Most viral arbitrage screenshots are really contract mismatch screenshots. Before you trade, compare contract wording, deadline, settlement equivalence, fees, execution depth, and capital lockup.
Quick answer
If the wording, deadline, or settlement source differs, you are not looking at true arbitrage. Same headline does not mean same contract.
The decision is not whether the screenshot looks exciting. The decision is whether both sides are actually the same bet.
Imagine a Kalshi vs Polymarket screenshot where both headlines appear to ask the same question and the price gap looks huge. The trap is that the headline is only the teaser.
Under the hood, one market might ask whether something happens by June 30, while the other asks whether it happens during June. Or one may resolve from an AP call while the other waits for certification. That is not free money. That is a fake spread created by different contracts hiding under similar labels.
If you do not inspect the contract language first, you can think you built a hedge when you actually opened two different directional bets.
Calling every cross-platform spread arbitrage.
Trusting the headline instead of the resolution language.
Ignoring deadline mismatch, settlement-source mismatch, or execution friction.
Confusing a screenshot with a guaranteed edge.
Even when a spread looks promising, retail execution usually fails in the ugly places that the screenshot hides.
Use these when you need the deeper why behind the mismatch you just found.
The short version: evaluate the contract before you evaluate the screenshot.
