Getting Started on Polymarket
Polymarket is the largest prediction-market venue today, with over $500M in cumulative volume. It runs on Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, which means trades settle in seconds and gas costs are pennies. This guide gets you from zero to your first trade in about 20 minutes.
What You Need Before You Start
- •An email address (for Polymarket account, completely separate from your Predite account)
- •A crypto wallet — MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, or any wallet that supports Polygon
- •$20-50 in USDC on Polygon (more on funding below)
- •About 20 minutes for first-time setup
If you already have a wallet, the Polymarket onboarding is faster. If you don't, plan an extra 10 minutes for the wallet install.
Step 1: Create Your Polymarket Account
Go to polymarket.com and click "Sign Up" in the top right. You can sign up with email + password or with your Google/Apple ID. The email method gives you slightly more control over recovery.
After signing up, Polymarket automatically provisions a smart-contract wallet ("proxy wallet") tied to your login. This is the wallet that holds your shares and USDC. You don't need to install MetaMask just to use Polymarket — the proxy wallet works out of the box.
If you want to use your own existing wallet instead, click your avatar in the top right, go to Settings → Connect Wallet, and link your MetaMask/Phantom/etc. You can switch between the proxy wallet and your own wallet later.
Step 2: Fund Your Account
Polymarket trades exclusively in USDC on the Polygon network. There are three ways to fund:
Direct deposit (easiest). Click "Deposit" → "Cash" and enter a credit/debit card or use Apple Pay. Polymarket converts your fiat to USDC and credits your proxy wallet within minutes. There's a small (1-2%) on-ramp fee.
Crypto deposit (cheaper if you already have crypto). Click "Deposit" → "Crypto", choose the network (Polygon, Ethereum, Base, Solana, or Arbitrum), and send USDC from your wallet or exchange. If you're sending from Coinbase or Binance, double-check you're picking the right network — sending Ethereum-mainnet USDC to a Polygon address means lost funds.
Bridge from Ethereum mainnet. If you have USDC on Ethereum, you can bridge to Polygon using the official Polygon bridge (polygon.technology/polygon-portal). This takes 20-40 minutes and costs $5-15 in gas, so it's only worth it if you're moving $1000+.
For your first trade, $20-50 is plenty. You can always add more later.
Step 3: Find a Market
Polymarket has hundreds of active markets organized by category in the left sidebar. For your first trade, pick something simple:
- •Easy markets to start with: Pick a market with a clear, well-defined outcome resolving within a few weeks. Examples: "Will the Fed cut rates in June 2026?" or "Will [Major Movie] gross over $100M opening weekend?". Avoid markets that resolve far in the future (too much variance) or have ambiguous resolution criteria.
- •Check resolution criteria. Every market has a "Resolution" section explaining exactly how it resolves. Read this carefully — sometimes the criteria are stricter or looser than the headline suggests.
- •Check liquidity and volume. Low-volume markets ($10k or less in volume) have wide spreads and may be hard to exit. Stick to markets with $100k+ volume for your first trade.
Step 4: Place Your First Trade
Open a market, and you'll see two big buttons: "Buy Yes" and "Buy No", each with a current price. Click the side you think is mispriced. A panel slides out where you enter your size (in USDC) and confirm the price.
Two important details:
- •The price you see is the "best ask" — the cheapest available shares. If you're placing a market order, you'll get filled at this price. If you want a better price, click "Limit" and set your own price; your order sits on the book until someone takes it (or you cancel).
- •Polymarket charges no fee for limit orders that wait on the book (you're providing liquidity, called a "maker"). Market orders that immediately fill ("takers") pay a small fee, typically 0.2-0.5%, baked into the price you see.
After confirming, the trade settles in a few seconds. The shares appear in your "Positions" tab.
Step 5: Manage Your Position
You don't have to wait for resolution to lock in profit (or cut a loss). At any time, you can sell your shares back to the market:
- •Go to "Positions" in your account menu.
- •Click the position you want to close.
- •Click "Sell" — the panel shows the current best bid (what the market will pay you right now).
- •Confirm to sell. USDC returns to your wallet immediately.
If you hold until resolution, "Yes" shares pay $1.00 each if the event happens (or $0.00 if it doesn't). "No" shares pay the inverse. Polymarket distributes payouts automatically about an hour after the resolution source publishes the outcome.
Connecting Polymarket to Predite
Once you've made your first trade, head back to Predite and connect your wallet:
- •Go to Settings → Trading API → Polymarket.
- •Click "Connect Wallet" — Predite will detect your wallet automatically (if you used MetaMask) or prompt you for your wallet address (if you used the Polymarket proxy wallet).
- •Follow the on-screen guide to sign the connection message. Predite stores only your public address, never your private key.
Now your Polymarket positions and P&L appear in Predite's Portfolio page. If you're on the Bot plan and want to enable automated execution, see the Live CLOB Trading doc for the additional CLOB API setup steps.
Common Mistakes to Avoid on Your First Trades
- •Going too big too fast. Your first 10 trades are learning trades. Cap them at 5% of your bankroll until you understand the platform.
- •Trading thin markets. Just because the EV looks great doesn't mean you can actually exit at that price. Check 24h volume before sizing up.
- •Ignoring resolution criteria. "Will X happen by date Y" is not the same as "Will X happen". Read the resolution rules every time.
- •Holding to expiration on no-edge markets. If your edge is gone (your model says 60%, market is now at 60%), close and redeploy capital. You're not paid to ride out variance once the alpha is gone.