How Novig Works: Market Mechanics, Pricing, and Settlement

Who uses Novig and which market types you'll encounter

Novig is used by traders, researchers, and people who want a market price for a future event. Practically, that means users come with different goals and they tend to pick different market formats.

Novig markets sell contracts that pay $1 if a stated outcome occurs and $0 otherwise. The formats you’ll see on the platform are:

• Yes/No: a Yes contract pays $1 if the event happens (and $0 if it doesn’t). A No contract is the inverse.
• Multi‑outcome: more than two mutually exclusive outcomes (for example, Team A, Team B, Draw). Each outcome has its own contract and the payouts sum to $1 across outcomes on resolution.
• Props (proposition markets): specific measurable results (e.g., “Candidate X’s vote share in State Y > 50%”) with custom resolution criteria.

Which user picks which format in real situations:

• Researchers and forecasters prefer Yes/No and multi‑outcome when they need clean probability signals to compare against models or to aggregate forecasts.
• Casual users and subject‑matter fans often trade props because those contracts map directly to concrete facts and make it easier to follow specific news events.

When you land on a market page, look first at the market type and the resolution wording — those two things determine whether the price will be a clean probability you can meaningfully compare to external forecasts.

How Novig’s order‑book pricing compares to pool‑style AMMs in practice

Novig primarily uses an order‑book matching engine (buyers and sellers post bids and asks). Many other prediction platforms use pool‑style automated market makers (AMMs) where prices come from a bonding curve and shared liquidity.

Feature	Novig (Order book)	AMM / Pool platforms (e.g., bonding‑curve style)
Pricing engine	Continuous order book (bids/asks matched)	Automated market maker (mathematical curve)
How price updates	When a trade matches or limit orders change the top of book	When someone adds/removes liquidity or places a trade against the pool
Visible spreads	Explicit bid/ask spread shown to users	Implicit spread via slippage from curve
Liquidity source	Other users posting orders	A liquidity pool (capital provided by LPs or protocol)
Slippage behavior	Small trades can have minimal slippage if book depth exists; large trades may move the book	Slippage grows with trade size against the pool’s token reserves
Best for	Traders wanting control over price and limit orders	Markets needing continuous, automatic liquidity without many counterparties

What this looks like in real trading scenarios:

• Thin‑book situation: if only a few orders sit at the top of the book, a market order for a modest size can walk through several price levels and move the visible price substantially. That movement reflects the intentions of other users rather than an algorithmic curve.
• Active market with depth: if many limit orders populate the book at nearby prices, a small market order will often execute with minimal slippage. The visible bid/ask spread and depth let you plan executions.
• AMM‑style situation for comparison: on a pool platform that uses a bonding curve, a newcomer always finds some liquidity but the price impact is a deterministic function of trade size; there are no discrete posted bids to inspect.

The key practical difference: the order book shows other users’ intentions directly; an AMM computes price from a mathematical formula and shared liquidity. That distinction changes execution choices and how you interpret prices arriving from news events.

What actually happens when you buy a contract

Suppose a Yes contract costs 62¢ and pays $1 if the event happens. Buying one contract at that price costs $0.62. If the event happens, the contract pays $1, so the nominal gain before fees is $0.38. If the event does not happen, the contract expires at $0, so the loss is $0.62.

On Novig that 62¢ price would typically be the lowest ask on the order book. Your execution options and what they look like in practice:

• Market order to buy immediately: you will execute against the current asks and pay the visible asks. If the book’s best ask is 62¢ and the size available there covers your order, you pay 62¢ per contract. If you take more than the top ask size, you begin buying into higher asks and your average price rises.
• Limit order to buy at a lower price: you post an instruction to buy only if the price falls to your limit. In a situation where sellers are inclined to wait for a higher price (a thick ask side), your limit order may not fill. In consistent, liquid markets you often get better execution over time by adding liquidity with limit orders.

How this shows up after news arrives:

• Immediate reaction: news that raises the probability of the Yes outcome tends to move asks up as sellers reprice or as buyers lift asks; the book top changes quickly.
• Measured repricing: when many participants submit new limit orders reflecting the news, depth rebuilds and the book converges to a new equilibrium price that you can inspect before trading.

When you consider the 62¢ example in an active market, always check top-of-book size and depth to estimate whether your intended trade will move the price.

How contracts resolve in real markets and what to watch for before settlement

Markets on Novig have a clearly defined resolution condition and a resolution time. Real resolution proceeds through a few observable steps:

1. Market definition: the market page displays the exact wording of the resolution condition and the resolution source (for example, an official data feed, an appointed resolver, or an oracle). This wording determines what evidence will count.
2. Resolution event: when the outcome is known, the designated resolver or automated feed reports the result. Sometimes the reporting is instantaneous; other times it depends on an outside source’s publication timetable.
3. Validation window: some markets include a short window for disputes or submission of evidence if the resolution source is ambiguous. During this time, the reported result can be contested or clarified.
4. Settlement: once the result is final, winning contracts are paid out (credited to your platform balance) and losing contracts become worthless.

Practical red flags that show up in live markets:

• Ambiguous wording: small differences in phrasing on the market page can change whether an outcome qualifies as a win. Traders watching a market will often flag ambiguous language before resolution.
• Source timing: if a market depends on an official feed, the time that feed publishes results determines when settlement begins — not when traders think the underlying event “effectively” happened.
• Disputes and delays: if participants submit evidence or dispute a result, the validation window can delay settlement. That delay is visible on the market page and affects when funds become available.

After settlement, resolved contracts are converted to final cash values (usually $1 or $0 for Yes/No markets). Resolved proceeds are credited to your platform balance; unresolved positions remain subject to market prices until the official resolution completes.

Practical interface and cost considerations you’ll face on Novig

Novig’s order‑book model changes the practical user experience compared with pool‑style platforms. These are the everyday features and costs you’ll notice.

Fees and costs

• Trading fees: Novig charges fees on trades and may charge market creation or reporting fees. Fee rates change; check Novig’s fee page before trading.
• Implicit costs: bid/ask spread and slippage are the real cost of executing an order. Using limit orders can reduce these implicit costs if the book has depth, while market orders pay the displayed asks and take liquidity.

Liquidity features and order types

• Market orders execute against the book and take liquidity (you pay the ask). Limit orders add liquidity and can reduce execution cost, but they may not fill.
• Depth matters: a thin order book can make even modest market orders move the price; AMM pools avoid this by design but at the expense of formulaic slippage.

Interface elements to use and monitor

• Order entry: choose market, size (number of contracts), and order type (market or limit).
• Book view: top bids and asks, recent trades, and depth display help you judge execution risk and whether your order will change the market.
• Position and balance: resolved contracts convert to cash balance immediately after settlement; unsettled positions remain marked by current market prices.

Which model tends to fit different users

• If you want precise control over execution price and like using limit orders, an order‑book platform like Novig generally fits better.
• If you prefer guaranteed continuous liquidity without watching for counterparties, pool/AMM markets are easier to enter but expose you to predictable slippage formulas.

Keep reading

• What Are Prediction Markets?
• How Do Prediction Markets Work?
• How to Read Prediction Market Prices