Hi-DARTS: Hierarchical Dynamically Adapting Reinforcement Trading System

Sagong, Hoon, Kim, Heesu, Hong, Hanbeen

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence 

Personal use of this material is permitted. Abstract--Conventional autonomous trading systems struggle to balance computational efficiency and market responsiveness due to their fixed operating frequency. We propose Hi-DARTS, a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning framework that addresses this trade-off. Hi-DARTS utilizes a meta-agent to analyze market volatility and dynamically activate specialized Time Frame Agents for high-frequency or low-frequency trading as needed. During back-testing on AAPL stock from January 2024 to May 2025, Hi-DARTS yielded a cumulative return of 25.17% with a Sharpe Ratio of 0.75. Our work demonstrates that dynamic, hierarchical agents can achieve superior risk-adjusted returns while maintaining high computational efficiency.