NinjaTrader Review 2025: Is It The Right Choice For Investors?

Effortlessly monitor every step of your trading journey with NinjaTrader. Discover all about the powerful futures trading platform along with its impressive low futures fees from this definitive review:

NinjaTrader supports trading stock index futures contracts, Bitcoin and Ethereum futures contracts, commodities (metals, energies, agriculture) futures contracts, treasury bonds futures contracts, treasury notes futures contracts, and forex.

It is a popular trading platform and brokerage for futures trading, especially because it offers low-cost entry Micro E-mini index futures contracts (preferred by low-volume traders and beginners) that can be scaled to standard futures, which more experienced and high-volume traders prefer.

NinjaTrader Review: Everything You Need to Know

NinjaTrader is utilized by both non-experienced and experienced traders, including institutional and group traders because the commissions charged are lower than those charged by brokerages with similar product and service offerings. The NinjaTrader platform, though preferred for futures trading, integrates with thousands of third-party tools and extensions.

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With it, customers can connect trading accounts with other brokers and trade many more assets. Customers can use the trading platform for free, but those with monthly and lifetime subscriptions benefit from lower trading commissions and free forex trading for lifetime subscribers.

Overview of NinjaTrader: How Does it Compare?

The company has offices in Denver, Chicago, and Colorado, Illinois and the platform is utilized around the world, including by 600 developers from 150+ countries. NinjaTrader has two affiliations, the NinjaTrader Brokerage and NinjaTrader LLC – the latter provides a trading platform that integrates hundreds of asset brokers for trading with their customers.

This means that although NinjaTrader brokerage does not offer or is not suitable for trading all the assets apart from futures, stocks, and forex, traders can always configure other broker accounts with the platform to trade more.

With the NinjaTrader brokerage service, traders can trade forex and leverage the lowest cost of access to trade, even the micro E-mini futures contracts. That said, NinjaTrader brokerage and platform (which is also open-source) are the most favorite for futures contract traders.

Traders without experience in futures trading can start with the micro-E-mini contracts without committing much resources and scale up to standard futures contracts which are the most favorite for advanced traders.

In terms of accounts, NinjaTrader accounts are suitable for individuals, groups, as well as institutions/ trading groups. Any level of trading experience is welcome, including the day traders who can leverage varied scripts available through the NinjaScript platform.

NinjaTrader trading platform offers a feature-rich trading experience comparable to most popular trading platforms, such as MT4. However, MT4 is a renowned NinjaTrader competitor given, for instance, it has a latter’s larger community of traders, especially those offering auto trading strategies (free and paid) and who share trading tricks like never seen on many trading apps.

NinjaTrader platform has 1000+ third-party indicators and add-ons to spice up the 100+ built-in indicator offering. The offerings are much better than what you get at Tradovate and TradeStation, which are also famous NinjaTrader alternatives, although NinjaTrader is best for futures trading while the rest are best for trading other assets such as CFD and forex.

Other brokers who are NinjaTrader competitors such as Schwab and Interactive Brokers offer in-house trading platforms with more of the same trading tools and support, but these two offer a wider range of investment products and services than does NinjaTrader.

The two NinjaTrader alternatives also offer a better range of account types and options, including better tools and liquidity for institutional traders.

With a lifetime subscription of $1,499, NinjaTrader charges the lowest commission of $0.09 per side for micro futures and $0.59 per side for standard futures. With a monthly subscription of $99, the commissions are $0.25 per side for micro futures and $0.99 per side for standard futures, and without any monthly commitment, it is $0.35 per contract.

The micro E-mini futures contracts are charged lower commissions than, for instance, Schwab (whose commissions start from $2.25 per contract) which offers similar Micro and E-mini futures contracts products. The NinjaTrader’s commission charges are equal to Tradovate’s.

Interactive Brokers, a very famous NinjaTrader competitor, charges a tiered commission of between $0.25 to $0.85 per contract depending on the trader’s monthly volume traded or at a fixed commission of $0.85 higher than NinjaTrader, even for high-volume traders.

TradeStation charges $0.50 per contract for Micro futures and $0.75 per contract for ordinary futures, with GRR Bitcoin futures costing $25 per contract and GXBT BTC futures costing $10 per contract. E-Trade charges $1.50 (crypto is $2.5) per contract per side.

Cryptocurrency futures contracts are cheapest to trade at NinjaTrader than any other above; the standard BTC E-mini futures cost $0.59 per contract per side with a lifetime subscription, $0.99 per contract with a monthly subscription, and $1.29 per contract per side without monthly commitments.

Micro BTC and Ether E-mini futures cost $0.09 per contract per side with a lifetime subscription, $0.25 with a monthly subscription, and $035 without a monthly commitment.

Customer Support at NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader customer support is available 24/5 through a live support chat on the website, a contact form that can be filled out over the web and sent to support, and via phone calls and email chat. With a rating of 4/5 stars, they are recognized as both fast and practical.

The Trade Desk is available even on the phone at 312-423-2234 all the time and can be contacted only in emergent situations and with emergency orders, while brokerage support teams are available during US market hours.

Traders also have 24/7 access to the detailed online help center with a vast amount of information on platform usage and trading issues; an extensive video library accessible from the trading platforms; and a community forum where they get announcements regarding the platform, updates, news, education, technical support, advice from other users, posts on platform matters, and connect to fellow traders.

You can also find some brokers running their community forums on their trading platforms or websites, and still, some others are active on Reddit/subreddits. The company also runs X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, and YouTube pages/accounts.

You also get daily training on how to trade and use the platform.

Platform Security and Company Regulation

NinjaTrader implements and discloses that the employees are required to set out physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards when accessing client PII to keep them safe and secure. There are disciplinary measures for employees who disclose client information unauthorized to third parties.

Also, the company states that it vets third-party providers for their safeguards, procedures, and protections of PII.

NinjaTrader is regulated by and reports to CFTC in the US and member of the National Futures Association. The latter has information on NinjaTrader Clearing, including how it handles client funds and risk disclosure.

Besides, customers can use segregated accounts to handle funds in their accounts to increase funds’ safety and security. The platform and accounts are secured with 2FA authentication, among other account security measures.

How to Trade with NinjaTrader

Products and services: What can you trade at NinjaTrader?

Futures contracts tradable include index futures contracts, energy futures contracts (crude oil, natural gas, gasoline, heating oil), metals futures contracts (gold, copper, silver, and copper), agriculture (coffee, cotton), and cryptocurrency futures contracts (Bitcoin including Micro Bitcoin futures, Ethereum, etc).

Stock/equity index futures contracts include:

Micro E-mini futures:

• They are 1/10 the size of standard E-mini futures. These allow you to trade E-mini futures at a much-reduced cost and lower cost of entry for new traders. Also, allows seasoned traders to increase flexibility and position management.
• They include Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures (MES), Micro E-mini Dow futures (MYM), Micro E-mini Nasdaq futures (MNQ), and Micro E-mini Russell futures (M2K).
• Equity index futures contracts are available for trading 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. A $50 margin refers to the amount that a trader deposits with a broker to cover credit risk.

E-mini equity Index Futures contracts:

• The E-mini S&P 500 contract, for example, is a derivative of the S&P 500 index and provides direct exposure for the trader to speculate on the combined price of the 500 largest US stocks listed on US stock exchanges. Traders trying out Micro E-mini futures can scale to E-minis futures.
• Also includes the E-mini S&P 500. The E-mini Russell 2000 (RTY) comprises 2,000 smaller-capitalized stocks, especially companies that are innovators and disruptors. The E-mini Dow index (comprised of the 30 largest stocks in the U.S.), and the E-mini Nasdaq (NQ) comprise its top 100 U.S. stocks listed on the Nasdaq exchange.
• $500 margin for S&P 500.
• These are best for commercial traders with large portfolios of stocks (e.g. banks, pension funds, mutual funds, and other institutional investors) to hedge price risks in a falling market, either for a short or long period. They are also best for large-scale professional speculators for the E-mini S&P 500 futures contract. 85% of the contract’s trading volume is made up of commercial traders and large speculators. The investment instruments are also best for self-directed retail traders speculating on the S&P 500 index futures price direction.
• The products are available for trading on a 24-hour basis on the electronic futures market, e.g. the CME Globex system.

Forex:

• NinjaTrader supports the trading of 39 forex pairs, including 4 majors. There are USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY, CAD, NZD, CHF and NOK. There are fewer FX pairs to trade here than were availed by the most popular FX brokers.
• FX spreads are also higher than you see on other major forex brokers. They are between 1.1 and 1.4 for the four FX major pairs available for trading. Typical spreads range from 1.4 to 7 for most FX pairs. The commissions for trading FX pairs with NinjaTrader are FREE with a lifetime software subscription, $0.01 per 1,000 lot for traders having a monthly subscription, and $0.02 per 1,000 lot without any monthly subscription.

Forex futures:

• They are the Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro FX, Euro/USD futures contracts, and their Micro futures contracts, as well as Euro, Japanese Yen, Mexico Peso, New Zealand, and Swiss Franc futures contracts.

Commodities futures:

These are as follows;

• Energies- natural gas, oil, crude oil, and gasoline.
• Agriculture – cocoa, cotton, coffee, and sugar; Also corn, soybeans (including oil and meal types), oat, and wheat. Also Live Cattle and feeder Cattle futures, Hog futures,
• Metals – Gold, copper, silver. Ordinary metals futures as well as the micro metals futures of 1/10 size of ordinary metals futures.

Cryptocurrency futures contracts:

• These include ordinary Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts and Micro Ether and Micro Bitcoin futures (1/10 the size of normal ETH/BTC futures contracts) run through the CME Group.
• These are best for commercial traders (adopters, large-scale miners, and institutional investors) hedging their price risk on a large digital position of Ether; large professional traders (CTAs and commodity pools); and self-directed retail traders who want to speculate on price movement of the futures contracts.
• Required margins are $500 for popular futures markets.

Interest rates:

• They include U.S. 30/10/5/2-year treasury bonds and treasury notes (short and long term) and their corresponding micro contracts. Also available are 10/5/2-year Euro Bund/BOBL/SCALTZ.

Exchange indices:

• Eurex exchange indices are DAX and STOXX and their corresponding micro futures.
• The ICE exchange indices include ICE DOLLAR INDICES and MINI MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX.

What types of accounts to open at NinjaTrader?

1. Individual accounts for any level of trading experience
2. Group accounts for any trading group
3. IRA retirement accounts
4. Business Entity accounts

Trading Platform

Trading capabilities of the NinjaTrader platform include single-click order entry, modification, and cancellation; executing orders directly from the charts; multiple chart windows; and multiple profit targets and stop loss orders. Customers also can use the Market Analyzer to automatically scan, in real-time, multiple instruments based on their custom criteria.

The platform also offers 1000+ automated trading strategies; craft and automate or automate existing strategies using the NinjaScript; back-test strategies using data; leverage live and delayed (free and paid) trading data from various third-party providers, such as CGC Continuum and Rithmic; market replay using data (replay tick by tick and to specific days) to practice trading or test trading strategies.

NinjaTrader Desktop

Provides access to advanced charting powered by 100+ technical indicators, DOM tools, order placement, and management; automates order submission and execution, including stop orders, target orders, and self-tightening trailing stops. Other features include market data replaying tick by tick; order flow visualization and analysis to help identify buying and selling pressure; etc.

There are 1000+ 3rd party tools that traders can use to personalize trading, including technical analysis, additional indicators, social and copy trading, as well as sentiments and automated strategies. Traders use NinjaScript to build apps using the popular C++ programming language.

NinjaTrader Web

Provides access to advanced charting powered by 100+ technical indicators; DOM using NinjaTrader’s SuperDOM to analyze markets, place orders, and manage trading positions; quotes; live and historical market data replay; order flow analysis; and advanced trade management, including order and trading automation.

Mobile apps

NinjaTrader has an iOS and Android NinjaTrader mobile app. It provides access to 40+ built-in indicators and other assets for mobile charting; order placement and management; DOM etc.

Order Flow and Premium Trading Tools

These include Volume Profile, the Order Flow Vwap, etc which can be subscribed as an add-on for $59 per month. It is also availed with a Lifetime account plan. Through order flow visualization, these tools help traders identify buying and selling pressure to confirm market movement in a specific direction.

Also, use the Order Flow Volume Profile Indicator and Drawing Tool to analyze the distribution of trading volume over price for a specified time range. Traders use this to identify the levels of support and resistance they need.

Volumetric bars are used to track buyers and sellers tick by tick to track activity for order flow trading.

Order flow Volume Weighted Average Price is used to identifying key price thresholds and measure momentum.

Order flow cumulative delta displays visually the net difference between buyers and sellers at each price level traded and is used to track buying and selling.

Order flow trade detector is used to analyze tape and visualize significant trade events.

Order flow market depth provides a historical and real-time visualization of the limit order book. The trader gets a clear insight into the market depth and order flow.

How to Trade with NinjaTrader

Opening a trading account with Ninja Trader is fast if you want a demo account, otherwise, you will need to submit documents for verification and the latter can take up to 2 weeks. You can easily complete the registration process on the mobile app or over the website.

Step #1: Visit the website or download and install the mobile app. On the website, click/tap ‘Create account’ from the home page, or ‘Get started’ from anywhere on this or other pages. Sign up by email. Confirm the email address. Tap on the Register button and proceed on the mobile app.

Step #2: Enter your preferred username and password, and click/tap Create User. After creating an account, click or tap “Open Account” to open a live trading account. Choose an account type from the list of available options (Individual, Joint, IRA, and Business Entity).

Enter information about self, address, and contact, and click/tap Continue. Enter ID, date of birth, and state employment status.

NinjaTrader will ask about your financial status and trading experience with stocks, futures, and other available assets, as well as your trading objectives in the subsequent pages/steps of the application. If you are a “Hedger” you clearly will be denied access. You will need to say your trading affiliation and tell if the account will be controlled by any other person.

Step #3: Review and apply. The application undergoes a review process and is either accepted or rejected.

After registering for an account successfully, you will receive a username and password.

Step #4: Download the NinjaTrader platform and install it on your desktop. You also can opt for the web application. Open the application on your device and log in with the received username and password.

Select if you want to use a Live, Playback, or Simulation.

It is time to initiate the process of trading.

The NinjaTrader account dashboard allows you to do, among other things, subscribe to market data, etc.

Depositing and withdrawing funds: The Transfer tab allows you to do, among other things, deposit funds, withdraw funds, and adjust risk settings. To deposit, click/tap the method of deposit (Debit card, Wire Transfer, ACH, Check, and ForexSport funds transfer in Australia, etc.), input the required details such as amount, card or bank details, etc.

General Features of NinjaTrader Trading Platform

#1) Trader training: Daily video-based Live-streams on futures trading. There is also a live stream on how to leverage technical analysis in futures trading. There also is a live-stream introductory video on trading. There are video and article-based guides on how to use all platforms, margin trading, futures order types, technical analyses, and general guides on how to trade futures.

#2) Risk management education, including how to use order types of risk management, how to set accounts to manage risks, how to use customized risk settings to manage risks, and how to automate risk management in your account.

#3) Third-party data providers: free and subscription real-time and historical data from third parties such as Kinetick, Coinbase (crypto data), Binance (crypto data), eSignal, ByBit (crypto data), dxFeed, NinjaConnectors, TradeStation, Yahoo Finance, DirectFN, and traders can import historical data based on text files.

#4) Get unlimited simulation with funded accounts and strategy back-testing.

#5) 14-day trial through an online trading platform demo featuring live-streaming market data allowing traders to play, pause, and rewind markets.

#6) The (intra-day margin requirements) minimum balance an account must maintain per contract while in a trade varies based on the asset and contract being traded. They range from $50 to $100 for Micro E-mini futures ($500 for Micro BTC futures contracts). That of E-mini futures contracts is between $500 and $1000 ($40,000 for E-mini BTC futures contracts).

#7) Traders also require an initial margin, which is the per-contract minimum amount required by the exchange involved to carry a contract position for multiple days. It is significantly higher than the initial margin.

There is also an overnight margin requirement, which is the amount required to carry the contract position overnight. Maintenance margin is the value amount of equity you need to maintain in a margin account before you get a margin call.

For most instruments, the initial margin ranges from $600 to $3,000 for both initial and maintenance margins, but you can still get those under $56.1 and $51 for both initial and maintenance margins respectively on Micro Eth futures.

E-Micro CAD/USD futures require $50, $151.8, and $138 for intra-day, initial, and maintenance margins, respectively. For details on these margins for other instruments, refer to their website.

#8) Variable default position limits depending on what you want to trade. They vary between 50-100 for most equity indices futures contracts; 2/10/50 for BTC and ETH futures; between 5 and 25 for agricultural; 5-25 for FX futures; between 25-50 for interest rates futures; 10-50 for metals futures; 100 for Nano and Eth futures; 25 for Euro Bund, BOBL, and SCHATZ; and between 10-20 energies futures; an 5-25 for EUREX exchange indices.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Chance and opportunities exist for traders to start small with low-cost micro e-mini futures contracts and then scale up to larger-sized contracts.
• Integrates with thousands of third-party tools and add-ons to spice up trading experiences,
• Highly customizable trading platform.
• Low commissions compared to most brokers. This applies to ordinary index futures contracts, E-mini contracts, micro contracts, commodities, metal, energies, and crypto contracts.
• Trade management for emergency use is free.

Cons:

• NinjaTrader brokerage offers a limited range of investment and tradable assets.
• Higher inactivity fees than you see on most trading brokers.

Trading Costs

• NinjaTrader platform core features are available free without a monthly fee, but the commissions are higher in that case.
• The intra-day margin requirement for the S&P 500 is $500, while that of Mini Dax and FTSE 100 futures is $1000. Margin for Micro E-mini Dow, Micro E-Mini Russell 2000, and Micro E-mini S&P is $50; margin for E-mini Dow, E-Mini Russell 2000, and E-mini S&P is $500; and Margin for crude oil, gold, and natural gas is $1000.
• Commissions: A free plan that does not have any monthly subscriptions costs $0.35 per side for micro futures and $1.29 per side for standard futures.
• Traders can reduce commissions by paying a $99 monthly subscription – $0.25 per side for micro futures and $0.99 per side for standard futures. Further reduction is achieved by paying a one-time license purchase fee of $1,499 to trade, with commissions of $0.09 per side for micro futures and $0.59 per side for standard futures.
• Exchange data fees: Level I data is $12/month for a bundle including all 4 exchanges or $4/month per exchange; Level II is $41/month for a bundle including all 4 exchanges or $16/month per exchange. Professional users are charged $135/month per exchange. ICE US charges $140/month per exchange to all users while Eurex for NinjaTrader Continuum charges $23 for non-professional users and $80 for professional users.
• Trade management: Free for emergency use, margin calls $50, and margin and delivery liquidation is $25 for the first violation and $50 for 2+ violations.
• Administrative fee: There is a $0.15 per contract clearing fee, and $0.25 per contract for order routing via Rithmic, while electronic daily and monthly statement data are free.
• The inactivity fee is $25 per month, which is higher than that charged by most brokers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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How did we review?

SoftwareTestingHelp’s review of the NinjaTrader platform is based on actual usage information based on our testing of the platform and other feedback information from actual users of the platform. Thus, SoftwareTestingHelp relies on trustworthy data and information. We also must consider official information and data supplied by the company and verified third parties to do such reviews.

Conclusion

Based on our review, NinjaTrader offers one of the best platforms and brokerages for trading index futures contracts compared to other platforms, especially about fees and commissions. The in-house-built trading platform, though more popular for trading index futures contracts than any other contracts, can be utilized for trading all types of assets.

It also integrates with a host of brokers and third-party trading tools and add-ons. A huge trading community backs it.

NinjaTrader serves as a great entry point for new index futures traders and a haven for expert traders and institutions that trade index futures contracts.

Time taken for review: 3 days

Our Rating