How do I start trading on Polymarket with a bot?
Step 1: Set up a VPS in Amsterdam ($6-12/month on DigitalOcean or Hetzner). Step 2: Create a dedicated Polymarket wallet — never use your main wallet. Step 3: Fund with $1,000-$5,000 USDC on Polygon. Step 4: Deploy your bot in dry-run mode to test without risk. Step 5: Monitor for 48 hours to verify opportunity detection. Step 6: Switch to live with small sizes ($50-$200/trade). Step 7: Scale gradually as you verify profitability.
How much money do you need to start a Polymarket trading bot?
Minimum $500 to trade meaningfully after gas costs, though $1,000-$3,000 is recommended for proper position sizing and loss absorption. At $1,000 starting capital, expect $30-$80/day profit. At $5,000, expect $200-$600/day. Infrastructure costs are minimal: $6-12/month for VPS. The total barrier to entry is $500-$3,000 in capital plus a few hours of setup time.
What VPS location is best for Polymarket bot trading?
Amsterdam (Netherlands) offers the best latency balance between Binance European WebSocket servers and Polygon RPC nodes. Hetzner and DigitalOcean Amsterdam datacenters are the most popular choices. Avoid US-based servers — Binance blocks US IP addresses. UK and Frankfurt are acceptable alternatives. Latency to both Binance and Polygon should be under 50ms for competitive execution.
Do I need programming experience to run a Polymarket bot?
Basic command-line familiarity helps but isn't strictly required. Docker-based deployments simplify setup to a few copy-paste commands. The critical skills: SSH into a VPS, edit configuration files (API keys, wallet address, risk parameters), and read log output to monitor performance. Python knowledge is useful for customization but not needed for running pre-built bots.
What are realistic monthly returns from Polymarket bot trading?
With $1K capital: $900-$2,400/month (90-240% monthly). With $5K: $6,000-$18,000/month. With $10K: $15,000-$36,000/month. These ranges assume 200-800 trades/day on BTC 15-minute markets with 78-88% win rate. Returns decrease proportionally as capital increases (market impact) and vary with volatility. Some months will be below range, high-volatility months above.
How do Polymarket trading fees affect bot profitability?
Polymarket charges ~2% on winning positions. On a $0.97 pair cost trade (0.03 spread), the fee is ~$0.02, leaving $0.01 net profit per share — very thin. That's why targeting pair costs of $0.95-$0.96 is critical, producing $0.03-$0.04 net profit after fees. Gas costs on Polygon are minimal ($0.001-$0.01 per transaction) and rarely impact profitability significantly.