Close-only

A venue's list of countries usually has more than one column, and the second column is easy to read as a softer version of the first. It is a different thing. A blocked reader cannot start; a close-only reader has already started, holds positions, and has lost the ability to do anything with them except leave.

How it works

The same status, under several names. Robinhood's help centre calls it a position closing only (PCO) restriction and defines it in one line: you "can close existing event contract positions but can't open new ones". The Polymarket card records a close-only list of four countries — Singapore, Poland, Thailand and Taiwan — beside a longer fully-blocked list, and Polymarket's own help centre uses the same four. Some venues use "close-only mode" as the consequence of breaking a rule rather than as a place: the Polymarket and Synthesis cards both record a detected VPN putting a wallet into it.

It attaches to a reason, and the reasons are not all about geography. Robinhood lists three common ones for a PCO restriction: an open margin call, an account under review "for an eligibility or compliance reason", and an eligibility change such as a change of state. The same company also restricts a whole state for one category of contract — "Nevada residents can't open new sports event contracts (as of December 1, 2025)" — which the Robinhood Prediction Markets card reads as close-only for one product line rather than for the account. On Polymarket the catalogue's guides record a self-certification notice giving 14 days to answer before the account "will be put into close only mode".

It is not hold-to-resolution. Polymarket's help-centre restrictions page, dated 14 August 2026, separates the two, and Germany is the case the Polymarket card uses to show it: "Trading is prohibited. Existing positions must be held until market resolution to redeem shares, after which funds can be withdrawn without restrictions." Close-only lets you sell; hold-to-resolution does not. The first returns your money when you find a buyer. The second returns it at settlement, however far away that is.

Closing still needs a buyer

Close-only permits a closing order. It does not supply one. Robinhood's own restrictions page puts this as a separate reason a trade can fail — "No counterparty available: Closing orders require a buyer on the other side" — and on an order book that is literal: your exit price is the best resting bid, not the last price and not the midpoint. On a thin market the bid can be several cents below where the screen says the market is, or absent. Nothing in either venue's definition forces a sale, so the other exit is to hold to settlement and be paid by the contract, if you are right.

This matters more under close-only than in ordinary trading, for a structural reason. When a whole country or state is moved to close-only at once, every holder there who wants out can only sell, and nobody there can buy. Whatever exits there are all arrive on the same side of the book.

Why it matters here

It arrives after you are funded. A block stops a reader at signup. Close-only usually reaches somebody who already passed signup, deposited and took positions — because they moved, because a VPN was detected, because a document request went unanswered, or because a venue changed its list. Its cost is not a fee but capital committed to positions you can no longer add to, rebalance or hedge on the same venue. The mechanics of getting money out once it happens are in how money gets out.

A two-legged position becomes a one-legged one. Anything that depends on opening a new leg — rolling to the next expiry, re-entering after taking profit, adding the hedge on the other outcome — stops the day the status applies. The Polymarket alternatives page makes the point for the close-only four: they can close but not re-enter, and a structure that needs both legs to stay open cannot be maintained. Moving to another venue does not rescue it either, because a contract on one venue is not a contract on another.

The list moves, and the card cannot carry it. Which countries or states are close-only is set by the venue and changed by it, sometimes in response to regulatory action. The card's availability block records the status as read on a date; the reasons a venue ends up with a list at all are in why a venue is unavailable where you are. Before funding, look for your location in every column of the venue's restrictions, not only the blocked one.

It says nothing about the exit price. A reader told "you can still close" hears "you can still get your money". Only the first is promised. On a market with a thin book the gap between the two is the bid, and the central limit order book page shows what that looks like when nobody is bidding.

It is not a verdict on your conduct. Close-only is an access status, applied for reasons that range from an unanswered form to a state regulator's action. It does not by itself mean an account did anything wrong, and on Robinhood's list it can follow from something as ordinary as a change of address.