live/: operationalizes the LBS/Yale "skilled ~3%" result against the live data-api. Enumerate recent liquid markets -> top traders -> candidate pool; cache every wallet's resolved bets once in DuckDB (~26k wallets / 12.5M bets, keyed by per-bet resolution time so any cutoff re-scores in seconds); 5-gate skill funnel (n>=15, z>0, BH-FDR, split-half OOS, MM/bot cap); dashboard + daily refresh. Key finding: copying the high-win-rate "favorite-rider" cohort looks +23.6% in-sample but loses -7.4% once selected on pre-June-1 data only (99% -> 68% win rate) — selection bias, reproducing the paper's "lucky winners revert" result on live data. Win rate != edge, again. wide/: bulk subgraph->DuckDB scanner (survivorship-bias-free over all wallets), but the public subgraph is frozen at Jan 2026 -> historical tool only. Large local data (*.duckdb, candidates.json, *_scored.json, history/) gitignored. README + FINDINGS updated with the current logic and the clean result. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
live/ — find & track the genuinely-skilled ~3%
Finds the small fraction of Polymarket wallets with a real, repeatable edge —
the ~3% the LBS/Yale study
identifies — from the live data-api, caches everything locally, and tracks
them forward. This is the going-forward system; the frozen-subgraph bulk approach
lives in ../wide/.
Why this and not win rate
Win rate is survivorship-biased and decoupled from edge (see ../FINDINGS.md).
A wallet is "skilled" only if it beats the prices it paid and that edge
persists out-of-sample. We reproduced the research's own finding on live
June data: favorite-rider wallets that looked +23.6% in-sample lost −7.4%
once selected without look-ahead (see "The clean test" below).
The 5-gate funnel (skill.py)
A wallet counts as skilled only if it clears all five:
- n ≥ 15 resolved bets (assessability; the paper's skilled avg ~79).
- z = (wins − Σp)/√Σp(1−p) clearly > 0 — wins above what entry odds implied. This is the closed form of the paper's "randomize direction 10k×" benchmark.
- Benjamini–Hochberg FDR @ 5% — at scale, thousands clear z>3 by chance.
- Split-half out-of-sample — skill in the earlier half persists in the
recent half (
z_oos > 0). The gate that separates the real 3% from the lucky. - MM/bot cap (
n ≤ 2500) — a thousands-of-bets grinder isn't info-edge.
Win rate is never a gate — only displayed. Wallets are tagged value (beats
underdog/longshot prices — the copyable alpha), balanced, or favorite
(high win% riding near-certain favorites — real but thin/uncopyable).
Pipeline
| step | script | what |
|---|---|---|
| enumerate | enumerate.py [days] |
recent liquid markets (Gamma end_date_min) → top traders → candidate pool (candidates.json), accumulates across runs |
| cache | cache.py / collect.py |
pull each wallet's resolved bets once into cache.duckdb (24s → 0.003s on re-read). Stores res_t per bet, so any date cutoff reads the same cache |
| score | skill.py [N] |
the 5-gate funnel over cached candidates → watch_skilled.json (webhook-compatible) |
| dashboard | dashboard.py |
self-contained dashboard.html — sortable, archetype-tagged, live recent-trade lookup |
| backtest | backtest_june.py [arch] |
copy an archetype's June-1+ entries, $1000, no lag → P&L |
| clean test | clean_test.sh |
the honest test: re-select on pre-June-1 data only, then backtest June-1+ forward |
The cache is the point
cache.duckdb holds ~26k wallets / 12.5M+ bets, pulled once. Every score —
any archetype, any cutoff, the clean OOS test — now runs in seconds instead
of hours of API pulls. MAX_AGE_DAYS=14: the broad pool refreshes biweekly; the
watchlist is force-refreshed daily (cache.invalidate) for forward tracking.
The clean test (why the favorites are a mirage)
clean_test.sh selects favorites using only bets resolved before June 1,
then copies their June-1+ entries:
- In-sample (contaminated): 21 favorites, 99% win rate, +23.6%.
- Clean (pre-June-1 selection): 15 favorites, 68% win rate, −7.4% (−19% on the settled portion).
The +23.6% was selection bias. This matches the paper: ~60% of "lucky winners"
turn into losers out-of-sample. Don't copy favorite-riders. The value
archetype (beats underdog prices) is where real alpha may live — test it with
backtest_june.py value.
Daily (daily.sh)
- discover (enumerate last 14d) → 2. freshen cache (force-refresh watchlist + top up new wallets) → 3. re-score (instant from cache) → 4. regenerate dashboard
- snapshot to
history/. Schedule via launchd/cron (Mac must be awake).
Usage
pip install duckdb
python3 enumerate.py 180 # build candidate pool (last 6 months)
python3 collect.py # cache all candidates (one-time, slow; resumable)
python3 skill.py # -> watch_skilled.json (seconds, from cache)
python3 dashboard.py # -> dashboard.html
./clean_test.sh # the out-of-sample verdict
Local data (*.duckdb, candidates.json, *_scored.json, history/) is
gitignored — regenerate via the steps above.