Kraken margin pool/no leverage option

Beginner Questions Candlesticks, Chart Patterns, and Price Action
1

I’ve started trading recently, I’ve been exclusively trading cryptocurrencies on Kraken for a couple of weeks. About a week ago I opened a leveraged long position on LTC at a very stupid moment, and instead of quickly taking losses I made the (bad) decision to leave the position open hoping the current bullish trend will eventually make the position profitable. I also made that (bad) decision counting that if BTC went into a correction, I could short XRP (which is heavily correlated to BTC but more volatile), and that would reduce my risk of letting the LTC position open. Well finally the market made a move to the downside just for me to realize that Kraken would not let me short any currency pair because their “margin pool” was “depleted”. FURTHERMORE, even if I tried to open a position without leverage and within the “free margin” I have available, Kraken only allows me to use my “free margin” if I’m using leverage, otherwise all I can do is exchange currencies. FURTHERMORE, even if I stayed within the amount I have available for the currency I was trying to short, what happens within their trading interface if you don’t use leverage is instead of opening a position the system simply executes a currency exchange.

In practical terms, I am finding it difficult to understand why am I not being able to trade with the funds (the “free margin”, or the sum of all the assets) that I have available (that are not being used for other open positions)? Is there any logic here that I’m not grasping, or is it a big red flag that I am not being able to trade my own funds when I need it - not only because of the margin pool being depleted, but because of the no leverage issue.

The feeling I get is:

  1. if I am not able to trade with my own funds while the margin pool is depleted, should this mean that someone else is trading with my own funds??

  2. in that case, how can I confirm that who was first in the line and got access to the margin pool before it was depleted was an absolutely neutral choice, and not that someone got privileged access?

  3. why would the trading interface have a “leverage: none” option, if in that case you are effectively not trading/shorting but merely executing a currency exchange? Trading with leverage is more profitable to the exchange and more risky for me, should I then conclude that this is a feature designed to make the exchange profit more at the risk/loss of the user?

2

You seem to have a lot of doubts about the platform. You should probably contact them and get this sorted out.

3

Hello there and I believe you started off straight away with trading before having the detailed understanding of the market trends, and what causes the fluctuations and how to avoid them by deciding your entry and exit points. That’s the reason I believe you would have faced problems mentioned. I do suggest you discuss this issue with the team and start afresh with learning about the fundamentals.

4

As I can see, you have a lot of doubts about the platform that only customer support can answer. No need to move ahead without clearing your doubts.

5

Cryptocurrencies are at a peak in popularity right now.
So it’s definitely something you can and should try.