These are the questions people ask most often about the trading tools. The answers are short and plain. The calculators are reference and planning utilities — they quantify scenarios; they do not decide anything for you, and nothing here is financial advice.
Are the tools free?
Yes. The calculators are free utilities, and no login is required to use them. They exist to put the discipline math at your fingertips, not behind a paywall. You can run the cost, position-size, break-even, drawdown, and Sharpe calculators without an account.
Do the tools place trades?
No. They are planning and reference tools only. Nothing you enter into a calculator touches an exchange, and no result becomes an order. Execution lives entirely on the Kraken API bot, behind its own paper-to-live gate. The calculators help you decide; they never act.
Does the cost calculator match the bot's rules?
Yes. The cost calculator uses the same model as the cost-beating rule the bot enforces on every signal — fees, spread, slippage, and a safety buffer adding up to a cost-to-beat. So the hurdle you see in the calculator is the same kind of hurdle a real signal has to clear before the bot will consider it.
Can the tools tell me what to trade?
No. A calculator answers a math question — what a trade costs, how large a position should be, how far price must move to break even. It cannot tell you whether to take the trade, and it never tries to. The decision and the outcome are yours alone.
Why do the dashboards show stock indices and futures?
The futures and index reference dashboards show context like Dow futures, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ because many crypto traders watch broader markets for conditions and mood. They are reference only — never a recommendation, never advice, and never a substitute for your own rules. They sit beside your trading process, not inside it.
Which calculator should I start with?
For most trades, start with the cost calculator to find the cost-to-beat, then the position-size calculator to set the order size. If you are unsure which tool fits your question, the decision guide walks through each one and the question it answers.
To go deeper, read how to use the trading cost calculator and which trading calculator to use, and when. To judge a record, see how to score a track record with Sharpe. Nothing here is financial advice, and no profit is ever promised.