Operator Handbook · Revision 2026.04

The operator handbook, not a sales brochure

Q: Why didn't the bot copy the leader's exit?

Exits are copied only when the leader closes a position you also hold. If your entry was skipped due to cooldown, dedup window, or a price move beyond slippage tolerance, there is nothing to exit.

Q: Can I run two bots from the same wallet?

No. One wallet equals one configuration. To run a parallel strategy, fund a second wallet with its own USDC balance and connect that wallet separately.

Q: Why does my PnL look different from the leader's?

Latency between detection and execution, on-chain slippage, the cooldown and dedup filters, and your mirror-ratio choice all contribute. A dispersion of around plus or minus 20 percent over a month is typical.

Q: What happens at market resolution if I am still holding?

Polymarket's contract pays winning shares at $1 and losing shares at $0. The bot does nothing at resolution; your wallet receives the payout automatically once UMA resolves the market.

Q: Do you ever rebroadcast my signed transaction?

Only if the first broadcast is dropped from the mempool within 45 seconds and the original inputs are still valid. Otherwise the transaction is considered failed and is not re-signed.

This is the manual we hand to customers running the bot at five-figure monthly volumes. It is organised like an airline QRH — quick answers on top, deeper theory below, runbooks at the back. If you have never copy-traded before, start at the 12-minute first trade. If something is broken, jump straight to the runbooks.

Recipes

Short, copy-pasteable configurations for specific goals (low-risk, high-frequency, event-driven).

Playbooks

Multi-step plans for common strategic decisions: picking leaders, cutting losers, rebalancing.

Runbooks

What to do when things go sideways — failed tx, stale indexer, wallet lockout.

15 min · beginner

① Your first copy-trade in 12 minutes

Timed on a brand-new MetaMask install with $100 USDC on Polygon.

00:00 — 03:00 · Install MetaMask, add the Polygon network, fund the wallet with USDC via a bridge or CEX withdrawal. Keep $2 in MATIC for gas.
03:00 — 05:00 · Visit the site, click Connect Wallet, approve the EIP-4361 signature. No passwords, no emails.
05:00 — 08:00 · Approve the USDC spend limit. Set an explicit cap (e.g. 50 USDC) instead of "unlimited" — this is safer for first-time operators.
08:00 — 10:00 · Pick exactly one leader from the Politics · last-30-day ROI > 12% filter. Set position size to $10. Turn auto-sell on at +20%.
10:00 — 12:00 · Click Start bot. Leave the tab open; watch the Live Feed. The first copied trade usually arrives within the first hour of a market's news cycle.

② Glossary you actually need

Leader: A Polygon address whose trades we mirror. Synonyms: tracked wallet, source address.
Mirror ratio: Ratio between the leader's position size and yours. Fixed mode ignores the leader's size; Proportional mode scales with your wallet balance.
Edge: Estimated probability-of-profit minus price. We surface it per trade so you can filter out near-break-even copies.
Cooldown: Seconds the bot waits after a copied trade before considering the same leader again. Prevents echo loops on noisy wallets.
Dedup window: Time window within which the same market is only copied once across all leaders.

③ Leader-selection playbook

Playbook · intermediate

The four-filter starter screen

90-day ROI between +8% and +35% (outside this band, the wallet is either flat or suspiciously hot).
Trade count ≥ 40 in the last 30 days (enough data to copy, not too thin).
Average hold time between 6 hours and 6 days (avoid scalpers and deep-conviction holders).
Stuck-loss ratio under 15% (measures how often they ride losers to resolution).

Playbook · advanced

Rotating your leader pool

Every Sunday, re-run the starter screen. Drop any leader who fell below two of the four filters. Replace with a fresh candidate. This single habit has been the biggest PnL differentiator across our power users.

④ Configuration recipes

Conservative

Balanced

Aggressive

Recipe · conservative

Low-noise, low-blowup

mirror_ratio:        fixed
position_size_usdc:  15
auto_sell_at_pct:    18
max_daily_loss_usdc: 40
leaders_max:         5
dedup_window_min:    120
min_edge_bp:         120
categories:          [politics, sports, finance]

Recipe · balanced

Most users belong here

mirror_ratio:        proportional
balance_fraction:    0.02
auto_sell_at_pct:    25
trailing_stop_pct:   8
max_daily_loss_usdc: 120
leaders_max:         10
dedup_window_min:    45
min_edge_bp:         80

Recipe · aggressive

For experienced operators only

mirror_ratio:        proportional
balance_fraction:    0.05
auto_sell_at_pct:    45
trailing_stop_pct:   15
max_daily_loss_usdc: 500
leaders_max:         25
dedup_window_min:    10
min_edge_bp:         40
gas_ceiling_gwei:    300

⑤ Safety guards in detail

Daily loss circuit breaker

When realised + open PnL hits the configured limit, the bot halts all new entries until midnight UTC. Existing positions remain.

Gas ceiling

Caps the network fee the bot will tolerate. Trades above the ceiling are queued for up to 10 minutes, then dropped if gas stays high.

Stale indexer

If our Polygon indexer falls more than 30 seconds behind the chain tip, the bot automatically pauses until it catches up.

Signature drift detection

If the same wallet signs a new EIP-4361 nonce from a new IP within 60 seconds, the older session is invalidated.

USDC allowance guard

When your remaining allowance drops below the next planned position, you are prompted to top it up — no silent failures.

Dead-man switch

If the dashboard tab is closed for 7 days, all open trailing stops fall back to hard take-profits at the configured target.

⑥ Observability: what to watch

The dashboard exposes four numbers that tell you almost everything about bot health. Memorise them.

1) Indexer lag       →  target <  5s    alarm > 30s
2) Copy latency p95  →  target < 12s    alarm > 40s
3) Fill slippage avg →  target <  80bp  alarm > 200bp
4) Leader hit rate   →  target >  60%   alarm < 40%

Any two of these out of their target band for more than 10 minutes: open a support ticket.

⑦ Runbooks (when things break)

Runbook R-01

Copy trades stopped appearing

Confirm subscription is active (Billing → Status).
Check the Indexer lag widget. If > 30s, the bot is correctly paused — wait 2 minutes.
Verify the leader pool has at least one wallet that is currently active (last trade < 48h).
Check the USDC allowance. Re-approve if depleted.
If all green for 10+ minutes and still nothing copied: open a ticket, include your wallet address.

Runbook R-02

Transaction reverted on-chain

Click the tx hash in your Trade History → View on Polygonscan.
Common cause: price moved past the slippage tolerance. No funds lost; only gas burned.
If recurrent on one specific leader, raise max_slippage_bp or drop that leader.

Runbook R-03

Wallet lockout after hardware-wallet firmware upgrade

The EIP-712 domain hash changes on some firmware updates, invalidating old session signatures.
Click Sign out then reconnect. You will be prompted for a fresh EIP-4361 nonce.
If the signature fails, downgrade MetaMask to the last known-good version listed in our release notes, or switch browsers.

⑧ Tough-question FAQ

Why didn't the bot copy the leader's exit?

Exits are copied only when the leader closes a position you also hold. If your entry was skipped (cooldown, dedup, price moved), there is nothing to exit.

Can I run two bots from the same wallet?

No. One wallet = one configuration. Use a second wallet with a distinct USDC balance to run a parallel strategy.

Why does my PnL look different from the leader's?

Latency, slippage, the cooldown and dedup filters, and your mirror-ratio choice all contribute. Typical dispersion is ±20% over a month.

What happens at market resolution if I am still holding?

Polymarket's contract pays out winning shares at $1 and losing shares at $0. The bot does nothing; your wallet receives the payout automatically once UMA resolves the market.

Do you ever rebroadcast my signed transaction?

Only if the first broadcast is dropped from the mempool within 45 seconds and the original inputs are still valid. Otherwise the tx is considered failed.

⑨ Release notes

2026.04 — New risk matrix UI; dead-man switch now configurable per leader.
2026.02 — Indexer rewritten in Rust; p95 lag dropped from 6.8s to 2.1s.
2025.12 — Added min_edge_bp filter; gas ceiling now enforced per-tx.
2025.10 — EIP-4361 login replaces legacy session cookies.
2025.07 — Trailing-stop support; CSV export of trade history.

Still stuck?

Send the runbook number you followed and the output of the observability widget. Faster triage than a generic "bot not working" message.

Contact an engineer

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