Welcome to PolyWasp

PolyWasp is a desktop app that trades Polymarket US for you, following rules you write in plain English. Every strategy starts on paper money, so you can see how it does before you trust it with real money.

How it works, in four steps

1. Download and connect. Install the app, then connect it to your Polymarket US account with an API key.
2. Pick or build a strategy. Start from a preset, build your own in the strategy builder, or describe one to an AI agent in VS Code.
3. Paper trade it, free. Strategies trade paper money against live Polymarket US prices. The leaderboard, performance chart and calendar show how each one is doing.
4. Promote to real money. On a paid plan, promote a strategy that has proven itself. It gets its own real-money copy with a budget you assign, and you can pause, stop or sell at any time.

What PolyWasp can trade

Every category Polymarket US lists: sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college, soccer, tennis, esports and more), crypto (Bitcoin Up or Down every 15 minutes and hourly), daily weather, elections and politics, the economy, culture, tech and world affairs.

Paper money and real money

• Paper trading is free on every plan. Paper strategies use live prices and realistic fills and fees, but no real money.
• Real-money trading needs a paid plan (Pro, High Roller or Whale). A real-money strategy is always a separate copy of a paper strategy, so the paper version keeps running alongside it.

Where to go next

New to PolyWasp? Follow the guide in order: Install the app, then First-run setup and Get your Polymarket US API key.

Install the app

PolyWasp runs on a Mac with Apple Silicon. A Windows version is coming.

Download and install

1. Go to the download page and click Download for Mac.
2. Open the downloaded .dmg and drag PolyWasp into Applications.
3. Open PolyWasp from Applications.

Allowing PolyWasp the first time

PolyWasp isn't verified by Apple yet, so the first time you open it macOS blocks it. You only need to allow it once:

1. Open PolyWasp. When macOS says it can't be opened, click Done.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll down to the security section and click Open Anyway next to PolyWasp, then enter your Mac password.

The window and the menu bar wasp

• PolyWasp opens in its own window. The dashboard runs on your computer; nothing about your trading is hosted online.
• Closing the window does not stop PolyWasp. Strategies keep trading in the background. Click the Dock icon, or Open PolyWasp in the menu bar wasp, to bring the window back.
• The wasp in the menu bar shows ● PolyWasp active while it runs, with Open PolyWasp and Kill PolyWasp.
• To stop everything, choose Kill PolyWasp, press ⌘ Q, or right-click the Dock icon and choose Quit.

Updating

To update, quit PolyWasp (Kill PolyWasp), download the latest version and drag it into Applications again, replacing the old one. Your strategies and history are kept.

Where your data lives

Everything PolyWasp stores is in ~/Library/Application Support/PolyWasp on your Mac: your strategies and their history, logs, your sign-in, your Polymarket key and the AI workspace. Deleting the app leaves this folder in place, so reinstalling keeps your strategies. Delete the folder only if you want to start completely over.

First-run setup

The first time you open PolyWasp it walks you through three short steps: sign in (or continue free), connect Polymarket US, and choose some starting strategies.

Step 1: Log in or continue free

• If you have a PolyWasp account, enter your Email and Password and click Log In. Signing in is what unlocks a paid plan's real-money trading on this computer.
• Otherwise click Continue in Free mode. You can paper trade every strategy for free and log in any time later from the account pill (top right).
• No account yet? Click Create an account, or sign up here. Forgot your password? Use Forgot password?.

The screen shows whether it can reach PolyWasp: Online · Connected to PolyWasp, or a message if you're offline. Free mode works without signing in.

Step 2: Connect Polymarket US

PolyWasp needs your Polymarket US API key, even for paper trading, because Polymarket US only serves live prices to signed requests. Enter your API key id and Secret key and click Verify & Connect. PolyWasp checks the key with Polymarket US, then saves it on your computer.

When it works you'll see Connected to Polymarket US and your available balance. How to get your API key →

Step 3: Choose starting strategies

The Welcome to PolyWasp screen offers preset strategies. Point at one to see what it looks for, one of its rules in full, and how it handles money. Tick the ones you want and click Add N preset strategies. They start paper trading straight away.

You can also click Create New Strategy from Scratch to open the builder, or No thank you, start with a blank slate. The Welcome screen comes back each time you open PolyWasp until you have at least one strategy.

Get your Polymarket US API key

An API key lets PolyWasp read live prices from your Polymarket US account and, if you choose, place orders in it. You create it on Polymarket's developer site.

Before you start

You need a Polymarket US account that has finished identity verification in the Polymarket US app. The developer site only lets verified accounts create keys.

Create the key

1. Go to polymarket.us/developer and sign in with the same login you use for the Polymarket US app.
2. Create a new API key.
3. Polymarket shows a Key ID and a Secret Key. The secret is shown only once: copy both somewhere safe before you close the dialog.

Enter it in PolyWasp

• API key id looks like 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
• Secret key is a long string of letters, numbers, +, / and =. Use Show to check you pasted all of it.
• Click Verify & Connect. If Polymarket accepts it you'll see your balance.

Keeping your key safe

• Anyone who has your key can trade your Polymarket account. Keep it private.
• PolyWasp will never ask you for your key by email, chat or phone.
• If you think your key has leaked, revoke it at polymarket.us/developer straight away and create a new one.

Changing your key later

Click the account pill at the top right of the dashboard, then Change Polymarket API key. When you promote a strategy you can also use a different key just for that strategy (see Promote to real money).

If the key isn't accepted

Your account & plans

Paper trading is free forever. A paid plan unlocks real-money trading, up to a limit on how much you can assign to real-money strategies.

The plans

The limit is on the total you assign across real-money strategies in PolyWasp. It doesn't limit your Polymarket balance, and it is not a limit on how much you can lose. Compare plans on the pricing page.

The account pill

The pill at the top right of the dashboard shows ● Free · Log in in Free mode, or your plan and email when signed in (for example ● Pro · you@example.com). Clicking it refreshes your plan from polywasp.com, so an upgrade shows up straight away, and opens your account card with:

• your plan and how much real money it allows;
• Change Polymarket API key;
• Sign out.

Upgrading

1. Choose a plan on your account page or the pricing page and pay through Stripe.
2. In the app, sign in with the same email from the account pill (or click the pill if you're already signed in). PolyWasp picks up your plan.

What a plan unlocks

Connecting a strategy to real money, adding money to it and activating it need a paid plan. Getting out is never blocked: stopping, selling, deactivating and taking money out of a strategy always work, whatever your plan.

Computers and staying online

• Up to 3 computers can be signed in to one account. Signing in on a fourth signs out the one used least recently. Manage them from your account page.
• PolyWasp checks your plan with polywasp.com regularly. If it can't for over 3 days (for example while offline), real-money features pause until it can check again. Paper trading carries on.

Cancelling

On your account page, Manage billing opens Stripe, where you can switch plans, update your card or cancel. A cancelled plan stays active until the end of the month you paid for.

Tour of the dashboard

The dashboard is one long page. From the top: the header, your Polymarket balance, the Strategy Leaderboard, the selected strategy, positions, activity and the event boards.

The header

A status line under the header confirms each action you take (for example adding a favorite).

Polymarket Balance

Four cards summarise your real Polymarket US account:

On the Free plan, two cards become an Upgrade to Enable Real Money Trading link.

The sections below

• Strategy Leaderboard: every strategy, ranked. Open by default.
• The selected strategy: its controls, performance chart and calendar.
• Current Positions: open positions and resting orders. Open by default.
• Action Visualizer: what the engine is doing right now, and why recent positions were taken or skipped.
• Position History: closed trades and entries. Collapsed by default.
• Today's Events and Live Events: the game boards, where you also make manual picks. Collapsed by default.
• Real Money Calendar: every real-money strategy's results in one calendar.

Click a section's heading to open or close it.

Strategy Leaderboard

Every strategy, paper and real money, in one table. Click a strategy's name to select it and see its details below.

Toolbar

• + Create Strategy opens the strategy builder.
• Search strategy name also matches rule names inside a strategy.
• Sort: Rank (best first), Name A–Z, Net return %, EV / trade, Profit factor, Risk-adjusted return, Lowest drawdown, Profitable iterations %, Average iteration return or Completed iterations. Your choice is remembered.
• Filters narrows the list, for example Favorites only, sport, market family, entry band, take profit and stop loss, phase, Minimum win %, Minimum iterations, or Status (Real Money / Paper Money). A badge shows how many filters are on; Clear all filters resets them. A strategy with several rules stays listed while any of its rules match.

Columns

Sample size

Results from a few trades are mostly luck. The sample label says how far to trust them:

Notes under a strategy's name

• N rules share this account: the strategy's rules all trade one balance.
• INVERSE: it takes the other side of every pick (see Inverse).
• follows its paper twin, sized by equity: a real-money strategy copying its paper version.
• X% committed: how much of its money is in positions and resting orders.
• ALLOWANCE BREACH: it has more at risk than its limit allows, so new entries are blocked until it's back under.

Real-money strategies appear in the same table, named Real Money · <name>. The table shows 100 strategies per page.

Inspecting a strategy

Select a strategy on the leaderboard to see its controls, performance chart and calendar. Show all goes back to the combined view.

Buttons for a paper strategy

Above the chart, a line shows the current run and how past runs went: Iteration N running · x of y completed profitable · Average return ….

Strategy performance chart

The line is the strategy's balance after each closed position: its starting balance plus the profit or loss of every closed trade. Open positions aren't included until they close. Each point is a trade, coloured for a win or a loss.

• Hover (or tap) a point for the full story: the event, the side held, the final score, when it closed, the exit reason, the price in and out, cost and proceeds, net profit and the balance before and after.
• Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, or use the buttons: ◀ ▶, + −, Fit (all loaded history), Latest (the most recent closes), and Earlier history / Later history.
• Keyboard: ← → pan, + − zoom, Home fits everything, ↑ ↓ step through trades.
• On a real-money strategy, money you assign or return shows as a step with an Equity ±$X marker.

Calendar History

Realised profit and loss by the day each position closed, with a weekly total down the side and the month's total by its name. Use ‹ › to change month. A day can show a small amount with 0 trades: that's a maker rebate. A reset starts the calendar over with the new run.

Positions & orders

Current Positions shows what the selected strategy (or every strategy) holds right now, and the buy orders still waiting to fill.

Position cards

Each card shows the strategy, the event with the side held, the reason it was bought, the score, and:

The box at the bottom shows the exits: Take profit at X¢, Stop loss at X¢, or Holding to settlement, and any minimum hold still running. If a sell order is resting, it says so; if not, it says why (for example the minimum hold hasn't finished, or neither threshold has been reached).

Awaiting fill

A maker order rests at a limit price until someone sells to it. While it waits you'll see an Awaiting fill card: the limit, how far it is from the bid, the cash reserved, not spent, how long it has rested and when it expires. No contracts are held yet. If the order expires, the price leaves the strategy's range or the market stops trading, it's cancelled and the reserved cash goes back to the strategy.

Reconcile Position (real money)

If you sell contracts yourself in the Polymarket US app, PolyWasp's card can still count them. Reconcile Position checks Polymarket and offers to close or reduce the card to match. Nothing is sent to Polymarket.

Action Visualizer

Shows the paper and real-money engines working in cycles (receiving data, deciding, placing orders, waiting), the Latest decisions with which rule asked for each position, and a Cycle log. Skip reasons such as capital, spread, cooldown, already in or allowance breach explain why a rule didn't buy.

Position History

Closed trades lists every closed position with cost, proceeds, fees and profit; Position entries lists every entry. Click a trade to see its price path.

Event boards & AI Top 5

Today's Events and Live Events show today's games with live prices. They're also where you make picks by hand.

Reading the boards

• Today's Events lists today's schedule (Pacific time). Filter by team or league, sport, status and time, and sort by start time, sport or name.
• Live Events shows only games Polymarket has confirmed are live.
• Each card shows the teams, the score or start time, and prices for Moneyline, Spread and Total. A price is the market's estimate of the chance, in cents: 30¢ means about 30%. Hover a price to see the bid and ask.

Betting by hand

If you have a strategy with a manually entered rule set, each price becomes a + Bet button. Click one and choose which rule set to bet through. PolyWasp shows the size (N units ≈ $X) and how much room is left, then sizes the bet, places it with that rule set's order type and runs its exits.

AI Top 5

AI Top 5 is a paper strategy for hand-picked bets: up to five a day, each 3% of its equity, bought at the ask and held to settlement. Use it to track picks from an AI or anyone else.

• Click a price's + AI Top 5 button and confirm with Add pick.
• Or click Text Parse Positions and paste picks, one per line (for example Buffalo Sabres, Moneyline). Click Parse, check each match, then Add N picks.
• If Polymarket has no prices for a game yet, the pick waits and is bought before the start.

How strategies work

A strategy is one paper account with one or more rule sets. Each rule set says when to buy, when to sell and how to place the order.

Strategies and rule sets

• Strategy: has a name, a starting balance and money limits. Its rule sets share its balance.
• Rule set: one idea, for example "NFL home underdogs priced 35–45¢". It has Buy if conditions (all must be true), Sell if exits (whichever happens first) and Order settings.
• A strategy can hold up to 500 rule sets. Each rule set buys at most one position per game.

Money: units and limits

If two rule sets want the same contract at once, they share the position limit. A bet that would go over the money-at-risk limit is trimmed to fit, or skipped if nothing is left.

Prices and payouts

A price is the market's estimate of the chance that side wins: 30¢ means about 30%. A winning share pays $1, so cheaper sides win less often but pay more. You can sell before the end, or hold until the market settles.

Three ways to get a strategy

• Start from a preset, then change anything.
• Build your own in the strategy builder; see Strategy recipes for ideas.
• Describe it to an AI agent in VS Code, then import it.

Start from a preset

Presets are ready-made examples to learn from and adapt. They're not tested strategies or advice: paper trade them before trusting them.

Where presets come from

• PolyWasp examples: simple strategies such as Pregame sampler, Live swing trader and NFL Sundays.
• PlayMaker meta-strategies: 49 strategies built from earlier research, such as Best of the Backtests, Coinflip Hunter, Sport Champions, Underdog Machine, Momentum Machine and Smooth Operators. Each has many rules sharing one account.

Adding presets

• On the Welcome to PolyWasp screen, tick presets and click Add N preset strategies.
• In the builder, click Presets:
  • Whole strategies: Use “Title” loads a whole preset into the builder to edit before saving.
  • Single rule sets: Add rule set adds one rule set (for example NFL pregame small underdog or Live favorite dip) to the strategy you're building.

Point at any preset to read what it looks for, one of its rules in full, and how it handles money.

The strategy builder

Open it with + Create Strategy on the leaderboard, or Edit Strategy on a strategy you built.

The header

• Presets, Import and Export: see presets and import & export.
• The PW-… fingerprint identifies the rules: the same rules always give the same id.
• Create strategy (or Save changes) saves; Cancel or Esc closes without saving.

Building a strategy, step by step

1. Name it and set the money: Starting equity, One unit is, Max per position and Max at risk at once. Optionally open Risk limits for a daily loss limit and other circuit breakers (see Risk limits). A sentence underneath reads it all back to you.
2. Add a rule set with + Add rule set (or + Add a preset rule set). Name it and set Bet N units.
3. 1 · Buy if: click + Add a buying condition and pick conditions. All must be true for the rule set to buy.
4. 2 · Sell if: click + Add an exit. The first exit that happens sells. With no exits, positions are held until the market settles.
5. 3 · Order settings: choose Maker, Taker or Maker then taker. See Exits & order settings.
6. Read the summary under the rule set: it says, in plain English, exactly what the rule set will do.
7. Create strategy. It starts paper trading straight away; find it on the leaderboard.

Adding conditions

The condition window groups every condition by category: How it enters, The game, The teams, Score & clock, Price, Candles, Volume, When, Markets, Crypto, Weather, Politics, Limits and Advanced. Search, or click a card to add it. Cards already used say Added.

Fill in each condition's blanks: numbers, dropdowns, or Choose… buttons that open a picker.

Rule set controls

• The switch turns a rule set on or off without deleting it.
• Duplicate copies it, Export saves it on its own, Delete removes it, and ▾ collapses it.

Problems

If something isn't finished or doesn't make sense, the builder explains it next to the rule set and under To create this strategy, fix:. For example: a price range with the low above the high, a condition used twice, or sports and crypto rules mixed in one rule set.

Editing a strategy later

• Select it on the leaderboard and click Edit Strategy. It keeps its history.
• Turning a rule set off or removing it stops its new entries and cancels its resting buys; its open positions are left to finish.
• Starting equity can't be changed once created. Reset the strategy to start over.
• A real-money copy can only be edited while it's inactive.

Buy conditions

Every condition you can put in Buy if. All of a rule set's buy conditions must be true for it to buy. Each condition can be used once per rule set.

How it enters

The game

The teams

Price

Candles

PolyWasp builds 1-minute candles from every price it sees and keeps four hours of them. A candle is green when it closes higher than it opened and red when it closes lower.

Score & clock

These read the live scoreboard, so they only apply to games that are in play. The team is always the side you would be buying.

Volume

When

Limits (this rule set)

Caps on one rule set. For caps on the whole strategy, see Risk limits.

Markets, crypto, weather and politics

Conditions for non-sports markets are covered in Crypto, weather & politics.

Advanced

Crypto, weather & politics

PolyWasp trades every Polymarket US category, not just sports. These markets are Yes/No questions, such as "BTC Up or Down: 15 min" or "Highest temperature in NYC: 68 to 69°F?".

Any market

Crypto

Example: Coin is Bitcoin in 15-minute Up or Down markets, the market closes in at most 3 minutes, and the price is between 70¢ and 90¢.

Weather

Politics

Price, momentum, trading activity, volume, day and month rules also work on these markets.

Exits & order settings

Sell if decides when a position is sold; Order settings decides how the buy order is placed.

Exits (Sell if)

The first exit that happens sells the position. If none happens, it's held until the market settles and pays out.

Prices can jump past your levels, so an exit can fill at a worse price than you set.

Order settings

For maker orders you also set:

• Price vs the bid: 0 rests at the bid, +0.5 half a cent above, −1 a cent below.
• Rest for: how long the order waits (seconds) before it's cancelled, or bought at market for Maker then taker.

For every order type, Skip if the spread is over avoids thin markets where the gap between the bid and the ask is wide. Leave it empty for no limit.

Risk limits

Circuit breakers for a whole strategy. They sit in the strategy builder under Risk limits, above the rule sets, and every one is optional: leave it blank to turn it off.

A risk limit never sells anything. It stops the strategy taking new positions; open positions are still managed by their exits. A paused strategy starts again the next day.

The plain-English sentence under the strategy settings reads the limits back to you, for example "Stops entering for the day once down 5% of the day's starting equity. Never re-enters a game the same day after a stop loss there."

Risk limits versus money limits

• Max at risk at once and Max per position (in the money settings) size each bet and cap how much is riding.
• Risk limits react to results: losses, streaks, counts and what just happened in a game.
• Both apply on paper and with real money.

Strategy recipes

Ideas that combine rules, written the way you'd set them in the builder. They're starting points to paper trade, not recommendations.

Cheap comeback

Buy if: League is NFL · Pregame or live: live · Period is 4th quarter · Score margin: trailing by at least 7 · Price is between 5¢ and 15¢ · Price momentum: risen at least 2¢ in 3 minutes.
Sell if: Take profit 100% · Sell on the score: falls behind by at least 14.
Why: a long shot that is starting to move. The momentum rule makes it a comeback in progress rather than a dead game.

Breakout favorite

Buy if: Price just crossed above 60¢ in the last 2 minutes · 3 straight 1-minute candles up · Money on the ask at least $300 within 1¢.
Sell if: Break-even stop once up 10% · Trailing stop in cents: once up 8¢, sell if it falls 4¢.
Why: join a move as it confirms, protect it at break-even, and trail the rest.

Day-low dip

Buy if: Market category: Politics · Price is between 20¢ and 60¢ · Day's high or low: within 2¢ of the day's low · Rebound: fell at least 6¢ then recovered at least 2¢ in the last 60 minutes.
Sell if: Sell at a price: 5¢ above your typical entry, or Take profit 15%.
Why: buy the bounce off the cheapest price of the day, once the bounce has started.

Last-minutes BTC favorite

Buy if: Coin is Bitcoin in 15-minute Up or Down markets · Time until the market closes: at most 3 minutes · Price is between 70¢ and 90¢.
Sell if: Sell before the market closes: 1 minute left · Stop loss 40%.
Why: back the side that is winning the window late, and get out before the final print.

Sizing by price, without a rule for it

Make two rule sets with the same conditions except the price band, and give them different units: "price 20–40¢, 1 unit" and "price 40–60¢, 2 units". The strategy then bets more on the likelier side. Every rule set buys at most one position per game, so the two never stack.

A strategy that respects itself

Whatever the rules, open Risk limits and set a daily loss limit, a pause after 3 losses in a row, and no re-entry after a stop loss. Most pros never run anything without them.

Bankroll management: make your own picks

You don't need to create an algorithm to use PolyWasp. Choose every bet yourself, and PolyWasp sizes it, holds you to your limits and runs your exits.

Set it up once

1. Click + Create Strategy. Set your bankroll as Starting equity, your standard bet as One unit is, and your limits: Max per position and Max at risk at once.
2. Add a rule set and add the buy condition Manually entered (I pick each bet). It must be the only buy condition.
3. Set Bet N units, and add the exits you want: take profit, stop loss, trailing stop or time limit. With no exits, bets are held to settlement.
4. Keep Order settings on Maker if you'll want to use real money.
5. Click Create strategy. You can make several manual rule sets, for example a 1-unit "lean" and a 3-unit "strong" pick.

Make a pick

1. Open Today's Events or Live Events and click + Bet on the side you want.
2. Choose the rule set to bet through. It shows the size (N units ≈ $X) and how much room your limits leave.
3. Click Bet $X. PolyWasp places it as a limit order and runs your exits from then on.

Limits that hold

• A pick that would take you past Max at risk at once is trimmed to fit, or refused if nothing is left.
• One position per market: you can't double up on the same market through a rule set.

With real money

Promote the strategy (see Promote to real money). From then on every pick you make is also placed in your Polymarket US account, sized to your real bankroll, and sold when your exits say so. Keep PolyWasp open while you're betting.

Build with Claude Code or Codex

Describe a strategy in your own words to an AI agent in VS Code. The agent writes it as a PolyWasp file, and you import it into the builder to review every rule before it trades.

What you need

• Visual Studio Code.
• The Claude Code or OpenAI Codex extension, signed in with your own Anthropic or OpenAI account.

Open the workspace

1. Click Open in VS Code at the top of the dashboard.
2. VS Code opens your PolyWasp Workspace, a folder with instructions the agent reads (CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, AGENTS.md for Codex, and STRATEGY_FORMAT.md describing every rule). The PolyWasp dashboard also opens in a VS Code tab.
3. If VS Code isn't installed you'll be offered Get VS Code or Open the folder instead.

Describe your strategy

Open the Claude Code or Codex panel and say what you want, for example:

The agent writes a .polywasp.json file in the workspace's strategies folder.

Import and review

1. In PolyWasp, click + Create Strategy, then Import, and open the file.
2. The builder shows every rule in plain English. Read it, change anything, then click Create strategy.

Safety

• Strategies from the workspace always start as paper strategies. Only you can promote one to real money, in the app.
• The agent never needs your Polymarket key, and PolyWasp never sees your AI account.
• AI agents can make mistakes. Always read the rules in the builder before saving.

If you close the dashboard tab in VS Code, run Terminal → Run Task… → PolyWasp dashboard to reopen it.

Import, export & share

Strategies and rule sets save as .polywasp.json files you can keep, share or import.

Export

• Export in the builder header saves the whole strategy.
• Export on a rule set saves just that rule set.
• The file is saved to your Downloads folder and copied to the clipboard.

Import

In the builder, click Import and open a file, or paste its text. A strategy replaces what's in the builder; a rule set is added to it. Review it, then save.

If a file won't import

• That file is not a PolyWasp export: it isn't valid JSON or isn't a PolyWasp file.
• This strategy was made with a newer PolyWasp: update the app to open it.

The PW-… fingerprint is the same wherever a strategy is exported or imported, so you can tell when two files hold the same rules.

Inverse, reset & iterations

Inverse variations

Create Inverse Variation copies a strategy so that every rule takes the other side of its pick: a rule that would buy one team at 65¢ buys the other at about 35¢ instead. It's named <name> (Inverse), starts paper trading straight away, and lets you test both sides of any idea. Inverse variations run on paper only.

Resetting a paper strategy

Reset paper agent saves the current run's result (ending equity, profit or loss, return) as a completed iteration, then starts the strategy again from its starting balance. Open paper positions are valued at their last marks and removed, along with that run's detailed trade history; the summary of every run is kept.

Iterations

Each run between resets is an iteration. On the leaderboard, run N · x/y profitable shows the current run and how many past runs made money; click it for the full list. The Worst run column and the Profitable iterations % sort help you find strategies that hold up month after month, not just once.

Promote to real money

Promoting makes a separate real-money copy of a paper strategy, with its own history and the money you assign. The paper strategy keeps running unchanged.

Before you promote

• You need a paid plan, and to be signed in on this computer (see Your account & plans).
• Have money in your Polymarket US account.
• Builder rule sets must use Maker orders. Rule sets using Taker, Maker then taker or Bet the other side run on paper only, and PolyWasp tells you which ones if you try.

Step by step

1. Select the paper strategy on the leaderboard and click Promote to Real Money.
2. PolyWasp checks your saved Polymarket key and shows your account balance, buying power and any existing positions and orders.
3. Enter Assign equity to this strategy ($): how much of your balance this strategy may use. The dialog shows how much is available.
4. Optional: open Use a different API key to fund this strategy from another Polymarket key.
5. Click Connect this strategy. A new Real Money · <name> strategy appears, connected and inactive. Connecting places no orders.
6. Select it and click Activate Real Trading. From now on it places real orders.

How the real copy trades

The real-money strategy follows its paper twin. The paper strategy makes every decision; the real copy places the same orders, scaled to its own size:

• Each resting buy on paper is placed for real on the same contract at the same limit, sized by the ratio of real equity to paper equity. For example, $54 on a $3,604 paper account becomes $7.50 on a $500 real one. Polymarket's 5-share minimum still applies.
• When paper cancels an order, the real order is cancelled. When a paper position exits, the real one is sold.
• If the real order fills but the paper one doesn't, the real position is kept and sold under its rule's own exits.
• A real-money strategy can take at most 200 entries a day.

If activation is refused

Assigning equity

Your Polymarket US balance is a pool. Each real-money strategy gets an assigned share of it, and can only trade with that share.

How the pool works

• Only the amount you assign is available to a strategy; the rest stays in Available for Assignment.
• One API key can fund several strategies, each with its own equity and history.
• Deposits always go to the pool, never straight to a strategy.
• When a market settles, the payout goes to that strategy's cash automatically.

Adding or returning money

1. Select the real-money strategy and click Adjust Equity Assignment.
2. Enter an amount: positive to add from the pool, negative to return to it. Or use Add all available / Return all settled cash.
3. Click Apply.

• You can only return settled cash. Money in open positions or resting orders becomes returnable when they close or are cancelled.
• Adding money is limited by your plan; returning money never is.
• A strategy with no equity can't open new positions.

The balance cards

The Polymarket Balance cards at the top of the dashboard show your whole account, what's available, what's assigned (with your plan's limit) and what's in open positions.

Running & stopping real money

You're always in control of a real-money strategy. Getting out is never blocked by your plan.

Controls

The status line

Under a selected real-money strategy, a line shows whether it's inactive, trading live or closing positions, plus its balance, cash, positions, unrealized profit or loss, assigned equity, returnable cash, Entries today N/200, the key in use and when Polymarket was last checked.

Allowance breach

If a strategy has more at risk than its Max at risk at once allows (for example after prices move), it shows ALLOWANCE BREACH: its resting buys are cancelled and new entries wait until it's back inside the limit. Existing positions are still managed.

Seeing your real results

• Real-money strategies are on the leaderboard as Real Money · <name>, with EXCHANGE CONFIRMED results from Polymarket.
• Select one for its own performance chart and Calendar History.
• Real Money Calendar adds up every real-money strategy into one calendar, net of fees and rebates.

Glossary

Troubleshooting

"PolyWasp can't be opened" on first launch

Allow it once in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. See Install the app.

My key isn't accepted

See If the key isn't accepted. Make sure your Polymarket US account has finished identity verification, and that you copied the whole secret.

No strategy is buying anything

• Check the market pill: No live markets right now or Market under maintenance means there's nothing to trade at the moment.
• Open the Action Visualizer: skip reasons explain why rules didn't buy (for example spread, capital or allowance breach).
• Check the strategy isn't paused, and that its conditions can all be true at once.

Strategies stopped while I was away

PolyWasp only trades while it's running and the computer is awake and online. Check your Mac's sleep settings if you want it to trade overnight.

Promote to Real Money opens an upgrade window

Real money needs a paid plan, and the app has to know about it: sign in from the account pill with the email you subscribed with, or click the pill to refresh your plan.

"Your plan could not be confirmed for over 3 days"

Connect to the internet so PolyWasp can check your plan. Paper trading carries on meanwhile.

Activation is refused

See If activation is refused. The most common cause is orders you placed yourself on Polymarket US: cancel them, then activate again.

A position card doesn't match Polymarket

If you sold contracts in the Polymarket US app yourself, click Reconcile Position on the card.

"PolyWasp could not start"

Details are in ~/Library/Application Support/PolyWasp/logs/polywasp.log. If another program is using the ports PolyWasp needs, close it and open PolyWasp again.

Still stuck?

Contact support or email support@polywasp.com. Never send your Polymarket secret key to anyone, including us.