derivatives US
Firm and team limits, and running Owlhead in your own cloud
Connecting your own agent through the MCP server

The record - Example decision

Why did it buy that?

Most trading software shows you what it bought. Owlhead also writes down why, before the order goes out: what the agent read, its idea and what would prove it wrong, how it sized the order, which of your rules it checked, and who said yes.

Here is one decision from start to finish.

Agent 2 buys XYZ. Example data.
#	Time	Step	What happened
1	09:41:02	Read09:41:02	XYZ's quarterly filing. It raised its spending plans for the second time
2	09:41:09	Idea09:41:09	Buy XYZ and hold about six weeks. Wrong if the plans are cut
3	09:41:09	Sized09:41:09	12 shares at a limit of $141.30, with a stop at $132.80
4	09:41:09	Checked09:41:09	Inside your rules: $1,695.60 of the $2,000 allowed per order
5	09:41:10	Asked you09:41:10	Your rule: ask before buying a stock it hasn't held
6	09:43:27	Approved09:43:27	By you, with your passkey
7	09:43:28	Checked again09:43:28	Price and limits still inside your rules. Sent
8	09:43:29	Filled09:43:29	12 XYZ at $141.27

Can anyone change it afterwards?

Not without it showing. Each line is sealed with a hash of the line before it, so a changed line breaks its own seal and every seal after it. Try it.

Chain check: all 8 lines match.

When your investors or an auditor ask why a trade happened, you can export the record and send it to them.

Questions - Owlhead Help

Can it take money out of my account?: No. Owlhead only asks your broker for permission to trade. It can't withdraw or transfer money, and it can't change its own rules.
Does it trade real money?: Not yet. In the beta, agents trade on paper with simulated money. Live trading comes later, once it has legal sign-off, and only when you switch it on with your passkey.
Which brokers does it work with?: Alpaca, on paper. Robinhood and Kraken Derivatives US are planned.
How do I stop it?: Press Stop, on any screen. You can pause one agent, or stop them all: each one cancels its orders, sells what it holds and ends. Anything you bought yourself stays where it is. Protective stops rest at your broker, so they hold even if Owlhead goes down.
What if I miss a request?: Nothing is sent. A request you don't answer by its deadline is skipped.
What does it cost?: Nothing during the private beta. We'll tell you the price well before we charge anything.
Is this investment advice?: No. Owlhead is software that carries out rules you write. It doesn't know your finances and doesn't recommend what to buy or sell. Whether trading suits you is your decision, ideally with an adviser.
Who gets in?: We let people in a few at a time, roughly in the order they ask, with room for each kind of user so we hear from all of them.

guestbook.cgi

Sign the guestbook to ask for a place. Leave your email and we'll write once, when your place opens.

readme.txt - Notepad

Welcome to Owlhead. This is our homepage, set out as a desktop from the late 1990s. Click an icon to open it. Drag a window by its title bar. The three buttons at its top right hide it, fill the screen with it, and close it. The taskbar brings back anything hidden, and Start has everything. Owlhead is a trading agent for your own brokerage account. It works inside rules you write, and it writes down every decision it makes. It is in private beta, trading on paper. The wallpapers are paintings and prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which shares them as public domain. Pick one in Display. The record walks through why an agent made one trade, and shows what happens if anyone edits it afterwards. Questions answers what people ask first. Sign the Guestbook to ask for a place in the beta. Tour.mp4 is a minute on what Owlhead does. The Recycle Bin holds what Owlhead won't do. The owl in the corner has tips. Right-click the desktop and pick Ask the owl to bring it back. Winamp is Webamp, the open source Winamp 2 for the browser. Its playlist is public domain recordings from Wikimedia Commons: records made from 1916 to 1925 by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin with Paul Whiteman, Scott Joplin, Mamie Smith, Al Jolson, the Original Dixieland Jass Band and Enrico Caruso, and classics played by the US Air Force and Marine bands.