Ninja Trader
Table of Contents
Useful Links
Trade Desk Calendar – view significant upcoming financial events
Market Updates – browse a feed of the latest market news stories
Trading 101 – learn the basics of technical analysis and day trading
NinjaTrader New – browse the latest news surrounding the NinjaTrader platform
Background
Used by: Technical Analysts
NinjaTrader is a relatively new platform having been founded in 2003. The US software company has a decorated awards cabinet and currently serves 60,000 traders from over 150 different countries.
NinjaTrader offers a lot of tools for technical analysis, making it geared towards chart trading. The platform has a ton of customisable indicators, along with real-time analysis and great charting presentation
Affiliations or Secondary Platforms
NinjaTrader Ecosystem: a search engine for apps and services that integrate with the NinjaTrader platform.
There are also numerous brokers and partners that are compatible with the NinjaTrading platform
Market Access for Live Trading
| Market Access | Instruments |
|---|---|
|
Stocks |
Available through third-party brokers like Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade |
|
Commodities |
Available through futures contracts on exchanges like CME, CBOT, COMEX, and NYMEX |
|
Futures |
CME, CBOT, COMEX NYMEX, EUREX, ICE, ICE UK |
|
Options |
Available through NinjaTrader Brokerage and supported brokers |
|
CFDs |
Available through supported brokers |
|
Forex |
Available through supported brokers like FOREX.com and FXCM |
|
Mutual Funds |
N/A |
|
Hedge Funds |
N/A |
|
Bonds |
N/A |
|
ETFs |
Available through supported brokers |
|
Futures Options |
CME, NYMEX, CBOT, COMEX |
|
Crypto |
Bitcoin Futures |
|
IPOs |
N/A |
|
Direct Market Access |
NinjaTrader can provide direct access to markets through Continuum and other supported data providers and brokers |
|
Account Types |
Individual, Joint, IRA, Corporate, Partnership, Trust, and other institutional accounts are supported through NinjaTrader Brokerage and third-party brokers |
NinjaTrader Market Access
NinjaTrader provides extensive market access, supporting a wide range of instruments including stocks, commodities, futures, options, CFDs, forex, ETFs, and Bitcoin futures. The platform offers direct market access through Continuum and integrates with third-party brokers like Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade, enhancing flexibility for traders. Various account types such as individual, joint, IRA, corporate, partnership, trust, and institutional accounts are supported.
However, NinjaTrader does not support mutual funds, hedge funds, or bonds, and some market access relies on third-party brokers, which can add complexity. Despite these limitations, NinjaTrader's robust offerings make it a strong choice for diverse trading needs
Market Data and Software Costs
| Market Data | NinjaTrader fees and margin rates are frequently discussed topics. While many reviews offer basic information, Quant Savvy provides a detailed breakdown and comparison with other trading platforms |
|---|---|
|
Data Feeds Compatible |
All supported Data Feeds: Kinetick is the “preferred Market Data Service” according to NinjaTrader |
|
Minimum Account Opening Balance |
$400 |
|
Time to open account |
Time to open NinjaTrader account: 1 - 2 days |
|
Inactivity fee |
$25 per year |
|
Withdrawal Fee |
Withdrawing via Wire Transfer: Domestic Wire: $30 International Wire: 40 EUR for EUR transfers, $40 for all other Withdrawing via check: Dorman Trading: Free Phillip Capital: $4 |
|
Desktop |
There are 3 licenses: Free, Lease, Own Free: $0 Lease: $720 annually, $425 semi-annually or $225 Quarterly
Own: Single payment of $1099 or 4 monthly payments of $329 |
|
Mobile App |
N/A |
|
Web Trading |
N/A |
|
Stocks & ETFs |
N/A |
|
Stock Options |
N/A |
|
Futures |
Order routing: Continuum: $0.15 per contract (default) Rithmic: $0.25 per contract SuperDOM: Dynamic: $0.00 per contract (default) Static: $0.10 per contract Trading Technologies licensing fee CQG Desktop: $0.25 per futures contract |
|
Futures Micro E-mini |
Free Platform: $0.35 per Micro Contract
Leased Platform: $0.25 per Micro Contract
Lifetime License: $0.09 per Micro Contract |
|
Futures Options |
Order routing: Continuum: $0.40 per contract |
|
Images |
|
User Interface and Technology
Charting, Indicators and Tools
NinjaTrader offers advanced charting capabilities, trade simulation, and backtesting for free. It is recognized for its award-winning charting tools, which include a variety of default chart styles, indicators, and drawing tools. The platform’s Order Flow+ feature amalgamates eight premium tools: Order Flow Volume Profile Indicator, Volumetric Bars, Order Flow Trade Detector, Market Depth Map, Order Flow Cumulative Data, and Order Flow VWAP with Deviation. Additionally, NinjaTrader supports third-party add-ons, providing access to thousands of indicators and tools. Here’s a list of over 400.
Platform Reviews by Users
“I find that NinjaTrader has a similar interface to MultiCharts, the wide support of indicators that TradeStation offers, and the simplicity of thinkorswim. Ninja still has a learning curve, as does any platform. I wish they supported more brokers, but now that they’re in the business, I think that probably won’t happen. I’ve had good experiences with Ninja Brokerage so far, but I’d like more options just in case. I like that I was able to get to try Ninja without any obligations at first. This made it easier to switch over. Anyway, I use Ninja as my primary platform now, as it supports a few systems I like to use. I am looking forward to version 8 but staying away for now until they get all the bugs ironed out.”
Source 2018
“I do prefer TradingView, eSignal and TradeStation, but that’s not taking much away from the fact that NinjaTrader is still a fantastic platform with plenty to offer. Users will appreciate how easy it is to connect to virtually any datafeed/broker, and the speed of the platform and navigating is top-notch. The only thing I found to be slow was when using the Market Analyzer to run scans, which slowed down my system a lot when using 100+ symbols.”
Source 2018
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NinjaTrader User Interface
NinjaTrader excels in offering comprehensive charting and a wide range of indicators and tools, making it a powerful platform for traders. While it has a learning curve and some limitations in broker support, its robust features and user-friendly design make it a highly rated choice for many traders
Day Trading Platform Tools, Live Trading, Research and Portfolio Risk Software
Scanners, Screeners, Watch Lists, Software tools, Alerts
Market Analyzer: Allows real-time market scanning via a high powered quote sheet. Here, it’s easy to monitor trade opportunities with a highly customizable instrument list. Technical indicator columns can be added on too, creating a dashboard feel.
Nison Candle Scanner: Allows you to accurately pick out correct candle patterns. This helps traders save hours of time in their research, as it instantly helps spot candlestick patterns.
Wave Volume Multi Time Frame Scanner: This is a great addon when working with the NinjaTrader Analyzer, as it includes 10 chart patterns and alerts for customizable instruments.
A full list of 3rd party scanners can be found here.
Placing Live Trades and Trading Technology
ChartTrader: NinjaTrader allows you to trade directly from your charts. Order submission can be completed with pre-configured Quick Buttons, or with a Right-Click menu.
There is clear, color-orientated order management, which denotes type and quantity. The click-then-click technology allows for adjusting orders as you go with high precision.
NinjaTrader’s order entry options are extremely well-designed, too. The visualization of SuperDOM and Chart Trader means mistakes are less likely to occur, and entry is very fast. These allow for multi-stage exit parameters, an auto-trail stop as well as a checkbox for an auto-breakeven stop.
Portfolio, Risk Management and Software Tools
NinjaTrader Risk Management Assistant: The NinjaTrader alarm manager will carry out automated actions such as managing positions, Telegram Bot Broadcasts, send emails and execute voice alerts. There are some general and free inherent risk functions inside the tools tab on the ribbon, too. These mostly center around creating risk templates, such as setting intraday margin requirements.
There are also plenty of 3rd party risk-related addons, which can be viewed here.
Research and News Feeds
NinjaTrader Market Updates and Trade Desk Calendar: These two streams of news are provided directly by NinjaTrader to help with fundamental analysis. A word of warning though: they’re not frequent posters. Only around 3 stories per month get posted.
Kinetick News Feed: Kinetick provides real-time news from PR Newswire & Business Wire, as well as RTT News. Of course, Kinetick also provides 500+ market metrics, minute and daily data, historical tick and over 17 fields of fundamental data.
RSS Feed: You can use custom code to implement a trading strategy that automates trades according to news stories.
NinjaTrader Platform Tools
NinjaTrader excels in providing a comprehensive suite of tools for day trading, live trading, research, and risk management. Its robust scanning and trading technology, combined with effective risk management and real-time news feeds, make it a strong choice for traders. However, the infrequency of market updates and the reliance on third-party add-ons for some functions slightly reduce its overall rating
Mobile App
Mobile App Rating
Apple Store Rating: 3.0/5
Android Rating: 3.5/5
Mobile Trading
NinjaTrader Brokerage users have the ability to access their accounts through the NinjaTrader mobile app, providing essential trading functions such as charting, order entry, and account management on the go
Mobile App Reviews
User reviews are mixed. While many appreciate the user-friendly interface and advanced features, others have noted occasional bugs and a steep learning curve for beginners
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NinjaTrader Mobile App
NinjaTrader's mobile app is a valuable addition for traders who need to manage their accounts and trades on the go. Despite some mixed reviews and occasional issues, the app's comprehensive features and ease of use make it a strong choice for mobile trading, enhancing the overall flexibility and accessibility of the NinjaTrader platform
Programming Language
Language
NinjaScript: If you want to have unlimited extensibility and full control and customizability over your NinjaTrader platform, then the C# based NinjaScript allows you to do this.
Ease of Use: Being based on C#, there are no limits to NinjaScript. However, as far as programming languages go, C# isn’t the easiest. NinjaTrader do provide help sheets and tutorials, however, which can be very helpful
There are also professional NinjaScript programmers out there that can be hired to translate trading strategies into raw code, if you lack the proficiency.
Functionality: The highly functional NinjaScript can be used to automate your trading strategy, process trading signals from 3rd party applications as well as create your own 3rd party custom indicators.
Learning Curve
Support: NinjaTrader prides itself on being relatively easy-to-use despite its high capacity for customization.
And with 60,000 traders using NinjaTrader, there are many using NinjaScript. This means there’s a lot of support. The official forum can be helpful, with official replies as well as other users.
Learning: NinjaTrader themselves have created tutorials and help sheets for NinjaScript, while there are also resources to learn the basics of the NinjaTrader platform too.
YouTube Video Channel
NinjaTrader’s official Youtube channel is extremely helpful, with almost 600 videos. However, most of these are around learning technical analysis and NinjaTrader, as opposed to C# or NinjaScript itself.
Compatibility and Design
NinjaTrader is highly compatible. If you’re a good programmer, or wish to hire one, then NinjaScript is extremely powerful for automated trading.
The APIs are equally powerful, too. For example, you can easily connect your Interactive Brokers account over at NinjaTrader, as explained here. It’s not the easiest, as you must have the exact and correct version of TWS, and the setup can become messy.
Perhaps most impressive of all is the openness to 3rd party developers on the NT Ecosystem, which boasts over 1,000 3rd party applications.
Speed and Performance Considerations
C#, which NinjaScript is based on, is a significantly faster language to write in than many others (such as C++, which is more difficult). It’s relatively intuitive and easy to read, yet it’s not as bloated as Python, meaning it can run faster in most cases.
C# is hugely popular by algo traders due to its robustness and high performance and has a very small lag time meaning high frequency is possible.
Resilience and Limitations
The largest limitation of NinjaTrader is the lack of markets and products that are accessible to the customer. If you’re not trading derivatives, then this platform is essentially useless.
The high withdrawal fees and the lack of a mobile or web app make the platform less than appealing.
However, those that are looking for a good research platform with great charting functionality will get some good value.
Perhaps the biggest limitation though is that the software is only available on Windows, which rules out millions of potential traders.
User Reviews
“NOT USER FRIENDLY…always breaking down or not working as it is supposed to. Would gladly go anywhere else.”
Source 2019
“Ninjatrader sucks big time. One of my main problems is that the platform can only be used in one PC. So, if you have multiple computers, you will not be allowed to use the same Ninjatrader account on all of your PCs, which is an obstacle. It is difficult to learn for new traders.”
Source 2020
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NinjaTrader Programming Review
NinjaTrader's NinjaScript offers powerful and flexible programming capabilities, making it a strong choice for experienced traders looking to automate their strategies. However, its complexity and limitations in market access and platform availability make it less appealing to new traders and those not focused on derivatives trading
Automated Trading and Backtesting
Backtesting
Strategy Analyzer: NinjaTrader’s Strategy Analyzer is a robust tool for testing automated strategies using historical data. It supports forward walking tests, multi-objective optimization, and Monte Carlo simulations. However, it lacks integration with news stories and fundamental analysis, relying heavily on price action and market timing for backtesting
Live Automated Trading
iSystems: iSystems allow users to view the top 10 performing auto-strategies based on various timeframes. There are also filters to narrow your search when viewing all the systems, such as Worst Drawdown, Tracked PnL, as well as factors such as Required Capital and Market Traded. There are over 1,000 systems! Any complex automated trading is usually completed in NinjaScript, which is based on C#, but it can also be imported.
Ninjatrader renders charts in 250ms, which is a lot slower than SierraChart, for example, renders in 10ms.
Trade Management and Historical Trades
Trade Management: As you would expect, there are a lot of ways to pre-define trade entries and exits, as well as multiple targets and stops.
There’s no limit to strategy templates that can be configured in order to manage your trades.
As mentioned above, ChartTrader has a color-coded method of managing current positions and trades.
Historical Trades: Historical trades can be viewed under the Performance Data Tabs. This produces a summary tab of your net profit, gross profit, profit factor, max drawdown, total trades, average trade, and so on.
The chart tab produces backtested trade data, whilst there are also some efficiency graphs too.
Portfolio Testing and Trading
NinjaTrader supports portfolio testing through its built-in Strategy Analyzer and a wide range of third-party add-ons available in the NinjaTrader Ecosystem. These tools enhance the ability to test and optimize trading strategies across multiple instruments
Data Stability and Speed
Data stability and speed can be an issue when using the Interactive Brokers API, which is slower. For optimal performance, NinjaTrader recommends using Kinetick, which provides reliable and accurate live and historical data
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NinjaTrader Automated Trading
NinjaTrader provides a comprehensive suite of tools for automated trading and backtesting. While the Strategy Analyzer is powerful, the platform's reliance on price action and slower data feeds can be limitations. The extensive trade management features and portfolio testing capabilities make it a strong choice for experienced traders. However, improvements in data speed and integration with fundamental analysis could enhance its appeal
Customer Support and Learning Resources
Online, Telephone, Email and Account Services Support
Telephone: NinjaTrader provide customer support via phone calls. There is “24/5 and weekend” technical support, as well as a 24-hour emergency trade support line too — toll-free.
There are several email addresses regarding different issues, as well as a form to request support.
Disappointingly, there is no live chat or chatbot to help deal with immediate concerns that do not require a phone call.
Forum and Community Support
Forum: There is an official forum on the NinjaTrader website in which customers frequently post questions. Impressively, many are met with responses from NT workers, meaning their voice extends and engages with customers.
Being a reasonably big trading platform, there’s also a lot of help elsewhere on the internet, such as Youtube and Reddit.
Opening and Account
You can open the NinjaTrader account and access the trading software almost anywhere in the world. However, you must select either Dorman Trading or PhillipCapital when in the UK if you wish to trade Futures, or FXCM if you’re trading Forex. The standard FCA compliance questions will be asked.
If you’re in the US, then OANDA and FOREX.com must be used for Forex trading. Identification and regulation is a little more dependent on the State you’re in.
At least $50 must be sat in your account at all times in order to keep the user ID active.
Deposits, Withdrawals Process
Withdrawals must be at least $250 when processed via Wire. Check withdrawals only work for US residents and will not be sent to addresses overseas. Again, a minimum of $250 must be withdrawn.
You can also transfer funds Broker to Broker, which are a little trickier. You’re advised to email treasury support before submitting it in the transfer.
User Reviews
“I was a customer of Ninja Trader for 9 years and they have gotten progressively worse as the years passed. The customer service has gotten terrible. It seems the only thing on there mind is to collect that 50.00 dollar fee that they have to change the rules to keep receiving it.”
Source 2018
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NinjaTrader Customer Support & Learning
NinjaTrader offers a solid range of customer support options, including phone and email, but lacks immediate assistance via live chat. The active forum and extensive community resources are positives, but the account opening process and withdrawal limitations can be cumbersome. User reviews highlight areas for improvement in customer service
Security
Monitoring, Encryption
Encrypted communication: NinjaTrader login process is encrypted, APIs are outside of their control, so this is when the user is most at risk of a security breach.
Monitoring: Physical, procedural and electronic safeguards are in place in order to protect personal information from unauthorized access.
Safety of Funds
NinjaTrader is regulated in the US under the CFTC. However, the funds you deposit in the futures commission merchant for trading is not protected in the event of bankruptcy or insolvency of the merchant.
However, with NinjaTrading predominantly being used as a software, and when being connected to an external brokerage, the emphasis on security is placed more on the brokerage.
Two Factor Authentication
NinjaTrader currently does not offer two-factor authentication, which is a significant drawback. Enhancing this aspect of their security would greatly benefit their users
NinjaTrader Security
Overall, NinjaTrader’s security measures are adequate but lack some modern security features like two-factor authentication, which results in a rating
NinjaTrade Review Summary 3 out 5 Stars
NinjaTrader is a powerful and feature-rich trading platform that excels in charting, comprehensive trading tools, and customization through its C# based NinjaScript. Despite its strengths, the platform has some limitations in ease of use, customer service, and security, preventing it from achieving a perfect rating.
Pros:
Advanced Charting and Tools: NinjaTrader offers advanced charting capabilities and a wide range of indicators and tools, making it a favorite among traders who value technical analysis. The platform supports extensive third-party add-ons, enhancing its functionality and flexibility.
Robust Trading Features: NinjaTrader excels in providing robust tools for day trading and live trading. Features like the Market Analyzer and ChartTrader, combined with comprehensive trade management options, make it a strong choice for active traders.
Powerful Programming Capabilities: NinjaTrader's NinjaScript offers powerful programming capabilities for experienced traders, making it ideal for those looking to automate their strategies. Its integration with third-party applications adds to its versatility.
Cons:
Complexity for Beginners: The complexity of C# can be challenging for beginners, and the overall platform has a steep learning curve, which may deter new traders.
Customer Service Limitations: While NinjaTrader offers phone and email support, the absence of live chat or chatbot for immediate concerns is a drawback. User reviews highlight areas for improvement in customer service.
Security Concerns: NinjaTrader's security measures are adequate but lack modern features like two-factor authentication. Additionally, funds are not protected in the event of broker insolvency.
Despite these limitations, NinjaTrader is a robust and feature-rich platform ideal for experienced traders who value advanced charting, comprehensive trading tools, and extensive customization options. Its powerful programming capabilities and integration with third-party applications make it a strong choice for those looking to automate their trading strategies. However, its complexity, customer service limitations, and security gaps make it less suitable for beginners and those seeking simpler trading solutions.
