NinjaTrader is a futures trading platform offering affordable and accessible trading for sophisticated, active traders. While there's a significant amount of risk involved in trading futures, NinjaTrader's range of tools and simulated trades may help investors hone their trading skills without putting money on the line.
Business Insider's personal finance team compared NinjaTrader to the best online commodity trading apps and found it to be an industry leader in robust trading tools.
Pros and Cons
NinjaTrader Pros
- Unlimited simulated futures trading
- Robust charting and technical analysis tools
- Customization through third-party apps and adds
- Can trade micro and e-mini futures
- Commissions as low as $0.09 per contract
NinjaTrader Cons
- Doesn't offer traditional stocks, bonds, ETFs, or mutual funds
- More advanced trading tools and charting features require monthly fees
- You need a third-party broker to invest in anything other than futures
Open an Account
$0
Free plan ($0), Monthly plan ($99 per month). Lifetime plan ($1,499 one time playment)
- Low fees and margin rates
- Free education resources and user community access
- 100+ futures trading tools including unlimited simulated trading
- Automated trading through NinjaTrader’s ATI
- Doesn’t offer stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, or crypto
- $25 monthly inactivity fee
Compare NinjaTrader
Overview
NinjaTrader is an online futures trading platform for day traders to access competitively priced futures, including metal, crypto, and index futures. Its cloud-based, multi-device trading technology allows users to access some of the most popular futures markets in the world, including the E-mini S&P and E-mini Nasdaq.
Its affordable pricing model makes futures trading more accessible to less experienced traders. It has no minimum deposit requirement and a free plan option, but you must maintain a balance of $25,000 or more to actively day trade.
NinjaTrade's standout advanced charting features include its simulated trading tools, live market streams, and leveraged analytical tools. It also offers order flow tools to help investors better identify market movements and buying/selling pressures.
The platform also offers micro futures and E-minis, which allow folks just starting out with futures trading to access these investments at a lower cost.
If you value customization, NinjaTrader has got you covered. You can easily personalize your futures trading experience with add-ons and third-party indicators. You can even add automated trading strategies and custom trading indicators.
As one of the top commodity trading platforms, NinjaTrader is best suited for seasoned investors who can use its robust trading tools and features. Less-experienced futures traders may benefit from a NinjaTrader account by utilizing the unlimited simulated futures trading feature.
Ways to Invest
NinjaTrader offers different pricing plan options. The more you pay into it, the lower your contract fees and the more features you unlock. All plans (including the free plan) include access to the platform's desktop, web, and mobile interfaces.
The platform requires you to make quite a few decisions upfront. You must decide on the type of order you want: market orders, limit orders, or stop market orders. You must also know the type of futures you want to trade and the order quantity for the number of contracts.
Here are the plan options available with NinjaTrader:
NinjaTrader Free Plan ($0 per month)
NinjaTrader offers a free plan that has you pay higher set fees for individual futures trades as you make them. This means there is no monthly plan fee, but other fees apply, including:
- $0.35 per micro commission per side
- $1.29 per standard commission per side
Free Plan users can access live trading (SIM version), charting, and market analysis.
Users can even download the NinjaTrader app without setting up an account on the platform. This allows them to try out the app's functions and see what's available before officially signing up.
NinjaTrader Monthly Plan ($99 per month)
NinjaTrader's monthly plan is $99 a month, and it's geared to regular traders who prefer to pay a monthly fee over higher fees for individual trades. That said, the monthly plan fee does not eliminate commissions — only reduces them.
- $0.25 per micro commission per side
- $0.99 per standard commission per side
NinjaTrader Lifetime Plan ($1,499)
NinjaTrader's lifetime plan requires a one-time fee of $1,499 (or four monthly installments of $499), which qualifies the user for the lowest possible commissions. This plan includes order flow and add-ons, potentially lowering additional trading fees.
- $0.09 per micro commission per side
- $0.59 per standard commission per side
NinjaTrader Investment Options
NinjaTraders offers trading across diverse future markets worldwide. Available futures include:
- Index futures contracts: E-Mini S&P 500 Index Futures, E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Index Futures, E-Mini Dow 30 Index Futures, and E-Mini Russell 2000 Index Futures
- Energy futures contracts: Crude oil, natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil futures
- Metal futures contracts: Gold, silver, and copper futures
- Cryptocurrency futures contracts: Bitcoin and Ether futures
- US treasury bond futures contracts: 10-year notes, 5-year notes, 2-year notes, and 30-year bonds futures
- Forex futures contracts: Australian dollar (6A), British pound (6B), Canadian dollar (6C), Euro (6E), and Japanese yen (6J)
NinjaTrader supports both standard-sized and micro futures contracts, making futures trading more accessible for those with smaller trading balances.
For example, NinjaTrader's micro index futures can be traded with margins as low as $50.
Fees
NinjaTrader has a free plan, a monthly plan, and a lifetime plan. However, these plans do not eliminate other fees and commissions the platform charges. Here's a rundown of the other costs and fees for NinjaTrader users:
Account Closure Fee: Up to $30
Administrative fees:
- Clearing Fee: $0.15 per contract
- Order Routing:: $0.25 per contract
- Electronic Daily and Monthly Statement: Free
- Minimum Account Activity Fee: $25 per month with no activity
Currency conversions: 1% of funds converted (minimum 10 units of currency being sold)
Deposit fees:
- ACH: Free
- Incoming Check or Wires: No fee
- Bounced Check: $30
Emergency Trade Desk: Free
Margin Call: $50
Trustworthiness
NinjaTrader is a Better Business Bureau-accredited business with an A+ rating. BBB ratings typically range from A+ to F and reflect the bureau's opinions of a company's customer complaint history, business practices, and advertising and licensing information.
Accreditation status means that NinjaTrader has upheld the BBB's Standards of Trust. These include the highest levels of trustworthiness, transparency, integrity, responsiveness, and privacy safeguarding.
In 2024, NinjaTrader paid $750,000 in civil penalties and $233,425 in restitution to fraud victims after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order filing and settling charges against the platform.
Alternatives
Here's how NinjaTrader compares to similar futures traders.
TradeStation
- No account minimums or commissions on stocks, ETFs, options, and futures
- Wide range of interactive trading platforms
- Several investment choices
- Cryptocurrency trading available
- Fee structure can be difficult to understand
- Mutual funds cost $14.95 per trade
- No current promotional offers
TradeStation is another popular day-trading platform for active investors to access futures contracts. However, TradeStation also offers stocks, ETFs, and options.
Regarding futures trading, TradeStation offers traditional futures contracts and mini-futures. Like NinjaTrader, TradeStation offers a range of trading tools and features, such as simulated trading, backtesting, and charting.
TradeStation is best suited for investors who want to access a broader selection of investment options besides futures contracts. However, if you're mainly focused on trading futures, NinjaTrader is the better choice.
If you're a high-net-worth individual or institution, TradeStation is the only option between these two platforms.
tastytrade
$0 ($2,000 for margin accounts)
$0 for stocks and ETFs (options start at $1 per contract and capped at $10 per leg)
- No account minimum to open an account
- Low-cost options and futures contracts
- Transparent fee structure
- Doesn’t offer mutual funds, forex, IPOs, OTC trading
- Only offers small selection of cryptocurrencies for trading
- Not suitable for beginners
- A large selection of options and futures trading
- No account minimum to open an account
- Only offers 25 cryptocurrencies for trading
- No robo-advisor or human-advisor access
- $0 for stocks and ETFs (options start at $1 per contract and capped at $10 per leg)
Similar to NinjaTrader, tastytrade is a robust day-trading platform for experienced futures traderes to access a suite of technical analysis tools and charting research. Unlike NinjaTrader, tastytrade offers options trading, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and greater market access.
Futures on tastytrade cost $1.25 per contract per side, and micro futures cost $0.85 per contract per side. There is no minimum requirement (unless trading on margin) and no recurring administration or management fees. Therefore, investors with smaller trading volumes and seeking a wider range of assets are best off with tastytrade.
On the other hand, NinjaTrader is better for futures traders with larger trading volumes who don't mind paying for at least the monthly pricing plan. Futures on the monthly pricing plan ($99 monthly) are only $0.99 per contract per side, and micros are $0.25 per contract per side.
Why You Should Trust Us
We applied Business Insider's rating methodology for rating investment products to compare fees, ethics, access, investment selection, and overall customer experience when reviewing the NinjaTrader platform. While top online brokerage platforms offer multiple investment options, advanced charting tools, education resources, and more for different trading needs, we acknowledge the limitations of a trading platform that is mostly focused on futures trading instead of offering a broad range of investment choices.
Platforms are rated between 1 and 5 based on their performance in each category.
Business Insider's Overall NinjaTrader Review
| Feature | Rating (Out of 5) |
| Fees | 4.00 |
| Investment Selection | 3.50 |
| Access | 4.50 |
| Ethics | 4.50 |
| Customer Support | 4.50 |
| Overall Score | 4.17 |
FAQs
What is NinjaTrader, and who is it best suited for?
NinjaTrader is a futures trading platform offering advanced charting and market analysis features through different plan options. It's best suited for sophisticated, active traders looking to invest solely in futures.
How does NinjaTrader's pricing model work?
NinjaTrader's pricing model works based on the three pricing plans: free, monthly, or lifetime. The platform's free plan gives you access to basic trading features, or you can pay for the more costly plans to unlock advanced features and reduced commission rates.
Can I automate my trading strategies with NinjaTrader?
Yes, you can automate your trading strategies with NinjaTrader by enabling semi-automated trade functionally on its desktop platform. You can also add more automated trading features when customizing with third-party apps and add-ons.
How does NinjaTrader ensure the security of my trades and personal information?
NinjaTrader ensures the security of trades and personal information through data encryption, two-factor authentication, and security keys. Furthermore, it partners with reputable brokerage firms to ensure reliable and secure trade execution.
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