Make a Call

See how each copy is sized for budget limits and version compatibility.

This guide covers Polymarket and Kalshi Hives. A Call is you taking a side on a real market at your Hive's exchange. To make one you pick:

• the market: a YES/NO market at the Hive's exchange (Polymarket or Kalshi)
• your side: YES or NO

A Call has no amount. You trade alongside your Members, in your own Polymarket or Kalshi account, with two amounts you set on the Hive, the same way a Member sets a budget:

• Amount per Call: what each of your Calls stakes. Every Call is the same size for you, as each Member's copy is the same size for them.
• Total budget: the budget for Calls opened in the current budget period. Open stakes and net realized losses from Calls opened since you last saved the total count as used; winnings offset those losses. When less than your Amount per Call is left, a Call stakes what is left if that meets the exchange minimum, and you cannot place a Call otherwise.

Each Captain, including each Co-Captain, has their own amounts for the Hive. They start at $1 per Call and $10 in total; you can change those defaults in Hive HQ → Settings → Amount per Call, with Edit beside the amount on the Call ticket, or with Edit budget on your Captain row in Portfolio → Budgets. Amount per Call cannot exceed Total budget, and a save must fit the available cash in your exchange account after other budgets. If that balance cannot be read, the save fails.

Saving Total budget starts a new budget period, even if you save the same number. Older positions stay open and keep their history, but do not count in that new period. The unused Captain budget reserves cash, so it is no longer available for another Hive budget or withdrawal. This is a budget control, not a lifetime loss limit. A change applies to your next Calls. Your order still follows the Call's price band and can fill partly or not at all. It must cover the exchange minimum: $1 on Polymarket, or 0.01 contract plus its fee at the Call's price on Kalshi (two cents). HiveTrade must be able to read your exchange balance and see enough available funds before it publishes the Call.

Captain minimum: a warning only. By default your stake is expected to be at least 1% of the full Call, including your stake and the Members' requested amounts, capped at $250 per Call. When your Amount per Call is below that for your current Members, Hive HQ shows a warning. It never stops a Call.

Older app versions

An earlier app release may still ask for a stake on each Call. Current execution uses the Captain’s saved Amount per Call instead; update the app if its ticket still asks for an amount.

A Hive can have one open Call on a given exchange market. Trying to open another while that Call is still open is refused, even after Stop buying. Manual Add to your latest Call is no longer available; automatic purchases within the original buying window can continue. If a Call gets no answer and you retry the same ticket, you get the original Call back rather than a second one. Older duplicate Calls keep their separate positions and history.

Comparing markets in Hive HQ

In the Polymarket composer, related-market lists can appear beneath Rules. Selecting a market changes the selection in the composer; it does not publish a Call. Sports lists group markets for the same game, while other lists show related markets or recurring-market durations. Review the selected market and side before making the Call; the amount is your Amount per Call.

What happens when you make a Call

A Call can request an order for each eligible Member with active copying. The starting request is their full per-call budget, capped at their remaining Hive budget and their tier's per-call cap. You do not choose a percentage of each Member's budget for a Call. Available funds, access and execution constraints still apply; the engine can reduce or skip orders as described below. Each account receives its own exchange execution: prices and filled quantities can differ, and an order may partly fill or not fill at all.

Your own order goes out first, then your Members' orders. Every order is capped at a price band set once, when you make the Call: the price when the Call's orders go out plus 5% of that price rounded up to the cent, or plus $0.02 if that is more, and never above $0.97. Every order either fills right away or is cancelled. Nothing is left waiting on the order book. You never choose a price for anyone. When the market can't take everyone's full order inside the band, the engine targets a common proportion. An order whose share would be under the exchange minimum ($1 on Polymarket, 0.01 contract on Kalshi) gets exactly the minimum or nothing, by a random draw weighted by its share. Minimums, rounding and actual execution can make the proportions differ. Your own order is never in the draw. If less than $5 could be placed near the current price, or the market's spread between buy and sell prices is too wide, the Call is refused rather than placed badly.

Each order executes at the exchange, in that member's own account. On a Polymarket Hive, orders go from each member's Polymarket account to Polymarket's order book. On a Kalshi Hive, HiveTrade places an order in each member's Kalshi account with their own Kalshi API key, sized from the member's dollars in steps of 0.01 contract (Kalshi's smallest unit), so a $1 copy spends close to $1 including Kalshi's fee. This applies only to members who have accepted the Hive's execution consent.

Buy now, or keep buying for 6 hours

With every Call you choose how long orders keep being placed:

• Buy now: orders are placed once, when you make the Call. Whatever the market can't fill then is not bought later.
• Keep buying for up to 6 hours: orders are placed when you make the Call, then whatever didn't fit is retried inside the same price band: every minute for the first ten minutes, then every five minutes, for up to six hours. Members who are still short are retried, and your own order is retried too, sized the same way as a member's (on a Kalshi Hive, a retry adds contracts to the existing position for that Call). Retries also stop if the market stops trading, is about to close, the game starts, or the Call is closed or resolved.

It is a duration, never a price: the price band is the same in both modes.

Stop buying, or Close & sell

While a Call is still buying, you can stop further purchases. You can also request a sale of an open Call’s holdings:

• Stop buying: stops further purchases for that Call, for you or your Members. Existing positions aren’t sold, and it can't be undone.
• Close & sell: requests sales of the positions on the Call now, yours and your Members'. Some positions may not sell immediately. On a Kalshi Hive, closing your own position on the Call does the same for your Members.

Resolving

A Call's outcome always comes from the exchange settling the market. You don't resolve a market, and neither does HiveTrade: the market resolves YES, NO or cancelled on Polymarket or Kalshi. On Polymarket HiveTrade redeems each winning position on-chain, and on Kalshi the exchange credits winning contracts to each member's cash. Wins pay out to each member's budget, losses come from the stake already placed, and a cancelled market refunds the remaining principal. Earlier partial-sale profit or loss stays in the history. Your members' P&L updates automatically.

You trade with them, not off them

Making a Call places your own Amount per Call too. Your Call and Member orders have separate execution outcomes. Publishing a Call does not guarantee that you or a Member filled. You earn from subscriptions, not a share of Members’ trading profits.