Polymarket Copy Trading FAQ
Straight answers to the questions skeptical traders ask before trusting a copy-trading tool with their attention or their money. No spin. Where the honest answer is "it depends" or "no," we say so.
About Polyspect and Polymarket
Is Polyspect affiliated with Polymarket?
No. Polyspect is an independent analytics and copy-trading platform. We are not owned by, partnered with, or endorsed by Polymarket. We read Polymarket's public data, rank the traders we find there, and let you mirror them. That is the whole relationship.
Where does your data come from?
From Polymarket's public APIs. We have no inside access, no privileged feed, and no special account. Every market, trade, and price we show is information anyone can pull from the same public endpoints. We just structure it so you can act on it. For how we turn that raw data into a ranking, see our methodology.
Risk and honesty
Can I lose money?
Yes. Prediction-market trading carries real risk of loss, and copying another trader does not remove it. On paper (virtual) strategies you risk nothing real, because the money is simulated. On live copy trading you are trading your own capital and you can lose some or all of it. Past performance does not predict future results.
Do you guarantee profit?
No, and you should distrust anyone who does. We rank traders by metrics that historically correlate with profit, but no metric guarantees a future outcome. A trader who was profitable last month can lose this month. We give you the edge and the guardrails. We do not promise the result.
Is copy trading safe?
Paper copy trading is safe by design: it is free and uses virtual money, so the worst case is a disappointing equity curve. Live copy trading is as safe as the limits you set and the capital you choose to risk. That is why we built stop-loss, take-profit, slippage limits, and position caps in. "Safe" is something you configure, not something we declare.
How copy trading works
What is paper (virtual) trading?
A virtual strategy mirrors a real trader's trades with simulated money in real time. You watch the equity curve build, with realistic fees applied, before you risk a cent. It is the honest way to find out whether a trader's track record survives contact with copying, since slippage and fees often erode what a leaderboard makes look easy. Read the full flow on our how copy trading works page.
How fast are trades mirrored?
It depends on the strategy and the data path. Our on-chain feed can detect and mirror a source trade in seconds. Mirroring is never instantaneous, and speed matters most for fast-moving markets, which is exactly why some trades are not worth copying at retail size. We are honest about that trade-off rather than claiming sub-second magic.
Can I set stop-loss and limits?
Yes, on live strategies. You can set fixed per-trade size, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stops, slippage limits, a maximum position size, and a daily-loss cap. These run as rules on every mirrored trade, so a single bad source trade or a chaotic market can't quietly drain the account.
Key custody and security
Do I have to give you my private key?
Only for live real-money trading, and never for analytics or paper trading. When you do enable live trading, your key is encrypted in your browser before it reaches us and can only be decrypted inside the isolated process that places trades. We strongly recommend a dedicated wallet funded with only your copy-trading budget, not your main wallet. More detail lives on our security and key custody page.
Plans and getting started
What is the difference between Free and Pro?
Free covers the politics category, up to 3 virtual paper wallets, and no live trading. Pro is $50 per 30-day period and unlocks every category, up to 30 wallets, live real-money copy trading, and all filters and exports. Most people start Free to test paper strategies, then upgrade once a trader proves out. See full pricing.
How do you rank traders?
By metrics that predict profit rather than flatter it: expected value per trade, profit factor, reward-to-risk, max drawdown, a Wilson-adjusted win rate, ROI, and realized PnL, combined into a percentile-ranked composite score. We gate the cohort to genuinely active traders, at least 30 trades across at least 2 markets with at least $100 of turnover, so one lucky 1-for-1 wallet can't top the board. The trader metrics page explains why each one matters.
How do I get started?
Create a free account, open a virtual strategy, and watch a trader's simulated equity curve before risking anything. Create your free account to start on paper, and compare candidates side by side on the trader comparison page first. Trading prediction markets carries risk of loss, and past performance is not a guarantee of future results.