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Quenching Speculation in Quantum Markets via Entangled Neural Traders

Quantum Physics 2026-02-09 v1

Abstract

Speculative trading can drive pronounced market instabilities, yet existing regulatory and macroprudential tools intervene only after such dynamics emerge. Quantum technologies offer a fundamentally new means of shaping economic behavior by introducing non-classical correlations between decision-makers. Here we demonstrate a prototype quantum stock market in which entanglement between traders' valuations mitigates the runaway devaluation characteristic of speculative busts. Using reinforcement-learning agents trading a single commodity, we show that replacing classical valuations with quantum-correlated qubit-encoded valuations stabilizes prices and increases the AI traders' net worth relative to a classical market, where instead agents rapidly converge to liquidation strategies that collapse the asset value. To explain this behavior, we formulate and analyze a quantized version of the pp-guessing game, a canonical model of speculative dynamics. Quantum entanglement and phase coherence reshape the strategic landscape, eliminating the pathological pure-strategy Nash equilibrium that drives market collapse in the classical game, while mixed-strategy equilibria remain non-degenerate and avoid bust-type outcomes. These results identify quantum correlations as a novel, endogenous mechanism for market stabilization and, more broadly, demonstrate the utility of multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithms for uncovering optimal strategies in complex decision-making frameworks with quantum degrees of freedom.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.06367,
  title  = {Quenching Speculation in Quantum Markets via Entangled Neural Traders},
  author = {Kieran Hymas and Hiu Ming Lau and Kareem Raslan and Qiang Sun and Azhar Iqbal and Derek Abbott and Andrew D. Greentree and James Q. Quach},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.06367},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

9 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:23:41.354Z