A plain-English glossary
The terms you'll see across every venue, defined once, in everyday language.
Market types
Binary market — a single Yes/No question. Multi-outcome (categorical) — one question with several possible winners (e.g. who wins an election), where the prices add to ~100%. Scalar / perpetual — a market on a number or price rather than Yes/No (we group these under a separate Perps lens).
Price & shares
Yes / No shares — the two sides of a binary market; each pays $1 if its side is right, $0 if not. Price = probability — a 60¢ price means the crowd implies a ~60% chance. Spread — the gap between the best buy and sell price; wider spread = less certainty/liquidity.
Depth & activity
Liquidity — how much you could trade without moving the price much. Volume — how much has traded (a proxy for how much the crowd cares). Order book — the live list of buy and sell offers. AMM — an automated formula that always quotes a price from a pool.
Settlement & oversight
Resolution / settlement — deciding the outcome and paying out. Oracle — the agreed source of truth used to resolve. Event contract — the formal (regulated) name for a prediction-market contract. Designated contract market (DCM) — a CFTC-regulated exchange. Consensus — our liquidity-weighted blend of the same question across venues.
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