Set Up Your First Polymarket Trading Agent

What This Agent Does

PM-01 is an autonomous scanner that monitors Polymarket 24/7, finds markets where the price implies a probability significantly different from what a scoring model calculates, and places limit orders automatically when it finds edge of 15% or more.

Here's what happens after you set it up:

• 1

  Every 5 minutes

  The scanner fetches all active Polymarket markets and scores each one using 5 signals: liquidity, volume, time to close, price range, and market type.

• 2

  When edge ≥ 15%

  A limit order is placed at the current best price. Take-profit is set at 88¢. Stop-loss is set at 4¢. No manual action required.

• 3

  Telegram alert

  Your phone gets a notification within 60 seconds of any trade entry, exit, or notable event. You can watch without touching anything.

• 4

  CLV tracking

  Every closed trade logs your entry price vs. the closing line. Over time, this tells you whether your edge is real or luck.

What You Need Before Starting

Hardware

A Mac running macOS 12 or later. This guide uses macOS LaunchAgents for 24/7 background operation — the cleanest way to run persistent processes on a Mac.

A Mac Mini ($599 new) is the ideal setup — runs silently, uses ~6W of power, never needs to sleep. A MacBook works if you keep it plugged in.

Software

• Python 3.10 or later — check with python3 --version in Terminal
• pip3 — comes with Python, check with pip3 --version
• Terminal access — built into macOS (Applications → Utilities → Terminal)

Accounts You Need

• Polymarket account — polymarket.com (takes 5 min, need a crypto wallet)
• MetaMask or any Polygon-compatible wallet — to fund USDC
• Telegram account — for alerts (free)

Setting Up Your Polymarket Account

Step 1 — Create your account

Go to polymarket.com and connect a wallet. MetaMask is easiest. If you don't have MetaMask, install it from metamask.io and create a new wallet — takes 2 minutes.

Step 2 — Fund with USDC

Polymarket runs on Polygon network. You need USDC on Polygon (not Ethereum mainnet — gas fees would be too high).

Easiest path: Buy USDC on Coinbase → send to your wallet address on Polygon network. Or use Polymarket's built-in on-ramp (credit card → USDC, slightly higher fees).

Step 3 — Generate your CLOB API keys

The agent needs API keys to place orders programmatically. Here's how to get them:

• 1

  Go to app.polymarket.com

  Log in with the same wallet you funded.

• 2

  Click your profile → Settings → API

  Or navigate directly to app.polymarket.com/profile/settings

• 3

  Create new API key

  You'll get three values: API Key, Secret, and Passphrase. Copy all three somewhere safe — you can't retrieve the secret again after closing the window.

• 4

  Copy your wallet private key

  In MetaMask: three dots → Account Details → Export Private Key. This is needed for the CLOB signature. Keep it safe — never share it.

Install & Configure

Unzip and open Terminal

After downloading PM-01 from your purchase email, unzip it to wherever you want it to live (Desktop is fine). Then open Terminal and navigate there:

copycd ~/Desktop/pm-01-beat-the-closing-line

Run the setup wizard

This does everything — installs packages, walks you through all the config, writes your .env file, and runs a connection test.

copypython3 setup.py

The wizard will ask for:

• Your Polymarket API Key, Secret, and Passphrase (from Chapter 03)
• Your wallet private key (starts with 0x)
• Your wallet address (starts with 0x)
• Your Telegram bot token and chat ID (see below)
• Your trading preferences (edge threshold, max position size)

Setting up Telegram alerts

You'll need a Telegram bot to receive alerts on your phone.

• 1

  Message @BotFather on Telegram

  Send /newbot and follow the prompts. You'll get a token like 1234567890:ABCdef...

• 2

  Get your chat ID

  Message @userinfobot on Telegram. It replies with your user ID (a number like 1559282754). That's your chat ID.

• 3

  Message your new bot once

  Find your bot by its username, send it any message. This activates the chat so it can message you.

Test Your Connection

The setup wizard runs this automatically, but you can run it manually anytime to check everything is still working:

copypython3 src/test_connection.py

You should see:

✓ Polymarket public API reachable
✓ CLOB API key valid
✓ Telegram message sent — check your phone!
✓ POLYMARKET_API_KEY is set
✓ POLYMARKET_PRIVATE_KEY is set

All checks passed. Ready to scan for edges.

Dry Run — Watch It Work First

Before going live, run in dry-run mode. The agent scans exactly the same as live mode but doesn't place any orders. You see every edge it finds, every market it evaluates.

copypython3 src/pm_monitor.py --dry-run

In the terminal you'll see logs like:

[CYCLE 1] 09:14:03
Fetching active markets...
Fetched 187 markets
Scoring markets...

[DRY RUN] EDGE FOUND
Market: Will the Fed cut rates in March 2026?
Price: 0.38 | Model: 0.57 | Edge: 19%
Size: $35 | Side: YES
→ Order would be placed (dry run — skipped)

No more edges this cycle. Next scan in 5 min.

Go Live

Once you've watched a dry run cycle or two and you're comfortable, drop the --dry-run flag:

copypython3 src/pm_monitor.py

The first time it finds an edge that meets the threshold, it places a real order and sends you a Telegram alert:

⚡ EDGE FOUND [LIVE]

Market: Will X happen?
Entry: 0.36 | Model: 0.54 | Edge: 18%
Size: $35 | Side: YES
Order ID: 0x3b2c1d...

Take-profit: 0.88 | Stop-loss: 0.04
CLV target: +12¢

Monitoring your positions

You don't need to watch the terminal. Telegram handles all the important updates:

• Trade entered — price, size, edge %
• Take-profit triggered — exit at 88¢
• Stop-loss triggered — exit at 4¢
• Market resolved — outcome + CLV
• Scanner errors — if something breaks

Install the 24/7 Daemon

Running python3 src/pm_monitor.py in a Terminal window works, but stops if the window closes or the Mac restarts. To run 24/7 automatically, install the LaunchAgent:

copy./scripts/setup_launchd.sh

This installs a macOS LaunchAgent that:

• Starts automatically when your Mac boots
• Restarts automatically if it crashes
• Logs everything to /tmp/pm_monitor.log
• Runs with zero UI — silent background process

Useful commands

copy# Watch live logs
tail -f /tmp/pm_monitor.log

# Stop the agent
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.agentcheat.pm_monitor.plist

# Restart the agent
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.agentcheat.pm_monitor.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.agentcheat.pm_monitor.plist