NinjaTrader is a forex, futures, CFD, and equities supporting a trading platform that has been around since 2003. That’s just a couple of years before the ever-popular MetaTrader 4 was released, and 7 years before MT5 came around. If you’ve already begun trading forex, then you’ve likely heard of MT4 and/or MT5. While the aforementioned platforms are popular for many reasons, NinjaTrader does offer some of its own unique features and might deserve more credit with traders. Stay with us to find out what sets this platform apart and whether we’d recommend trading with it.
Features
NinjaTrader provides access to the forex and futures markets, as well as CFDs and equities through some of their partnering brokerages. This platform is a good option for those that are looking for technical analysis tools, advanced charting, customizable technical indicators, real-time analysis, and other 3rd party add-ons for apps and tools. Here are a few more features:
- Partial & full strategy automation
- One-click order entry
- Platform guides, daily (free) webinars, and video library
- The CQG mobile app is available for brokerage clients, however, no app is available if using another broker
- Futures and forex trading are supported but a supporting broker is needed to trade equities
- Settings can be changed easily and are highly customizable
- Supports many different bar types
- Includes ChartTrader tool, which allows one to place and manage trades directly from the chart
- Supports usual order types (market, limit, stop market, stop-limit) in addition to OCO orders.
- Market Replay feature allows traders to play, pause, or rewind historical price data.
- Supports simulated trading accounts for practice (with the paid version)
Cost
NinjaTrader is free to use for charting, market analysis, and live trading as long as you have a funded account through a brokerage. The requirement is only a $50 account balance for trading forex and $400 if you want to trade futures. Premium features are locked unless traders make a one-time payment of up to $1,099 or lease the platform for $60 a month. This is obviously a high cost, but it provides access to advanced order types, automated trading, and backtesting. This will be necessary for many traders, otherwise, you will likely notice everything that these features are missing.
Monthly data fees may also apply if you’re trading with the full depth option. Data fees depend on the brokerage you’re trading through. Options range from $7 to $21 or higher per month, depending on your brokerage.
The Bottom Line
NinjaTrader offers several pros. It is excellent for charting, strategy automation, technical analysis, indicator customization, and so on. We are especially fond of their ChartTrader tool because it allows one to input trades directly from the chart (talk about convenience). This platform would likely draw in a lot more traders if it weren’t for the major downside – the price tag. For a successful investor with thousands of dollars, it might be easy to sink such an amount into a product like this, but many traders would have a hard time letting go of the one-thousand dollars needed for the lifetime license. Especially considering that options like MT4 or MT5 are available with all of their features unlocked for free through many brokerages.
You can always use the free version of NinjaTrader, but your movement will be limited, and you will likely feel the restrictions without the ability to backtest, access advanced order types, and use automated trading. Still, NinjaTrader does offer several useful features that aren’t available with some of their most popular competitors, so this platform might be worthy of the monthly or lifetime price tag after all. Our opinion is that this platform is worth using if it offers things you need and is personally affordable. Otherwise, you should stick with another popular option that doesn’t come with such a high price and remember NinjaTrader in the future.