The lifetime of a market, from listing to settlement.
Summary
Ideas for new markets can come from either a suggestion by a Kalshi member or an individual on the Kalshi team.
Following approval by the Kalshi markets team and a thorough regulatory review process, the market is publicly released and trading begins.
The market expires at a predetermined date and its result is finalized by a pre-established source.
Funds are distributed to the members that took a correct position on the market.
Market creation
Ideas for new markets on Kalshi can come from anyone. Most ideas come from either a member of the Kalshi team or a member of the platform. Kalshi members are able to suggest new markets by contacting customer support, submitting an idea via the market suggestion form, or reaching out to any of Kalshi's official social media accounts.
Before a new market is approved for trading, it undergoes a thorough review by the Kalshi team and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The review ensures the market meets regulatory requirements.
Market listing and expiration
First, let's go over a few definitions
Market listing - the market is searchable on Kalshi.
Market open - trading can begin.
Market closure - trading ends for that market.
Market resolution or determination - winners are determined based on predefined contract criteria.
Market settlement - winners are paid.
Once a new market has been approved for release, it is listed publicly on the exchange. After the market opens, trading continues until the market's predetermined close date. Following the close date, the market expires and trades can no longer be made between members.
An important distinction to note is that markets have a latest possible closure date and a latest possible determination date. The latest possible closure date represents the latest date and time that trading on a market will end. The latest possible determination date is the latest time that a market result will be resolved. A market may close and resolve before the latest close and resolution dates if the condition for the market being resolved is fulfilled early.
Example: The “Student debt forgiveness” market with a latest possible closure datetime of December 31st, 2024 at 10:00 am and a latest possible resolution time 5 hours later; if student loans are forgiven on September 14th 2023, the market closes the next day at 10:00 am and resolves 5 hours after that.
Once a market closes, the next step is market resolution or determination, where winners are determined based on predefined contract criteria. This step can take anywhere from one hour to more than twelve hours to complete after market closure and is usually dictated by when we receive the data from the source agency we use to verify the outcome of the market, as defined in the market contract.
A few hours after the market result is determined, based on the predetermined source, market settlement occurs; members receive $1 for each correct contract they are holding at expiration. Settlement typically happens three hours after market resolution but can sometimes be longer.
The dates and times mentioned above can be found in the “Rules summary” section of a market page. This section also includes information on what source is used to verify the outcome of the market.