Market Making#035

Scalping Narrow Spreads

Repeatedly capture tiny profits off the gap between bid and ask in high-volume markets, getting in and out constantly. There's almost no edge per trade; the money comes from doing it thousands of times with very low fees and fast execution, so volume and cost efficiency, not any single call, drive the profit.

What you need to run it

Extremely low effective transaction cost (gas/fees)
Execution engine that can submit/cancel orders rapidly
Daily PnL attribution to confirm the edge is real after costs

Where this applies

Markets on Polymarket where scalping narrow spreads is the natural play:

Will Bitcoin be up at the 4pm ET close today? (high-volume recurring market)
Will the [favorite] win tonight's NBA game? (deep liquidity each night)
Will Ethereum close above [threshold] this week? (active weekly market)

Capabilities this demands

Low latencyCustom code / APISignificant capital

At a glance

CategoryMarket Making

Requirements3

CapabilitiesLow latency, Custom code / API, Significant capital

VenuePolymarket (CLOB, Polygon)

Build it

Related market making strategies

This is documentation, not advice. Poly Research & Robotics publishes how these strategies work because the method should be checkable — not as a recommendation to trade them. See the full strategy database (147 strategies) or the data resources directory.