Exchanges
How OKX, Coinbase, Kraken and Bybit differ in Aura, in their markets, order flags, requotes, margin, size rules, paused markets and maintenance notices.
Aura trades on OKX, Coinbase Advanced Trade, Kraken and Bybit. Each exchange offers different markets and treats some orders its own way. This page covers what differs between them, and what can catch you out on each.
At a glance
| OKX | Coinbase Advanced Trade | Kraken | Bybit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Accounts sheet shows | Spot & Perpetual | Spot & U.S. Futures | Spot | Spot & Perpetual |
| Markets | Spot, perpetuals and inverse perpetuals | Spot and futures | Spot | Spot and perpetuals |
| Reduce only | On perpetuals | Not offered | Not offered | On perpetuals |
| Leverage in the ticket | On perpetuals | No | No | On perpetuals |
| Requotes | In place | In place on spot, cancel and new on futures | In place | In place |
| Maintenance notices | No | Yes | No | No |
| Spreader legs | Spot and perpetuals, not inverse perpetuals | Spot and futures | None | Spot and perpetuals |
The terminal marks each market with a type badge: Spot, Perp, Inv perp or Future. The market switcher groups them under the Spot, Perps and Futures tabs.
You can open Live and Paper accounts on every exchange. Paper trading covers what each paper account starts with.
Aura trades the markets it supports on each exchange. That can be fewer than the exchange lists.
OKX
Markets
- Spot. Aura sends OKX spot orders as cash orders, so they don't borrow, whatever your account's borrowing settings.
- Perp: perpetuals that settle in their quote coin, such as USDT.
- Inv perp: inverse perpetuals. Margin, PnL and fees are in the base coin, and one contract is a fixed amount of USD. You size them in USD.
Aura doesn't trade OKX dated futures or options.
A new OKX account trades spot and perpetuals. An older Spot only account rejects perpetual orders until you pick a margin mode for it. Connect an exchange shows where to set it.
Margin mode and leverage
Each perpetual order goes out in the account's margin mode, cross or isolated.
Leverage is a setting on your OKX account, kept for each market. Your orders don't carry it. You change it from the ticket's leverage chip. See Placing an order.
Cross and isolated keep separate leverage on OKX. After you switch the account's margin mode, the ticket reads the leverage for the new mode.
If you change leverage on OKX's website, the ticket shows the new value at once on a market where you hold a position. On any other market, it shows the next time you select that market.
Your OKX account modes
Your OKX account has an account mode and a position mode, both set on OKX. They decide what works in Aura.
| On OKX | In Aura |
|---|---|
| Spot mode | No perpetuals. Max shows "—", and its hover reads "The account is in spot mode, which trades no derivatives." |
| Futures mode | Cross and isolated both work, and the ticket works out Max. |
| Multi-currency margin mode | Cross works. OKX rejects isolated orders. With isolated set, the hover on Max reads "Isolated margin cannot be sized on a multi-currency account." |
| Portfolio margin mode | OKX rejects isolated orders. The ticket doesn't work out Max: "The ticket does not size a portfolio-margin account." You can still type a size. |
| Long/short position mode | OKX rejects every perpetual order. Aura places perpetual orders in net mode only. |
Coinbase Advanced Trade
One Advanced Trade account trades spot and U.S. futures through Coinbase Financial Markets, with one API key. Futures need Coinbase's U.S. derivatives onboarding first. See Connect an exchange.
Futures
- Every Coinbase future has an expiry date. Coinbase's perpetual-style futures are dated contracts too, so Aura shows them as Future, not Perp.
- Futures settle in USD.
- Coinbase counts futures orders in contracts. You enter the size in the base coin, or in USD with Chase, TWAP or Sniper, and Aura turns it into whole contracts. The size step is one contract's worth of the base coin.
- Coinbase margins all your futures in one cross-margined account. Aura has no leverage or margin-mode setting for them. The ticket shows no leverage chip and no Max: you type the size.
- Coinbase futures trade in daily sessions. While a future's session is closed, Aura treats it as paused. See Paused markets.
Watch for
- No reduce only. Coinbase's order interface has no reduce-only flag, on spot or futures. The ticket doesn't offer Reduce only on Coinbase. A close from your positions is a plain order on the opposite side, so a close larger than the position opens one the other way. The close dialog warns: "Coinbase has no reduce-only orders." See Positions.
- Post only rejects. Coinbase rejects a post-only order that would take on arrival. OKX and Kraken accept it, then cancel it. On a Kraken Paper account it is rejected.
- No amend on futures. Coinbase can't amend a futures order, so a requote there cancels the order and places a new one.
Kraken
Kraken in Aura is spot only.
- Aura places Kraken orders as cash orders. It sends no margin orders, so nothing is borrowed.
- Kraken applies reduce only to margin orders only, so the ticket doesn't offer Reduce only.
- A Kraken account can't run a spreader: no Kraken market can be a leg.
- Aura treats a Kraken pair as paused whenever its status is anything but online, limit-only included.
Bybit
One Bybit Unified Trading Account trades spot and perpetuals, with one API key. See Connect an exchange.
Markets
- Spot. Aura sends Bybit spot orders without margin, so they don't borrow, whatever your account's borrowing settings.
- Perp: perpetuals that settle in USDT or USDC, such as BTC-USDT.PERP and BTC-USDC.PERP. You size them in the base coin.
Aura doesn't trade Bybit's inverse perpetuals, dated futures or options.
Margin mode and leverage
Bybit sets one margin mode for the whole account: cross, isolated or portfolio margin. You choose it on Bybit. Aura reads it, and has no setting for it.
Leverage is a setting on your Bybit account, kept for each market, the same for buys and sells. Your orders don't carry it. You change it from the ticket's leverage chip, which shows the account's margin mode, for example Cross · 10x. See Placing an order.
Your Bybit account modes
| On Bybit | In Aura |
|---|---|
| Cross or isolated margin | The ticket shows the leverage chip and works out Max. |
| Portfolio margin | No leverage chip. Max shows "—", and its hover reads "Leverage can't be set while this account uses portfolio margin." You can still type a size. |
| Hedge mode on a perpetual | Aura trades perpetuals in one-way mode only. On a market in hedge mode there's no leverage chip, Max shows "—" with the hover "This market is in hedge mode on the exchange. Switch it to one-way mode to trade it here.", and a position held in hedge mode doesn't show in Aura. |
Watch for
- A requote that would take. If the book moves so that a post-only order's requote would take, Bybit cancels the order and the algo places a new one.
- Reduce only on perpetuals only. Bybit doesn't offer reduce only on spot, so the ticket shows Reduce only on perpetuals alone.
Order flags
Post only
Post only makes an order maker-only. Its hover reads "Submit maker-only orders. If the order would take liquidity immediately, the venue rejects or cancels it." What happens to an order that would cross depends on the exchange.
| Exchange | A post-only order that would take on arrival |
|---|---|
| OKX | Accepted, then cancelled. |
| Coinbase | Rejected. |
| Kraken | Accepted, then cancelled. On a Paper account, rejected. |
| Bybit | Cancelled or rejected. Nothing fills either way. |
Reduce only
A reduce-only order can only shrink your net position. The ticket's hover reads "The venue only uses this order to reduce the current net position. Any remainder it cannot use to reduce is cancelled."
| Exchange | Reduce only |
|---|---|
| OKX | On perpetuals. Not on spot. |
| Coinbase | None. Coinbase has no reduce-only flag. |
| Kraken | None. Kraken applies it to margin orders only, and Aura doesn't send them. |
| Bybit | On perpetuals. Not on spot. |
On an OKX or Bybit perpetual, Reduce only shows in four places:
- The ticket, as Reduce only.
- A spreader, as Lead reduce only and Hedge reduce only, for each leg on a perpetual.
- The close dialog, where it is on at every opening.
- The Amend order card of a Chase, TWAP or Sniper.
Requotes
Algos move resting orders. Chase follows the book, and TWAP enlarges a resting order for the next slice. Where the exchange allows it, Aura amends the order in place: it keeps its ID on the exchange, and the amend carries the new price and size. Where it doesn't, Aura cancels the order and places a new one.
| Exchange | Requote |
|---|---|
| OKX | In place, on every market. |
| Coinbase | In place on spot. Cancel and new on futures. |
| Kraken | In place. |
| Bybit | In place, on every market. |
Sizes and increments
Aura takes each market's size rules from the exchange's own list of markets. The ticket checks your size against them before you submit. Placing an order lists its messages.
| Exchange | Size step | Minimum size | Minimum order value |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKX | Yes | Yes | None |
| Coinbase spot | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Coinbase futures | Yes, in contracts | Yes, in contracts | None |
| Kraken | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bybit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
On an OKX perpetual or a Coinbase future, the exchange counts in contracts. The ticket shows the step and the minimum in the unit you enter: the base coin, or USD for an inverse perpetual. Bybit counts its perpetuals in the base coin.
On OKX and Bybit, Aura reads the largest single order the exchange takes on each market. Bybit states it by quantity only. Chase, TWAP, Sniper and Spreader keep each of their orders under it, and the ticket won't send a DMA above it. Aura doesn't check Coinbase's maximum order size: Coinbase refuses an order above it.
Paused markets
When the exchange pauses a market, Aura refuses new orders on it, with a message such as "Coinbase has paused trading in BTC-USD. Try again later." An order already working there sends no new child orders while the market stays paused.
| Exchange | Aura treats a market as paused when |
|---|---|
| OKX | OKX has suspended it, is rebasing it, or takes post-only orders only. |
| Coinbase | The product is disabled, view-only, cancel-only, trading-disabled, post-only or in auction mode, or a future's session is closed. A limit-only product stays tradable. |
| Kraken | The pair's status is anything but online. |
| Bybit | The market's status is anything but trading. |
Maintenance notices
Aura shows Coinbase's scheduled maintenance. A strip under the top bar appears from 24 hours before a window starts, and a line in the ticket and the close dialog from 1 hour before. Neither blocks an order.
Aura shows no notice for OKX, Kraken or Bybit maintenance. See Connection status for the notices' wording.