tastytrade Continues to Invest in the Future of AI for Active Traders

Earlier this year, tastytrade placed its conviction on where trading technology is headed, and just as importantly, on the people building it. In May 2026, it acquired the technology and team behind Wagl, an AI-native trading technology company designed to empower active options traders with tools for market research, portfolio analysis, and trade execution. The move represents a significant expansion of tastytrade’s AI strategy. 

Wagl was built from the ground up for the mechanics of equity and options trading, the kind of nuance that generic AI tools tend to gloss over. It’s conversational AI combining market data, options analytics, portfolio review tools, and rules-based strategy scoring, purpose-built for options-focused traders who want more information at their fingertips and faster ways to act on it.  

Bringing in the right team 

Wagl’s co-founders, Alec Baum and Brian Ash, have joined tastytrade to lead the integration and expansion of AI across the organization, and their track record speaks for itself. 

“We built Wagl to meet traders where they are and increase the breadth of information at their fingertips. Unlike integrations that connect accounts to general-purpose AI models, Wagl’s technology was purpose-built for the active trader,” said Alec Baum, tastytrade’s General Manager of AI Products & Developer API. 

Alec previously co-founded Optionality and served as its CEO for three years before its acquisition by Lightspeed Financial Services Group, where he focused on options technology and growth. Prior to starting Optionality, Alec learned the ropes of options trading at Susquehanna International Group. He’s now leading our AI Products and Developer API work.  

Brian joins as Principal Engineer, AI Innovation, with more than 15 years of experience founding and scaling software companies. As CTO of Optionality, he worked alongside Alec to deliver trading solutions that hold up in the real world, and he brings deep expertise in software architecture, platform development, and getting complex technical products into traders’ hands. 

Bringing this team in-house means the people who understand this problem most deeply are now building for tastytrade customers directly. 

What this means for traders 

tastytrade's goal has always been to help traders research markets, analyze their portfolio, and act on trade ideas with more confidence. Acquiring Wagl and the team behind it moves us toward technology that understands options strategy mechanics and real trader workflows at a level beyond what’s currently out there. 

There’s a lot of work ahead, and tastytrade will be sharing more as these tools make their way into the platform. For now, the company is excited to welcome Alec and Brian from Wagl, and to keep building the kind of AI that works the way active traders actually think.