# Public Prediction Markets Kalshi's economic, political and company contracts inside a Public brokerage account. *https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/public-prediction-markets · Prediction Market Venues* ## Facts ### At a glance | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Vendor | Public | | Category | Prediction Market Venues | | Job | brokered_access | | Website | https://public.com/prediction-markets | | Pricing model | commission | | Free tier | false | | Open source | false | | Licence | none | | Self-hosted | false | | Tested hands-on | no | | Claimed by vendor | no | | Last updated | 2026-10-23 | ### Availability | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Jurisdictions | us | | Open to US persons | true | | KYC required | true | ### Markets | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Subjects | politics, macro, crypto, science, business | | Settlement | cash | | Resolved by | None of its own — Public Investing and Apex Clearing are futures commission merchants; every contract is a KalshiEX contract settling under Kalshi's rules and the source agency its terms name. | ### Economics | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Taker fee | 2 | | Maker fee | 2 | | Liquidity model | clob | | Platforms | ios, android | | AI features | research | ### Interfaces | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | API | true | | WebSocket | false | | Scripting | none | | Python | true | | MCP server | true | | Export | api | ### Capabilities Yes: charting, automation, live_trading, portfolio_tracking, alerts, tax_reporting No: screening, order_book, backtesting, paper_trading, calibration_scoring, cross_venue, news, copy_trading *Verified: pricing 2026-10-23; availability 2026-10-23; economics 2026-10-23; markets 2026-10-23; capabilities 2026-10-23.* ## What it is Public Prediction Markets is an event-contract hub inside Public, the US brokerage app for stocks, options, bonds and crypto. A reader opens an event, picks Yes or No on an outcome, and enters either a number of contracts or a dollar amount, which Public converts into whole contracts. Contracts also show up on the asset pages of related stocks, and the positions sit in the same portfolio as everything else. **Three parties sit behind the button:** - **Open to the Public Investing, Inc.**, the broker you deal with: a FINRA and SIPC member broker-dealer for securities and, for event contracts, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member (NFA ID 0465334, per its own risk disclosure dated 20 August 2026). - **Apex Clearing Corporation**, the clearing FCM. Public's Event Contracts Customer Agreement says Public Investing routes each order to Apex Clearing, Apex routes it to KalshiEx, and Apex clears it through Kalshi Klear. - **KalshiEX LLC**, the exchange, named in the footer of every prediction-markets page: "Event contracts offered by Open to the Public Investing, Inc. and Apex Clearing Corp. through KalshiEX LLC." Public is one more broker layer above [Kalshi](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi), with the same book underneath. What it adds is the brokerage around it: the same account and buying power as the reader's stocks, an API, an MCP server and rule-based AI agents that can use a contract's price to trigger a trade in something else. ## Availability **US residents with a standard Public account.** The product page says prediction markets are open to anyone eligible for a Public brokerage account: at least 18, a Social Security number, a permanent US residential address, and US citizenship, a green card or a valid US visa. The Event Contracts Customer Agreement adds the representation that you are a resident of the United States, and lets Public ask for or re-verify identity documents when the event contracts account is opened, even for an existing customer. Enabling the product is an onboarding flow in the app: a short introduction, questions about trading experience, a profile review and the terms. An affiliation with a commodities firm or a regulator, or an open investigation, sends the application to manual review. A reader whose answers suggest the product is too risky is shown an extra Heightened Risk Disclosure under NFA Rule 2-30 before completing the application. **No state list is published.** Nothing Public has published names a state that cannot trade. The customer agreement reserves the right to restrict the account and cancel pending orders wherever Public "has made a risk-based decision to restrict access", as well as in sanctioned jurisdictions. The state rulings against Kalshi that its [card](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi) records concern sports contracts, which Public does not list, and its risk disclosure says a court ruling against such contracts could force liquidations through the exchange. Read 2026-10-23. ## Pricing **No subscription, two cents a contract per trade.** Public's fee schedule, last updated 13 October 2026, lists event contracts in their own section: a transaction fee of "$0.01 per contract", charged by Public Investing as the FCM, and "an exchange fee of $0.01 per contract, which is charged by the exchange and passed on to the customer". A footnote says the exchange fee is set by KalshiEx LLC and can change without notice. The help centre puts it as "a 2-cent fee per contract traded on Public, one cent for an exchange fee and one cent for a commission fee", and the order screen shows the fee before you submit. So both fee fields read 2: two cents on a $1 payout, at any price, whether the order rested or took. Holding to settlement pays it once, and selling first pays it again. The flat fee is why Public blocks buy orders at 99 cents: with the fee, the contract would cost $1.01 and pay at most $1. **Public's exchange-fee line does not match Kalshi's published formula.** Kalshi's own schedule charges takers a curve, 0.07 × price × (1 − price) per contract rounded up, which is 1.75 cents at 50 cents and less towards the edges, and charges no maker fee on most series. Public prints the exchange fee as a flat cent "set by KalshiEx". Neither Public's schedule nor its help centre says how the two relate, and this card does not guess. It records what Public's schedule says a Public customer pays. Against a direct Kalshi account that comes to 0.25 cents more for a taker at 50 cents, more again at the extremes, and 2 cents more for a resting order. Access to the API is free; trades placed through it, the MCP server or an agent pay the same two cents. Public's account-wide charges (wire, paper statement, inactivity) are on the same schedule and are not specific to event contracts. ## Markets & resolution **Markets that move markets, and no sports.** The help centre says Public focuses on events and contracts that can move financial markets and does not list sports. The hub's categories on 23 October 2026 were climate and weather, commodities, companies, crypto, economics, elections, financials, health, industries, markets, politics, science and technology, and transportation. The product page names Fed decisions, CPI, GDP and unemployment, company results and delivery targets, court rulings and FDA approvals, elections and confirmations, and crypto, oil and metal price levels. Public takes requests for new contracts but promises none. **Public resolves nothing.** Each event page prints the outcome rules, the source (the Federal Reserve for a rate decision), the estimated resolution date and a link to the full contract terms, and those are Kalshi's. The risk disclosure says the Yes and No sides are separate contracts with Kalshi Klear as the original counterparty, that positions cannot be moved to another exchange, and that payout follows the reported source. A closed event can still be waiting for resolution; payout lands in the account once the outcome is confirmed. Trading runs around the clock, apart from a maintenance window every Thursday from 3:00 to 5:00 am ET. Orders are limit (the default; day or good-till-cancelled) or market. Public may restrict a thin, wide or low-open-interest contract to limit orders only, and the customer agreement lets it cap the number or size of positions at its discretion. Positions cannot be moved to another broker in an account transfer. ## Integrations - **Public API and Python SDK.** The API reference has an Event Contracts section (event summary, categories and details), and the help centre says prediction-market trading works through the API with the same contracts as the app. The product page invites readers to code their own strategies against it. No streaming endpoint is documented for event contracts. - **Public MCP server**, hosted, for connecting the account to Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants, covering prediction markets with the same permissions as the app. - **AI Agents.** You describe a rule in plain English, such as alerting you when a rate-cut probability rises ten points in a day or buying contracts when a price crosses a level. Public's AI turns it into a workflow, which you review and approve before it runs. The product page also describes an AI market briefing on what moved in prediction markets. This card sets `charting` for the price history on each event page (one day to all time) and `tax_reporting` because Public's help centre says it issues a Form 1099-MISC for event contract transactions. ## Limitations - **Only for Public customers in the US.** Event contracts are an add-on to a Public brokerage account, enabled through onboarding. - **A flat 2 cents a contract each way**, which is a fifth of the price of a 10-cent contract. - **The exchange fee Public prints is not Kalshi's published formula**, and Public does not say why. - **No sports**, by policy, and no published state list. - **AI on the account.** `ai_features` reads `research` for the AI briefing and for agents that can research markets and walk through a potential trade on request. Public's disclosures say agents act only on the reader's own instructions, after the reader confirms each one, and that their output is not a recommendation. The Agentic Brokerage disclosure names execution through Public Investing and Zero Hash only and does not mention event contracts, although the help centre says agents trade them. - **No SIPC cover.** Public's own disclosures say event contract accounts are not SIPC protected. - **Mobile flow.** The help centre describes placing a trade by tapping in the app. The website shows prices and contract terms, and this card does not claim trading on the web. - **Nobody here has funded an account.** Everything above is read from Public's prediction markets pages, help centre, fee schedule, Event Contracts Customer Agreement, risk disclosures, Agentic Brokerage disclosure and API documentation, on 23 October 2026. ## Alternatives [Kalshi](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi) direct has the same book, its own fee curve and the full market list, sports included. [tastytrade](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/tastytrade-prediction-markets) is the other brokerage on Apex's clearing route into Kalshi, at the same two cents a contract with a narrower macro-only list. [Webull](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/webull-prediction-markets) and [Robinhood](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/robinhood-prediction-markets) are the brokerage apps with sports; the [Kalshi-through-a-broker head-to-head](https://predictionmarkets.tools/compare/kalshi-through-a-broker) sets their fee layers side by side. ## FAQ ### Which exchange are Public's event contracts on? KalshiEX. Public's disclosures say event contracts are offered by Open to the Public Investing, Inc. and Apex Clearing Corporation through KalshiEX LLC, and the Event Contracts Customer Agreement says Public Investing routes each order to Apex Clearing, which routes it to KalshiEx, with Kalshi Klear clearing it. ### What does an event contract cost on Public? Two cents a contract per trade, at any price: a $0.01 transaction fee to Public Investing and a $0.01 exchange fee passed through, which Public's fee schedule says is set by KalshiEx. That is 2% of the $1 payout at 50¢. Public blocks buy orders at 99¢, because with the fee they would cost $1.01. ### Can I trade Public's prediction markets through an API or an AI agent? Yes. Public's help centre says prediction markets data and trading are available through its own AI Agents, the Public API and the Public MCP server, with the same contracts as the app and the same two-cent fee, once prediction markets are enabled on the account. ### Does Public list sports contracts? No. Its help centre says Public focuses on events that can move financial markets and does not offer sports contracts. The listing is economics, elections and politics, company results, crypto, commodities, science, health and transport. ### Are Public event contract accounts covered by SIPC? No. Public's disclosures say event contract accounts are not SIPC protected. Collateral for an open position is held as customer funds at Kalshi Klear, reached through Apex Clearing, and an insolvency would fall under the commodity broker liquidation rules instead. ## Background - [Event contract or swap, and why the label decides the case](https://predictionmarkets.tools/guides/event-contract-vs-swap.md) — Whether an event contract is a swap under the Commodity Exchange Act decides whether a state may regulate it. Three circuits have read it, and they divide. - [How a venue changes its rules, and where you can see it coming](https://predictionmarkets.tools/guides/how-a-venue-changes-its-rules.md) — A US exchange's rule changes wait ten business days in public; a fee under a dollar a contract need not. Broker fees and offshore terms change when posted. - [How much one account may hold, and what happens past the line](https://predictionmarkets.tools/guides/how-much-one-account-may-hold.md) — Position limits and accountability levels sound alike and work differently. Where each venue draws the line, in which unit, and what happens past it. ## Also worth comparing - [Coinbase Prediction Markets](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/coinbase-prediction-markets.md) — Kalshi's event contracts in the Coinbase app, via Coinbase's own FCM, in USD or USDC. - [DraftKings Predictions](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/draftkings-predictions.md) — DraftKings' event-contract app, brokered by its own FCM onto DKeX, Crypto.com and CME. - [Fanatics Markets](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/fanatics-markets.md) — Fanatics' event-contract app, an FCM in front of Crypto.com's exchange, in 22 states. - [FanDuel Predicts](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/fanduel-predicts.md) — FanDuel's event-contract app, via an FCM co-owned with CME Group, onto CME and Crypto.com. - [Lumina Markets](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/lumina-markets.md) — ForecastEx's economic, political and science contracts in an app of their own, no sports. - [moomoo Prediction Markets](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/moomoo-prediction-markets.md) — Kalshi's event contracts inside a moomoo margin account, with order entry through its API.