Drawing objects and adding indicators is relatively smooth and intuitive. Similarly, the interface design is highly customizable allowing users to construct dashboards to their own liking. NinjaTrader users do have the option to access the platform for free for demo and live trading.
The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace. In order to allow us to keep developing Myfxbook, please whitelist the site in your ad blocker settings. If you have any questions or would like to contact me please send me an email at the following address. TradeStation provides a built-in trade tool that allows quick trade executions as well as order management. TradeStation and NinjaTrader are both mainly desktop applications.
Software vs Online Access
I would rather use dxfeed as my data, but executions happen through ninjatrader, via orders placed on bookmap. Both platforms score very well in this category with detailed user guides and dedicated customer support hotlines. Both platforms offer 24 hour emergency trade desk support.
NinjaTrader users can create alerts with conditions set on drawing tools, indicators price movement, account and position stats, and data series. There are no limitations set on the number of alarms and users get to enjoy a variety of ways of getting notified . Similarly, TradeStation offers alerts only applicable to analysis techniques such as drawing objects and indicators. The partial and full strategy automation features are useful additions to the platform, and it’s possible to work with a NinjaScript programmer to design your own technical indicators and strategies. Of course, you can do this on your own if you have experience coding and want to learn something new. As a brokerage, NinjaTrader offers access to the futures and forex markets. The company has partnered with several supporting brokerages, including Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade, to give traders access to other markets, including options on futures, CFDs, and equities.
And we launched ExecMode to help organizations solve really ugly technical challenges. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. These are both brilliant pieces of trading platform software. Either platform will serve the retail or professional trader well.
But you’ll be able to run the same feed on NT and Bookmap simultaneously. And it is possible to place and execute orders on Bookmap through the Ninja account and to see the full depth xcritical website of Rithmic data. Setup and installation for both platforms is easy but NinjaTrader requires less stringent requirements compared to TradeStation, particularly RAM and OS requirements.
For example, full market depth data on CME is $10 per month. If you need access to more instruments, you can opt for the CME bundle, which includes CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX, for $30 per month. Testimonials appearing on may not be representative of the experience of other clients or customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success. TradeStation provides two types of drawing objects (analytical and non-analytical). The platform has a vast collection that can complete any trader’s arsenal – from Andrew’s Pitchfork, complete Fibonacci family, Gann Fan, Regression Channel to the universally important trendline. At the time of writing, unless you have a lifetime NT license.
NinjaTrader Support vote results
TS offers extensive user guides and help center which consists of forums and video tutorials. Tradestation’s ‘definition’ feature allows users to access proprietary help articles on a particular study (e.g., indicators) with a mere click. TradeStation also has a forum but covers topics beyond the usual platform technicalities and programming language . The forum hosts active conversations about TradeStation-user back tested strategies and trades, trading books, articles, and video reviews, as well as active conversations about markets . Overall, if your happy to go with either platforms brokerage solutions. Tradestations – TS Select with free platform access is a great deal. If you don’t need desktop access and happy with either web browser or mobile access.
NinjaTrader is only available via PC desktop software installation. On the other hand Tradestation is available via PC desktop installation, web browser and mobile application.
Forex
Fortunately, NinjaTrader hosts free weekly webinars to help you get started. Topics include connecting to data, one-click order entry, how to set up a workspace, basic chart creation, advanced settings, and strategy automation.
The TS Go plan offers great deals on commissions which I will discuss next. One of the best tools for day traders, aside from nearly endless add-ons for trading, is the Market Replay. The Market Replay feature lets you download past trading sessions and review them as if you were trading live, in real time. It’s a helpful educational tool and enables you to accelerate your learning by trading multiple sessions in a single day. The Order Flow+ suite of premium features, which allows you to analyze trade activity using order flow, volume bars, and market depth, is available only with a lifetime license. Futures and forex trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor.
You can try out the software with a demo that allows you to practice trading without risking any financial assets. Leila Najafi is a luxury travel and lifestyle writer and editor with over five years of experience covering travel rewards programs, destination and buying guides, and more. Leila’s writing has been featured in NBC News, Thrillist, Fodor’s, 10Best.com by USA Today, HuffPost, Eater LA, and Reader’s Digest. Julius Mansa is a CFO consultant, finance and accounting professor, investor, and U.S. Department of State Fulbright research awardee in the field of financial technology. He educates business students on topics in accounting and corporate finance.
TradeStation carries a decent amount of built-in and add-on indicators. The library consists of about 120 built-ins and a wide array of custom indicators made by independent developers. The spectrum of indicator categories is more or less complete – choose https://xcritical.solutions/ from the popular Elliott Wave, Moving Averages, Oscillators, Overbought/Oversold indicators. The custom indicator library will continue to grow as TradeStation’s proprietary language, Easylanguage, requires little to no programming experience.
The only real notable downside is chart panning doesn’t use a scroll-type mechanism. NinjaTrader and the community’s ecosystem has a wide selection of educational videos, webinars, and documentation. Vendors provide much of the education, which includes promotional material for vendor systems, add-ons, and plugins, but we didn’t see this as a negative.
Visit NinjaTraders Contact Us page to call, email, or submit a support request. The NinjaTrader platform is geared toward active traders—not long-term investors. As a result, it doesn’t offer any portfolio analysis tools or reports that would help buy-and-hold investors make decisions about asset allocation or specific holdings. Ninjatrader commission costs depend on your license type and individual security being traded. In the following table I have listed the Futures Micro E-Mini commissions as a comparison example.
Charting Tools
A limited amount of non-platform related educational content is on the NinjaTrader blog. All of NinjaTrader’s educational offerings can be accessed for free by anyone—clients and non-clients alike. The platform supports all the usual order types, including market, limit, stop market, and stop-limit orders as well as advanced OCO orders. If you’re interested in automated trading, NinjaTrader’s ATM Strategies provide discretionary traders with semi-automated features to manage their positions. Alternatively, you can fully automate a strategy using a “point and click” construction for non-programmers, or by using NinjaTrader’s C#-based trading framework. In thisside by sidecomparison I’ll discuss the key features of each platform. I’ll also compare in detail user experience, charting tools, indicator selection, costs, support and brokerage access.
Ninjatrader
If you like the trading experience, you can transition to a funded trading account. For futures or options, you will have to choose between Phillip Capital or Dorman Trading as NinjaTrader Brokerage’s partner trading firm. A great feature of the platform worth mentioning is the ability to place simulated trades, complete with an imaginary account and profit/loss summary. Also, I should add, ninja can switch my data to rithmic so I wouldn’t need two different streams.
NinjaTrader provides 24/5 and weekend technical support, along with a 24-hour trade desk for emergencies and live orders. Live chat help is available on weekdays on the NinjaTrader website, and the response times were reasonable.
Timeframes and Chart Data Types
You’ll have access to several easy-to-use order entry interfaces, including Chart Trader, a terrific tool that allows you to place and manage trades directly from a chart . Bookmap supports NinjaTrader connectivity through the indicator as well.
If you want to us the more advanced features like order flow and chart trader (which I’m a big fan). Full BioJean Folger has 15+ years of experience as a financial writer covering real estate, investing, active trading, the economy, and retirement planning. She is the co-founder of PowerZone Trading, a company that has provided programming, consulting, and strategy development services to active traders and investors since 2004. TradeStation takes customer support at a whole different level.
From that perspective, the NinjaTrader platform has all the tools and features it needs to be successful. The platform, indicators, and other features are customizable at a very granular level, which is important for active or professional traders. Again because NinjaTrader is primarily a futures and forex brokerage, financial statements, news, and economic data that you might find in other professional platforms are missing. While the technical data is comprehensive, you’ll have to use another resource for fundamental information if you need that type of analysis. NinjaTrader brokerage clients can use the companion CQG mobile app, available for both iOS and Android. While the app doesn’t use the NinjaTrader platform, it offers an intuitive interface with real-time quotes, charts, and analytics.
