Many traders have been using NinjaTrader for years, but is it as good as it sounds? What are the pros and cons that you need to consider?

NinjaTrader is a globally known online trading platform and brokerage service suitable for beginner, professional, and active traders. NinjaTrader was established in 2003 as a software company offering an excellent trading platform with advanced research tools and trading features. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and Chicago, Illinois, the company has attracted over 100,000 clients and no less than 450 developers.

The US-based company also acts as an introducing broker of brokers such as Philip Capital and Dorman Trading. It supports futures and forex trading by using auto-trade algorithmic strategies. The introducing broker status itself basically means that clients' assets and cash are held with the broker, but the trading platform, fees, and customer support are facilitated by NinjaTrader.

Meanwhile, for those who are interested in trading other assets such as stocks and options, the platform has partnered with several other popular brokers such as TD Ameritrade, OANDA, FXCM, Forex.com, City Index, and Interactive Brokers. Traders can just connect their third-party brokerage account with the NinjaTrader platform to make the trade.

 

Safety and Regulation

NinjaTrader is registered with the National Futures Association (NFA), which allows it to legally act as an introducing broker service for other brokers. It's worth noting that the related brokers are also equally trusted as they are regulated by at least one top-tier financial regulator such as the US CFTC and the UK FCA. In fact, considering that NinjaTrader only acts as an introducing broker, it's more vital to check the background and track record of the broker where your money and assets are held.

Additionally, it's highly advised to trade with NinjaTrader's services for professionals because futures trading is not covered by investor protection schemes, which means there's no negative balance protection. If the balance of your account goes negative, you will be responsible for those losses.

 

Account Types Offered

NinjaTrader offers several account types. You can pick to either open a demo account or a live account. The demo account in NinjaTrader offers a huge opportunity for beginners to practice and improve their trading skills.  Once you have built your confidence and decided to open a live trading account, here are the following account types that you can choose:

  • Individual Account – owned by one individual trader
  • Joint Account – owned by one or more individuals
  • Corporate/LLC/Trust/Partnership Account –owned by a legal entity
  • Retirement Account – a tax-advantaged account, only available for US residents

If you choose to open a trading account in NinjaTrader, your money will be held either by Philip Capital or Dorman Trading. Hence, the account opening should be done through one of those brokers. The process might be complicated for beginners and the approval process might take several days. Here's how:

  1. Head over to NinjaTrader's website and choose the asset that you would like to trade.
  2. Choose the broker (either Philip Capital or Dorman Trading) and you will be redirected to the website.
  3. Choose an account type.
  4. Input your personal information, such as name, date of birth, and address. There are several questions you should answer related to your financial condition.
  5. Verify your identity. You can use your national ID, passport, or driver's license for ID verification and a utility bill or bank statement for proof of address.
  6. Answer a few additional questions about how you want to use your account.
  7. Accept customer and disclosure documents.

Once the online registration is done, you'll receive an email that will ask you to fill out an Options Request Form. You must decide which markets and what positions limit that you would like to trade with the account.

 

Trading Fees and Cost

NinjaTrader's trading fees are among the lowest in the industry. The company offers three types of licenses, namely Free, Lease, and Lifetime. The commission charged is based on the license you choose. For futures trading, the commissions can go as low as $0.59 per contract and $0.09 per micro contract with a Lifetime license. If you upgrade your license to a higher paid level, you will get more advanced platform features and lower commissions. By buying a Lease or Lifetime license, you can also get access to a suite of premium features such as the Order Flow feature set.

However, the non-trading fees are relatively high compared to other brokerage companies. Once again, it depends on the license that you choose. It's free of charge for the Free license, $720 annual for the Lease license, and $1,099 every four months for the Lifetime license. Also, there is a $25 monthly inactivity fee if you don't place any order after a while.

 

Deposit and Withdrawal

The minimum deposit for opening an account at NinjaTrader is $400, which is quite comparable to other brokers. The company doesn't charge any deposit fee, but the intermediary bank might if you make an international bank transfer. You can make deposits through bank transfers and checks if you're a US resident.

NinjaTrader supports three base currencies, namely USD, EUR, and GBP. In this case, it's best to fund your account with the same currency as your bank account so you don't have to pay conversion fees. If your bank account currency is not in the three varieties available in NinjaTrader, it's better to choose USD.

Withdrawals, on the other hand, are costly at NinjaTrader. It generally costs $30 and $40 for international bank transfers. Similar to deposits, the payment methods are very limited. Aside from bank transfers, US residents can also make a withdrawal by using checks. It's free of charge at Dorman Trading but has a $4 fee at Philip Capital.

 

Education and Support

NinjaTrader offers excellent materials including guides, platform tutorials, educational videos, and webinars. The guides are well-structured and easy to understand. You can download the PDF files to read online. Apart from that, the demo account can also be a great way to learn how to start trading and get familiar with the platform. There is a simulated trading feature with real-time market price and condition so that it could be useful to practice or test out strategies.

NinjaTrader Technology

As for customer support, NinjaTrader is known to provide good services through live chat, telephone, email, and support forums. The live chat responses are usually fast and helpful. There's also an active support forum where traders can interact with one another and NinjaTrader's support team as well. The only issue is perhaps the lack of 24/7 availability as the support teams are only available during US market hours. However, if the matter is very urgent, you can contact the Trade Desk which is available at all times.

 

Why You Should Pick NinjaTrader

  • Advanced Trading Platform
    NinjaTrader is known to offer a sophisticated trading platform and has proven its ability to provide leading features for traders with various backgrounds and levels of expertise. It has excellent charting tools, great technical analysis tools, and partial and full strategy automation. Apart from that, there are also thousands of additional apps and add-ons from third-party developers that can be added to the platform.

  • Great Educational Resources
    NinjaTrader provides various educational materials designed to turn even the most novice traders into pros. You can read training articles, watch video tutorials, and join various daily webinars for free in order to improve your skill and gain more knowledge to become a successful trader. Also, you can enjoy the simulated trading feature on the platform to test out trading strategies.

  • Responsive Customer Support
    Good customer support often shows that the broker is responsible and cares about the satisfaction of its clients. After all, when you have an issue or question about your trade, you want to make sure that they're willing to help you. At NinjaTrader, you can contact the support team via live chat, email, telephone, or forum discussions. The responses are usually very fast and useful.

 

The Downsides

  • Relatively High Non-Trading Fees
    Even though the trading costs are pretty low, the non-trading costs in NinjaTrader are definitely higher than other brokerage firms. There are some charges that you should know about, such as withdrawal fees and inactivity fees.

  • Doesn't Offer Easy Access to Trading Stocks
    NinjaTrader offers an easy setup for futures and forex trading, but you'll have to use a third-party broker to trade equities. That means you have to take some additional steps to get started by connecting the platform to a supporting broker that offers the assets that you are interested in.

  • Free Version Limitations
    Using the free version of the trading platform will give you access to charting features and the trading simulator. However, you'll have to pay a considerable amount of money to access premium features such as Order Flow+, automated trading, and more detailed trading data.

 

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, we can see that NinjaTrader is a great platform with sophisticated technology and perhaps some of the best trading tools on the market. It is particularly suitable for active traders who are interested in futures and forex trading. The company uses a unique approach that allows third-party developers to partner with them and improves their overall performance. As a result, NinjaTrader has grown not only to offer advanced in-house features but also able to provide a library of thousands of other tools and add-ons.

However, if you're a long-term trader and prefer to trade stocks or other equities, you might want to reconsider your choice. While focusing on active traders, the broker tends to neglect the needs of buy-and-hold investors who like to stick to their investments in the long term. Nevertheless, it's always a great idea to try the demo account as it can give you a brief idea on how the platform works.

 

Another trading platform recognized for its advanced charting is cTrader. It's quite well-received among worldwide retail traders despite MetaTrader's domineering presence in the industry. How is cTrader compared to the latest MetaTrader platform?