-UPDATE-

Please don’t follow the instructions below. I today identified a problem that might prevent the kind of trading described from working. It seems to be a software issue at Kraken. Basically if you put a timed limit order, your trade ought be executed at the BETTER of market, or your limit. In fact twice today the trade was executed at the WORSE of the two prices.

The bid and ask were both around $100 higher. than my execution price. Both seem to be rogue trades. You can't do a trade outside of the market bid-ask unless you are big enough to move the market. The trades wer efor 0.3 bitcoins each. Not enough to move the market - definitely not enough to make a flash crash..

I have just posted a new blog with screenshots, showing what went wrong. The blog, entitled "Bad Trades on Kraken", can be found here: https://steemit.com/kraken/@swissclive/bad-trades-on-kraken.

I have put in a support ticket to Kraken and will share their reply.

• END OF UPDATE

The original article appears below. It stills stands. There is just a problem with one aspect - the "start time" function:

Did you ever wish that you could trade bitcoins while you are sleeping? You don’t need to own a bot to do this. If you have an account at Kraken, you can do this without any special skills at all. You can go to bed and trade while you are sleeping. When you wake up, you could have done 20+ in-and-out profitable trades.

In this article, I will show you how to buy bitcoins at pre-determined times and prices in the future, and then to sell them again at a profit, - at a higher price relative to what you paid.

You can set things up so that you trade once a day, once an hour, once a minute, or as often as you want. There’s no need to watch the price.

To do this, you need an account at Kraken. I assume are already famiar with Kraken’s buggy website, or you wouldnt be here. If you are level three verified, then it’s a bonus. You can trade up to 5 times your money (leverage).

To show you how to set up automated trading, I will walk through an example of one trade. You can repeat this hundreds of times if you want.

Example: Let’s assume I am going out this afternoon, and I won’t be able to trade. I could just place a limit, and then when I come home I will see if I got hit. That’s not ideal.

Example

I want to place an order to buy 0.01 bitcoin at 18:00 today, but I don’t want to pay more than $7’300.
I want to buy at the lower of the market price or $7’300
If the order gets executed, I want to immediately enter another order to sell the bitcoin at a profit of 2%.

What happens

At 18:00 my limited buy order is automatically entered. If the price is below $7300, it will be automatically executed at the lower price. So if the bid-ask at 18:00 is $6934.20 to $6934.30, you will pay $6934.30, (not your limit of $7’300).

As soon as your order is traded, Kraken automatically enters a new sell order, at a price you previously determined. This can be a fixed price, like $7’600, or a relative price, such as your traded price plus 10% or a fixed amount above your trade price.

I want to sell at 2% above my purchase price - whatever it is.

Here’s how I would set it up:

Click on “New Order”, choose “Advanced” and “XBT/USD”. Make sure to choose “Buy”.

Look at the picture below and the items circled in yellow. These are the things you need to change or enter.

Here are some important points:

You can leave your order type as “Market”. This means you will buy at whatever the price is at the time you choose. I do NOT recommend market orders. If you want to buy anyway, at any price, then at least put in a high limit, like $9’000 or $10’000. Don’t worry, you won’t pay the limit. You will pay the lower market price.

In the “Conditional close” section, enter the kind of sell order you would like to have entered immediately after execution of your first order. CARE! Make sure you click on the “+” symbol and the “%” symbol! IF YOU FORGET TO CLICK THE “%” SYMBOL, YOU WILL SELL YOUR BITCOIN FOR $2 ABOVE THE PURCHASE PRICE, INSTEAD OF THE 2% ABOVE.

On the leverage tab, I clicked 5X. This does not mean I am going long 0.5 bitcoins. It means that for the 0.1 bitcoin I am buying, I only have to stump up one-fifth of the cash. The rested is borrowed. It gives me the opportunity to enter more trades than I can afford. Don’t do this unless you understand margin calls and automatic sell-outs.

Next to start click on “Custom”. This allows you to set the time at which your order will be entered.

You can also choose when your order will expire. I don’t recommend “good till cancelled” orders. You can easily forget about them. I prefer orders to expire on the day I entered them. That way, I can start each day uncluttered from the orders of the previous day.

The rest of the screens are self evident. You can just click through.

Now you have entered your first order go ahead and enter the rest. You can enter hundreds of orders like this. Don’t worry if you dont have enough money for hundreds of orders. They will only be executed if the money is there.

By the way, while I was writing this, Kraken executed several small buy and sell orders and my cash balance has risen by nearly $50!

If you try this, please experiment first with small amounts in case you make a mistake.

Disclaimer

This is not investment advice. Trading bitcoin not suitable for many people. It’s easy to screw-up if you trade. You may lose all your money.