How It Works — Trader

💡 What Is This?

Polymarket offers "bracket" prediction markets on Bitcoin's price — for example, "Will BTC be between $83,000–$83,500 at 12:05 UTC?"

Each bracket is a binary contract: shares trade between $0.00 and $1.00. If you buy YES at $0.50 and the price lands in that bracket, you get $1.00 — a 100% return.

This engine watches BTC price feeds, identifies the most likely bracket, and places trades automatically — either as paper trades (sandbox) or with real USDC on Polygon (production).

⚙️ How the Engine Works

1

Fetch BTC Price

Pulls real-time BTC price from your chosen source (Polymarket, Binance, or Coinbase). Can combine multiple sources for accuracy.

2

Identify Bracket Markets

Scans Polymarket for active 5-minute (or 15-minute) BTC bracket markets. Finds which bracket contains the current BTC price.

3

Analyze & Score

Evaluates the probability of BTC staying in (or moving to) each bracket using momentum, volatility, and price divergence signals.

4

Place Trade

In sandbox mode, simulates the trade. In production, submits a real order to Polymarket via the CLOB API on Polygon.

5

Wait for Resolution

Monitors the market until expiry. Records the outcome — win or loss — and updates your session PnL.

6

Repeat or Stop

Moves to the next market slot. Stops automatically if the session loss limit is hit or the round count is reached.

🔄 Two Modes

🧪

Sandbox Mode

Paper trading with a simulated wallet. No real money, no wallet needed. Use this to test strategies, watch the engine run, and understand market patterns. Works out of the box.

💰

Production Mode

Real trading with USDC on Polygon. Requires a Polygon private key and Polymarket funder address. The engine submits actual CLOB orders. Use with caution — real money at risk.

🧠 Strategies

simulation

Paper trading demo. Buys the current bracket at $0.49, sells at $0.70. Safe, predictable, and good for testing the UI and understanding the flow.

late-entry

Signal-driven strategy. Waits until later in the time slot, then analyzes ATR (Average True Range), price gaps, and exchange divergence before entering. Designed for higher edge at the cost of fewer trades.

📱 Using the Dashboard

The dashboard has three tabs:

Dashboard — Toggle between Sandbox and Production. View live stats (PnL, loss, active markets). Start/stop the engine. See recent trade history.
Config — Change market settings (price source, window, max loss, wallet balance, strategy, rounds). Enter production credentials (private key + funder address).
Logs — Live engine output stream with auto-scroll. Browse and view trade log files (NDJSON format).

🔧 Configuration Reference

BTC Price Source	Where to fetch the real-time BTC price. Polymarket uses their own oracle; Binance/Coinbase are external exchanges. Combining two sources averages them for more stability.
Market Window	Trade on 5-minute or 15-minute bracket markets. 5-minute is faster turnover, 15-minute gives more time for analysis.
Max Session Loss	Safety net. If cumulative session losses hit this dollar amount, the engine stops automatically. Default: $3.
Wallet Balance	Starting balance for sandbox mode. Has no effect in production (uses your real Polygon wallet balance).
Slot Offset	How many time slots ahead to target. 1 = next slot (safest), 2+ = further out (riskier, potentially higher reward).
Rounds	How many market cycles to run. 0 = unlimited (runs until you stop it or hit the loss limit).

🔐 Setting Up Production

Create a Polygon wallet (e.g., via MetaMask) and fund it with USDC on Polygon.
Register the wallet with Polymarket's CLOB API to get a funder address.
In the Config tab, enter your Polygon private key and funder address.
Switch to Production mode on the Dashboard tab.
Start with small amounts. Set a low max session loss ($3–5).

Warning: Production mode trades real money. The private key is stored on this server. Only use a dedicated trading wallet — never your main wallet. Start with small amounts until you understand the risk profile.

💎 Tips

Start with sandbox mode and the simulation strategy to learn the flow.
Watch 5–10 rounds to understand how brackets resolve and where the edge comes from.
Check the Logs tab to see exactly what the engine is doing at each step.
The late-entry strategy is more selective — it may skip slots where signals are weak.
Keep max session loss low until you have confidence in a strategy's performance.
Monitor session PnL on the dashboard — the engine auto-stops at your loss limit.

Polymarket BTC Trader