Epochs

The game runs in back-to-back epochs of 2 hours. Each one is a separate race with its own list, balances, leaderboard and reward pool.

The cycle

1. Open. Fomo's trending list is snapshotted and every coin on it becomes a market. The rules (leverage, position limit, reward cap, token gate) are frozen for the epoch.
2. Trade. For 2 hours you trade those markets. Your first order joins you with $1,000 in paper.
3. Settle. At the end, everything closes at the mark, the board is ranked and the reward pool is paid.
4. Next. A new epoch opens right away, on the same fixed schedule, with a fresh list and a fresh $1,000 for everyone.

The countdown at the top of every page is the time left in the current epoch.

The $1,000 start

Everyone starts every epoch at exactly $1,000, whatever happened in the last one. Your return for the epoch is measured from it, so a +10% epoch is worth the same to a first-timer and a regular.

The snapshot

The trending list is read once, when the epoch opens, and stays fixed until it settles. A coin that falls off Fomo's board mid-epoch is still tradable here; a coin that appears later waits for the next epoch. See Markets for why.

If the list can't be fetched at the start, the epoch opens on the previous epoch's list rather than on made-up coins.

Pauses

An admin can pause an epoch (for example if every price source is down). While paused:

• no new orders or closes are accepted;
• pending market orders are cancelled and their margin returned; resting limit orders stay;
• the clock stops: the end of the epoch moves back by the length of the pause.

Settlement

When the countdown hits zero:

1. Open orders are cancelled and their margin returned.
2. Every open position closes at the current mark.
3. Accounts are ranked by return. Positive returns split the reward pool (see Leaderboard & rewards); amounts are paid in whole cents.
4. Lifetime stats are updated and the next epoch opens.

Settled epochs, with every trader's result and reward, are in History.