FAQ

Operational questions about how Matchpoly works, what it trades, and what happens when things go wrong.

// WHAT SPORTS DOES MATCHPOLY TRADE?

Any sport with active Polymarket markets and a matching line on a sharp sportsbook. In practice, that means NFL, NBA, MLB, and major soccer leagues like the EPL are the most consistent sources of volume and Pinnacle match coverage. UFC is covered where Pinnacle lines are available. The system discovers new markets automatically and checks for sportsbook matches before activating any strategy in them.

Strategy applicability varies by sport. NBA and MLB are preferred for market making because smooth scoring means a single event rarely swings a game dramatically. NFL markets become high-risk in the final 30 minutes before kickoff and are avoided for new entries during that window. Structural arbitrage runs across all sports — it doesn't require a sportsbook match, only a NegRisk market group.

// HOW DO FEES WORK?

Polymarket charges a 2% fee on every trade. That fee is why the minimum edge threshold for the Pinnacle Gap strategy is 3.5% rather than anything lower — below that, the gap exists but isn't wide enough to survive the fee and still generate real edge. Gas costs on Polygon are relatively small but are included in every profitability calculation. No trade executes if the expected profit doesn't clear both the trading fee and estimated gas.

// CAN MATCHPOLY GET BANNED OR LIMITED?

No. Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market — there are no accounts to limit and no lines manager to flag winning behavior. The same trade that would trigger a restriction at a traditional sportsbook is structurally impossible to restrict on Polymarket. This is one of the core reasons the Polymarket opportunity exists at all: the edge that sharp bettors have been squeezed out of at traditional books can be expressed freely here.

// WHAT HAPPENS DURING A LOSING STREAK?

Losing streaks are a normal part of any probabilistic trading system. The question is whether the drawdown is within the expected distribution of outcomes or whether it signals something has changed in the underlying strategy. Matchpoly handles both cases.

At moderate drawdown levels — down 3% in a day or 8% in a week — position sizes automatically reduce by half and the weakest-performing strategy in that sport pauses. At harder limits — 5% daily or 12% weekly — all new trading stops entirely until a review identifies the cause. The system does not attempt to trade back losses. Existing positions run to resolution; no new capital is deployed until the review is complete and the issue is addressed. See Risk Management for the full threshold table.

// HOW IS CAPITAL HELD?

All Polymarket trading is conducted in USDC on the Polygon blockchain. Capital sits in a wallet that Matchpoly controls via private key — there is no intermediary holding funds. The private key is stored in an encrypted environment and is never logged, never embedded in code, and never transmitted. Matchpoly signs transactions and discards the key material from memory immediately after.

// HOW LONG ARE POSITIONS HELD?

It depends on the strategy. Pinnacle Gap positions are typically held through to game resolution — the edge is a probability advantage over the full outcome, not just a short-term price move. Structural Arbitrage positions resolve at settlement too, usually within hours. News Reflex positions exit when the market reprices, which usually happens within minutes to a few hours after the news — holding through to resolution adds variance without adding edge. Whale Copy positions follow the same exit logic as whichever strategy the tracked wallet appears to be running.

// WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE'S A TECHNICAL FAILURE?

Every failure mode defaults to safety. If the data feed drops, the WebSocket disconnects, an API call fails, or any component times out, the system stops opening new positions and holds everything in place. It does not attempt to act on stale data. If the connection drops for more than 60 seconds during live trading hours, the kill switch fires automatically — all open orders are cancelled and alerts go out immediately. On restart, the system reconciles its state against on-chain balances as the authoritative source before resuming any activity.

See also: Risk Management · Architecture