What is polymarket-trading-bot?

This is a Node.js trading bot for Polymarket, a prediction market platform where people bet on short-term outcomes. The bot focuses on BTC Up/Down markets, which are short 5-minute windows where you bet on whether Bitcoin's price will be higher or lower at the close. All trades run on the Polygon blockchain through Polymarket's order book. The bot has two main operating modes. Arbitrage mode watches the order book via a live data feed and places trades when the combined price of the Yes and No sides of a market falls below $1.00, which creates a theoretical profit opportunity (since one side must pay out $1). Copy-trading mode watches a target wallet address and mirrors its buy orders, following the signal of a trader you believe has an edge. The README includes a candid analysis of how the competitive landscape for simple arbitrage has changed. By 2026, the document argues, the classic Yes+No spread play is mostly captured by bots operating in under 100 milliseconds on dedicated infrastructure. The README frames this bot as part of a multi-strategy approach: it covers the 5-minute momentum and latency strategy, partial market-making through dual-sided order ladders, and copy-trading as a social signal path. Features like AI-powered news signals and cross-market correlation plays are described as extension points not included in this codebase. Risk management is built in. You configure maximum spend per market, maximum hourly loss before the bot stops, inventory imbalance limits, and a cutoff window before market resolution where the bot stops placing new orders. These controls are set through a configuration file. Requirements include Node.js 18 or higher, a Polymarket account with a funded wallet on Polygon, and API credentials from the platform. The README recommends using a private Polygon RPC node for speed rather than a public one. All configuration happens through environment variables. The project includes a disclaimer that it is educational and operational tooling, not financial advice, and that past backtested statistics do not guarantee future results.