Guides

The copy-trading reference

Evergreen, kept-current guides to copy-trading on Polymarket — how copying actually works, how to vet a trader before you copy them, what it really costs, and how to size what you risk. Written from the same scored on-chain data that powers the CopyGrade Score, not from vibes.

Copy-trading basics

6 guides

How to copy trade on Polymarket: the complete guide

Polymarket has no native copy-trading feature. The bot is the easy part — choosing who to copy is the whole game. The full loop, in order.

Updated October 1, 2026

How Polymarket works: order books, resolution, and fees for copy traders

The order book, the merge primitive, and the oracle — every mechanic on Polymarket is a gap between the leader's result and yours.

Updated July 17, 2026

Polymarket copy-trading glossary

From CLOB and stealth merges to copy-bait and exit liquidity — every term that matters, defined in two or three sentences, each linking to its deep-dive.

Updated October 1, 2026

Polymarket vs. Kalshi for copy traders

You can only copy a trader whose record you can see. Polymarket publishes every wallet on-chain; Kalshi keeps records private — which is why wallet-level copy trading, and CopyGrade, are Polymarket-only.

Updated October 1, 2026

Kalshi copy trading: why it barely exists (and what to do instead)

Kalshi keeps accounts private, not on a public chain — no trader to follow, no record to vet. So anything sold as 'Kalshi copy trading' is really signal-selling or strategy automation; here's why, and where copy diligence is actually possible.

Updated October 1, 2026

Is Polymarket legal in the US? The 2026 relaunch, explained for copy traders

A CFTC-regulated US app is live; the main on-chain exchange — the one CopyGrade actually scores — is still geoblocked and pending approval to reopen. What US access does, and doesn't, change for anyone copying wallets.

Updated October 1, 2026

Strategy

7 guides

Prediction market strategy: what actually works on Polymarket

77% of active Polymarket wallets have negative post-fee edge. A strategy is your specific claim about why you're in the other 23% — there are about six that hold up.

Updated October 1, 2026

Copy trading NFL prediction markets on Polymarket: the 2026 season guide

The NFL board is live and liquid before kickoff — which makes it both the best copy-trading window of the year and the one that attracts the most manufactured records. Both halves, covered.

Updated October 1, 2026

Copy trading crypto prediction markets on Polymarket: the 24/7 board

Crypto is the vertical that never goes dormant — and by our graded data, one of the hardest places for a copied edge to survive: clean cohorts keep fractions of a percent at best, against the platform's heaviest fee drag.

Updated August 15, 2026

Copy trading the MLB postseason on Polymarket: the October 2026 guide

October baseball is a different product from the 162-game season — shorter samples, sharper prices, heavier attention. The postseason market stack, the September vetting playbook, and why 59% of our graded MLB board is farming-flagged.

Updated September 18, 2026

Copying a season vs copying a bracket: why sample size decides how much to trust a sports wallet

A season gives you a sample; a bracket gives you a story. On 2026-08-28, 15.4% of MLB-board wallets had 20+ settled MLB markets; on the World Cup board, 5.9% — and the typical World Cup wallet settled exactly one.

Updated October 1, 2026

Copy-trading college football on Polymarket: the 2026 season guide

College football settles about eight times as many games a week as the NFL — one of the easier places on Polymarket to build a large record, and to manufacture one. The board, the slate, and the checks.

Updated September 6, 2026

Copy trading NBA prediction markets on Polymarket: the 2026–27 season guide

1,230 regular-season games is one of the largest samples in sports, and NBA favourites are priced short enough that a 75% hit rate is routinely just the market. The season's shape, the five basketball-specific checks, and a board that is 40.8% flagged yet 86.3% negative-edge.

Updated September 18, 2026

Due diligence

13 guides

How to vet a Polymarket trader: the full checklist

Five questions, with thresholds and base rates: only 1.3% of active wallets clear all of them. The canonical reference version of our checklist.

Updated October 1, 2026

How to analyze your own Polymarket wallet

A green PnL flatters you; 77% of active wallets lose money after fees. Grade your own record the way you'd vet a copy target — then decide: trade, or copy?

Updated October 1, 2026

How to choose between two Polymarket traders

You've vetted two wallets and both look good. Put them side by side and break the tie on the metrics that decide what you'd actually keep — or copy neither.

Updated October 1, 2026

How to choose a Polymarket copy-trading bot

Bots differ on fees, latency, controls, and custody. A 1%-per-side fee alone consumes more edge than most wallets have. The criteria list, with no affiliate links.

Updated October 1, 2026

Polymarket copy-trading platforms compared: an independent look at the 2026 field

The SERP for these queries is vendors reviewing themselves. Here's an independent framework and the verifiable facts — custody, pricing, controls, and the question every vendor skips: who picks the wallet you copy?

Updated October 1, 2026

CopyGrade vs Polycopy: a diligence layer and an execution bot are different tools

One executes trades; the other never touches funds. Polycopy's Copy Score is not the CopyGrade Score. A verified, no-affiliation comparison — and the loop that uses both.

Updated August 26, 2026

Polymarket leaderboard vs. CopyGrade Score: what raw PnL can't tell you

The leaderboard cohort scores worse than the field it was skimmed from — 61.3% farming-flagged, none copyable. What a profit rank sees, what it can't, and how to use both.

Updated October 1, 2026

Who actually profits on NFL prediction markets: the graded answer

A leaderboard tells you who is up. This tells you who is worth copying — and why the count of copyable NFL wallets keeps moving even when nothing has improved.

Updated August 28, 2026

How to read the graded slate: cohorts, calls, and why a week's record is noise

The slate shows which side the clean and flagged graded cohorts bought before kickoff and whether it settled right. Every column defined, every threshold stated, and the error-bar table that keeps a 10–6 week from becoming a tip.

Updated September 12, 2026

How to read a wallet's recent form: game calls, expected hits, and why a hot streak is not in the score

The score's PnL closes only on a sell, so a sports wallet that holds to the final shows it nothing. Recent form fills that gap without becoming a score input: every rule, the expected-hits line that makes a record readable, and the four-gate hot bar.

Updated September 18, 2026

Reading a Polymarket wallet like a quant: Sharpe, drawdown, Kelly, and edge

Raw PnL shows none of what matters. Read a wallet the way a quant does — realistic edge, risk-adjusted return, maximum drawdown, and the Kelly fraction that ties them together — and only ~1.3% survive.

Updated October 1, 2026

The copy-bot safety checklist: vet the wallet, then lock down the bot

Most copiers check neither the wallet nor the bot. Vet the source wallet first — only ~1.3% pass — then shrink the bot's blast radius: keys, permissions, caps, kill-switch.

Updated October 1, 2026

How to backtest copying a Polymarket wallet (and what a backtest can't prove)

A zero-cost, zero-latency replay of a wallet you picked because it just won manufactures confidence. How to run the honest version in the Copy Simulator, what two numbers to read, and the five ways backtests lie.

Updated August 15, 2026

Risk & costs

5 guides

Position sizing and bankroll management for Polymarket copy trading

A 50% loss needs a 100% gain to recover. Size each wallet so its worst historical stretch stays survivable — the arithmetic and the rules.

Updated October 1, 2026

How to build a Polymarket copy-trading portfolio

Two wallets in the same markets are one bet in two accounts. How to combine a handful of vetted edges so the basket's drawdown beats its worst member's.

Updated October 1, 2026

Polymarket fees in 2026: what copying a wallet actually costs

Copy-bots are takers on every fill — they pay the new fees twice per round trip, on top of bot charges, slippage, and latency. The 2026 schedules and what they do to a copied edge.

Updated October 1, 2026

When to stop copying a Polymarket wallet: the exit checklist

The copy-trading loop's last step — monitor — is the one nobody specifies, and it's where money is lost slowly instead of quickly. The five written-down tripwires, how to watch them, and how to exit without donating gains to fees.

Updated August 15, 2026

Polymarket copy-trading taxes (US): the high-volume problem nobody mentions

General information, not tax advice. Copying a 50-trade-a-month wallet can mean hundreds of taxable events a year, no 1099, and a cost basis you reconstruct yourself — a real cost of copying.

Updated August 26, 2026