How to Use Stop-Loss and Take-Profit Orders on Polymarket

Overview

On a spot market, a position that moves against you loses value gradually and you can usually still sell. On a prediction market it does not work that way. When the event resolves, the losing outcome is worth exactly $0, and there is nobody to sell to at any price. That makes exits more consequential here than almost anywhere else, and it also means exits have a hard limit worth understanding before you rely on them: a stop protects you against price movement, not against being wrong. Polymarket’s native API has none of these order types. This guide covers all four exit mechanisms Bravado adds, and where each one stops helping.

Read time: about 14 minutes. Assumes you have placed an order. See Place an order if not.

TL;DR

STOP_LOSS returns a record_id and lives on /v2/trade/strategies until it triggers, then becomes a CLOB order.
TAKE_PROFIT returns an order_id and rests on the book immediately, earning the spread while it waits.
TRAILING_STOP follows the high-water mark. trailing_offset is a decimal probability; trailing_offset_pct is a percent. Mixing them up is rejected.
Brackets are best-effort. A 200 does not mean both legs were placed. Check brackets.*.error.
An exit cannot sell more shares than you hold.
No exit protects against resolution. Review open exits as an event approaches.

What you will do

Place each of the three standalone exit types
Understand why stop-loss and take-profit behave differently
Attach both exits to an entry with a bracket, and detect when a leg fails
Size an exit correctly against your actual holding
Recognise where exits stop protecting you

What you will need

Knowledge

An open position, or at least an understanding of how one is created

Tools and access

A Bravado API key with trade.execute and trade.cancel

export BRAVADO_API_KEY="your-bearer-token"
export BASE="https://bravado-api-k7kaq.ondigitalocean.app"

The four mechanisms

Type	Fires when	Returns	Rests on the book?
`STOP_LOSS`	Price falls to your level	`record_id`	Not until triggered
`TAKE_PROFIT`	Price rises to your target	`order_id`	Immediately
`TRAILING_STOP`	Price reverses from its peak	`record_id`	Not until triggered
Bracket	Attached to an entry, both legs	With the entry	Both, once entry fills

Why stop-loss and take-profit differ

This looks like an inconsistency and is not. A take-profit is a sell above the current price. That can rest on the book straight away, because nobody will cross it until the market gets there. So it does, and it provides liquidity while it waits. A stop-loss is a sell below the current price. If it rested on the book it would fill immediately, which is the exact opposite of a stop. So Bravado holds it off-book, watches the price, and places a real order only when the trigger hits. Hence one returns an order_id and the other a record_id, and they appear on different endpoints until the stop fires.

Stop-loss

curl -X POST $BASE/v2/trade/order \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRAVADO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d '{
    "type": "STOP_LOSS",
    "symbol": "71321045679252212594626385532706912750332728571942532289631379312455583992646",
    "side": "SELL",
    "size": "500",
    "price": "0.40"
  }'

{ "record_id": "rec_stop_abc123", "status": "ACTIVE", "type": "STOP_LOSS" }

Before it triggers: GET /v2/trade/strategies only. After: GET /v2/trade/orders/open with is_stop_loss: true.

A stop-loss can only be cancelled pre-trigger. Once it fires the strategy completes and you are cancelling the resulting order instead, with DELETE /v2/trade/orders/{order_id}. A client that only knows how to cancel strategies will fail here.

Take-profit

curl -X POST $BASE/v2/trade/order \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRAVADO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d '{
    "type": "TAKE_PROFIT",
    "symbol": "...",
    "side": "SELL",
    "size": "500",
    "price": "0.85"
  }'

Straight onto the book with an order_id. A small bonus: because it rests passively, you are providing liquidity rather than taking it if it fills.

Trailing stop

Follows the price up, fires when it reverses by your offset:

curl -X POST $BASE/v2/trade/order \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRAVADO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d '{
    "type": "TRAILING_STOP",
    "symbol": "...",
    "side": "SELL",
    "size": "500",
    "execution": {
      "high_water_mark": "0.80",
      "trailing_offset": "0.05"
    }
  }'

If the price runs to 0.90, the stop follows to 0.85. It never moves down.

Two offset fields, pick one

trailing_offset is a decimal probability. "0.05" trails by 5 cents. Sending "5" is rejected for falling outside the valid 0.001 to 0.999 range.If you want a percentage, use trailing_offset_pct, which takes 0 to 100.

Field	Unit	`"5"` means
`trailing_offset`	Decimal probability	5 cents
`trailing_offset_pct`	Percent	5%

Both exist because traders think in both. The failure mode is silent if you get it backwards in the direction that stays in range, so pick one convention and keep to it.

Brackets: both exits at entry

Rather than placing exits after a fill, attach them to the entry:

{
  "type": "LIMIT",
  "symbol": "...",
  "side": "BUY",
  "price": "0.55",
  "size": "200",
  "take_profit": { "price": "0.80", "size": "200" },
  "stop_loss":   { "price": "0.40", "size": "200" }
}

When the entry fills, both legs are submitted automatically. This closes the window where you hold an unprotected position between the fill landing and your exit order arriving, which on a fast-moving market is exactly when you need the protection.

Legs fail independently

Brackets are best-effort. If the entry fills but a leg cannot be placed, the entry is not rolled back. You hold the position with no exit attached, and the HTTP status is still 200.

{
  "order_id": "abc123",
  "status": "filled",
  "warnings": ["take_profit leg could not be placed: insufficient liquidity"],
  "brackets": {
    "take_profit": { "error": "insufficient liquidity" },
    "stop_loss":   { "order_id": "def456" }
  }
}

Always check both:

res = place_order(payload)

for leg in ("take_profit", "stop_loss"):
    err = res.get("brackets", {}).get(leg, {}).get("error")
    if err:
        alert(f"{leg} not placed: {err}")     # position is unprotected

The most common cause is a market minimum: a bracket leg below 5 shares is rejected even though the entry succeeded. If you are entering 4 shares, a bracket cannot protect it.

Size against what you hold

An exit cannot sell shares you do not have:

"Not enough shares to place this sell — holding X…"

Read the position first, and note the unit difference: a market buy is usually expressed in dollars, but an exit is always in shares.

pos = read("/v2/trade/positions")["positions"]
held = next(p for p in pos if p["symbol"] == symbol)

payload = {
    "type": "STOP_LOSS",
    "symbol": symbol,
    "side": "SELL",
    "size": held["size"],      # shares, as a string
    "price": "0.40",
}

Partial exits are fine, and often sensible: half at the target, the rest trailing.

What exits cannot do

This is the part worth internalising. A stop-loss protects against price movement. It does nothing about resolution. If a market resolves against you, the shares are worth $0, and a stop sitting at 0.40 never filled because there was no bid to fill it.

Risk	Stop helps?
Price drifts down over hours	Yes
Price gaps through your stop	Partially, it fills at the next available price
Market resolves against you	No
Liquidity disappears near resolution	No

Review open exits as an event approaches. A stop that has not triggered by resolution is not protection, it is an order that will never fill. See UMA resolution for the settlement lifecycle.

Wrapping up

Four mechanisms, one behavioural split worth remembering: take-profit rests, stop-loss waits. That is why they return different identifiers and appear on different endpoints. Beyond that, two habits. Check brackets.*.error on every bracketed entry, because a 200 does not mean protected. And treat exits as protection against price, not against being wrong, because resolution does not negotiate.

Frequently asked questions

Why does take-profit return an order_id but stop-loss a record_id?

A take-profit is a sell above the market and can rest on the book immediately. A stop-loss is a sell below the market and would fill instantly if it rested, so Bravado holds it and places the order when the trigger hits.

I cannot cancel my stop-loss.

It has probably triggered. Post-trigger it is a CLOB order, so cancel it with DELETE /v2/trade/orders/{order_id}. Look for it on open orders with is_stop_loss: true.

My trailing stop was rejected.

Most likely a unit mix-up. trailing_offset is a decimal probability, so "5" is out of range. Use "0.05" for 5 cents, or switch to trailing_offset_pct for a percentage.

My order returned 200 but there is no stop on my position.

Check brackets.stop_loss.error in the response. Legs fail independently of the entry, and the entry is not rolled back when one does.

Can I have several exits on one position?

Yes. Partial sizes across multiple exits are common, such as taking half at a target and trailing the remainder. Just keep the total at or below your holding.

Will a stop protect me if the market resolves against me?

No. Resolution settles the losing outcome at $0 with no bid to fill against. Exits manage price risk, not outcome risk.

Resources

Place an order, all eight order types
Track order and strategy state, where exits appear
Build a trading bot, automating exits
UMA resolution, why exits stop working at settlement
Order endpoints, reference
Error reference, rejection messages

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How to Use Stop-Loss and Take-Profit Orders on Polymarket

Overview

TL;DR

What you will do

What you will need

The four mechanisms

Why stop-loss and take-profit differ

Stop-loss

Take-profit

Trailing stop

Two offset fields, pick one

Brackets: both exits at entry

Legs fail independently

Size against what you hold

What exits cannot do

Wrapping up

Frequently asked questions

Resources

​Overview

​TL;DR

​What you will do

​What you will need

​The four mechanisms

​Why stop-loss and take-profit differ

​Stop-loss

​Take-profit

​Trailing stop

​Two offset fields, pick one

​Brackets: both exits at entry

​Legs fail independently

​Size against what you hold

​What exits cannot do

​Wrapping up

​Frequently asked questions

​Resources

Overview

TL;DR

What you will do

What you will need

The four mechanisms

Why stop-loss and take-profit differ

Stop-loss

Take-profit

Trailing stop

Two offset fields, pick one

Brackets: both exits at entry

Legs fail independently

Size against what you hold

What exits cannot do

Wrapping up

Frequently asked questions

Resources