Polymarket Automated Trading Bots: Profitability and Risks
Automated trading bots on Polymarket exist, but achieving consistent profitability is difficult because the markets are highly efficient and demand extreme execution speed. Many users point out that competing bots often read the exact same clean data sources, immediately closing any price gaps. Real-world execution issues like slippage, quote freshness, and latency often cause strategies that look good on paper to fail in live trading. Market makers also face the constant risk of adverse selection, where informed traders exploit stale quotes and cause systematic losses. Despite these hurdles, some users find success with speed-based arbitrage or short-term pattern recognition on rapid five-minute timeframes. However, the space is filled with scams, malware disguised as bots, and sellers pushing unrealistic returns, making extreme caution necessary.
