Paper trading
How a Lab paper run scores a strategy on live order books without placing orders — starting and stopping, what a copy is, the 50-copy gate, resting orders, notifications and per-plan limits.
What this is for. A backtest looks back; a paper run looks forward. It runs a strategy on live data as the traders trade (or as your rules fire) and scores each signal against the real order book at that moment — without placing an order, holding funds or needing a key. It is the closest test to live trading the Lab offers, and it keeps running until you stop it.
Simulated performance
Simulated. Scored on real order books, no order placed. Not a forecast or advice. Backtests replay the past at prices a follower could have paid; paper trading scores live signals on real order books without placing orders. Neither is a forecast or advice, and both carry a measured optimism.
These results are based on simulated or hypothetical performance results that have certain inherent limitations. Unlike the results shown in an actual performance record, these results do not represent actual trading. Also, because these trades have not actually been executed, these results may have under- or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated or hypothetical trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to these being shown.
Start and stop
- Start: on the strategy page, under Paper-trade on live books, press Paper-trade (No orders, no keys.). A report's Paper-trade this does the same. One strategy runs one paper run at a time ("This strategy is already paper trading.").
- Open it: the strategy page's button becomes Open paper run · N of 50.
- Stop: Stop on the run page. Paper trading stopped. Open copies still settle.
How many paper runs you can have going at once is per plan (plan table); one more answers "Your plan paper-trades N strategies at once; stop one first."
What a copy is
When a wallet the strategy follows fills an order (or your rules all hold), the run records a signal and tries to copy it: a simulated fill on the live book after the leader's fill, walking the asks up to the strategy's price limit. A partial fill is whatever the book held. Every signal ends in one of these outcomes:
| Outcome | Means |
|---|---|
| Copied | The book let a copy in at the strategy's limit |
| No fill | The book did not have the size within the limit |
| Leader sold first | The leader sold before the copy could enter (when Skip if the leader sold first is on) |
| Capped | A cap (money open, copies a day, a daily loss stop) stopped it |
| Skipped by the rules | The signal fell outside the strategy's markets or filters |
A copy then lives until the market resolves or an exit rule sells it, marked at the live book in the meantime.
The run page
- The header: Paper · running or stopped, since when, how many wallets (or own rules, no wallet), and Open the strategy.
- The gate: a count toward 50 resolved copies; the run has passed the gate once 50 have resolved with a positive total. (Live trading would require it; live trading is not available.)
- Per $10 · resolved, with a P&L sparkline; Book let a copy in (how often the book took the copy); Entry vs leader (what a copy paid against the leader's price).
- Money in play: average, peak, deepest fall, copies skipped for cash, copy sizes.
- Signals with their outcomes, and Per wallet.
Resting limit orders
A strategy that sends limit orders keeps them resting on the paper book. The run page lists Orders with Cancel and Cancel all, Every order's timeline, and What you missed — what the orders that never filled would have made. Endings are worded (Cancelled by you, Cancelled at kickoff, as Polymarket does, …).
Notifications
Per run, choose Nothing, Daily summary (the default) or Every copy and result. Messages go to the bell, email, push and Telegram (set channels up in Alerts); the daily summary arrives at 08:00 UTC unless you choose another hour. A Telegram message with results carries the full simulated-results statement.
Known issue
Copies recorded before 21 October 2026 may be undercounted: a recording bug dropped a decision when two fills of the same trader and market arrived together. It is fixed; past rows are kept as recorded, and the run page states the bound for an affected run.
Related
- Backtesting — test on past data first
- Strategies — the settings a run executes
- Plans & billing — paper runs at once per plan
Backtesting
What a Lab backtest is, how to run one, the queue and per-plan caps, how to read the report — the verdict, the fair baseline, the fill model and its measured optimism — and the final test.
Your own rules
Strategies that follow no wallet — conditions on price, spread, depth, moves, volume and timing, checked on the recorded order books, with their baseline and the sealed final test. Lab Pro and up.