Virtual → Live Migration

PolySimulator is designed so your entire bot codebase works unchanged when switching from virtual (paper) trading to live (real-money) trading on Polymarket.

Comparison

Aspect	Virtual Mode	Live Mode
Money at risk	None (simulated API wallet — $10,000 Pro /$ 25,000 Pro+)	Real funds
Order execution	Local ledger	Polymarket CLOB
Market data	Real prices from Polymarket	Real prices from Polymarket
API surface	Full HFT API v1	CLOB trading API (different endpoint paths)
Settlement	Automatic on resolution	Polymarket blockchain

Live mode executes real trades with real money on Polymarket. Ensure your strategy is thoroughly tested in virtual mode before migrating.

Migration Steps

Test thoroughly in virtual mode

Run your bot through multiple market cycles. Verify:

Order placement works correctly
Error handling covers all edge cases
P&L tracking is accurate
WebSocket reconnection is stable

Get Polymarket API credentials

Polymarket uses two-layer authentication — both are required for live trading:L1 (wallet-level): Your Polygon wallet’s private key signs an EIP-712 message to derive L2 credentials. Each order also requires an EIP-712 signature from this key.L2 (API-level): HMAC credentials derived from L1 — used to authenticate all CLOB requests:

API Key (POLY_API_KEY)
API Secret (used to generate POLY_SIGNATURE)
API Passphrase (POLY_PASSPHRASE)

Prerequisites:

A Polygon wallet (MetaMask, Rabby, etc.) with a funded private key
USDC.e tokens on Polygon for trading capital
Token approval on the Polymarket Exchange contract

Use the Polymarket SDK to derive credentials automatically:

from py_clob_client.client import ClobClient

client = ClobClient("https://clob.polymarket.com", key=PRIVATE_KEY, chain_id=137)
api_creds = client.create_or_derive_api_key()

See Polymarket’s authentication docs for full details.

Update environment variables

Change your credentials and client configuration for live mode. Order payload structure stays highly portable, but endpoint paths/auth handling differ:

# Virtual mode (PolySimulator) — your current config
POLYSIM_BASE_URL="https://api.polysimulator.com/v1"
POLYSIM_API_KEY="ps_live_kJ9mNx2p..."

# Live mode (Polymarket) — swap these values
POLYMARKET_BASE_URL="https://clob.polymarket.com"
POLY_API_KEY="your_polymarket_api_key"
POLY_API_SECRET="your_polymarket_api_secret"
POLY_PASSPHRASE="your_polymarket_api_passphrase"

There is no single TRADING_MODE flag. Migration is achieved by switching to Polymarket credentials/client setup and routing order placement through Polymarket’s CLOB API flow.

Use CLOB-compatible endpoint (recommended for migration)

The CLOB-compatible endpoint mirrors Polymarket’s real CLOB API schema. Your bot code stays identical — only the base URL and auth header change:

import requests, os

BASE_URL = os.environ["POLYSIM_BASE_URL"]  # https://api.polysimulator.com/v1
headers = {"X-API-Key": os.environ["POLYSIM_API_KEY"]}

order = requests.post(f"{BASE_URL}/clob/order", headers=headers, json={
    "token_id": "71321045679252...",
    "side": "BUY",
    "price": "0.65",
    "size": "10",
    "order_type": "GTC",
})
order.raise_for_status()
print(order.json())

from py_clob_client.client import ClobClient
from py_clob_client.clob_types import ApiCreds

# Client setup + submission method changes; order field semantics stay close:
api_creds = ApiCreds(
  api_key=os.getenv("POLY_API_KEY"),
  api_secret=os.getenv("POLY_API_SECRET"),
    api_passphrase=os.getenv("POLY_PASSPHRASE"),
)
client = ClobClient(
    "https://clob.polymarket.com", chain_id=137,
    key=os.getenv("PRIVATE_KEY"), creds=api_creds,
)

# Same trading intent, submitted via Polymarket SDK order flow:
from py_clob_client.clob_types import OrderArgs, OrderType
from py_clob_client.order_builder.constants import BUY

signed_order = client.create_order(
  OrderArgs(
    token_id="71321045679252...",
    side=BUY,
    price=0.65,
    size=10,
  )
)
result = client.post_order(signed_order, OrderType.GTC)
print(result)

Auth difference: PolySimulator uses X-API-Key header. Polymarket uses L2 HMAC headers (POLY_ADDRESS, POLY_SIGNATURE, POLY_TIMESTAMP, POLY_API_KEY, POLY_PASSPHRASE) plus EIP-712 signing for each order. The Polymarket SDK handles the complexity — only the client initialisation changes, not the order fields.

Verify with small orders

Start with minimal order sizes to verify live execution:

import os
from py_clob_client.client import ClobClient
from py_clob_client.clob_types import ApiCreds, OrderArgs, OrderType
from py_clob_client.order_builder.constants import BUY

creds = ApiCreds(
  api_key=os.getenv("POLY_API_KEY"),
  api_secret=os.getenv("POLY_API_SECRET"),
  api_passphrase=os.getenv("POLY_PASSPHRASE"),
)
client = ClobClient(
  "https://clob.polymarket.com",
  chain_id=137,
  key=os.getenv("PRIVATE_KEY"),
  creds=creds,
)

# 1. Place a small test limit order
signed = client.create_order(
  OrderArgs(token_id="71321045679252...", side=BUY, price=0.10, size=1)
)
posted = client.post_order(signed, OrderType.GTC)
print("Posted order:", posted)

# 2. Verify open orders
open_orders = client.get_orders()
print("Open orders:", len(open_orders))

CLOB Compatibility Layer

The POST /v1/clob/order endpoint accepts the same request body as Polymarket’s POST /order:

Field	Type	Description
`token_id`	string	CLOB outcome token ID
`side`	string	`BUY` or `SELL` (uppercase)
`price`	string	Limit price as decimal string (“0.01”–“0.99”)
`size`	string	Number of shares as decimal string
`order_type`	string	`GTC` (default), `FOK`, or `GTD`

All numeric fields (price, size) must be strings (e.g., "0.65" not 0.65). side must be uppercase ("BUY" not "buy"). order_type must be a CLOB type ("GTC", "FOK", or "GTD") — not "market". POST /v1/clob/order does not accept IOC/FAK; for fill-and-kill semantics use the native POST /v1/order endpoint instead.

See CLOB Compatibility for full schema details and response format.

Rollback

To return to virtual mode, change your bot’s environment variables back:

POLYSIM_BASE_URL="https://api.polysimulator.com/v1"
POLYSIM_API_KEY="ps_live_kJ9mNx2p..."
# Remove or comment out Polymarket credentials

Restart your bot and it resumes paper trading with the simulated balance.

Checklist

Bot tested across multiple market scenarios in virtual mode
Error handling verified (network errors, rate limits, slippage)
Polymarket API credentials obtained and secured
Environment variables updated
Initial live test with minimal order size
Monitoring and alerting configured for live trading

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Trading Guide

Market Data

Account & Portfolio

WebSocket Feeds

Bot Development

Going Live

Live Migration

Virtual → Live Migration

Comparison

Migration Steps

CLOB Compatibility Layer

Rollback

Checklist

​Virtual → Live Migration

​Comparison

​Migration Steps

​CLOB Compatibility Layer

​Rollback

​Checklist

Virtual → Live Migration

Comparison

Migration Steps

CLOB Compatibility Layer

Rollback

Checklist