The house and the loss pool

Against the house. A position is a contract on our price; it never touches the token's pool.

The loss pool (Trade). Every USDC lost goes into the pool, none to the house (Trade settings, 2026-10-19). Wins are paid from it; when it is short, a win queues and is paid pro rata as losses arrive. Seeded with 300 USDC by the owner (operations log, 2026-10-13); 300.00 USDC, nothing queued (Trade pool, 2026-10-19).

Size follows the pool. Each market's open-interest caps are recomputed hourly from the pool: today 200 USDC per side, 100 net (Trade pool, 2026-10-19). The treasury rule keeps the position cap at or below a fifth of the pool, so one big winner cannot drain it (owner's plan, 2026-10-13).

The limits ladder (owner's plan, 2026-10-13):

• Launch: positions 100 USDC; deposits 250 per wallet, 2,500 total; withdrawals 100 each, 250 a day.
• After one clean week: 250; 500 and 5,000; 250 and 500.
• After a second: 500; 1,000 and 10,000; 500 and 1,000.

Clean means the books match daily, no withdrawal sticks, queued wins are paid within a day, and no user-facing incident. The pool must grow too (1,250 USDC for step two). Still at launch limits (Trade settings, 2026-10-19).

In the open. The public trade feed lists every open, close, liquidation and fill by handle (a name you pick, or a shortened wallet), never balances. Trade's feed also posts to a public Telegram channel (@illiquidfeed). Practice's test bot is labelled, never ranked.