Polycop Trade: How Polycopybot Handles Order Execution and Position Timing

The "trade" part of Polycop Trade is where strategy meets execution. Detecting a signal is only half the work — submitting it to Polymarket's CLOB at the right price, in the right size, with the right error handling is what determines whether a copy trade delivers its theoretical value or gets eaten by slippage and missed fills.

Order Construction

When Polycopybot detects a qualifying copy signal, it builds an order with four parameters:

• Market ID — the specific Polymarket market to trade
• Side — Yes or No, matching the source wallet's position
• Quantity — number of shares, derived from your sizing configuration
• Limit price — the maximum price per share you're willing to pay

The limit price is the most important parameter. It determines whether you get filled at a reasonable price or don't fill at all. Setting it too tight means you miss opportunities. Setting it too loose means you accept significant slippage on thin markets.

The Price Buffer Setting

The price buffer is a configurable offset added to the current best ask price when constructing your limit order. For example, if Yes shares are currently offered at $0.62 and your buffer is 2 cents, your limit order goes in at $0.64.

This buffer serves two purposes:

• Fill probability — the price may move slightly between detection and submission. A small buffer increases the chance your order fills on the first attempt.
• Slippage cap — by setting the buffer conservatively, you ensure you never pay more than intended. If the market has moved beyond your buffer, the order simply doesn't fill.

The right buffer size depends on market liquidity. For high-volume markets ($1M+ in daily volume), a 1-cent buffer is usually sufficient. For thinner markets, 2–3 cents provides better fill rates without excessive slippage exposure.

Handling Concurrent Signals

When you follow multiple wallets, it's possible — and on active trading days, common — for two or more wallets to generate signals within seconds of each other. Polycopybot handles concurrency in two ways:

• Parallel processing — the signal evaluator runs each incoming signal independently. Two signals in the same second are evaluated and submitted concurrently, not sequentially.
• Rate limit queue — Polymarket's API has rate limits. If concurrent signals would exceed the limit, orders are queued and submitted in rapid sequence with minimal delay.

An important guard against concurrent signals: the bot checks your remaining USDC balance before each order submission. If two signals arrive simultaneously that would both exceed your available balance, the second is sized down or skipped based on your configuration.

What Happens to Unfilled Orders

Not every copy trade fills on the first submission. Common reasons for non-fills:

• Market price moved beyond your limit before the order arrived
• Available liquidity at your limit price was exhausted by other buyers
• Market was paused or temporarily unavailable

Polycopybot's default behavior for unfilled orders:

• Wait up to 60 seconds for a partial fill
• If unfilled after 60 seconds, cancel the order and log it as missed
• Optionally retry with a slightly adjusted price (configurable)

Every unfilled order appears in the execution log with reason codes, so you can identify whether your buffer is too tight or specific markets are consistently too thin to copy effectively.

Position Lifecycle Management

Once a position is open, Polycopybot monitors it through to resolution. The lifecycle:

1. Entry — order fills, position created in your portfolio
2. Monitoring — current price checked periodically against your stop-loss threshold
3. Source exit signal — if the followed wallet closes the position, bot mirrors the exit
4. Stop-loss trigger — if price drops below your configured floor, bot submits a sell order
5. Expiry — position resolves to $1 or $0 at the market's resolution date; Polymarket handles settlement automatically

You can also close any position manually from the dashboard at any time — the bot respects manual overrides and won't attempt to reopen a position you've closed.

Reading the Execution Log

The execution log is your primary tool for reviewing and improving your Polycop Trade setup. Each log entry includes:

• Timestamp of signal detection and order submission
• Market name and ID
• Source wallet that generated the signal
• Order parameters (side, quantity, limit price)
• Fill status and actual fill price
• If unfilled: reason code (price moved, insufficient liquidity, rate limit, etc.)
• If filled: slippage vs. source wallet's price

Reviewing the log weekly gives you the data to tune your configuration: adjust buffers, tighten or loosen liquidity filters, and swap out wallets that are generating consistently bad copy signals.