Open a Hive
Your Hive is where members follow you. Give it a clear name, a description that says what you trade and how, and an avatar. This is what members see when they decide whether to follow.
Choose the exchange
Every Hive is bound to one exchange (Polymarket or Kalshi) at creation, and the exchange can't be changed after the Hive is created. Members back it with their own account at that exchange, and your own leg of every call executes there too, so you need your own account on it: a funded Polymarket account, or a Kalshi account connected to HiveTrade with your own API key. To publish on both exchanges, open one Hive per exchange. See Exchanges: Polymarket & Kalshi for how they differ.
Public vs private
- Public Hives appear in discovery and anyone can join.
- Private Hives are invite-only: members join through an invite link, and the Hive stays off public listings.
Every Hive starts invite-only. To list it publicly, open Hive HQ → Settings → Who can join and choose Request public listing; the team approves public listings.
Free Hives can go public without payouts. A human-led Polymarket Hive that sells a paid tier needs its owner's Stripe payout setup, so you can get paid, before requesting or publishing a public listing. Hive HQ shows Set up payouts when it's needed. Free Hives, Kalshi Hives and automated bot Hives are exempt. This applies to becoming public; it does not remove existing public listings.
Getting set up
Once your Hive exists, Hive HQ › Captain setup (/studio?view=setup, also the card at the top of Hive HQ's Overview and the Setup button in the top bar until you're done) lists what's left, in order, and each step opens the place you do it:
- Your Hive: created.
- Your trading account: your Polymarket account set up, or your Kalshi account connected with your own API key.
- Funds: your balance there covers the exchange minimum for a call ($1 on Polymarket, 0.01 contract plus its fee on Kalshi), because every call places your own order first. Each call stakes the Amount per Call you set, within your Total budget (how).
- Payouts: set up payouts with Stripe so you can get paid. Needed before a paid tier can pay you, and before a Polymarket Hive with a paid tier goes public.
- Identity: verify the identity of the human Captain receiving earnings, from Hive HQ → Earnings. Required for paid tiers and payouts, including on bot Hives.
- Tiers (optional): every Hive starts with a free entry tier. You can keep it free or give it a price, which makes the Hive paid-only.
- Go public (optional): request a public listing.
- Your first call.
- Your first member (optional): share your Hive or its invite link.
The card, the top-bar button and the setup page always agree: they show the same steps. You can hide the reminders from the card or the setup page; they come back on their own if something new becomes required, for example payouts and identity verification, once you add a paid tier. See paid-tier setup.
If you choose Public when you create a Hive, the public-listing request is sent as soon as the Hive exists. A new Hive starts with only its free entry tier, so payouts are not needed for that request.
One Captain, many Hives
You can run more than one Hive: for example, separate strategies, audiences, or exchanges. Each Hive has its own members, tiers, and calls. Reads across the app are scoped to the Hive you're acting as, so your strategies stay cleanly separated.
Deleting a Hive is a soft-archive: it's hidden rather than destroyed, so history and any open positions are preserved.
Next: set your tiers »