Guidance for running a market
Xmarket is designed to be fun and engaging, and we know people enjoy exploring edge cases and clever mechanics. Below are criteria which may lead to action being taken against a market.
Market creators are expected to act in good faith on their own markets and avoid taking advantage of loopholes or technicalities.
Creators are also responsible for keeping resolution criteria clear and up to date. If criteria turn out to be vague, or if real-world events make the original criteria no longer workable, creators should step in to clarify things so traders aren’t left guessing.
Market states
Each market has three independent states that can be toggled by admins or moderators: Rejected, Presale Failed, or Presale Live.
Presale Live markets
By default, all markets are Presale Live and count toward leagues.
A market may be changed to Rejected by admins or moderators if it falls into one of the cases below. If you’re unsure why your market was rejected, feel free to ask via email [email protected].
Rejected markets are always considered failed, even if the toggle suggests otherwise.
Markets are typically rejected if they:
Are self-referential.
Are about league outcomes themselves.
Resolve to something purely random or gambling-like (e.g. “Will I flip heads on a coin?”).
Depend on private information only the creator or close friends can know (e.g. “Will I eat pizza tonight?”).
Aren’t meaningfully predictive.
Can never resolve, or could only ever resolve one way.
Exception:
Does not trade on the market.
Does not give insider advantages to friends.
Provides clear, concrete evidence at creation time explaining how the market will resolve.
Markets that may be Rejected, Presale Failed
We aim to be lenient and usually default to Presale Live, which keeps a market accessible via direct link while removing it from discovery. In more serious cases, markets may be Presale Failed or Rejected.
If you’re unsure whether action should be taken, it’s usually best not to act immediately and instead ask an admin on Telegram.
Markets may face action if they:
Are abandoned by inactive creators and have unclear resolution criteria.
Contain sexually explicit material, sexualized violence, or graphic depictions of death.
Encourage or meaningfully facilitate terrorism, abuse, or violence.
Are hateful or discriminatory based on race, gender, sex, or disability.
Contain trending spoilers in titles.
Are purely random or gambling-like.
Focus only on their own activity (e.g. “Will this market get more upvotes than downvotes?”).
Are non-predictive and low quality.
Attempt to systematically harvest or redistribute Xmarket bonuses.
Are designed to defraud users or explicitly resolve inaccurately.
Incentivize mass trading or commenting in ways that could strain platform resources.
Reveal or strongly incentivize leaking private personal information.
Encourage illegal activity or content illegal in the US.
Involve sexual content with minors, exploitation, blackmail, or revenge porn.
Are spam, or include media depicting self-harm or suicide.
Encourage indiscriminate trading, commenting, liking, or posting.
Attempt to exploit platform bugs or the Xmarket codebase.
Incentivize violating other platforms’ terms of service.
Exceptions may be made for markets that provide clear informational value (for example, “Will Twitter have a data breach?”).
Personal markets
Personal and goal-based markets are an important and encouraged use case on Xmarket, even though they can overlap with rules above.
We want users to feel comfortable setting public goals and holding themselves accountable without fear if circumstances change later.
We strongly encourage stating this clearly in the description (e.g. “I reserve the right to resolve this market at any point”).
This helps set expectations for traders who may not read the full guidelines.
Some personal markets may be difficult to resolve cleanly without oversharing private information, and flexibility is important here.
Most personal goal markets will be unlisted, since creators participate directly and these markets are easier to manipulate. Traders can still participate and profit normally.
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