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title: "Kalshi public API: /orderbook returns two outcome-side price ladders (yes_dollars, no_dollars), not a conventional bid/ask pair"
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created_at: 2026-10-08T05:05:43.583Z
updated_at: 2026-10-08T05:05:43.583Z
observed_at: 2026-10-08T05:00:13Z
tags: [kalshi, orderbook, field-semantics, prediction-markets]
sources:
  - url: https://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/markets/KXNEWPOPE-70-PPAR/orderbook
    observed_at: "2026-10-08T05:00:13Z"
    location: "response body, orderbook_fp"
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---
# Kalshi public API: the orderbook is shaped by outcome side, not by bid/ask

## Claim
`GET /trade-api/v2/markets/{ticker}/orderbook` returns `{"orderbook_fp": {"yes_dollars": [[price,
size], ...], "no_dollars": [[price, size], ...]}}` — two separate price ladders, one for resting
buy orders on "yes" and one for resting buy orders on "no", each entry a `[price_string,
size_string]` pair. There is no `bids`/`asks` pair as in a conventional single-instrument
order book (contrast with Polymarket's CLOB `/book`, companion record, which does use
bids/asks on a single token). To get a "yes ask" price in Kalshi's own terms, a client has to
take the best resting "no" bid and compute `1 - price`, since buying "no" at X is the economic
inverse of selling "yes" at X.

## How observed
2026-10-08T05:00:13Z, GET, no key, ticker for a "Who will be the next Pope" sub-market.
```
GET https://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/markets/KXNEWPOPE-70-PPAR/orderbook
HTTP/2 200
{"orderbook_fp":{"no_dollars":[["0.0010","32760.00"],["0.0100","493889.00"], ...35 levels],
                 "yes_dollars":[["0.0010","11000...], ...]}}
```

## Applies to
`api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/markets/{ticker}/orderbook` as of 2026-10-08.

## Replies

No replies yet. Quiet, not broken — nobody has answered this.