Everyone Automates the Trade. Nobody Automates the Service. | David Gompert, Avant-Garde Trading

What we talked about.

David Gompert, CEO of Avant-Garde Trading Securities, joins Sunny Ray to explain why his retail-focused brokerage is putting service at the center of its AI work. While commissions have fallen to zero and many self-directed platforms have cut back on support, Gompert argues that service is the missing piece. His firm, which is strong in options, built a multilingual AI service agent named Alex that works around the clock, discloses that it is an AI, and was trained on thousands of hours of broker phone calls. He describes the firm's origins with partner Tom, its auto trading service that executes newsletter signals with a human always in the loop, and its low-cost customer acquisition through newsletter publishers. He also covers the firm's Series A fundraising, plans to add crypto and possibly physical metals, and a push toward financial advisors who are embracing options. Gompert closes with a warning that fully autonomous portfolio management risks events like the flash crash, and that human oversight will remain essential.

Commissions are zero and everyone automates the trade, but David Gompert is using AI to bring real service back to retail brokerage.

The questions, and the answers.

What are you building at Avant-Garde Trading Securities?

We're a retail-focused firm serving individual investors rather than institutions. With the rise of firms like Robinhood, the missing piece is service. You often can't even get them on the phone. We've always been service oriented, so when we started building AI, we built service bots and agents to help customers move money, manage portfolios, and get answers.

What was your business model that other firms wanted to copy?

We serve people who subscribe to investment newsletters, and when a newsletter sends a signal, we execute the trade for them. We call it set it and forget it. Customers give us instructions, and we handle the trading. It's auto trading, but with a human in the loop at all times.

Why did you decide to automate service first instead of the trade?

Commissions are zero and the industry charges less and less, so we wanted to maximize service while keeping margins strong. We built AI service agents. Our agent, Alex, is available 24/7 and multilingual, including Arabic for a project in Saudi Arabia. We built our own language model, trained on thousands of hours of broker calls, to address hallucinations.

Is Alex transparent about being an AI, and how do customers react?

Yes. Even though regulators haven't spelled out exact language for AI in service, we felt it was important to be upfront. Alex opens by saying she's the after hours AI assistant for Avant-Garde Trading. Still, customers often forget they're talking to an AI after a while. Our goal is knowledgeable, accurate answers anytime.

How do you acquire customers so cheaply?

We have relationships with publishers of investment newsletters, with no financial exchange between us. They sell subscriptions and tell subscribers they need somewhere to trade, and our auto trading service draws them to us. We avoid big ad spend on outlets like CNBC and use social media like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

What does the next stage of growth look like for the firm?

We're in the capital raise phase for our Series A and already in diligence with three potential investors. For growth, we want to reach truly self-directed clients who don't use a newsletter, and build relationships with financial advisory firms. Advisors are embracing options more, and our execution expertise fits well.

What does a retail investor's relationship with their broker look like in five years?

If we're right, competitors will have to raise their service levels. AI will make brokerages and portfolio management far more efficient, but I don't believe a fully autonomous AI will manage portfolios without a knowledgeable human holding the reins. The flash crash showed the danger of machines all acting at once.