> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.numera.trade/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How it works

> The whole thing, start to finish, in plain language.

Everything that happens between opening Numera and getting paid.

## Signing in

You sign in with a **passkey** — the same face or fingerprint check you already use to unlock your phone.

No password to remember, no seed phrase to write down and keep safe. Your passkey lives on your device and never leaves it, and because it always produces the same result, signing in from another device with the same passkey brings you to the same account.

<Note>
  Your account is yours alone. It's derived from your passkey, so you're the only one who can open it — and it's reproducible from that passkey wherever you are.
</Note>

## Adding funds

Money moves into a **private pool** before you trade.

Picture a coat check. Plenty of people hand in coats and everyone gets a ticket. To collect, you prove you hold a valid ticket — without revealing which one. The pool hands one over and nobody watching learns whose it was.

Numera does that with cryptography instead of a cloakroom. Funds go in, and come out privately.

## Opening a position

Place your first trade in a market and your device creates a **fresh account just for that market**.

This is the piece that makes the rest work:

* One market, one account, so your positions stand on their own.
* Created on your device from your passkey, so only you can use it.
* Funded from the private pool, so its source stays private.

On the blockchain it looks like exactly what it is: a new account placing a trade.

## Placing the trade

Pick an outcome and an amount. Numera shows the live price, how many shares you get, and your total cost.

You approve it on your device, and Numera's system submits it to the blockchain and covers the network fee. The new price is public immediately; you aren't part of that record.

## While the market runs

Prices move as people trade, and you can watch them live and act whenever you like:

* **Add** to your position.
* **Trim** it to take some profit.
* **Close** it entirely at the current price.

You're never committed until the end unless you choose to be.

## When it settles

Trading stops at the deadline and the question gets answered. Usually anyone can propose the answer and anyone can challenge it, with money at stake on both sides — so the honest answer is also the profitable one. [The full process](/concepts/resolution).

Then:

* **You were right** — every share is worth exactly \$1. Claim it whenever; it never expires.
* **The question couldn't be settled fairly** — the market is voided and everyone gets their money back.

Winnings arrive in that market's account, and from there you move them back into the private pool.

## Who sees what

| **Anyone on the blockchain** | Every trade, price and amount — with no identities attached.                          |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Numera**                   | The same public market data, plus that you have an account. The two are never joined. |
| **Other traders**            | The market moving.                                                                    |
| **You**                      | Your complete portfolio.                                                              |

Your portfolio is assembled on your own device. Your browser knows which accounts are yours, asks about those, and gets public information back — the question is answered, never recorded.

<Card title="How privacy actually works" icon="eye-slash" href="/concepts/privacy">
  The three mechanisms, and how to get the most from them.
</Card>