> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://nfa.gitbook.io/nfa-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://nfa.gitbook.io/nfa-docs/the-market-lifecycle/binding.md).

# Binding

## Binding

Before the engine can forecast, a market has to be read correctly. Prediction markets come in several shapes, and getting the shape wrong quietly corrupts everything downstream. Binding is the step that reads a market into a clean, well-formed set of outcomes.

### Reading the shape

NFA detects what kind of market it is looking at:

* a simple **yes/no** market,
* a **categorical** market where exactly one of several outcomes happens,
* an **ordinal ladder** (ranges or thresholds in order, such as temperature or vote-share bands),
* or a **group of independent** yes/no markets that only look like one market.

Each shape is handled differently, and one shared definition is used everywhere in the system, so the picker, the engine, and the scoring never disagree about what a market is.

### Cleaning the field

Long or messy markets are tidied before the debate:

* **Condensing.** A field with many candidates is reduced to the serious contenders plus a single aggregate "Other," so the debate spends its effort where the probability actually is.
* **Folding out padding.** Some markets carry rows of empty placeholder slots with no real backing. NFA folds that noise away so the engine does not waste probability hedging on candidates that do not really exist.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Already-decided markets are refused up front.** If a market has effectively resolved already, there is nothing left to forecast and no honest way to beat it. NFA declines it before spending anything, rather than booking an easy but meaningless result.
{% endhint %}

The output of binding is an auditable record of exactly which outcomes were forecast, which becomes the reference the scoring step uses later.


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