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Thread Guy · · 39 分钟

PMTrader:预测未来、Taylor Swift、交易建议及更多|TG 播客

Thread GuyPMTrader

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TL;DR
  • PMTrader 将一个为期1年的预测市场副业项目做成了约5万美元的兼职收益,随后辞掉做了5年的 CPA 工作,转而全职交易和创作内容。 他目前称自己每周赚约2,500-3,000美元;在节目结束时,他说自己的累计收益约为6万美元,并公开追逐“未来几个月内”达到10万美元的目标。他将自己与Domer、Phantom等做到七位数收益的交易者区分开来:这是一条从较小本金透明爬升的路径,而不是套用成型的“导师神话”。

  • 他的结构性判断是,预测市场提供了异常有利的交易环境,因为它是点对点交易,而且没有他在赛马中遇到的17-20%抽成。 按他的新闻交易框架,市场全天候24/7运行:地震发生或新一批选举计票结果公布时,“总得有人在那里调整价格”。到目前为止,更深的流动性反而放大了机会,因为新用户和不断增加的市场类型,进入市场的速度快于价格实现效率的速度。

  • Mention 市场本质上是伪装成新奇押注的研究型市场。 PMTrader 研究追溯至2020年的财报电话会文字稿,以及100多场过往 NFL 比赛,再把历史词频与“感觉”及最新情境结合起来——例如,中东新闻可能改变 Trump 使用某个词组的概率。主持人对“fourth and inches”的直觉,体现了其中可利用的错误:感觉显而易见的结果可能其实很罕见;不过 PMTrader 也坦率承认,自己反复交易的“inch—No”仓位目前大致持平,甚至略有亏损。

  • Brian Armstrong 事件暴露了反身性风险:标的本人可以观察预测市场,并可能影响结果。 PMTrader 没有交易 Coinbase,因为“我觉得自己没有优势”,但他也承认 Armstrong 在电话会上读出挂牌词汇,“从长远看可能对 mention 市场不太好”。他的有限反驳是,低概率候选有时仍会获胜,因此市场展示的赔率并不会完全自我实现。

  • 两笔交易体现了机会集合的两端:专业知识,以及几乎已经结算的“债券”。 一名没有预测市场经验的 Taylor Swift 超级粉丝大约押中10场中的12场,为 PMTrader 赚了约3,000美元;一笔 EA mention 市场在收购意味着不会再召开财报电话会后仍未关闭,让他投入约7,000美元并赚取约2,000美元。Thread Guy 估计交易失败风险可能约为5%,并认为这笔交易每投入1美元可获得约30%的回报。

  • PMTrader 预计竞争会压缩当下的优势,但不会消灭它们,因为新的小型市场会持续重置研究竞赛。 他从连续8个月交易两个相关市场,转向研究 mention 市场,并认为只要交易者持续适应,未来至少3年机会仍会充足。他更广泛的方法是自上而下比较逻辑相关的合约——例如 Biden 退出竞选与继续担任民主党总统候选人的合约——交易其中的不一致,而不是从零开始预测每个事件。

  • 给新人的建议是“从小做起”“选择一个细分领域”、计算公允价值,并准确解释人群为什么错误定价了合约。 先读清结算规则,在投入有意义的资本前学会看订单簿;任何看起来毫不费力的机会都要保持怀疑:“如果某件事在这些平台上看起来好得不像真的,或者简单得过头……它大概确实如此。”他的下一笔押注是内容:让市场与细分领域专家结合,从 Swift 粉丝到熟悉 Powell 的资深观察者,再到研究 Trump 的语言学家。

摘要 · 为研究而整理的核心内容

1. 更低的市场摩擦,让 CPA 的副业爱好变成全职事业

  • PMTrader 出身于扑克和赛马,过去只能算“半盈利”;他特别提到,赛马每笔下注都会拿走约17-20%。预测市场改变了这套算式:它是点对点交易,“基本没有庄家优势”,而且存在足够多彼此独立的定价错误,让他开始思考:“我为什么还要浪费时间”在旧有交易形式上?

  • 他一边做了5年 CPA,一边兼职交易,其中报税季每周工作60-80小时;第一年赚了约5万美元。采访前3-4周,他辞职搬到纽约,开始公布每周约2,500-3,000美元的收益,并计划随着投资组合扩大而提高仓位规模。

  • 与公开损益达到七位数的 Domer 和 Phantom 相比,他刻意把自己的定位放得很低调。PMTrader 说自己目前约有6万美元,并“完全有信心”在今年或未来几个月内达到10万美元;但他公开记录“通往10万美元之路”的吸引力,在于观察这段过程,而不是直接继承一个已经完成的成功故事。

2. 更快的信息与不断扩张的流动性,正在制造更多而非更少的错价

  • PMTrader 最简单的策略是“新闻交易”。如果一个市场询问是否会发生7.0级地震,地震发生后,第一批行动的交易者可以在价格调整过程中买入 Yes;选举计票也遵循同一机制:当已公布票数从20%推进到30%,新一批结果揭示竞选方向时,市场会重新定价。

  • 他认为地震交易的风险极低,而 Thread Guy 则把选举例子描述为某种程度上的无风险交易。但执行和解读仍然重要。真正改变的是容量:一年前可能只能容纳几千美元的交易,如今已经进入 Domer 和 Phantom 能够做出七位数损益的市场。

  • 与流动性加深会自动带来更精准定价的预期相反,PMTrader 认为当前阶段可能更容易交易。单个 Powell 演讲 mention 市场的交易量可以达到约150万美元;过去只有1万美元资金参与的 Taylor Swift 文化市场,如今也能达到数百万美元,她发布专辑时的交易量更达到数千万美元。

  • 合约供给也在同步扩张:从 Trump 和 Powell 的演讲,到 NFL 解说员、音乐、文化、关税、停火协议和地方选举。PMTrader 预计成熟市场会变得更有效率,但每一种新发明的市场都会从一个全新的问题开始:“没人知道真实概率是多少。”

3. Mention 市场的优势,来自文字稿统计、情境判断与反身性

  • PMTrader 不接受 mention 纯粹是 RNG 的说法。他提到,有新交易者在1个月内把1,000美元变成3万美元;还有交易者记录了主要来自 mention 市场的超过30万美元收益;一个8人组成的“Mentions Cave”据称每个人的损益都超过10万美元——在他看来,这些证据比自己的短期连胜更有说服力。

  • 量化工作从语言历史开始:追溯至2020年的财报电话会文字稿,以及100多场过往 NFL 比赛。第二个输入是“感觉”——会改变语言概率的当前事件。例如,如果 Trump 演讲前爆发中东新闻,一个历史出现频率为50%的词组,合理价格可能应为75-80%。

  • Thread Guy 追问那个广受调侃的“inch—No”仓位:既然是“fourth and inches”或“third and inches”,做 No 岂不是一笔极其残酷的交易?PMTrader 的回答带有明显的两面性。No 最初成本约20美分,后来在他反复投入约1,000美元后升至35-40美分附近;但他承认自己大概只是持平或略亏,并没有硬说自己赢了。

  • 更大的风险来自反身性。据称 Brian Armstrong 看到了 Coinbase 的 mention 合约,并在财报电话会上读出了其中列出的词汇;PMTrader 当时跳过 Coinbase,因为“我觉得自己没有优势”。他称这一事件既有病毒式传播效果,也会伤害市场——它“被记录进 mention 市场的传说”,但同时也给批评者提供了最有力的弹药;他预计热度会消退,而不会令整个品类失去合法性。

4. Taylor Swift 与 EA,展示了两种截然不同的信息优势

  • 在 Taylor Swift 专辑发布交易中,PMTrader 邀请了一名狂热粉丝。此人从未交易过预测市场,但熟悉音乐、演唱会和 Billboard Hot 100 的运作机制。最终实验大约押中10场中的12场,为 PMTrader 赚了约3,000美元;这名粉丝错过了两个押注歌曲词汇的长赔率结果,包括接近5赔1的“Lover”,但也正确押中了几个价格约为20%的结果。

  • 这次结果印证了他的建议:应该寻找交易圈之外的领域专家。PMTrader 支付给这位嘉宾500美元,并认为真正的专业人士即使没有市场经验,也可能比通才更准确地给细分市场定价;他希望将这一模式复制到政治、语言学和央行专家身上。

  • EA 交易更接近他所谓的“债券”:这是高概率股份,因为用户偏好彩票式回报而被忽视。EA 宣布将被收购并私有化后,PMTrader 判断公司不会再召开财报电话会,于是买入约7,000美元、押注相关词汇不会被提及的 No 股份,赚取约2,000美元。

  • 他没有把 EA 仓位称为绝对无风险。Thread Guy 估计交易失败风险约为5%,认为这笔交易每投入1美元可获得约30%的回报。即便 PMTrader 公开解释了逻辑,错价在之后2-3周仍然存在。Taylor Swift 也有类似异常:PMTrader 认为结果“基本已经100%确定”,但市场仍然提供5-10%的回报,部分原因是用户误解了日期表述。

5. 可持续的优势,需要选择性、适应能力,以及明确的错价理论

  • PMTrader 每周通常只交易10-15个市场,把资金集中在自己认为有优势的地方。尽管 mention 市场吸引了最多关注,他最初的方法是在两个相关市场之间做了8个月套利,利用本应趋于一致却没有对齐的价格。

  • 他把自己描述为自上而下型交易者,而不是高度依赖模型的人。Biden 是否退出竞选,以及是否继续担任民主党总统候选人的合约,本应具有高度相关的概率;其中的差异本身就能提供交易机会,无需从零开始预测政治结果。Thread Guy 将其类比于加密货币:更多资本会带来更激烈的竞争,同时也会打开那些被忽视的垂直领域。

  • PMTrader 认同自己当前的优势会逐渐消退,但认为更小的合约、新的市场形式和持续适应,应该能让机会至少维持3年。他自身从套利转向基于文字稿的 mention 分析,正是这套方法的样板:“只要你愿意适应,就总会拥有优势。”

  • 他给新人的清单很具体:从小做起,学会看订单簿,选择自己本来就感兴趣的主题,计算公允价值,解释公众为何给出了错误价格,并读完每一条结算规则。长期来看,他认为把专家放到实时市场旁边,是一座“内容金矿”——例如参加过50场 Powell 演讲的人、研究 Trump 的语言学家,或直接面对自己赔率的政治候选人。

完整逐字稿
PMTrader

What's up, man? I'm so excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me on, Thread Guy.

Thread Guy

Dude, I'm excited to have you on, man. I've been following your [__] pretty closely, I think, for the last couple of months. Honestly, man, no glaze: I'm a fan. I'm genuinely a fan. I think you put out some really good stuff.

PMTrader

I appreciate it, man. You look at prediction markets blowing up lately, and there really wasn't a lot of trading content on prediction markets. There was just a ton of content on how great they are. One thing I'll say right now is that if you look at crypto lately, I'm not a huge crypto person myself, but crypto seems like it's been tanking this last month, while my prediction market portfolio is doing pretty well.

Thread Guy

Okay, look, again, I'm a crypto guy, obviously, but I think that the stream and what I want to focus on is that I just like markets. Anywhere where there's asymmetry and people are making money in markets, I want to bring them on. I want to talk about it. I want to cover it.

Can you start by giving us an introduction? Who are you, what do you do, and where did you come from?

PMTrader

Yeah, definitely. I've traded on prediction markets for about a year now. My original background was that I was a CPA for about 5 years, so I was just doing this on the side. I got obsessed with it.

What really drew me to it was that originally, I played a lot of poker. I was also into horse racing and trying to find an advantage with betting on horse races. When I discovered prediction markets around the last election cycle, it drew me in. I was completely obsessed.

Since discovering them a year ago, I'm always on them and researching trades. Just 3 or 4 weeks ago, I actually quit my job. I have moving boxes back here because I just moved to New York. Now I'm going to be doing trading content full-time and diving in.

You've seen the growth in the prediction market space lately. It's going parabolic.

Were you profitable in horse racing?

Thread Guy

I was semi-profitable. It's really hard because in horse racing, the house will take 17% to 20% of every bet that someone places. You can imagine that even though it's peer-to-peer and you're betting against other people, it's so difficult to find an edge.

That's why I think prediction markets, once I discovered them, made me wonder why I would waste time on poker, horse racing, and all these other avenues when you have this platform where there's really no house edge. You're not even betting against a house. It's all peer-to-peer.

It just sucked me in. There are so many edges that you can find on prediction markets that I love them.

Thread Guy

17% to 20% is crazy. That's egregious. That's insulting.

PMTrader

Yeah, 100%. You look at sportsbooks as well and the vig that they'll take on things. The offering that you get on prediction markets is so much more consumer-friendly. If you're trying to be profitable over the long run, there are so many more advantages to be found because it's really not stacked against you.

Okay, set the stage for me a little bit here, and we'll work backwards. You came on and said crypto looks like [?]. I'm all-in on prediction markets, which is probably true of both of these things.

What is your prediction-market yearly P&L since you went all-in on prediction markets about a year ago?

PMTrader

A year ago, I was doing this part-time. I had basically made about $50K on the side doing this on the weekends. I had a super-brutal-schedule job, so I was working 60 to 80 hours a week during filing times.

Since going full-time—and I document all this live—I've been making about $2.5K to $3K a week. I think I'm really going to start ramping up as my portfolio grows and I add more size.

It was a fun side hobby for me originally, and I got some extra income. $50K for me on the side was pretty great on top of my regular job. Now I'm making $3K a week and trying to really scale that up. I think I'll be able to. We'll see.

I have a lot of big, long-term aspirations. You had DOER on, you had Phantom on. These are legendary traders, all with 7-figure P&Ls. That's not me, and I'm open about that. I have a public profile, but I think the appeal is that there are so many new people getting into the space.

I'm going to share and let people follow along with my journey of going from a small P&L to running it up. I'm very confident I'm going to hit $100K this year or within the next couple of months.

Thread Guy

$3K a week is pretty good. You don't have to defend that. That's impressive.

I have an audience of traders. We call them crypto traders—we can call them whatever they want—but they're traders. They're people who are familiar with markets and like to trade. I think every person watching this stream knows what prediction markets are, but very few of them are actually taking risk and opening positions.

For most people, there's this feeling of, "Yes, it's interesting. Yes, I agree. Paulie, Kowi, all these things are worth a ton of money. They're going to be huge. But I have no idea what to trade, where to start, or how to approach these things. I get crypto. I get stocks. I don't get prediction markets."

What do you focus on right now? What are you focused on? What type of markets are you trading?

PMTrader

I'll trade almost any market. If you follow my content lately, it's been heavily focused on mention markets because I think they're great for content. I also think that when you think about edges, there are so many edges to be had.

For newcomers to the space, I'll skip some of the basics of prediction markets, but there are really so many ways to profit. If I were to list some strategies to get people thinking about real-world applications, the number one is what I define as news trading.

Similar to crypto markets, I imagine prediction markets are live 24/7. As new information comes out, someone has to be there to adjust the prices for that new information.

Let's think about a market for whether there will be an earthquake above 7.0 magnitude. As soon as a magnitude-7.0 earthquake happens—apologies to anyone impacted by an earthquake—whoever is first to buy all those yes shares on that market and react to the new information is going to profit massively at very low risk.

That's one application of news trading. You can also think about yesterday, for anyone who follows the elections. Vote totals are coming out in batches, so you'll have the first round of votes, but there's still a lot of uncertainty. Maybe 20% is reported. What's going to happen?

Thread Guy

A minute later, if 30% is reported and you can see where things swung, if you're the first to react to that new information, you can profit in a somewhat risk-free manner. The liquidity is getting deep enough that maybe a year ago this was something where you could make a few thousand dollars, but Domer and Phantom are making 7 figures.

How much has the game changed since you started actually taking positions a year ago?

PMTrader

I'd say the biggest thing is that liquidity is getting so much deeper. You would think deeper liquidity would mean sharper market participants, but I think it's almost easier to find edges now than it was even a year ago.

With all the newcomers, there are still a lot of edges. With deeper liquidity on these markets, the amounts you can make are also larger. With mention markets, doing all these mention streams, we're seeing them do $1.5 million in volume on a Powell speech in a given day.

I guess you would think it would get more difficult as liquidity and volumes have increased, but I've seen the opposite. There are still so many edges to be found.

The other thing that's changing is that new market offerings are expanding at a crazy rate. I play mention markets, right? These used to just be Trump and Powell speeches. Now you have mention markets for an NFL announcer and all kinds of different events.

You look at culture markets and Taylor Swift. These are things that a year ago would do $10,000 in volume. Now they're doing millions. The Taylor Swift album release did tens of millions in volume. I think the big things are new market offerings and deeper liquidity, which is beneficial to all traders.

Thread Guy

I know you love that NFL announcer mention market.

I want to ask about the mention market stuff because it's entertaining. I watch your content on the mention markets. I think it's entertaining. I tune into the stream sometimes, and I watch your clips. I'm aware of you because of the things you're posting.

Do you actually think these mention markets can be profitable long-term, or is it just full RNG? You're definitely persuading people to trade these things. Are there people who are consistently hitting, and do you think that can continue to exist?

PMTrader

I think 100% that you can be profitable long-term with mention markets. Personally, I'd say mentions are one of the top markets in terms of being profitable and finding edges because the liquidity isn't necessarily as deep. You might not be making $1 million like Domer does on his political markets, but the edges you can have are significant.

There's another person—I think esoteric catboy is his Twitter name, which is a funny name—who just started a month ago. With all the craze around mention markets, he turned $1K into $30K.

Thread Guy

Maybe he's on a hot streak. I don't think so. I think he's just a sharp player because he talks about a lot of his trades. And I'll say personally, I've made $60K. A lot of that's come from mentions, but I have a lot of chats I'm in talking with other mention-market sharps, and some of these people have documented $300K-plus P&Ls in the last year, primarily on mention markets.

PMTrader

This is over a long period of time.

Thread Guy

Okay. Okay, so one thing I think is really interesting, tailing off the mention-market stuff, is that obviously real-world events affect odds on prediction markets. Something happens in the real world, and the odds move. The flip side of that is prediction-market odds potentially influencing real-world outcomes, which is kind of dystopian and [__], but real and probably going to happen.

An example that maybe sets the foundation for it was the Brian Armstrong Coinbase earnings call the other day, where he's on the most important call on his calendar and he's staring at prediction-market odds on what he's going to say. In my head, it probably was pretty harmless: someone said it in his company Slack, he looked at it, laughed, chuckled a little bit, and then said the words. But you could extrapolate this into much more significant real-world outcomes. What did you think about the Brian Armstrong market, and did you make or lose money?

PMTrader

The Brian Armstrong one was crazy, and I actually played almost all the earnings calls that day. I had all my picks the morning of. You can go back to that one—I was so lucky to say, “I'm not going to play Coinbase earnings,” because I didn't feel like I had an edge. It's very company-specific, so I got lucky not to play it there. I probably would have gotten killed. I play a lot of “no” shares on words, but that was crazy.

People in the mention-market space have been talking about this for a long time, knowing that this was somewhat inevitable and might happen sometime. But none of us thought this was going to happen on an earnings call. Of all things. And on Coinbase, where they're getting involved in the prediction-market space, you would think they'd want to not get involved in markets. So I think it was very surprising that it came on an earnings call.

Thread Guy

A lot of people were thinking it could happen on South Park when they did that big episode.

PMTrader

That would have been a good one for it.

Thread Guy

Yes.

PMTrader

Yeah. But obviously, it's not a great thing when stuff like this happens. People have talked about this with elections, too. If you look at the election odds, is that going to encourage people? But if we look at the New York City mayoral race, mom Donnie was a heavy favorite now, but back in the primaries, he was a heavy underdog and still pulled ahead.

There are so many instances of 1% underdogs coming back and winning on these platforms that maybe there is a little bit where it's going to self-confirm—confirmation bias with the markets. But there are enough counterpoints that I don't think it'll become a big issue.

Thread Guy

Okay. So, actually, I'll ask you this one first. Do you think that Brian Armstrong going on the earnings call and rattling off every name on the benchmark market illegitimizes prediction markets and makes them look like a joke, or do you think it further solidifies their impact on culture?

PMTrader

I don't want to give you a non-answer and say a mix of both. What I'll say about it is that it's a very viral moment. It's going to be documented in mention-market lore for a long time, and I'm sure those clips are going to bring in a ton of new users.

I think there is a negative aspect to that, for sure, which is that all the people who have been talking about this for the longest time and saying mention markets are dumb—this is their perfect quote-tweet moment. So I think Atlanta is probably not great for mention markets in the long run, but I think it's something that'll just blow over. There is no reality in which he actually did this with negative intent. I think it'll blow over.

Thread Guy

I love how you call it the mention-market space. That's awesome. I think that's awesome. It's like its own developing niche.

PMTrader

Yeah. I have a Discord that I'm in called the Mentions Cave. It's about 8 mention traders, all with $100K-plus P&Ls. We're all talking about it. I'm lucky they let me in there because they're way sharper than me. But going back to your point on whether you can actually profit in the long run, I have absolutely no doubt, knowing these people.

Thread Guy

I love that. Okay, so obviously you're not going to burn your edges and whatnot, but I'm curious: when I asked you about Coinbase and Brian Armstrong, you said the only market you didn't play was Coinbase earnings because you didn't feel like you had an edge. Why do you feel like you have an edge in the mention markets that you do play?

PMTrader

Yeah, that's a great question. I did write an article on profiting on mentions for anyone who's curious. I would define edges in mention markets as really relating to two things.

First, you need to do your research with transcripts. For every mention market I'm playing, maybe I'll post a [__] post pretending like I'm just taking a word for some reason, but in reality I'm looking at historical transcripts for every earnings call going back to 2020. For the NFL announcer markets, I'm looking at 100-plus previous NFL games. The word frequencies really—

Thread Guy

You're reading transcripts from hundreds of old NFL games?

PMTrader

Yeah. And it's not easy to get that data because they don't publish it. But you can think about how to find edges. One part is looking at historical frequencies of words, and a lot of people are finding this out. It's obvious, right?

Then there's the second part, which is vibes. Going back to real-world news impacting things, if Trump's going to give a speech on Monday and something happens in the Middle East, the odds of him saying “Middle East” might have been 50% in previous speeches. Now you've got to price that higher, at 75% or 80%. So it's a mix of the quantitative side—looking at historical word frequencies—and vibes, just adjusting to news and new information.

Thread Guy

Whoa. So you are reading that. Let me ask you this: are you looking only at Joe Buck transcripts? I don't know who plays tomorrow, but the Rams and Eagles play tomorrow, and Joe Buck is announcing.

PMTrader

That's a good point. How detailed do you want to go? There are a lot of levels you can use. Personally, for the NFL markets, I'm not looking specifically at announcers. I'm looking at whether it's a Monday Night Football game or a Thursday Night Football game. We're starting to, but these NFL announcer markets have only been around for a few weeks.

Going back to why I love prediction markets: they launch an NFL announcer market, and something like this has never existed before, so nobody knows what the true probabilities are for these words. Whoever is clever enough to build out their own probability for all these words is going to profit massively. Give it more time, and these markets become more efficient naturally because you're getting more data and people are researching them more.

With the NFL announcer markets, I'm always on “inch.” No, yes, it's a little bit of a meme, but I think it's a profitable trade long term.

Thread Guy

Are you profitable on “inch”? No, because I feel like that's a brutal one.

PMTrader

I think I'm about even on “inch, no,” and it's because I got lucky that I wasn't able to play it every time. I feel like I'm maybe down or even, but I'm probably not up.

Thread Guy

That's a great meme. What are the odds on “no,” generally?

PMTrader

The first time they launched the market, you could buy “inch” and “no” at about 20 cents, which was a steal. Now it's closer to 35, almost 40 cents, since I put about a grand on it every time they have a game.

Thread Guy

“Inches” doesn't count. It's a different word, right?

PMTrader

“Inches” counts. Plurals count.

Thread Guy

Dude, I feel like that's a brutal one. Fourth and inches, third and inches—every time, you're getting cooked on that.

PMTrader

That's the best part. When we're talking about edges, you want to have these markets where the crowd is immediately going to say, “Oh my gosh, just looking at this, I think ‘inch’ is going to be said.”

A great example of this is a Spotify market: who's the top Spotify artist this year? Gayton Dugas, another big trader, talks a lot about this. Naturally, when people think of the top Spotify artist, everyone's going to think Taylor Swift, right?

Thread Guy

But if you dig a little deeper, it's probably going to be Bad Bunny.

PMTrader

The odds kind of reflect that now, but they didn't for a while. Markets like that, where your first reaction is, “It’s got to be this person,” but if you dig a little deeper, that’s another place you can find a lot of edges.

Thread Guy

Ry Fuzzy’s in the chat. He says, “Mandela effect: Thread Guy thinks fourth-and-inches always happens, but it never happens.” Interesting.

PMTrader

Yeah, interesting. Look—

Thread Guy

Fourth-and-1, fourth-and-a-couple, fourth-and-less-than-a-yard. They get you there. Let me ask you this: is this a Domer thing? How much of your trading is technical? In sports and poker, everyone has the solvers and the GTO strategy. Everyone’s using the solvers, and it comes down to a math equation. A lot of people basically put it into math.

How much of what you’re doing in prediction-market trading is technical? You have the data, you have the tech, and you’re just listening to the models versus going off your own research and mental thought process?

PMTrader

Yeah, I would say for me, I’m probably less data-heavy. I would call myself what people use in the sports-betting world—and they also use it in prediction markets—as a “bottoms-up” person. Those are people who are very technical and build their own models. Probably Domer is in that category. He could answer better, but Gayen, people like that.

Thread Guy

And then there are top-down people who are—

PMTrader

I would define myself as top-down. I don’t tend to be super deep in the data, but I’m looking at how other markets are priced in relation to one another. Something to think about there is, for example, last year, if you were looking at “Will Biden drop out?” and “Will Biden be the Democratic nominee?” Those should be priced roughly the same, right? Because if Biden hadn’t dropped out of the race, then he obviously— you know what I mean?

That’s where I’m probably more top-down and less analytical. But on mentions, I will get deep into the data. The transcript thing is awesome. I love that.

Thread Guy

That is awesome. Okay, you answered my DM in 30 seconds, and I was like, “Oh, this kid’s a freak.” You answered my DM in literally 30 seconds both times, which is really impressive. I’m pretty bad at that, so I know you’re on top of it.

Let me ask you this as a setup: how many open markets—or I don’t know, how many markets a week—do you think you’re trading? Probably not that many.

PMTrader

I would say maybe—this is going to sound really low—but maybe 10 to 15. Obviously, it depends a little bit. We had the New York City election yesterday and the New Jersey election, so I was in on every race, all these different markets. I was streaming the whole thing live with a really solid political analyst. He made $20K live on the stream on all those trades.

I’m probably in fewer markets, but I’m usually playing almost every mentions market if it has decent liquidity. I’m trying to branch out more into different markets. Culture is a big one, and politics is another, but it’s risky, right? You want to trade in markets where you have an edge.

For everyone watching who wants to get into prediction markets, think about a niche that you’re really interested in where you might have unique information, so you could price these markets better than the general public. Crypto markets are a great example. I assume a lot of your audience is into crypto, so maybe there’s an angle to come in on crypto markets and use some of your knowledge there.

Thread Guy

So, you’re trading 10 to 15% of markets, which is—no, it doesn’t sound low. That’s a lot.

PMTrader

10 to 15 markets in a week, I guess. Not—

Thread Guy

Okay, okay. I thought you meant 10 to 15%. Still, I don’t think that’s low. Maybe lower than I thought, but not that low.

What does your day-to-day news flow and time spent look like? How much time are you spending researching markets, and what are you doing?

PMTrader

Right now, honestly, probably 70% to 75% of my time is all content, trying to create content all day. Before, if I was doing this full-time trading, my day-to-day would look way different. Now I’m spending a ton of time clipping and editing, and I’m new to all this stuff.

I don’t have a content background. I was just an accountant. I’m on Twitter and doing all this stuff, and I don’t know what’s going on.

In a given day, I’m staying on top of mentions markets. In terms of news, White House reporters are a big thing. I have all their notifications on to stay on top of Caroline Leit speeches. You want to think about what’s going to impact the markets. I’m following any Truth Social posts from Trump, obviously. I have a few specific X accounts that I follow, too.

Going back to news trading, it’s about getting good information flow. Twitter is really great for having a few accounts that you set up notifications for—things that can impact markets. There are all these markets on whether there will be a tariff on a given day, whether there will be a ceasefire, or whatever. Trump is frequently going to post on Truth Social, and that’s going to impact tariff markets and all these things.

Going back to being the first to react, if you set up good information flow and have good notifications, you—

Thread Guy

Honestly, it’s cool to hear. You’re crushing it with the content, by the way. When did you start?

PMTrader

I’ve actually been making content for about a year, but again, I was working full-time. When I say “making content,” I would record a 10-minute video and be like, “Screw this. I’m not going to edit this at all.” I would just upload it.

But maybe 5 or 6 weeks ago, I really started going full-time content.

Thread Guy

Damn. GG, bro. Five or 6 weeks? That’s insane. GG.

Do you feel like, as this scene gets more competitive, more liquidity flows in, and there are more traders, your edge gets eroded and it’s going to be harder for you to make money?

PMTrader

I think that’s a good point. If I had to give a simple answer, I’d say yes. Naturally, these markets are going to get sharper. But there are now thousands of markets, so it’s never going to be the case that every single market has $100 million in liquidity or volume.

There are always going to be smaller markets on the edges that are naturally inefficient. As they’re making new markets on all these platforms, going back to the announcer market, they drop a new market that doesn’t have any historical data. That’s an opportunity where, if you’re quick and smart about how you price it yourself, there’s always going to be opportunity.

I’m confident that for the next 3 years, even as these things go parabolic, there are going to be tons of edges. You just have to be willing to adapt and change your strategy. I’ve gone through so many different trading strategies that I primarily focus on now. I’m actually doing analysis on what words will be said. Before, I was all arbitrage for about 8 months, trading 2 different markets that were correlated.

As long as you’re willing to adapt, you’ll always have edges.

Thread Guy

Yeah, that’s the thing. I think the same thing happened in crypto, too. More people come in, so it gets more competitive. But as more people come in and it gets more competitive, more verticals open, so there are more things that the sharps aren’t paying attention to. There are more inefficiencies in the market because there are more people and more money.

PMTrader

Yeah, 100%. You’re seeing volumes go parabolic, right? But I just think there are always going to be these inefficiencies. They’re always going to be rolling out new types of markets, and if you continue to adapt, you’ll always be able to profit on these platforms.

Thread Guy

Tell me about your Taylor Swift trade and stream.

PMTrader

That [__] was amazing.

Thread Guy

That was one of my favorite all-time streams. I brought on, for those who aren’t familiar, a Swiftie megafan. In reality, this was someone I knew in real life who had never been on a prediction market, but follows music religiously and could tell you exactly how the Billboard Hot 100 does its rankings.

He’s also a huge fan of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. He’s at a concert every weekend. People are always talking about whether you can really profit over the long run on prediction markets or how hard it is to find edges. I thought, “Let me bring on a megafan of Taylor Swift who’s never traded on these platforms. I’m just going to walk through all the Taylor Swift markets, hear what he has to say, and see how it performs.”

PMTrader

I was confident going into this that he would have an edge over the general market. I marketed it as just a Swiftie fan, and we went, I want to say, 10 for 12. I think I made $3,000 just tailing everything he gave for Taylor Swift.

Thread Guy

What was he wrong on?

PMTrader

He was wrong on the long shots for what words Taylor Swift would say in her song. “Lover” was one. We took it at around 5-to-1. The only things he lost on were two longer shots, but he also hit on a ton of things that were priced at around 20%. So, he hit on a bunch of long shots, too.

Thread Guy

That stream was a [__] movie. I didn’t watch too much other than seeing that you were doing it and seeing what the setup was and who it was. Did you give him some money for hitting?

PMTrader

Yes. I posted this—I gave him $500. He said he’s now going to start trading, but I haven’t heard any update. Hopefully, he does.

But last night’s stream, too, I loved being in person and meeting other people.

Thread Guy

That was sick, too, by the way. Who was there?

PMTrader

It was me, and Ben was my co-host. He’s a big political trader. Phantom Bets also came in, who you know, and he hit 50K shares live—$25,000—literally right in front of us.

So here I was, going back to why I’m defensive about $60K profit. I’m surrounded by these big traders. That was electric, and it’s one of the main reasons I’m so excited to be in New York: the opportunity to do things in person.

I have my room and my moving boxes behind me, but I’m going to build out some semblance of a studio. Hopefully, I’ll have a couch there and be able to have in-person guests come.

And you think about prediction-market content, right? It’s like the verticals you can go under. I’ve started with prediction-market streams, which are kind of fun and viral-content-oriented, but long term, there are so many verticals to expand into.

You think about these political races. Someone should be interviewing a candidate or something like that, with how big prediction markets are going to get. All the different types of markets—culture and all these things—it’s a content gold mine. That’s what I’m trying to go fully into.

Thread Guy

You’re going to blow up huge, if you haven’t already. I’m a fan.

So, tell me this as sort of a wrap-up: what do you tell people who are interested in prediction markets, whether they’re experienced traders or not? Where do you start? How do you get the lay of the land, and how do you start to think about how you could develop an edge?

PMTrader

The first thing I would say to anyone starting is: start small, or even just watch the markets. When you trade on prediction markets, there’s going to be new stuff for a lot of people, like an order book. Some people might not know how to interact with an order book, especially if they’re coming from a sports background.

Starting small means that if you make mistakes interacting with features like that, you’re not going to lose your whole bankroll.

Number 2, I would say, is pick a niche. Ideally, make it something that you really enjoy. If you love music, focus on culture markets. If you love politics, focus on political markets. If you follow your local politics, you can follow a mayoral race or something like that. That’s going to be a smaller market, maybe less efficient.

Picking a niche and starting small are the 2 big things. Then there’s the mindset. Going back to thinking in inches, whenever you’re entering a trade, my advice would be to think about why you’re entering the trade and why you think it’s mispriced. Ideally, assign your own fair value.

Then also think about why it’s mispriced. Go the extra step and ask: what is the general public thinking that’s causing this to be at 50% when I think it should be 70%? Just go a level deeper. Don’t oversimplify, and always think in multiple steps.

If something seems too good to be true or too easy on these platforms, it probably is. There’s probably a reason it’s priced where it is. Always read the contracts and the resolution rules to make sure you fully understand all the potential outcomes.

Thread Guy

Have you ever traded crypto?

PMTrader

Oh my gosh. I was in crypto back in 2017, when I was about to go into college. I was 18 and working at a grocery store in the summer, so I had a little bit of money. That was during the ICO craze.

I bought Bitcoin, then I started trading some of the ICOs. I basically rounded the few grand that I had that summer. But my brother, who got into it with me, stuck with it, and he’s 100X’d what he started with. He got into some crazy stuff.

I actually want to get into crypto long term. I feel like it would be funny, because you have all these crypto people going into prediction markets, and me being a Web2, non-crypto guy, it would be funny to transition into asking, “Can I make money trading crypto?”

Thread Guy

We could do some fun crossover content. You’d be a demon with a [__] Phantom wallet and a Salana address.

Phantom’s in the chat telling me to ask you about the EA earnings call.

PMTrader

The EA earnings call was a super fun one. I made a post the other day about “bonds” on prediction markets, which is a term you’ll hear in the prediction-market space a lot.

The thesis is that everybody wants long shots. They want 100X. So, at a high level, things trading at 85 or 90 cents on prediction markets are frequently going to be mispriced. I’m not saying to just buy anything at 90%. Obviously, you need to do your research.

With the EA earnings call, TL;DR, EA announced that they were getting acquired and being taken private. Because of that, there would be no earnings call, and there was a mention market for what EA would say on its earnings call.

Going back to bonds, I bought about $7,000 of all these words not being mentioned on the earnings call, because the earnings call wasn’t happening. It’s crazy, the things that will happen on prediction markets.

Thread Guy

How much did you make?

PMTrader

I made around $2,000 on that, virtually risk-free.

Thread Guy

Yeah, I mean, there was a small risk that the deal could somewhat fall through—maybe 5%—but I’m getting 30% on every dollar.

That’s a sick trade.

PMTrader

Going back to whether you can find edges, think about how crazy that opportunity was. What’s insane is that I covered it on stream. Someone on stream brought it up and told me to research it. This was over a month ago.

Even after showing people on stream, for the next 2 or 3 weeks I was still able to load up on my position. Somehow, people still weren’t loading up on it. It’s bizarre.

Thread Guy

That’s a fucking sick trade. I love that trade.

PMTrader

Opportunities like that, I’m not joking, are everywhere. You just need to look and research.

With the Taylor Swift album release, there were a ton of posts about this from top traders who had close to $1 million. I think Domer had a huge position.

Thread Guy

He was talking about it. He said 50% of his portfolio was in Taylor Swift.

PMTrader

Yeah, and I had a good amount on that, too. To my understanding, that event was pretty much already 100% determined, and you could still get a free 5% or 10% on your money because people were either misunderstanding it or there was confusion about how the markets were dated.

My general point is that the opportunities you can find are incredible. And on the point about Domer, he had, we were saying, $1 million down on something like that. So there was liquidity. It’s bizarre.

Thread Guy

That is a fucking sick trade, dude. Nice trade on that.

So, what’s next for you? What’s your plan?

PMTrader

I’m building out this studio here. The goal is to have a lot of in-person guests coming on to be interviewed. They could be top traders, but honestly, I want to have experts on.

Going back to how many markets there are on prediction markets—thousands—I feel like there are so many niche experts I could find who would be easy to bring on. Maybe they don’t have a big following or anything, but they’re complete experts in that market.

You can think about a Powell speech. Could I bring on somebody who has attended 50 of these Powell speeches and asked him questions in the past, and get his take on what’s happening? Could I bring on a linguist who studies Trump and his mannerisms to talk about what Trump will say?

There are so many angles. I want to bring on niche experts. Long term, it would obviously be great to have a political candidate on in a race and ask them, “Here’s where your odds are. What do you say about that?”

Thread Guy

I’m a fan. I think that’s a sick plan.

Do you have a sign-off? Anything you want to show? Anything you think people should do or look at? Drop your YouTube link, your Twitter, like—

PMTrader

Yeah. Follow me on Twitter. I'm doing a road to 100K, documenting all my trades, all my positions, and profits publicly. If you're a new user on prediction markets, I think it's a great thing to follow because I'm only at 60K, but we're going to run it up. I'm fully confident in that.

I'm expanding to YouTube and all that other stuff, but I'm already trying to clip things for Twitter. I'm like, “Oh my gosh.” But I'm going to get the vertical clips going on Shorts and TikTok soon. Don't worry.

Thread Guy

I have faith, bro. Trust me, I see the vision, dude. I think you're sick, man. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks for coming on. When you hit 100K or whatever, come back. We'll rip a part two. And I'm looking forward to following, bro.

PMTrader

All right, let's do it. Thank you so much for having me on.

Thread Guy

Of course, brother. Have a good one.