Definition
Price history
Time-series prices for an outcome token.
Price history
Price history is the time-series of prices for a single outcome token on Polymarket. Each data point records a timestamped price that reflects trades and order-book activity for that outcome; together these points let you reconstruct how the market priced a particular outcome over time.
Key takeaways
- Polymarket price history is the chronological sequence of outcome-token prices, accessible from the CLOB /prices-history endpoint.
- Traders use price history to measure volatility, detect pricing dislocations, and backtest arbitrage strategies.
- Price history is historical market data; it does not guarantee future prices and is subject to gaps from API limits or market inactivity.
In context
On Polymarket, price history appears when you query the CLOB API's /prices-history endpoint for an instrument (an outcome token). The endpoint returns timestamped price points and is the canonical source for reconstructing intra-market price moves, computing realized spreads, or feeding a backtest. Because Polymarket uses a CLOB, price history reflects both displayed order-book events and executed trades; for real-time order-book changes, use the Market WebSocket.
How traders use it
- Volatility and liquidity analysis: inspect time windows to see when spreads widen or prices jump.
- Strategy backtesting: replay historical prices to estimate how an arbitrage or market-making strategy would have performed. Remember to model slippage, taker fees, and execution mechanics (FAK orders) rather than assuming fills at historical prices.
- Signal extraction: combine price history with order-book snapshots (best_bid_ask) to detect short-lived mispricings where Σ bestAsk < $1.00 for arbitrage.
Limits and caveats
- Data access: use the exact CLOB base URL (https://clob.polymarket.com) and its /prices-history route. Reads are public; placing orders requires API key + HMAC.
- Granularity and tick size: tick-size changes (e.g., $0.01 to $0.001 near extremes) affect recorded prices. The Market WebSocket emits tick_size_change events when the tick changes.
- Not a forecast: historical price series are descriptive. They do not eliminate resolution, slippage, fee, or settlement risks when trading.
See also
- /glossary/clob-api
Polymarket price history appears in the CLOB /prices-history endpoint and is useful for analysis, but always pair historical signals with execution-aware modeling when you trade.