Paper mode and live mode run the same strategy, react to the same signals, and respect the same risk limits. There is exactly one difference between them, and it is the one that matters: whether an order touches real money. Understanding what changes — and, just as importantly, what does not — is the difference between trusting automation and being surprised by it.
What stays the same
In both modes the bot reads the market, scores signals against their full cost, rejects the ones that cannot beat their friction, and logs every decision to the audit trail. Your risk limits, cooldowns, and kill switch all apply identically. The point of paper mode is that it is not a watered-down rehearsal — it is the full machine, running on real prices, with simulated funds.
What changes in live mode
Live mode sends real orders to the Kraken API against real balances. Fills now depend on real liquidity, so the slippage you modelled becomes slippage you actually pay. This is why the cost-beating rule and a realistic cost model matter so much before you flip the switch: live mode has no undo.
The paper-to-live gate
Between the two modes sits a confirmation gate the bot refuses to skip. You cannot drift from paper into live by accident; going live is a deliberate, explicit action. The gate exists because the right order of operations is fixed — prove a strategy in backtests, then in paper, and only then consider live — and the platform encodes that order rather than trusting you to remember it under pressure.
No mode guarantees profit
Neither paper nor live mode promises a result. Paper mode proves your discipline and your wiring; live mode tests them against real money. The bot enforces the rules and records the outcomes — the outcomes themselves are never guaranteed, and nothing here is financial advice.
Set up your connection first with how to create and scope Kraken API keys. To validate a strategy before any of this, see walk-forward testing explained, and to set the limits the live bot enforces, read how to set per-trade and daily risk limits.