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Multi-Level Market Making with Reinforcement Learning

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  • Patrick Cheridito
  • Moritz Weiss

Abstract

We introduce a reinforcement learning framework for market making in a limit order book. Our algorithm aims to maximize trading revenue by dynamically submitting market and limit orders of varying sizes across multiple price levels while controlling inventory size. We use multivariate logistic-normal distributions to model order allocations and employ a deep-set encoder to aggregate features from variable-length order sets into a fixed-dimensional latent representation. Additionally, we incorporate potential-based reward shaping to accelerate learning without altering the optimal policy. We illustrate the performance of the method in three simulated market environments consisting of noise traders who submit random trades, tactical traders who respond to instantaneous volume imbalance, and strategic traders who trade in the direction of an exponentially weighted volume imbalance signal.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Cheridito & Moritz Weiss, 2026. "Multi-Level Market Making with Reinforcement Learning," Papers 2608.18195, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2608.18195
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Álvaro Cartea & Yixuan Wang, 2020. "Market Making With Alpha Signals," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(03), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Marco Avellaneda & Sasha Stoikov, 2008. "High-frequency trading in a limit order book," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 217-224.
    3. Olivier Gu'eant & Charles-Albert Lehalle & Joaquin Fernandez Tapia, 2011. "Dealing with the Inventory Risk. A solution to the market making problem," Papers 1105.3115, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2012.
    4. Patrick Cheridito & Moritz Weiss, 2026. "Reinforcement learning for trade execution with market and limit orders," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 833-853, June.
    5. Rama Cont & Sasha Stoikov & Rishi Talreja, 2010. "A Stochastic Model for Order Book Dynamics," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 549-563, June.
    6. Ho, Thomas & Stoll, Hans R., 1981. "Optimal dealer pricing under transactions and return uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 47-73, March.
    7. Frédéric Abergel & Aymen Jedidi, 2013. "A Mathematical Approach To Order Book Modeling," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(05), pages 1-40.
    8. Patrick Cheridito & Moritz Weiss, 2025. "Reinforcement Learning for Trade Execution with Market and Limit Orders," Papers 2507.06345, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    9. Frédéric Abergel & Aymen Jedidi, 2013. "A Mathematical Approach to Order Book Modelling," Post-Print hal-00621253, HAL.
    10. Fabien Guilbaud & Huyên Pham, 2013. "Optimal high-frequency trading with limit and market orders," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 79-94, January.
    11. Frederic Abergel & Aymen Jedidi, 2010. "A Mathematical Approach to Order Book Modeling," Papers 1010.5136, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2013.
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