Polymarket beginner guide

1 - Understand prediction markets

Prediction markets let you trade on the outcome of real-world events. The price of each share reflects the market's belief in the probability of that outcome. A share priced at $0.70 means the market believes there's a 70% chance of the outcome happening — if it does, the share pays $1.00; if not, $0.00.

For a deeper grounding, read how Polymarket works first.

2 - Create your account

Mirrored creates a self-custodial wallet for you the moment you sign up - no MetaMask, nothing to install, and no seed phrase to write down up front. Sign up with email or Google and you're ready in seconds:

Your wallet has a real 24-word seed phrase you can export any time - it's secured in a vault by Privy, and Mirrored never holds your funds. To back it up, open Wallet → Export in the app. It's shown once, then hidden again after 60 seconds - copy it to a password manager in that window and you've got your own backup.

3 - Fund your wallet

Polymarket trades are denominated in pUSD on Polygon. You've got a few options:

• Send pUSD on Polygon directly to your Mirrored wallet address.
• Bridge from another chain. Mirrored accepts USDC, USDT, ETH, SOL, and BTC from their respective networks; the bridge converts them to pUSD on Polygon automatically.

Mirrored doesn't process card payments. If you don't hold crypto yet, an exchange-to-self-wallet path (e.g. buy USDC on Coinbase, send to your Mirrored address) is the typical route.

Tip: start with $20–50 to get comfortable with the flow before scaling up. The minimum trade size is $1.10.

4 - Pick a lineup and start mirroring

The fastest way to start: open Auto Pilot and pick one of five curated lineups. Each is 10 hand-picked Polymarket traders with trade-size and risk settings already tuned for the lineup's style. Activate the lineup and you're live — every trade those wallets place from then on gets mirrored into yours.

No research required, no settings to configure first. If you want to dig in later, you can mirror specific wallets manually or browse Polymarket and trade individual markets yourself.

• Auto Pilot lineups - pick a style: All Categories, Aggressive, Sweaty, Relaxed, or Super Aggressive. See the Auto Pilot docs.
• Manual copy trading - paste any Polymarket wallet address to mirror one specific trader. Use Sharps to find profitable wallets.
• Manual trading - browse trending markets, search by keyword, or paste a Polymarket link to buy / sell / redeem yourself.

5 - Follow data, not opinions

The difference between beginner and profitable traders is simple: profitable traders rely on data, not gut feel. Mirrored's Sharps is a curated roster of Polymarket's most consistent wallets - real on-chain track records, refreshed daily. Start there instead of guessing.

Common beginner mistakes

• Betting your whole balance on one market. Diversify across markets and across traders. Even strong wallets have losing streaks.
• Ignoring liquidity. Low-volume markets have wide spreads - you can buy fine but struggle to exit. Stick to markets with healthy depth.
• Trading on emotion. A price drop doesn't always mean "sell." Revisit the data first.
• Skipping the resolution rules. Read the market description carefully. Some have nuanced criteria that aren't obvious from the title.
• Buying at $0.90+. Markets priced above 90¢ have limited upside; the risk-reward is poor unless you have very high conviction.

Quick reference