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Insufficient funds — what it means

Why the bot reports insufficient funds, and how to resolve it.

What you'll see

Activity feed entries like: 

[insufficient_funds] BTC/USD skipped — insufficient funds, retrying after 1483s.

What it means

The bot wanted to place a buy order (entry or DCA level) on this pair, but your Kraken USD balance is too low to fund it. The bot sets a per-pair cooldown (a few minutes to hours, depending on context) so it doesn't hammer Kraken with rejected orders on every tick.

Why this happens

Your USD is tied up in open positions
Common in active markets — multiple pairs DCAed and your USD balance is depleted. New entries can't fire until existing cycles close (sells fill) and free up USD.
Pair's entry size is too large for the USD you have
If you're trading with $200 USD and the pair's entry is $100, you can only fund one buy at a time. Reduce the pair's entry size, or fund more USD.
You withdrew USD from Kraken
The bot doesn't know about your manual withdrawals; it just sees less USD next tick. This is fine — it adapts.

How to resolve

  1. Wait for cycles to close. The most common cause is "money is working" — your USD is in open positions. As cycles close (sells fill), USD frees up and new entries become possible.
  2. Deposit more USD into Kraken if you want the bot to keep adding pairs / DCAing despite open positions.
  3. Reduce per-pair entry sizes at /me/bot/config if you want to spread your bankroll across more pairs.
  4. Disable pairs you don't need active right now. Disabled pairs hold their positions but don't place new buys.

Cooldown duration

The cooldown is sized to "how long until your USD might naturally free up" — typically minutes to a couple of hours. Each pair's cooldown is independent; one pair on cooldown doesn't affect others.

This shouldn't be alarming

Insufficient-funds messages are normal in active markets — they're the bot's way of saying "I'd have done X, but I can't right now." No money is lost; nothing is broken. The bot adapts on the next tick once USD becomes available.