Trading

This page tells you how to place, move and cancel orders, how to use the price ladder, and how to exit or hedge a position. To look up an order status or a reject message, see Order rules. Back to the guide index. Terms are explained in the glossary.

In short

A click on a price sends one limit order at exactly that price, for your stake. It is good till cancelled (GTC). The app never changes it to a market order. There is no confirmation.
A buy at or above the best ask fills at once, as far as the asks allow. The rest stays on the book at your price. A buy below the ask stays on the book until someone sells to you.
You need Armed to place or move orders. You can cancel at any time, also in Safe.
A rejected order shows a red toast with the reason. The app never sends an order again for you.

The basics

Place an order from the board

Set your stake in the top bar.
Switch to Armed.
On Live or Watchlist, find the outcome.
Click the price under Buy to buy at the best ask. Click the price under Sell to sell at the best bid.

Before you click, hover the price to see what it sends: Buy $1k → est. 5,000 sh @ 20¢. The share count is an estimate. The server calculates the exact size. A sell sends your stake’s worth of shares, or your whole position if that is smaller. You cannot sell an outcome that you do not hold: the tooltip of the button reads No position to sell. If the price button cannot send, its tooltip gives the reason, for example Safe: arm to trade or Below minimum size (5 sh; this is 2.5 sh).

Place an order on the ladder

The ladder shows every price of one outcome, one row for each tick. To open a ladder:

On Live or Watchlist, click a team or outcome name.
In Portfolio, click a row. The ladder opens under the row. On a phone, tap the card.

A ladder: the position, Exit, Hedge and Cancel above the price rows, with the Hedge preview showing

Column	What it shows
P&L	Your profit or loss if you sold your whole position at the price of that row. Blank when you hold nothing
Bid	Shares that wait to buy at that price, with a green bar for depth. Click a Bid cell to buy your stake at that price
Price	The price of the row, in cents. The best bid and best ask are bold. A small mark at the right edge shows the last trade
Ask	Shares that wait to sell at that price, with a red bar for depth. Click an Ask cell to sell your stake’s worth at that price

Above the rows:

The outcome names, to switch outcome, and the market name when there is space.
Your position, such as +150 sh @ 42¢, and its P&L, or No position.
Exit 21¢, Hedge and Cancel (N).
The book status, Book live or Stale 6s, and the in-play delay, such as 3s delay.

Below the rows: the stake (Stake $1k), the last trade price and the centre button. When a game has two outcomes, the ladder shows the team abbreviations, with the full name in the tooltip. To place an order:

Switch to Armed.
Hover a cell. The tag next to the pointer shows what a click sends.
Click. The order goes when you press the mouse button, not when you release it.

Your orders show as chips at their price: green in the Bid column for buys, red in the Ask column for sells, with the size that is still open. For the chip states, see Order statuses. The ladder does not move while your pointer is on it. Thus the price under the pointer is the price you get. When the best price goes out of view, a pill such as Best ask 26¢ shows at the edge. Click it, or the centre button, to centre the ladder again.

Cancel an order

To cancel	Do this
Your orders at one price, on the ladder	Right-click the Bid or Ask cell that holds your chip (long-press on a phone). Right-click the Price cell to cancel both sides at that price
One order in Orders	Hover the row and click the X, or right-click the row
Every order in a market	Click Cancel (N) in the ladder header, or press `C` on the ladder. Or click Cancel (N) in the market’s heading in Orders, or the X and count at the end of a Portfolio row (`C` in Portfolio)
Every order in a game	Open the game’s menu on the board and click Cancel orders in this game (N). Or press `C` on the board with the row cursor on the game
Every order	Click Cancel all in the top bar, or press `Ctrl Shift X`

The buttons and right-click cancel in Safe, with trading off and while geoblocked. The C keys need Armed, as every trading key does. Some controls stop while their data is not live:

While the book is stale, the ladder rows do not respond, so right-click does not cancel. Use Cancel (N) or Cancel all.
While order updates are paused, the rows in Orders and in the dock are greyed and do not respond. Use Cancel all.

The result shows as a toast, such as Cancelled 3 orders. If a cancel fails, the toast says so, such as Cancelled 3 orders · 1 failed, with the reason under it. An order that filled before the cancel arrived is an example.

Exit a position

Exit sells your whole position at once. It sells into the bids, from the best one down, as far as needed. It does not go lower than the exit slippage limit: 5 ticks below the best bid by default. It never sells more than you hold.

Where	How
Portfolio	Hover the position and click Exit 21¢, or select the row and press `E`. The price is the lowest price the exit sells at
The dock’s Positions tab	Click Exit 21¢ on the row
Ladder	Click Exit 21¢ in the header, or press `F`
Command palette	Press `Ctrl K`, type `>`, then choose `Exit Boston Celtics`. See Shortcuts

If you have sells on the book in that outcome, Exit cancels them first, so that the same shares are not offered two times. It cancels them only after the exit passes every check. If the exit is refused, your sells stay. See Exit and your resting sells. To not pay the spread, use Join instead. It puts a sell for the whole position at the best ask and waits for a buyer. Join is on the Portfolio row, or press J.

Hedge a position

In a market with two outcomes, Hedge locks in your profit or loss without a sale. It buys the other outcome, so that both outcomes pay the same, whichever wins.

Switch to Armed.
Open the ladder of the outcome that you hold.
Hover Hedge in the ladder header. The tag shows what it sends and what it locks, for example Buy 150 Denver Nuggets @ 26¢ · locks +$48.00.
Click Hedge, or press H. On a phone, tap More actions in the ladder sheet, then tap Hedge.

The hedge goes out at the price that the tag showed, or better. If the asks moved and the hedge would cost more, the app refuses it and buys nothing. You can have one hedge in a market at a time. While one is on its way or on the book, Hedge shows Earlier hedge still open.

More options

All ladder actions

On desktop:

Do this	Result
Click a Bid cell	Buy your stake at that price
Click an Ask cell	Sell your stake’s worth at that price, up to your position
Shift-click an Ask cell	Sell your whole position at that price
Alt-click a Bid or Ask cell, or click the bell at the left of a row	Set a price alert at that price. This works in Safe
Drag your chip to another row	Move the order to that price. The tag reads `Move buy 50 → 19¢`. It adds `· fills now` if the new price fills at once
Click your chip	Select that order for `[`, `]` and `Delete`
Right-click a Bid or Ask cell with your orders	Cancel your orders on that side at that price
Right-click the Price cell with your orders	Cancel your orders on both sides at that price
Right-click any other cell	A menu: `Set alert at 20¢`, `Sell all at 20¢`, `Centre`
Click an outcome name at the top left	Switch to that outcome
Click the pin	Keep this ladder when you open another one. Docked ladders only

With the keyboard, on a docked ladder or the ladder in the market view:

Key	Result
`↑` `↓`	Move the cursor between rows. While the cursor is on the ladder, the ladder does not centre itself
`←` `→`	Move the cursor to the Bid or the Ask cell
`↵`	Do what a click on the cell under the cursor does (Armed)
`Alt ↵`	Set a price alert at the cursor’s row (works in Safe)
`Space`	Centre the ladder on the best prices
`Esc`	Clear the cursor
`B`, `S`, `F`, `H`, `C`	Buy, sell, exit, hedge, cancel. The full list is in Shortcuts

On a wide screen, up to four ladders can be docked side by side. When you open another one, it replaces the one that you used least recently, unless that one is pinned. If all are pinned, a toast reads All ladders pinned. On a phone, the ladder opens as a sheet:

Do this	Result
Tap a cell	Buy or sell your stake at that price
Tap a cell that holds your order	Select it. A bar shows `−` and `+` (move one tick), Add here and Cancel
Long-press a cell that holds your orders	Cancel your orders on that side
Long-press any other cell	`Set alert at 20¢`, `Sell all at 20¢`
Tap More actions in the sheet header	Hedge, with its preview or the reason it is not available, and Open market

The ladder on a phone does not centre itself. Tap the centre button.

Move an order

Polymarket cannot change an order. Thus a move cancels the old order and places a new one at the new price. The new order goes through every check again.

Where	How
Ladder, desktop	Drag the chip to the new row. To stop, release on the same row or outside the ladder, or press `Esc`
Ladder, keyboard	`[` moves the selected order one tick down, `]` one tick up. With no order selected, they move your newest order in that outcome
Orders, and the ladder under a Portfolio row	Hover the row and click `−` or `+` beside the price
Orders, many at one time	Tick the rows, then click −1 tick, +1 tick or Join best. Join best moves each order to the best price on its side
Phone ladder	Tap the chip, then tap `−` or `+`

If the cancel fails, the app places nothing new. A toast says why, such as Move failed · order not cancelled. You cannot move an order during an in-play delay: see Sports markets.

Sell your whole position

Way	Price
Exit (Portfolio, ladder header, `E`, `F`)	Sells into the bids, down to the exit price on the button
Join (Portfolio, `J`)	Stays at the best ask. Fills when a buyer comes
Shift-click an Ask cell, or `Sell all at 20¢`	Exactly the price you chose

The exit price. Exit sells at the highest price at which the bids, from the best one down, hold your whole position. It never goes lower than the best bid minus your exit slippage (5 ticks by default). Example: you hold 150 sh, 100 sh are bid at 40¢ and 200 sh at 39¢. Exit sells at 39¢. The first 100 sh fill at 40¢ and the rest at 39¢. Sometimes the bids within the slippage limit cannot take the whole position. Then Exit uses the lowest bid within the limit. The bids fill what they can, and the rest stays on the book at that price. The Exit button then shows a warning icon, with the tooltip Bids within the slippage limit cover only part of the position; the rest rests at 37¢. Exit and Join never sell more than you hold. They are not held to the price band or to some limits: see The exact order rules. The other ways to sell (a Sell price, an Ask cell, Shift-click, Sell all at) are normal orders.

Exit and your resting sells

Exit and Join check the sell against every rule first. Only when it passes do they cancel the resting sells of the outcome, and then send it.

Case	What happens
The exit is refused	Nothing is cancelled. Your resting sells stay on the book
The exit passes	Your resting sells in that outcome are cancelled. Then the exit sells the position
A sell is in an in-play delay, or its cancel already waits	That sell stays. The exit sells only the shares that it does not hold. If it holds them all, the exit is refused with `no position to sell`
Polymarket does not confirm a cancel	The app does not send the exit: `Exit not sent · resting sell not cancelled`. That sell could still sell its shares. The sells whose cancel Polymarket confirmed stay cancelled

How Hedge works

Part	How it works
What it buys	The other outcome of a market with two outcomes
Size	What you hold, less your sells of it on the book, less all that already works toward the other outcome: what you hold of it, your open buys of it, and fills not yet in your positions. Rounded down to 0.01 sh
Price	The lowest ask that fills the whole size, no further from the best ask than your price band
Preview	`Buy 150 Denver Nuggets @ 26¢ · locks +$48.00`. If the asks within the band cannot fill it all, the preview adds `· part rests`. The rest stays on the book at that price
Price cap	The click sends the price of the preview as a cap. If the price at send time is higher, the app refuses the hedge: `hedge price 27¢ above 26¢ shown`
One at a time	While an earlier hedge in the market is on its way, in a check or on the book, the app refuses a new one: `earlier hedge still open`
Positions	The size comes from your positions as last read. If the app did not read them in the last 2 minutes, it refuses the hedge: `positions unavailable`
Locked P&L	What either outcome then pays, less all that you paid, with your open buys of the other outcome at their prices. Fees are not included
Needs	Armed. Every risk limit applies, as for any buy

Hedge is greyed when it cannot send. Hover it for the reason. On a phone, the reason is the line under Hedge in the More actions sheet.

Reason	Meaning
`Two-outcome markets only`	The market has more than two outcomes
`No position`	You hold nothing in this outcome
`Safe: arm to trade`, `Trading off · …`, `Market closed`, `Stale`	The usual trading checks
`Earlier hedge still open`	A hedge in this market is still on its way or on the book
`Already hedged`	Both outcomes already pay the same, with the orders that are open or on their way
`Hedge is below the market minimum size`	The size needed is too small to place
`Other outcome’s book is stale`	The prices of the other outcome stopped updating
`No asks on the other outcome`	Nobody sells the other outcome
`No hedge price yet`	The app is still calculating the price

When you are Armed and press H while Hedge is greyed, a toast gives the reason: Hedge not sent · ….

What blocks an order

The server checks every order, whatever the screen shows. An order is refused if:

Trading is off, the location is geoblocked, the account does not work, or the clock is wrong.
The switch is on Safe, or activity outside the app paused trading.
The market is closed, or the price or size breaks the market’s rules.
The book is stale, or the price is outside the price band.
It would pass one of your risk limits.

Cancels are never blocked. For each rule and each reject message, see Order rules: Reject messages and The exact order rules.

Good to know

Two clicks on the same price within 350 ms place one order, not two.
A click while the previous order at that price is still on its way does nothing. A line shows along the bottom of the price button, and its tooltip reads Sending.
Positions, P&L and liquidation value change only when a fill arrives.
A moved order is a new order with a new id. If the cancel of the old one fails, the app places nothing new.
When a message names a wait, wait at least that long before you click again.
The app sees only the orders it placed with your Session Key. Orders that you place on polymarket.com do not show here, and a trade there switches the app to Safe.

​Trading

​In short

​The basics

​Place an order from the board

​Place an order on the ladder

​Cancel an order

​Exit a position

​Hedge a position

​More options

​All ladder actions

​Move an order

​Sell your whole position

​Exit and your resting sells

​How Hedge works

​What blocks an order

​Good to know