fix(agents): require absolute price levels from the Trader

- asking the Trader for concrete entry/stop levels invited a percentage
  (stop_loss: '15%'), which is not a price and failed the whole structured
  parse, dropping the run to a free-text retry
- state the requirement in the prompt and in both field descriptions
- a percentage now nulls that field instead of failing the proposal; it is
  never salvaged, since 15% must not become a 15 stop. Human-formatted
  prices with a currency symbol or thousands separator parse #1288

tradingagents/agents/schemas.py

@@ -31,9 +31,23 @@ _NULLISH_FLOAT = {"", "none", "n/a", "na", "null", "nil", "-", "tbd", "unknown"}
 
 
 def _coerce_optional_float(value):
-    if isinstance(value, str) and value.strip().lower() in _NULLISH_FLOAT:
+    """Normalise an LLM-written optional numeric field before validation.
+
+    Three shapes show up in practice: a placeholder string ("None", "N/A") in
+    place of an omitted value (#1058); a percentage where a price was asked for
+    ("15%", #1288); and a human-formatted price ("$1,234.50"). A percentage
+    cannot be salvaged into an absolute level -- reading "15%" as 15 would put a
+    stop at $15 on a $600 stock -- so it is dropped like a placeholder, leaving
+    one bad field to null out instead of failing the whole proposal. A formatted
+    price is reduced to its number. Anything else passes through to pydantic.
+    """
+    if not isinstance(value, str):
+        return value
+    text = value.strip()
+    if text.lower() in _NULLISH_FLOAT or text.endswith("%"):
         return None
-    return value
+    cleaned = text.replace(",", "").lstrip("$€£¥").strip()
+    return cleaned or None
 
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -140,11 +154,19 @@ class TraderProposal(BaseModel):
     )
     entry_price: float | None = Field(
         default=None,
-        description="Optional entry price target in the instrument's quote currency.",
+        description=(
+            "Optional entry price target as an absolute number in the instrument's "
+            "quote currency (e.g. 189.5), never a percentage or a range. Omit it "
+            "if you cannot state a specific level."
+        ),
     )
     stop_loss: float | None = Field(
         default=None,
-        description="Optional stop-loss price in the instrument's quote currency.",
+        description=(
+            "Optional stop-loss as an absolute price in the instrument's quote "
+            "currency (e.g. 172.0), never a percentage. Convert a percentage "
+            "distance to the price level it implies, or omit it."
+        ),
     )
     position_sizing: str | None = Field(
         default=None,

tradingagents/agents/trader/trader.py

@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ def create_trader(llm):
                     "You are a trading agent analyzing market data to make investment decisions. "
                     "Based on your analysis, provide a specific recommendation to buy, sell, or hold. "
                     + grounding
+                    # Entry/stop are numeric price fields. Asking for concrete
+                    # levels invites a percentage ("15%"), which is not a price
+                    # and fails the structured parse (#1288).
+                    + "State entry price and stop-loss as absolute price levels in the "
+                    "instrument's quote currency (for example 189.5), never a percentage "
+                    "or a range; convert a percentage distance to the price level it "
+                    "implies, or omit the field if you cannot state a number. "
                     + NO_EXTERNAL_TOOLS
                     + get_language_instruction()
                 ),