NinjaTrader 8: My Second Platform, and a Good One to Start With

NinjaTrader 8 is one of the most popular futures platforms. Charting and simulation are free, a licence is needed for live trading, and a huge add-on market has grown up around it. I use it as a second perspective alongside Sierra Chart: the same market, a different set of order flow tools. The platform itself is fine. The market for paid indicators around it is often much worse.

What it is

NinjaTrader is a US company that owns the platform, its own futures brokerage and, since 2022, Tradovate. NinjaTrader 8 runs on Windows and has charts, a DOM (SuperDOM), order flow tools (Order Flow+) and the C#-based NinjaScript language.

Thanks to NinjaScript there are thousands of add-ons: from free indicators to expensive footprint, profile and signal packages.

Pros

• Free charting and simulation: you can learn without paying.
• A large community and lots of material.
• Good integration with a futures broker.

Cons

• With large amounts of tick-by-tick data it can be slower than Sierra.
• The add-on market: many paid indicators promise “institutional signals” but show the same as free tools. I describe this in my article on the best indicator.

Who it's for

For people starting out with futures who want to learn a platform, charting and simulation for free.

Other platforms

• Sierra Chart I use it
• ATAS Recommended
• TradingView Single purpose
• MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 I avoid it
• Bloomberg Terminal I don't need it
• The full list of platforms with my rating

Frequently asked questions

Educational content and my personal opinion, not an investment recommendation. Features, pricing and availability change: check the current information with the vendor before deciding. Product names belong to their owners.