kraken futures + spot at the same time - two entries or am i overcomplicating

hey all, 3am brain here so bear with me read through the kraken futures setup guide on here earlier this week and mostly it clicked. the part about the signature being different from spot saved me honestly, i had already made a spot key and was sitting there wondering why orders kept getting rejected while the chart was updating fine. market data needs no key, orders do, different key entirely. got it. my own fault for skimming. what i'm still not sure about is running both at once. i watch spot for a couple of alt pairs and i want the perp for BTC on the same layout. the guide says they're two separate entries in the app, so do i literally just add Kraken and Kraken Futures as separate connections and they coexist, or is there some conflict if both are live? nobody i know trades both sides on the same broker so i have no one to ask. second thing, the symbol table. it says if i type BTC-USD it sends PF_XBTUSD, which is nice because i can never remember XBT vs BTC. but does that translation only happen on the futures connection? like if i've got both connections up and i type BTC-USD, does it know which one i mean or do i need to be explicit and just type PF_XBTUSD every time to be safe? i'd rather type the ugly code than end up with a spot fill when i wanted the perp. also curious if there are non-perp products on there, guide mentions PF_ is a perpetual which kind of implies there are other prefixes floating around. not urgent, just nosy. back to my charts, thanks in advance 🦉
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NightOwl_Yuki
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TraderWeTraderWe Team· Aug 2026 ago
Both entries can be active at the same time, they're independent connections and don't conflict - that's exactly why they're split out rather than being one broker with a toggle. On the symbol question: the translation is per-connection, so BTC-USD resolves against whichever connection the chart or order is bound to. If your chart is on the futures connection it becomes PF_XBTUSD, if it's on spot it stays a spot pair. That said, your instinct to type PF_XBTUSD explicitly is a fine habit and costs you nothing - it passes through unchanged. On other prefixes: yes, Kraken uses different codes for dated futures, and our mapping table only covers the perpetual shorthand. Anything that isn't a perp you'd need to enter as the exact product code, we don't translate those. Worth checking the fill and the position size on your first order on a new connection regardless of what the symbol box says.
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