Abstracting Options Trading with AI Agents
Designing trust, transparency, and a touch of humanity into an AI-driven DeFi experience.
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
4 weeks, Jan-Feb 2025
Options trading is powerful but deeply intimidating. Most DeFi users understand staking, farming, or swapping — but strike prices, volatility curves, and iron condors? That’s an entirely different language.
Ithaca’s challenge was to open the doors of options trading to everyday DeFi users — without diluting the sophistication that pros need.
The Problem
Overwhelming complexity: Existing platforms assume users already understand advanced trading strategies.
Accessibility gap: Retail DeFi users are left behind, unable to participate in options markets.
Trust barrier: Simplified UIs often hide too much, leaving users skeptical of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Approach
We framed the solution around AI agents as strategy translators:
Users choose an agent with a personality → not an abstract options strategy.
Agents turn that intent into an executable strategy.
Transparency is preserved through real-time metrics, performance dashboards, and even a “trader’s journal” explaining how decisions are made.
Key Design Decisions
1. Agent Selection Page
Designed like a roster of characters. Each agent has:
Personality charts (contrarian vs momentum, conservative vs aggressive, etc.) to make risk profiles tangible.
Performance stats (AUM, 7D PnL, volatility) in simple visual graphs.
Narrative voice (“Range Alchemist,” “Rolldown Weaver”) that lowers the intimidation factor while making abstract strategies relatable.
🎯 Goal: help users pick an approach they vibe with — not guess between “iron condor” vs. “straddle.”
Options trading is powerful but deeply intimidating. Most DeFi users understand staking, farming, or swapping — but strike prices, volatility curves, and iron condors? That’s an entirely different language.
Ithaca’s challenge was to open the doors of options trading to everyday DeFi users — without diluting the sophistication that pros need.
The Problem
Overwhelming complexity: Existing platforms assume users already understand advanced trading strategies.
Accessibility gap: Retail DeFi users are left behind, unable to participate in options markets.
Trust barrier: Simplified UIs often hide too much, leaving users skeptical of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Approach
We framed the solution around AI agents as strategy translators:
Users choose an agent with a personality → not an abstract options strategy.
Agents turn that intent into an executable strategy.
Transparency is preserved through real-time metrics, performance dashboards, and even a “trader’s journal” explaining how decisions are made.
Key Design Decisions
1. Agent Selection Page
Designed like a roster of characters. Each agent has:
Personality charts (contrarian vs momentum, conservative vs aggressive, etc.) to make risk profiles tangible.
Performance stats (AUM, 7D PnL, volatility) in simple visual graphs.
Narrative voice (“Range Alchemist,” “Rolldown Weaver”) that lowers the intimidation factor while making abstract strategies relatable.
🎯 Goal: help users pick an approach they vibe with — not guess between “iron condor” vs. “straddle.”
Options trading is powerful but deeply intimidating. Most DeFi users understand staking, farming, or swapping — but strike prices, volatility curves, and iron condors? That’s an entirely different language.
Ithaca’s challenge was to open the doors of options trading to everyday DeFi users — without diluting the sophistication that pros need.
The Problem
Overwhelming complexity: Existing platforms assume users already understand advanced trading strategies.
Accessibility gap: Retail DeFi users are left behind, unable to participate in options markets.
Trust barrier: Simplified UIs often hide too much, leaving users skeptical of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Approach
We framed the solution around AI agents as strategy translators:
Users choose an agent with a personality → not an abstract options strategy.
Agents turn that intent into an executable strategy.
Transparency is preserved through real-time metrics, performance dashboards, and even a “trader’s journal” explaining how decisions are made.
Key Design Decisions
1. Agent Selection Page
Designed like a roster of characters. Each agent has:
Personality charts (contrarian vs momentum, conservative vs aggressive, etc.) to make risk profiles tangible.
Performance stats (AUM, 7D PnL, volatility) in simple visual graphs.
Narrative voice (“Range Alchemist,” “Rolldown Weaver”) that lowers the intimidation factor while making abstract strategies relatable.
🎯 Goal: help users pick an approach they vibe with — not guess between “iron condor” vs. “straddle.”
2. Agent Details Page
A deep-dive into how the chosen agent thinks and performs.
Transparent metrics: CAGR, YTD return, volatility, drawdown.
Live trading data: NAV chart + candlesticks for power users.
Agent personality radar: visually maps its tendencies.
Trader’s Journal: a human-like narrative of how the agent makes decisions (“buying into fear, exiting into greed”).
🎯 Goal: maintain confidence — abstraction without opacity.
Outcome & Impact
Lowered learning curve: new users no longer dropped off when facing complex strategy screens.
Increased trust: giving users both a high-level personality and transparent underlying details.
Engagement boost: users explored multiple agents before selecting one, treating them like “characters” rather than faceless algorithms.
Reflection
Ithaca’s AI Agents transformed options trading from a jargon-heavy experience into a character-driven, transparent system. By balancing narrative, data, and transparency, we created a new mental model for DeFi users:
Don’t pick a strategy. Pick an agent.
Outcome & Impact
Lowered learning curve: new users no longer dropped off when facing complex strategy screens.
Increased trust: giving users both a high-level personality and transparent underlying details.
Engagement boost: users explored multiple agents before selecting one, treating them like “characters” rather than faceless algorithms.
Reflection
Ithaca’s AI Agents transformed options trading from a jargon-heavy experience into a character-driven, transparent system. By balancing narrative, data, and transparency, we created a new mental model for DeFi users:
Don’t pick a strategy. Pick an agent.
Outcome & Impact
Lowered learning curve: new users no longer dropped off when facing complex strategy screens.
Increased trust: giving users both a high-level personality and transparent underlying details.
Engagement boost: users explored multiple agents before selecting one, treating them like “characters” rather than faceless algorithms.
Reflection
Ithaca’s AI Agents transformed options trading from a jargon-heavy experience into a character-driven, transparent system. By balancing narrative, data, and transparency, we created a new mental model for DeFi users:
Don’t pick a strategy. Pick an agent.
