Glossary
This page explains the trading words that the app uses. Each word has one meaning, and the app uses the same word on every screen. Back to the guide index.In short
- Prices are in cents. A winning share pays 1,soapriceof‘42¢‘costs0.42 a share.
- Sizes are in shares (
sh). The Stake is in dollars. - Every order in the app is a limit order. A click never makes a market order.
- Cancel is for orders. Exit is for positions. Delete is for alerts.
Markets and prices
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Market | One question with its outcomes. Example: “Lakers v Celtics” with the outcomes Lakers and Celtics |
| Event | A group of markets. Example: a game with its winner, spread and total markets |
| Game | A sports event with a score and a clock |
| Outcome | One side of a market (Lakers, Yes). Each winning share pays $1 when the market resolves. A losing share pays nothing |
| Price | The cost of one share of an outcome, in cents. 42¢ is $0.42 a share. It also shows about how likely the market thinks the outcome is |
| Bid | The best price at which a buyer waits. You can sell there now |
| Ask | The best price at which a seller waits. You can buy there now |
| Spread | The ask minus the bid. A wide spread costs you more to buy and sell again |
| Touch | The best bid and the best ask together |
| Tick | The smallest step of a price in a market. It is 1¢ in most markets and 0.1¢ in some. Every price must be a whole number of ticks |
| Book | All the bids and asks that wait in one outcome |
| Liquidity | The number of shares that wait at each price. With low liquidity, a large order fills at more than one price |
| Watchlist | The markets that you pin |
| Pin / Unpin | Add a market to the watchlist, or remove it |
Orders
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Order | An instruction to buy or sell shares at a price |
| Buy / Sell | The side of an order |
| Limit order | An order with a price limit. A buy never pays more than its price, and a sell never gets less. Every order in the app is a limit order |
| GTC | Good till cancelled. The part of an order that does not fill at once stays on the book until it fills or you cancel it |
| Stake | The dollar amount that one click spends. You choose it in Stake $ in the top bar |
Shares (sh) | The unit of an order or a position. Sizes show up to two decimal places, without trailing zeros (5 sh, 201.6 sh) |
| Notional | Price times size: the dollar value of an order or a position |
| Fill | One match of your order with an order of another trader. An order can fill in more than one part |
| Failed (fill) | A fill that did not settle on Polymarket. No shares changed hands |
| Cancel | Take an order off the book. Fills that occurred before the cancel stay |
| Cancel all | Cancel every open order. It works in Safe too |
| Reprice | Move an order to a new price. The app cancels the order and places a new one |
| Delayed | An order that Polymarket holds in the in-play delay |
| In-play delay | On live sports markets, Polymarket holds an order that would fill at once for some seconds before it matches. The board shows the delay, for example 3s delay |
| Rejected | An order, a combo quote request or an Accept that the app’s checks, Polymarket or a market maker refused. A message gives the reason |
| Checking | The app sent an order and got no answer. It asks Polymarket what happened and never sends the order again. Then the order is checked (Order checked) |
| Wipe | Polymarket cancels the resting orders of many sports markets when the game starts. The board shows a Wipe chip before the start |
| Re-post | Place again the orders that a wipe cancelled, at the same price, for the part that did not fill |
Positions and money
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Position | The shares that you hold in one outcome |
| Average price (Avg) | The mean price that you paid for each share |
| Cost basis | The amount that you paid for your open positions |
| Exit | Sell a whole position. The sell either fills at once into the bids, or waits at the best ask (Join) |
| Join | Put a sell at the best ask and wait for a buyer, rather than sell into the bids |
| Add | Buy more of an outcome that you hold |
| Hedge | Buy the other outcome of a two-outcome market so that both outcomes pay the same. This fixes your P&L |
| P&L | Profit and loss |
| Unrealised P&L | Profit or loss on shares that you still hold, at the price you could sell them for now |
| Realised P&L | Profit or loss that a sell or the end of the market made final |
| Liquidation value (Liq val, Value (liq)) | The amount your positions would get if you sold them into the current bids |
| Exposure | The liquidation value of your open positions plus the cost of your open combos. The top bar shows it |
| Cash | Your pUSD balance that you can spend |
| pUSD | The dollar token of a Polymarket account. 1 pUSD is $1 |
| Redeemable | A position in a resolved market that you can claim on polymarket.com |
Combos
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Combo | One position built from 2 to 50 legs. It pays $1 a share only if every leg wins |
| Leg | One outcome inside a combo |
| Combo mode | The state of the Combo switch. In combo mode, a click on a price uses the outcome as a leg. It does not place an order |
| Use as leg | Put an outcome in the slip |
| Remove (a leg) | Take one leg out of the slip. Clear takes out all of them |
| Slip | The panel that holds your legs, the stake and the quote. Its heading is Combo |
| Market maker | A trader for Polymarket who answers a quote request with a price |
| Quote | The offer of a market maker to fill your combo at one price. It is valid for 5 to 10 seconds |
| No quote | No market maker answered your quote request |
| Accept | Take a quote. This is the one combo step that trades, and it needs Armed |
| Decline | Dismiss a quote. The app sends nothing to Polymarket |
| Expired | A quote whose time to accept ended |
| Combo position | Combo shares that you hold. When all legs are resolved, it shows Won, Lost or Partial |
The app
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Safe / Armed | The two states of the trading switch. In Safe, clicks do not trade. In Armed, clicks place orders |
| Feed | A live connection to Polymarket for market data, account updates or scores |
| Stale | Data from a feed that stopped. Stale prices are grey and you cannot trade on them |
| Disconnected | A feed, or the link between your browser and the server, has no connection |
| Reconnected | A disconnected feed has its connection again |
| Alert | A condition that you set, such as a price, a spread, a score change, or the start or end of a game |
| Set (an alert) | Make a new alert (Set alert) |
| Triggered | An alert whose condition occurred. A one-time alert stays triggered |
| Repeat | An alert that becomes active again when the price goes back one tick across its level |
| Pause / Resume | Stop an alert, or make it active again |
| Delete | Remove an alert. Orders are cancelled, not deleted |
| Notification | A message that the app sends you: a toast, a desktop notification, a sound or a Telegram message |
| Channel | Where a notification goes: In-app, Desktop, Sound or Telegram |
| Unread | A notification that you did not see yet |
| Session Key | The key that the person who runs the server set up, so that the app can place and cancel orders for you. It cannot move funds |