Can you sell before a prediction market resolves?

Yes. You can sell a prediction market position at any time while the market is open, without waiting for the event to happen. Selling means handing your shares to another trader, so what you receive is the best bid on the order book at that moment — not the price displayed on the market card.

That one sentence is where most of the confusion lives, so it is worth taking apart.

What selling a position actually does

A share is a contract that pays $1 if its outcome happens and $0 if it doesn't. When you sell, you transfer that contract to another trader at whatever they are willing to pay right now, and the cash lands in your balance immediately.

Nothing is settled, cancelled or refunded. The market carries on without you and the buyer inherits your exposure. This is the structural difference from a sportsbook, where the slip is yours until the whistle unless the book chooses to offer you a cash-out at a price it sets. Here the price is set by whoever wants the position, and that distinction runs through everything.

You sell into the bid

The number on a market card is usually the midpoint between the best bid and the best ask. You cannot sell at the midpoint. You sell at the bid, which is lower — and if you are selling more shares than the best bid will absorb, the rest goes to the next bid down.

On a heavily traded market that costs a cent or less. As of 24 August 2026 on Oddzy, the market on whether Bitcoin reaches $110,000 by 31 December 2026 was pricing at 17¢ on roughly $119,000 of 24-hour volume — a book with real depth on both sides. On a market trading a few hundred dollars a day, the same exit can cost five or ten cents. The mechanics are the same ones that make your buy fill worse than the price you saw; they simply run in the other direction on the way out.

When selling early is the right call

Selling early buys back two things: certainty and time.

Certainty is obvious — a position sold at 90¢ is 90¢, and one held to resolution is either $1 or nothing. Time is the part people underweight. Money in an open position is money you cannot use elsewhere until the market closes. As of 24 August 2026, Oddzy's Bitcoin and Ethereum year-end markets do not close until 1 January 2027, so the last few cents of a winning position there take four months to collect. Compare that with the September Fed meeting markets, which close on 16 September 2026 — three weeks, on a question with around $340,000 of 24-hour volume behind the no-change outcome. The same 10¢ of remaining upside is worth chasing in one and usually not in the other.

The other honest reason to sell is that your view changed. Holding to resolution because you already own it is not a thesis.

When you may not get out cleanly

Three cases, and all of them are worth knowing before you enter rather than after.

The first is a thin book. If the market barely trades, there may be no bid near the last price, and the only way out is to accept a much lower one. Check the depth before you size up, not when you want to leave — position sizing and liquidity are the same decision.

The second is a position that has already collapsed. As of 24 August 2026, several of Oddzy's league-champion markets were quoting outsiders at a fraction of a cent. The exit is still open; there is simply almost nothing left to recover. Selling and holding are worth about the same, which is a reason to be careful about the entry, not the exit.

The third is the close. Every market has a close time, after which trading stops and the position can no longer be sold. From that point the only route is resolution and payout, which for an undisputed market is a couple of hours after the outcome is reported. If you want the option to sell, you have to use it while the book is still open — the close is on every market page, next to the rules.

If you have not placed a first trade yet, how it works walks through the buy side; the sell side is the same screen with the direction reversed.