A bot on Polymarket quietly extracted $32k in near risk-free profits by sniping “Will Company XYZ Beat Earnings?” markets. It waits for the official release, then instantly buys the winning side. Many limit orders from retail traders remain uncancelled, creating a post-announcement arbitrage window.
Two developers decided to challenge it. Here’s what they learned while trying to build a faster version.
Infrastructure Choices
- Location: Polymarket’s CLOB runs in AWS eu-west-2 (London). They deployed from Ireland (eu-west-1, Dublin) — the closest realistic option without IP tricks. UK IPs are blocked.
- Language: Rust for type safety and speed. The author notes you can achieve competitive latency in Python if you strip unnecessary network calls.
- Key Warning: Avoid the official Polymarket SDKs for ultra-low latency. They include helpful but slow pre-trade checks. Build lean custom clients.
The Data Feed Challenge (The Real Bottleneck)
The critical edge is getting earnings announcements faster than competitors.
| Source | Performance | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Scraping Newswires | Too slow | Failed |
| Benzinga Low-Latency | Slower than manual clicking | Failed |
| Paid ultrafast feed | ~500ms after release | Still too slow |
| EDGAR | Consistently slower than newswires | Backup only |
Even at 500ms, the order book was already swept by faster bots. The top players are likely using extremely expensive dedicated feeds or custom setups.
Technical Lessons Learned
Network > Code
Most latency lives in the network round-trip, not in language choice. Optimize transport first.Custom Execution Layer
Skip heavy SDK abstractions. Direct signed orders with minimal validation.-
Post-Event Sniping Logic
- Monitor newswire feeds aggressively
- Parse EPS vs. estimate instantly
- Place aggressive limit/market orders on the winning side
- Handle cases with ambiguity (multiple interpretations of “beat”)
Reality Check
They made some wins during EPS ambiguity or when faster bots hit size limits, but never won on pure speed against the leader.
Why This Edge Persists
- Retail traders leave limit orders uncancelled
- Earnings releases create predictable, high-conviction moments
- Information asymmetry in feed speed remains huge
- Many markets have thin enough books for quick sweeps
Recommendations for Your Own Low-Latency Bot
- Start with Rust or highly optimized Python (async + careful HTTP client)
- Prioritize colocation / low-latency VPS near AWS London
- Invest heavily in the fastest possible data feed (budget accordingly)
- Add safety layers: rate limiting, position caps, circuit breakers
- Backtest with realistic latency simulation and partial fills
This project was eventually mothballed, but the experiment highlights how prediction market edges often come down to infrastructure and data velocity rather than complex prediction models.
Low-latency sniping on event-resolution markets is still viable — but the bar is extremely high.
If you have more questions, please feel free to contact me at any time: https://t.me/FatherSon97
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