Logan Sudeith made $250,000 in a single month trading on prediction markets. The 26-year-old’s secret weapon for the Super Bowl? A TV antenna.
“For the Super Bowl I bought an antenna, so that I could watch the commercials,” Sudeith explained to CNBC, noting that streaming services can lag behind live broadcasts. The antenna allowed him to trade quickly on which companies would advertise during the game and what would be said in those commercials. “I wanted to have the lowest latency access to those.”
Sudeith became a full-time prediction market trader less than a year ago, joining a growing community of individuals who have turned speculation on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi into their primary occupation. With more than 100,000 active markets across just these two exchanges, traders say they need sophisticated tools to stay competitive.
AI Bots Scan News and Execute Trades
Kenneth Deneau, 32, left nearly a decade of institutional investing to trade prediction markets full-time after seeing trading volume surge last fall. He brought one crucial skill with him: the ability to conduct deep research under tight deadlines.
Deneau uses Anthropic’s Claude language model to scan newsletters and Discord servers for trading insights. “I think that has been probably one of the most transformative aspects of allowing me to do this now, being able to build out those tools,” he said.
When a contract asked the date President Donald Trump would fire former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deneau turned to Pacer, a court records database, to find filings that helped him determine when Bondi left office before the information went viral. “As far as I know, I was probably one of the first ones to take advantage of that,” he said.
Steve Farmer, an Atlanta-based data engineer, built an AI bot that trades on Kalshi autonomously from his wife’s closet. “As a trader, I wouldn’t do very well myself because you know, impulses and greed and all that will just drive me nuts,” Farmer explained. “A bot doesn’t have all that.”
At the time of his interview with CNBC, Farmer’s bot maintained a 70% win rate on economic-related contracts. While he acknowledged it’s not a long-term retirement strategy, the profits are “enough to pay for my AI bills.”
The Software Arms Race
Michael Boss started trading on Kalshi during the 2024 presidential election but didn’t go full-time until February this year, waiting until he had developed the necessary software. His tools place numerous trades simultaneously across various markets, though he declined to reveal specifics about his training methods.
“On something like Kalshi, a lot of different things need to go well,” Boss said. “There’s a ton of markets on Kalshi, so it’s kind of a big problem to tackle in that way.”
Boss believes manual traders will inevitably fall behind those using automation. “Anything discretionary can be systematized,” he said. “No person is going to be as competitive as good software.”
Platforms Respond With Pro Tools
Recognizing that their most active users employ sophisticated technology, prediction market platforms are developing tools to level the playing field. Kalshi recently launched a “Pro” trading terminal designed to help traders execute faster and view market data more efficiently.
Deek, who has placed more than 5,700 trades on Kalshi and requested his full name be withheld, tested the terminal before its official launch. He primarily trades 15-minute cryptocurrency contracts that predict whether Bitcoin prices will rise or fall within a quarter hour.
“Everything is faster on the Pro, and that’s a big deal for me,” Deek said, adding that the ability to submit trades with a single click represents a significant upgrade. Despite planning to use Kalshi Pro for manual trading, he also intends to develop a bot for automation.
Startups are also entering the space. Kairos, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed trading terminal, allows speculators to trade across multiple exchanges including Kalshi and Polymarket. Co-founder and CEO Jay Malavia said the company aims to democratize sophisticated trading technology.
“There’s these big trading firms that are going to build the best tech in the world, and we are going to give you the closest technology to go and compete and win in these markets,” Malavia said. The platform provides cross-exchange contract visibility, real-time data, and news headlines across various events.
According to CNBC, Kairos also appeals to advanced traders who prefer not to maintain their own software infrastructure, offloading that responsibility to the platform instead.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/01/traders-go-full-time-on-prediction-markets-using-ai-bots-and-antennas.html
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
