But when I click 5x leverage it comes back with "insufficient funds".
I thought that with 5x leverage I would be able to trade with $5000 in btc until I get a margin call.
Why would I receive an insufficient funds warning right away, before trading has even started?
Could someone please explain in more detail how to margin trade bitcoin and show me the math for my $1k trading funds?
If you send 1000$ to kraken, then you'll have an equity of 1000$ and a free margin of 1000$ as well.
If you leverage that *5, then you'll try to use 4000$ of margin.
4000$ > 1000$, here are the math :p
I think you might have to figure this out : If kraken agrees to loan you 4000$, then it is knowing that you have the cash to refund them in case of shitty calls.
tl;dr : If you want to trade a long of 1000usd with a leverage of 5, then you should have sent to the platform 5000usd.
Thanks a lot.