{
  "schemaVersion": "vultax-public-research-data-v1",
  "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
  "datasets": [
    {
      "title": "The cost of arriving late, measured",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Market and delay",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Buys measured",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Average extra paid",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Median, share of leader's price",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Follower paid more",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Same price",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Follower paid less",
          "unit": null
        }
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "Event markets, 30 seconds",
          "17,088",
          "+1.43¢",
          "+1.41%",
          "57.9%",
          "7.8%",
          "34.3%"
        ],
        [
          "Event markets, 2 minutes",
          "15,908",
          "+1.43¢",
          "+1.59%",
          "56.2%",
          "4.9%",
          "38.9%"
        ],
        [
          "Event markets, 10 minutes",
          "12,641",
          "+1.29¢",
          "+1.69%",
          "53.8%",
          "3.0%",
          "43.3%"
        ],
        [
          "Up-or-down markets, 30 seconds",
          "12,979",
          "+0.42¢",
          "+1.92%",
          "52.9%",
          "1.2%",
          "46.0%"
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Buys by the 1,000 wallets with the highest observed profit in Vultax's Polymarket cohort, 15:06 UTC 12 September to 22:55 UTC 13 September 2026, at prices from 3 to 97 cents. Extra paid is the next other buyer's price minus the leader's price.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred."
        },
        {
          "label": "Selected arithmetic checked in Lean 4.35.0",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/datasets/research-proof-library-2026-10-25/articles/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools.md",
          "note": "Selected exact-rational calculations and displayed-value consistency checks, checked by Lean 4.35.0, Lean kernel replay and Nanoda. Not a proof of the underlying observations, statistical conclusions, legal claims or production code."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": "observed",
        "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-12T15:06Z/2026-09-13T22:55Z",
        "population": "54,828 buys by 195 of the top 1,000 cohort wallets",
        "methodology": "For each leader buy, the price of the first buy of the same outcome by another wallet at or after the delay and within five minutes of it, minus the leader's price."
      },
      "id": "section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table",
      "kind": "published-table",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-10-28",
      "version": "de80844a254bff7d2ad205919b7aa20e7a91226679baa8972891e06609b3d7b3",
      "isLive": false,
      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Tool facts were read from vendor pages on the stated date and can change. The fee arithmetic is illustrative and uses published rates; actual fills differ. The delay figures describe what the next buyer of the same outcome paid after trades by high-profit wallets over 31.8 hours in September 2026 and are not a forecast of any copier's results. Nothing here is a recommendation to copy any wallet, and nothing here is financial advice.",
      "downloads": {
        "json": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.json?dataset=section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table",
        "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.csv?dataset=section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table"
      }
    }
  ]
}