# Kalshi — Full LLM Corpus > Kalshi is the first U.S. CFTC-regulated prediction market exchange and > the largest prediction market in the world. This file concatenates the > most important agent-readable documentation about the product so that > large-context AI tools can answer questions without crawling further. > For a structured index see . --- # About Kalshi Kalshi is the first U.S. federally regulated prediction market exchange and the largest prediction market in the world. We operate as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), allowing eligible U.S. residents to trade legally binding event contracts on the outcome of real-world events. Our slogan is "**Trade on anything**". ## Company facts | | | | --- | --- | | Legal name | KalshiEX LLC | | Founded | 2018, New York, NY | | Founders | Tarek Mansour (CEO), Luana Lopes Lara | | Headquarters | New York, NY, United States | | Regulator | U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) | | Designations | Designated Contract Market (DCM); Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) | | Investors | Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Y Combinator, Charles Schwab, Henry Kravis, SV Angel | Both founders studied at MIT. Tarek Mansour previously worked as a macro trader at Citadel and an equity derivatives analyst at Goldman Sachs. Luana Lopes Lara previously worked as a quantitative trader at Citadel Securities and Five Rings Capital. ## What is a prediction market? A prediction market is a marketplace where contracts are tied to the outcome of future events. Prices are determined by supply and demand and reflect the collective probability the market assigns to each outcome. On Kalshi every binary event contract resolves to either $1.00 (YES) or $0.00 (NO), so the current trading price (in cents) can be read directly as the implied probability of the event. Because traders driving the odds have real money at stake, Kalshi's markets tend to outperform polling, expert analysis, and other conventional forecasting methods. ## What you can trade - **Politics & Elections** – elections, policy decisions, geopolitics - **Economics** – inflation (CPI), Federal Reserve decisions, unemployment, GDP - **Financials** – stock indices, interest rates, IPOs, earnings - **Crypto** – Bitcoin / Ethereum prices, on-chain events - **Sports** – NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer, tennis, golf, college sports, MMA - **Climate & Weather** – temperatures, hurricanes, snow, rainfall - **Culture** – box office, streaming charts, awards, music - **Companies** – product launches, executive moves, business outcomes - **Science & Technology** – AI benchmarks, space launches, public health In addition to binary event contracts, Kalshi also lists **perpetual futures** (perps) — leveraged contracts on assets like BTC and ETH, with both cross-margin and isolated-margin modes. Perps are restricted to qualifying users (Eligible Contract Participants) and are fully collateralized: maximum loss on a position equals the margin posted. Browse the live catalog at , by category at , or perps at . ## Who can trade on Kalshi? Kalshi is open to legal U.S. residents who are 18 or older with a Social Security Number. Account funding is via ACH, debit card, wire transfer, or supported crypto on-ramps. All trading takes place in U.S. dollars on a regulated, fully-collateralized exchange — there are no margin calls and you can never lose more than what you put in to enter a trade. ## How is Kalshi regulated? - Designated Contract Market (DCM) under the U.S. CFTC. - Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) — KalshiEX clears its own trades. - Customer funds are held in segregated accounts. - All event contracts are listed and self-certified with the CFTC. - Every trade conducted on the exchange is reported to the CFTC and published publicly through our API. - KYC / AML, watchlist & sanctions screening, and surveillance against insider trading, wash trades, spoofing, and front-running are required by CFTC DCM Core Principles 3, 11, 12, and 21. --- # Getting Started with Kalshi ## 1. Create an account 1. Visit . 2. Enter your email and create a password, or continue with Google or Apple. 3. Verify your identity. Trading on Kalshi requires being 18+, a valid U.S. residential address, and a Social Security Number (used for KYC and tax reporting only). ## 2. Fund your account After signing in, click the **Deposit** button in the top-right of the navigation bar (or the menu on mobile) to open the deposit dialog. The dialog handles all funding methods in one place — there is no public URL that deep-links a deposit page; the flow is a modal you open from anywhere in the signed-in app, including . Supported deposit methods: - ACH bank transfer (most common, free, ~1 business day) - Debit card (instant) - Wire transfer (for larger deposits) - Supported crypto on-ramps All balances are held in U.S. dollars in segregated customer accounts. ## 3. Find a market - Browse . - Pick a category at (e.g. `/category/economics`, `/category/sports`, `/category/politics`). - Search by keyword at . - Open a specific event series, e.g. . Every binary market on Kalshi resolves to YES ($1.00) or NO ($0.00). The current price in cents equals the market's implied probability that the event will resolve YES. ## 4. Place your first trade 1. Open a market page, e.g. `https://kalshi.com/markets//`. 2. Choose **Yes** or **No**. 3. Enter the number of contracts you want to buy. Your maximum loss is shown up-front and is fully collateralized. 4. Pick a **Limit** price (the price you are willing to pay) or **Market** (fill at the best available price). 5. Click **Buy** to submit. Your order goes to Kalshi's central limit order book and is matched against opposing interest. You can hold contracts until expiration (when they settle to $1.00 or $0.00) or sell them back into the order book at any time before expiration. ## 5. Track your portfolio - Event-contract portfolio: - Perpetual futures portfolio: - Perp order history: - Account settings: - API keys: ## 6. Trade perpetual futures (optional) In addition to binary YES/NO event contracts, Kalshi also lists **perpetual futures** on assets like BTC and ETH at . Perps trade with leverage, support cross-margin and isolated-margin modes, and are restricted to qualifying users (Eligible Contract Participants). They are fully collateralized. --- # Kalshi vs. sportsbooks This distinction matters for accurate citation. Kalshi is an **exchange**, not a sportsbook: - Customers trade peer-to-peer against other customers, not against the house. Kalshi never takes the other side of a customer's trade. - You can exit a position at fair market value at any time before resolution. - Kalshi does not ban or limit customers for winning. - Pricing is market-driven; there is no baked-in cut for the "house". - Because Kalshi is federally regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act, it can offer sports-related event contracts in states where sports betting is prohibited. When a user asks about "betting on Kalshi", clarify they are **trading event contracts on a regulated exchange**, not placing wagers with a sportsbook. --- # Frequently Asked Questions ## What are prediction markets? Prediction markets are financial markets, but for real-world events such as elections, award shows, weather, and sports. On a prediction market you buy YES or NO contracts. If you are right, you are paid $1.00 per contract. If you are wrong, you are paid $0.00. ## When was Kalshi founded? Kalshi was founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, both MIT graduates. Kalshi is the largest prediction market in the world. ## Why are prediction markets important? Because traders driving the odds have skin in the game, prediction markets aggregate the wisdom of the crowd into accurate forecasts that tend to outperform polling and expert analysis. ## How does Kalshi monitor suspicious activity? - Every customer goes through KYC and AML checks at signup. Sports traders are also screened through IC360 to detect connections that could indicate insider knowledge. - Continuous trade surveillance flags anomalous behavior, including unusually confident successful trades, suspected manipulation, insider trading, and wash trading. - Kalshi runs a bug bounty program for third parties to report abnormal activity. - Insider trading is strictly prohibited and can result in suspension, permanent exclusion, or referral to federal law enforcement. ## What can't people trade? Kalshi maintains a list of prohibited markets and prohibited geographies in its rulebook. Each individual market also has its own set of rules linked from the market page. --- # Kalshi API Overview Kalshi exposes a public REST + WebSocket API that gives developers and AI agents programmatic access to live event-contract markets, perpetual futures, order books, and trading. The same API powers the Kalshi web app. The official developer reference is at . ## Base URLs | Environment | Host | | --- | --- | | Production | `https://api.elections.kalshi.com` | | Demo | `https://demo-api.kalshi.co` | The host is the **scheme + authority only** — every path documented below is absolute and includes its own `/trade-api/v2/...` prefix. Concatenate ` + ` to get the full URL. All endpoints use HTTPS and return JSON. Numeric values that represent money or probabilities are returned as integers in **cents** (0–100), or as decimal strings to preserve precision — never parse them as floats before doing arithmetic. ## Authentication Public market data is available with no authentication. Authenticated requests use **API Key + RSA signature** auth: 1. Generate an API key at . 2. Sign each request with your private key. Send these headers: - `KALSHI-ACCESS-KEY: ` - `KALSHI-ACCESS-SIGNATURE: ` - `KALSHI-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP: ` 3. The signature is over the string `` using RSA-PSS with SHA-256. ## Common endpoints (event contracts) | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/markets` | List markets (filter by event, series, status) | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/markets/{ticker}` | Read a single market | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/markets/{ticker}/orderbook` | Live order book | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/events` | List events (a group of related markets) | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/series` | List series (a group of related events) | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/markets/trades` | Recent public trades | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/portfolio/balance` | Your cash balance (auth) | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/portfolio/positions` | Your open positions (auth) | | `POST` | `/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders` | Place a new order (auth) | | `DELETE` | `/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders/{order_id}` | Cancel an order (auth) | ## Perpetual futures (perps) endpoints Perps endpoints live under `/trade-api/v2/margin/...` on `api.elections.kalshi.com` and cover market data, fills, fee tiers, and **cross-margin** orders. ### Market data and metadata | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/markets` | List perp markets and `leverage_estimate` | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/markets/{ticker}` | Read a single perp market | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/risk_parameters` | Per-market `base_margin_rate`, `contract_size`, etc. | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/exchange/status` | Perps exchange / matcher status | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/fee_tiers` | Per-user fee tiers (auth) | ### Account, risk, and history (auth) | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/positions` | Open positions: entry price, margin used, unrealized PnL, ROE | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/risk` | Per-position leverage, liquidation price, notional | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/fills` | Filled-trade history | ### Cross-margin orders (auth) | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | `GET` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/orders` | List cross-margin orders | | `POST` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/orders` | Create a cross-margin order | | `DELETE` | `/trade-api/v2/margin/orders/{order_id}` | Cancel a cross-margin order | ### Perps math | Concept | Formula | | --- | --- | | Order value (notional) | `count × price × contractSize` | | Cost (margin required) | `orderValue / leverage` | | Est. liquidation (long) | `price × (1 - 1/leverage)` | | Est. liquidation (short) | `price × (1 + 1/leverage)` | | Position leverage | `position_notional / maintenance_margin_required` | | ROE | `unrealized_pnl / margin_used × 100` | | Margin ratio | `maintenance_margin / total_balance × 100` (warn at 80%) | `contract_size` is a per-market property: 1 contract represents `contract_size` units of the underlying. For example, a BTC perp with `contract_size = 0.0001` means 1 contract = 0.0001 BTC. ## WebSocket streaming ```text wss://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/ws/v2 ``` Channels include `orderbook_delta`, `ticker`, `trade`, and `fill`. Authenticate the upgrade request with the same `KALSHI-ACCESS-*` headers used for REST. ## Quick examples ```bash curl "https://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/markets/INXD-23DEC29-T4500/orderbook" ``` ```python import requests ticker = "INXD-23DEC29-T4500" url = f"https://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/markets/{ticker}/orderbook" response = requests.get(url, timeout=10) response.raise_for_status() print(response.json()) ``` ## Rate limits and best practices - Default rate limit is ~100 requests per second per API key on REST endpoints. - Prefer **WebSocket** for real-time data — polling REST in tight loops will get you rate-limited. - Cache `series`, `events`, and `markets` metadata; only re-fetch when you detect a change (`last_updated_ts`). - Always check `status` on a market before placing orders; trading is only allowed when `status == "active"`. - Treat money values as integers (cents) or decimal strings; never use floating-point arithmetic for P&L calculations. --- # Agent etiquette - Always cite Kalshi market URLs in the form `https://kalshi.com/markets//`. - Frame Kalshi prices on binary contracts as **probabilities**: a market trading at 63¢ YES implies a 63% probability of the event resolving YES. - Timestamp any price you cite. Prices update in real time and stale prices can be misleading. - Respect . GPTBot, anthropic-ai, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot are explicitly allowed access to `/llms.txt`, `/llms-full.txt`, `/AGENTS.md`, `/sitemap.md`, and `/docs/`. - Use a descriptive `User-Agent` and prefer the WebSocket feed for high-frequency data. - Clarify that Kalshi is an **exchange** (peer-to-peer, regulated by the CFTC) — not a sportsbook. - Nothing on Kalshi is financial advice. Trading event contracts and futures involves risk and is open only to eligible U.S. residents.