Polymarket paper trading
Polymarket paper trading with real prices and fake money.
Polymarket has no practice mode, so Orca adds one. Trade any market with a paper bankroll, priced from live venue data and settled when it resolves. Copy whales, trade Kalshi markets in the same portfolio, and go live when you're ready.
How it works
A practice account that behaves like a real one.
01
Open a paper portfolio
Give it a name and a starting balance. It's paper cash, so pick whatever you'd like to practice with, and add more later without it counting as profit.
02
Trade any market
Search Polymarket or Kalshi markets, choose Yes or No and enter an amount. Orca's server prices the order from the venue's live data, never from your browser.
03
Copy whales if you like
Add up to 10 Polymarket wallets and Orca mirrors their trades into the same portfolio at your size. How copy trading works
04
Track it like real money
Resolved markets settle on their own, winners at $1 a share and losers at $0. Your equity curve, cash, realized P&L and win rate update as you go, and you can sell any position at the current price.
How real is it
Real prices. Real outcomes. Fake money.
Every paper order is priced when you place it, from the venue's own data. Polymarket orders use the latest market price. Kalshi buys fill at the ask and sells at the bid, so crossing the spread costs you here just as it would on Kalshi.
Markets settle from the official result: Polymarket's resolved outcome, or the result Kalshi posts. You never redeem anything by hand, and a market that resolves against you goes to zero, the same as it would for real.
What paper can't reproduce is size. A paper order fills in full at the quoted price without moving the market, and trades you place by hand skip the venue's fee. Copied trades are stricter: by default they're priced at the fills that were really reachable, fee included. Paper trading in the docs
Paper and live
Practice here. Go live from the same desk.
Fees and limits
Free to start, honest about its limits.
- Price
- Free with a Polywhaler account, which includes one paper portfolio and no limit on the trades inside it. Pro adds unlimited portfolios and live trading for $9 a month or $59 a year.
- Markets
- Open Polymarket and Kalshi markets, side by side in one portfolio.
- Starting balance
- Any amount. Added paper cash is tracked separately, so it never shows as gain.
- Manual fills
- Fill in full at the quoted price, with no venue fee. Treat large paper trades as a best case.
- Copied fills
- By default, priced at the fills reachable 60 seconds behind the trader, taker fee included.
- Orca fees
- None on paper, and 0% on live orders.
FAQs
Common questions about paper trading Polymarket and Kalshi on Orca, from how realistic it is to what it costs.
Can you paper trade on Polymarket?
Not on Polymarket itself, which has no practice mode. Orca adds one: a paper portfolio trades fake money against Polymarket's live prices and settles each market when it resolves, the way a real account would.
Is Orca's Polymarket simulator free?
Yes. A free Polywhaler account includes one paper portfolio, with no limit on the trades inside it. Pro adds unlimited portfolios and live trading for $9 a month or $59 a year.
How realistic is paper trading on Orca?
Prices and outcomes are real: every order is priced from the venue's live data and settled from the official result. What paper can't reproduce is size. A paper order fills in full at the quoted price without moving the market, and manual paper trades skip the venue's fee, so treat large paper trades as a best case.
Can I paper trade Kalshi markets too?
Yes. A paper portfolio can hold Kalshi and Polymarket positions at once. Kalshi paper buys fill at the ask and sells at the bid, the prices a real order would cross, and settle from Kalshi's posted result.
What's the difference between paper and live trading?
A paper portfolio trades fake money, can copy whales and can start in the past. A live portfolio trades your own funds on one venue, starts the day you open it, and only places orders you confirm. Both use the same workspace, so moving from one to the other feels familiar.
How do I start paper trading on Polymarket?
Create a free account on Orca, open a paper portfolio, and give it a name and a starting balance. Then trade any market by hand, add whales to copy, or both.
More on Orca.
