A retail trader in Germany or the EU who runs AI-assisted research and trades their own account needs no licence for that. The rules start when you publish. Posting a view on an EU-listed instrument's price to a broad audience is an "investment recommendation" under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), which carries disclosure duties, and an undisclosed conflict of interest can amount to market manipulation, a criminal offence in Germany.12 A public post is generally not "investment advice": BaFin says recommendations made only to the public or through information channels do not meet that definition, so they need no advisory licence.3 Personal advice to specific people, managing other people's money and offering crypto-asset services as a business do need authorisation. Below: what applies, the minimum compliance stack for a publishing solo operator, and the German tax points that changed recently.

Scope of this article

It applies to retail individuals running AI-assisted trading or research on their own accounts, domiciled in Germany or another EU member state, who may also publish what they do: a newsletter, videos, social posts or a public site. Content kept entirely private is outside the publishing rules below.

Explicitly not covered: operating an investment-advisory or brokerage business, managing client money, issuing securities, or offering crypto-asset services as a business. Those need authorisation (in Germany under the KWG or the WpIG for investment firms, and under MiCAR for crypto-asset services), and BaFin can order an unauthorised business to stop under § 37 KWG.4

The rules that apply when you publish

1. Investment recommendations under MAR

MAR defines an investment recommendation broadly: information that recommends or suggests an investment strategy, or gives a view on the present or future value or price of a financial instrument, aimed at distribution channels or the public. ESMA's 2021 statement confirms that social media is such a channel and that the rules apply to anyone, professional or not, who posts about instruments traded in the EU; ESMA and national authorities repeated the warning in February 2024.15

What MAR requires of the person posting:

  • Identify yourself as the producer of the recommendation.
  • Present it objectively: separate facts from opinions and projections, and say what the view rests on.
  • Disclose conflicts of interest, including a position in the instrument you are writing about.

The detailed standards are in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/958.6 People who produce or pass on recommendations in their profession or as a business must also notify BaFin before they do so (§ 86 WpHG); BaFin's August 2026 article calls this registering.27

The serious risk is market manipulation. BaFin's August 2026 guidance for finfluencers is direct: promoting securities or crypto-assets without adequate notice of a current conflict of interest may be market manipulation, and that is a criminal offence.2 Buying an instrument, recommending it, and selling into the reaction ("scalping") is the textbook case.

2. Investment advice needs authorisation, but a public post usually is not advice

Investment advice is a personal recommendation to a specific client, based on their circumstances or presented as suitable for them (MiFID II Article 4(1)(4); in Germany, Anlageberatung under the WpHG). It needs authorisation. BaFin's February 2025 guidance note says finfluencers will regularly not meet that definition, because a recommendation published through information channels or to the public is not a personal recommendation to a client.3 The line is crossed when you assess an individual's situation and tell them what to buy, sell or hold, in a DM, a paid group or a one-to-one session.

3. Advertising financial products

BaFin, ESMA and the other European supervisors published a factsheet for finfluencers in January 2026 on advertising financial products: you are responsible for what you post, paid cooperation has to be disclosed, and high-risk products need particular care.8 BaFin's August 2026 article adds that payment in money, gifts or perks must be disclosed clearly, and that promoting a provider which operates without a required licence can draw BaFin's attention to the promoter as well.2

4. MiCAR for crypto-asset services

MiCAR has applied in full since 30 December 2024.9 It regulates:

  • Crypto-asset services offered as a business (custody, exchange, transfer, advice, portfolio management), which need authorisation.
  • Public offers of crypto-assets, which need a white paper notified to the regulator.
  • Stablecoins (asset-referenced and e-money tokens), with authorisation and issuer obligations.

It does not regulate private individuals trading crypto on their own account. Crypto-assets that are not financial instruments fall outside the MAR rules above, but MiCAR carries its own market-abuse provisions, including a ban on market manipulation.9

What is low-risk (education-first)

  • Explaining how an algorithm or tool works, with example code and synthetic tickers.
  • Comparing vendors and tools with published methodology and sponsor disclosures.
  • Publishing benchmark data on models, vendors or strategy properties, not on positions you hold.
  • Interactive calculators that let users compute their own numbers, without personal recommendations.
  • Analysis of public events that does not take a view on a specific instrument's price.

What needs care or authorisation

  • Views on a named instrument's price without the MAR disclosures, or while you hold a position you do not disclose.
  • Personal recommendations to individuals based on their circumstances (investment advice, needs authorisation).
  • Undisclosed paid cooperation or affiliate links.
  • "Guaranteed return" framing, which no supervisor treats kindly.
  • Managed accounts, copy trading or signal services sold to EU clients, which are regulated services.

The minimum compliance stack for a publishing solo operator

  1. Clear education framing on every published surface, with a not-investment-advice notice.
  2. Synthetic tickers (SYNTHETIC_A, SYNTHETIC_B) in examples that would otherwise read as a view on a real instrument.
  3. MAR disclosures whenever you do give a view on a named instrument: who you are, what the view rests on, and any position or conflict.
  4. Sponsor disclosure inline on every page with a sponsor, plus a dedicated policy page.
  5. An Impressum meeting § 5 of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG), which replaced the Telemediengesetz in May 2024: name, address, contact details and, where applicable, VAT ID and registration details.10
  6. A privacy policy that meets the GDPR and covers analytics, cookies (if any) and newsletter sign-ups.
  7. Methodology pages for every benchmark, comparator and quantitative claim, and a public corrections log.

None of these needs legal counsel to draft; all benefit from one legal review.

Tax treatment in Germany, briefly

Gains and losses on your own account:

  • Shares, ETFs and derivatives: capital-income tax (Abgeltungsteuer) of 25 percent plus the solidarity surcharge and, if applicable, church tax, reported on Anlage KAP.11
  • Losses from derivatives (Termingeschäfte): the 20,000-euro annual cap on offsetting them, in force from 2021, was abolished by the Jahressteuergesetz 2024 for all open cases; they now offset against other capital income.11
  • Crypto held privately: a private sale (§ 23 EStG). Gains are tax-free after a holding period of more than one year; within a year they are taxed at your personal rate, unless total private-sale gains for the year stay under 1,000 euros.12
  • US-listed securities: dividend withholding depends on the tax treaty and needs a Form W-8BEN on file with the broker.

This is an overview, not tax advice; consult a Steuerberater for your situation.

What enforcement can look like

  • MAR breaches: national authorities can impose fines and other supervisory measures for missing disclosures, and suspected market manipulation can be referred to prosecutors.15
  • Unauthorised regulated business: BaFin can order it stopped and wound up (§ 37 KWG).4
  • Undisclosed advertising: consumer-protection claims, and platform action under the networks' own advertising rules.
  • Undeclared income: the tax office, on a separate track from BaFin.

The operator checklist

Before publishing anything:

  • ☐ Education framing visible on the page
  • ☐ Synthetic tickers in trade-context examples
  • ☐ MAR disclosures on any view about a named instrument
  • ☐ Positions and conflicts disclosed where relevant
  • ☐ Sponsor disclosure inline and on the policy page
  • ☐ Impressum (§ 5 DDG) and privacy policy up to date
  • ☐ No "guaranteed return" language
  • ☐ Methodology linked for every data claim; corrections log public

For anything LLM-driven that emits probabilities or picks:

  • ☐ No output presented as personal advice
  • ☐ Output labelled as model output, with a warning that it can be wrong

Connects to

References

Note on this article

This article describes the regulatory frame. It is not legal or tax advice. For guidance on your situation, consult a German-licensed lawyer specialising in capital-markets law (Rechtsanwalt für Kapitalmarktrecht) or a Steuerberater.

Footnotes

  1. ESMA. "Statement on investment recommendations on social media" (ESMA70-154-2780), 28 October 2021. https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/library/esma70-154-2780_esmas_statement_on_investment_recommendations_on_social_media.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. BaFin. "Fünf Punkte, auf die Finfluencer achten sollten", 19 August 2026. https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/DE/Fachartikel/2026/fa_bj_260819_fuenf_punkte_auf_die_finfluencer_achten_sollten.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. BaFin. "Merkblatt: Hinweise zum Tatbestand der Anlageberatung", updated February 2025, section 5. https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/DE/Merkblatt/mb_250210_anlageberatung.html ↩ ↩2

  4. Kreditwesengesetz § 37, Einschreiten gegen unerlaubte oder verbotene Geschäfte. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kredwg/__37.html ↩ ↩2

  5. ESMA and national competent authorities. "Warning for people posting investment recommendations on social media" (ESMA74-1103241886-912), February 2024. https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-02/ESMA74-1103241886-912_Warnings_on_Social_Media_and_Investment_Recommendations.pdf ↩ ↩2

  6. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/958 on the objective presentation of investment recommendations and disclosure of conflicts of interest. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2016/958/oj and Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), Articles 3(1)(34)-(35) and 20, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/596/oj ↩

  7. Wertpapierhandelsgesetz § 86, Anzeigepflicht. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wphg/__86.html ↩

  8. BaFin. "Mehr Transparenz für Finfluencer" (factsheet produced with ESMA and the other European supervisors), 9 January 2026. https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/DE/Meldung/2026/meldung_2026_01_09_factsheet_finfluencer.html ↩

  9. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCAR). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1114/oj ↩ ↩2

  10. Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz § 5, Allgemeine Informationspflichten. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ddg/__5.html ↩

  11. Einkommensteuergesetz § 20 (Kapitalvermögen). https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__20.html. The derivative-loss cap in § 20 Abs. 6 was repealed by the Jahressteuergesetz 2024 for all open cases (CMS legal update). https://cms.law/de/deu/legal-updates/verlustverrechnungsbeschraenkung-bei-termingeschaeften-gesetzgeber-schafft-vorschrift-ab ↩ ↩2

  12. Einkommensteuergesetz § 23 (private Veräußerungsgeschäfte), including the 1,000-euro exemption limit in Abs. 3. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__23.html ↩