Trading Multi-Collateral Derivatives

This article is a guide on opening and closing positions on Multi-Collateral Futures. To read about the differences between the available contracts, see Single-Collateral & Multi-Collateral Futures Contracts.

Kraken Pro UI Guide

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Opening a position
Before placing an order to open a Derivatives position first decide whether you would like to use cross or isolated margin. By default the order form will be set to cross and this can be changed by toggling the ‘Isolate position’. You can then toggle between order types, order direction and additional order options.
The quantity is denominated in the base asset of a trading pair and price is denominated in USD. The notional USD value of your order will be displayed after inputting the parameters Cancelling or editing open orders.
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Cancelling or editing open orders
You can cancel or edit any unfilled or partially filled open orders. When viewing your orders under “Open Orders” (Limit orders) or “Trigger Orders” (Stop Loss or Take Profit orders) you will see the buttons to edit or cancel on the right-hand side.To cancel an order, simply click on the “cancel” button (X on the far right hand side) next to your order and it will be removed from the order book. If you have multiple open orders and you wish to cancel all of them, click on “Cancel All”.
To edit an order, click on the “Edit” button (second button from the right) next to your order. A pop-up box will appear where you can modify your order’s details. Only the trigger / limit price and quantity can be edited on open limit orders and trigger orders – in order to change the order type and or the trigger signal, the open order/trigger needs to be cancelled and re-submitted with updated parameters.
Note that adjusting the price can cause the order to immediately execute or be rejected depending on market conditions. For example, editing a Limit buy order to a price above the current market price will cause that order to execute immediately as a Taker order (or rejected if post-only is checked).
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Closing a position
To close a position you need to place an order in the opposite direction. If you opened a long (buy) position your closing order must be a short (sell) order, and vice versa. This can be done with a limit or a market order, whether submitted directly or attached to an activated trigger order such as stop loss or take profit order.
To close the entire position the quantity for your closing order must match the size of your position. Alternatively you can reduce the size of your position with several smaller orders. While your closing order can be placed via the order form with an opposite-direction order, you can also close it by clicking on the 'X' icon on the far right-hand side of your position under “Positions”.
You can then close your position using a market or limit order. You can view your open positions by clicking the ‘Portfolio’ tab at the top and then clicking on ‘Futures’.
Placing closing orders directly from “Positions” helps you quickly exit a position provided there is sufficient supply/demand on the order book. The order direction and quantity is selected automatically.
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Setting Leverage
The futures order form has “Cross” margin selected by default. With cross margin positions the leverage level is determined by the size of your position(s) versus the collateral balance of the trading wallet. The system itself offers no options to predetermine the leverage level, it is determined entirely by the user’s chosen position size in relation to their collateral balance.
To read more details on this topic see “Effective Leverage” in Portfolio Management.
After opening a position with cross margin the effective leverage level can be monitored in the Position Details modal accessed through the “Positions”. You can use isolated margin for a position to restrict risk. With isolated margin selected, that position’s margin is isolated from the rest of your futures collateral balances. If you wish to use isolated margin click on ‘Isolate position’ when entering the order details into the order form. After clicking on the "Isolate Position" you can set the leverage level for isolated positions.
Note: Margin preference (isolated / cross) can only be edited prior to opening a position. Once the position is open, these preferences cannot be changed for that contract and the toggle will be greyed out.
When using isolated margin you can change the leverage level after a position has been opened by adding or removing margin. It is not possible to have both isolated and cross positions on the same contract concurrently but you can have isolated and cross positions on different contracts.

Legacy UI Guide

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Opening a position
Before placing an order to open a position first decide whether you want to trade with cross or isolated margin. The option to toggle between cross and isolated margin is located to the right of the trading pairs menu. Cross is selected by default. Clicking on “Cross” will let you toggle between cross and isolated margin. More info is available below under “Setting Leverage”. The order form by default has a Limit order chosen on the Buy side. You can toggle between order types, order direction and additional order options here.
The quantity is denominated in the base asset of a trading pair and price denominated in USD. The notional USD value of your order will be displayed after inputting the parameters. You can also place Stop Loss or Take Profit orders for your position simultaneously to opening it by checking the box for Stop Loss or Take Profit, which will be reduce-only market orders by default.
To place Stop Loss or Take Profit Limit orders instead, place a separate order after opening your position and click on the “Stop Loss” drop-down below the Buy and Sell buttons to select your desired order type.
After clicking “Place Buy Order” you will see the order placed below in the Account Activity window; the Limit order under “Open Orders” and the Stop Loss under “Trigger Orders”.
Clicking on either “Open Orders” or “Trigger Orders” will show you the unfilled order’s details.
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Cancelling or editing open orders
You can cancel or edit any unfilled or partially filled open orders. When viewing your orders under “Open Orders” (Limit orders) or “Trigger Orders” (Stop Loss, Take Profit and Trigger Entry orders) you will see the buttons to edit or cancel on the right-hand side.
To cancel an order, simply click on the red “cancel” button next to your order and it will be removed from the order book. If you have multiple open orders and you wish to cancel all of them, click on “Cancel All Orders”. There is no confirmation pop-up – orders will be cancelled immediately on clicking these buttons.
To edit an order, click on the “Edit” button. A pop-up box will appear where you can modify your order’s details. Only price and quantity can be edited on open limit orders and trigger orders – in order to change the order type and or the trigger signal, the open order/trigger needs to be cancelled and re-submitted with updated parameters.
Note that adjusting the price can cause the order to immediately execute or be rejected depending on market conditions. For example, editing a Limit buy order to a price above the current market price will cause that order to execute immediately as a Taker order (or rejected if post-only is checked).
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Closing a position
To close a position you need to place an order in the opposite direction. If you opened a long (buy) position your closing order must be a short (sell) order, and vice versa. This can be done with a limit or a market order, whether submitted directly or attached to an activated trigger order such as stop loss or take profit.
See Order Types.
To close the entire position the quantity for your closing order must match the size of your position. Alternatively you can reduce the size of your position with several smaller orders. While your closing order can be placed via the order form with an opposite-direction order, you can also close it by clicking on “Limit” or “Market” on the right-hand side of your position under “Open Positions”.
Placing closing orders directly from “Open Positions” helps you quickly exit a position provided there is sufficient supply/demand on the order book. The order direction and quantity is selected automatically. When clicking “Market” here a confirmation pop-up box will appear so you can cancel in case you clicked by mistake.
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Setting Leverage
The Multi-Collateral order form has “Cross” margin selected by default. With cross margin positions the leverage level is determined by the size of your position(s) versus the collateral balance of the trading wallet. The system itself offers no options to predetermine the leverage level, it is determined entirely by the user’s chosen position size in relation to their collateral balance.
To read more details on this topic see “Effective Leverage” in Portfolio Management.
After opening a position with cross margin the effective leverage level can be monitored under “Open Positions”. You can use isolated margin for a position to restrict risk. With isolated margin selected that position’s margin is isolated from the rest of your collateral balances. If you wish to use isolated margin click on “Cross” next to the trading pairs dropdown to change to “Isolated” margin and vice versa to switch it back.
After clicking on the dropdown menu “Cross” the margin preferences pop-up will appear. You can switch between isolated and cross margin, set the leverage level for isolated positions and change the desired profit payout currency here.
Note: Margin can only be edited prior to opening a position. Once the position is open, these preferences cannot be changed for that contract.
Profit currency preferences can be changed prior to opening a position or once it is open. Once the position is closed and profit is realised, the PnL currency for the closed position cannot be changed.When using isolated margin you can change the leverage level after a position has been opened by adding or removing collateral. It is not possible to have both isolated and cross positions on the same contract concurrently but you can have isolated and cross positions on different contracts.

Additional Information

Transferring funds to the Multi-Collateral Wallet

Before you can trade you will need to fund your wallet. See Funding your Derivatives Account for more details.

Collateral & Fees

Haircuts and conversion fees apply to non-USD collateral when trading multi-collateral derivatives, for complete details on available collateral currencies and applied haircuts, see Derivatives Collateral Currencies.

For details on conversion fees and interest, see Fees for Multi-Collateral Derivatives

For the complete fee schedule and information on other fees, see Fee Schedule

Margin requirements

Kraken Derivatives allows trading with up to 50x leverage but initial margin and maintenance margin differs depending on the contract and position size. See Margin schedule and maximum leverage.

Available Margin Balances

Availability of margin balances can vary across collateral currencies depending on the size of open position(s) relative to that collateral's balance.

When margin is withheld across multiple assets but the total withheld margin equals less than each asset individually, all assets will be shown as available to withdraw or transfer in full. When one is withdrawn, the margin withholding will apply to the asset(s) remaining.

NOTE: Any funds held in your trading wallets are at risk. If you move funds out of your trading wallet after opening a position your effective leverage will increase which may lead to liquidation. See Portfolio Management for details on effective leverage.