Core Concepts
Polystrike is an oracle intelligence layer for Polymarket’s Elon Musk tweet count markets. This page explains the core problem and how Polystrike gives you an information edge.
The Problem: Two Counters, Both Wrong
Section titled “The Problem: Two Counters, Both Wrong”Polymarket shows traders two tweet counters:
- XTracker (the settlement oracle): Updates every ~5 minutes. This is the number that actually determines who wins and loses.
- UI Counter: Displayed on the Polymarket trading interface. Frequently freezes or lags behind XTracker.
Most retail traders price their positions based on the UI counter. But the UI counter is often severely wrong — sometimes lagging by 5-10+ tweets. That lag is the exploitable inefficiency.
The Solution: A Third Counter
Section titled “The Solution: A Third Counter”Polystrike maintains its own counter — the real counter — by querying Twitter every 60 seconds and classifying each tweet against the exact settlement rules.
| Counter | Source | Update Frequency | Settlement Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| UI Counter | Polymarket frontend | Irregular, often frozen | None |
| XTracker | Settlement oracle | Every ~5 minutes | Yes (determines payouts) |
| Real Counter | Polystrike | Every 60 seconds | None (but most accurate) |
The real counter is 5x faster than the settlement oracle and catches events the oracle never sees (deleted tweets).
Deleted Tweets
Section titled “Deleted Tweets”Elon Musk deletes tweets. If a tweet existed when XTracker last scraped, it counts toward settlement — even if it’s deleted by the time you check Twitter manually.
Polystrike captures tweets within seconds of posting. If a tweet is later deleted, we flag it with is_deleted: true but it remains in our count. This means:
- Our real counter may diverge from what you see on Twitter right now
- That divergence is correct — deleted tweets did count
The is_counted Classification
Section titled “The is_counted Classification”Not every Elon tweet counts toward Polymarket settlement. The rules are specific:
| Tweet Type | Counts? |
|---|---|
| Main feed post | Yes |
| Quote post | Yes |
| Repost (retweet) | Yes |
| Main-feed reply | Yes |
| Regular reply | No |
| Community repost | No |
XTracker doesn’t expose this classification. Polystrike classifies every tweet in real time and exposes the is_counted field (Pro tier only).
The Three Deltas
Section titled “The Three Deltas”Polystrike tracks three independent lag signals. Each represents a different information asymmetry:
settlement_delta
Section titled “settlement_delta”settlement_delta = real_counter - xtracker_counterWhat it means: How far ahead of the settlement oracle we are. A positive value means Polystrike has counted tweets that XTracker hasn’t picked up yet — including deleted tweets.
display_delta
Section titled “display_delta”display_delta = real_counter - ui_counterWhat it means: How wrong the Polymarket UI is. When this is large, most traders are looking at a stale number and may be mispricing their positions.
internal_delta
Section titled “internal_delta”internal_delta = ui_counter - xtracker_counterWhat it means: The gap between what Polymarket shows and what will actually settle. Can be positive (UI ahead of oracle) or negative (UI behind oracle).
Monte Carlo Predictions
Section titled “Monte Carlo Predictions”Polystrike runs 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations per active event to produce bucket probability forecasts:
- p5: 5th percentile (optimistic low bound)
- p50: Median expected count
- p95: 95th percentile (pessimistic high bound)
The model is sleep-aware — it accounts for Elon’s Texas timezone sleep schedule. Tweeting velocity drops to near-zero during sleep hours, which is deterministic, not random.
Reliability Window
Section titled “Reliability Window”- Final 16 hours: Most reliable. The model has enough data to project accurately.
- 16-36 hours remaining: Moderate reliability. Use with caution.
- More than 36 hours: Early predictions carry 15-20% overestimation risk. The model tends to extrapolate current velocity too aggressively.
| Feature | Free | Pro ($79/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time counters & deltas | Yes | Yes |
| Recent tweets (last 15) | Yes | Yes |
is_counted classification | Masked (null) | Yes |
| Full tweet history + pagination | No | Yes |
| Monte Carlo predictions | No | Yes |
| Trading signals (EV, Kelly) | No | Yes |
| Portfolio analysis | No | Yes |
| Rate limit | 100 req/hr | 10,000 req/hr |