Trading responsibly
A section that earns money when readers open accounts owes them the other side of it plainly, not in small print. Event contracts settle at $1 or $0 with nothing in between, a market price is not a prediction you can rely on, and the signs that trading has stopped being a decision are well known. Here they are.
What you are actually risking
An event contract settles at $1 or $0. There is no partial outcome and no recovery: if the event does not happen, the position is worth nothing. A 90¢ contract that settles at zero is a total loss of what you put in, and a 90% price is not a safe one. It means the market expects that outcome to fail roughly one time in ten, which is exactly what “90%” says.
Signs worth taking seriously
- Trading to recover a loss rather than because you disagree with a price.
- Hiding the activity, or the size of it, from people close to you.
- Borrowing to fund a position, or funding one with money you need within the month.
- Chasing many short-horizon markets in a day rather than a few considered ones.
- Feeling that stopping is not really an option.
Limits you can set
Not every venue offers the same tools. Kalshi provides deposit limits, trading breaks and self-exclusion; Polymarket does not currently offer built-in responsible-trading tools, so any limit there is one you set and keep yourself. Where a venue offers a deposit limit, set it before you need one; it is far easier to raise a limit later than to impose one in the moment.
Where to get help
In the US, the National Council on Problem Gambling runs a confidential helpline, 24 hours a day, at 1-800-522-4700, with text and chat options at ncpgambling.org. It is free, and you do not need to have decided anything before calling.
Our position
CoinStats may earn a commission when a reader opens an account through this section. That is why this page exists, why it is linked from every commercial page rather than buried, and why no page here calls a price a prediction, a 90% contract safe, or a signal a forecast. If anything on this site reads otherwise, it is wrong and we would like to know.