Aniket Kale Trader & Financial Engineer at Marketcalls plus a B Tech graduate in Computer Science. Interested in Trading Software, Building Trading Systems, Automated Trading & Volume Price Analysis

Introduction to Ninjatrader 8 – Part 1

3 min read

Everyone knows that a trader’s trading software interface is a critical component of a smoothly running trading operation. This is because the trading software(s) have come a long way than just plotting the charts and placing orders. The best ones out there are capable of much more than plotting charts, like running real-time scans, paper trading functionality, backtesting a trading system and even a limitless possibility of automation of the entire trading process. NinjaTrader 8 by NinjaTrader LLC does all the aforementioned tasks and a lot more.

NinjaTrader 8

Features

Pricing

It’s free! Everybody can download and start using it right away. It is a great tool for novices, amateurs, and professionals alike. Traders just starting out know that every rupee counts. The fact that a primary mission-critical tool is consistently costing money is disheartening for a new trader. NT8 saves you just from that conundrum.

The market data for the NinjaTrader 8 is available from external resources which can also be free or paid depending upon your targeted market. This is a huge benefit for traders just starting out.

Flexibility in datafeed

NT8 is compatible with an impressive variety of data providers. Some mentions on their websites are:

  • Kinetick
  • eSignal
  • Globaldatafeeds
  • Truedata
  • DTN/IQFeed
  • Google Finance
  • Text file based historical data import
  • TrackData
  • TradeStation
  • Yahoo Finance
  • Metastock Import

The most important feature to notice here is the sheer availability of options. If you want to go with free data sources, they will let you do that. If you want a premium datafeed you can choose that too.

Charts and tools

NT8 provides traders with a full array of customizable charts, a simulation program, market replay feature that allows traders to download historical data and trade them at any time as if they were live. The platform also includes drawing tools and almost all of the most popular indicators that a trader might use and on top of that, they are fully customizable.

NT8 indicators and config window

NinjaScript

NinjaScript is a C# based language that allows unlimited extensibility to NinjaTrader. Using NinjaScript traders can create their own custom set of indicators trading systems and much more. Moreover, the online community of developers and traders already have thousands of custom indicators and strategies which anybody can just download and start using right away. With this kind of extensibility and customizability, only the sky is limit.

NinjaScript editor

They also have a complete guide for NinjaScript on their website and loads of educational resources for anybody to learn NinjaScript and start creating their own custom indicators. The support forum is very full of robust and active traders and developers to help out anybody who is stuck with some NinjaScript problem.

NT8 support’s response to a customer query. Look at the response time!

Market Analyzer

NT8’s Market Analyzer allows traders to perform powerful real-time analysis to easily monitor trade opportunities across hundreds of instruments. The scanning is possible across a variety of data points including price and time data, as well as indicator values. Moreover, any number of indicator columns can be added to have all the relevant information at a glance. All in all, a perfect tool for real-time scanning of instruments so that you don’t miss out on action happening anywhere.

Market Analyzer window

Backtesting Engine

NT8 has a powerful backtesting engine that helps traders to test their system first on historical data and check their performance before betting any money over it. A wide range of useful educational materials are available if you’re unfamiliar with the platform and want to enhance your skills. These resources include daily training webinars designed to educate new users on the powerful tools available, hundreds of on-demand training videos, help guides and an informative YouTube channel.

Equity curve from backtest report

Pricing for advanced (licensed) versions

I know I had said earlier that, NT8 is free of cost and it is. All the features that I mentioned above are available with the free version of NT8. The licensed version, on the other hand, packs some next-level features and indicators such as:

  • Volumetric bars
  • Order flow market depth map
  • Order flow volume profile indicator and drawing tool
  • Order flow trade detector
  • Order flow cumulative delta and
  • Order flow VWAP with deviation

For these extra features, you have 2 options to go about it. Either you can lease NT8 starting at $60 per month or you can purchase a lifetime license with a one-time payment of $1099. (At the time of writing this review)

Now should you get a licensed version or use the free version? Well, answer to that depends upon your use case. If volume profile and order flow charts are critical to your analysis and trading then you should go for it. Otherwise, you can use the free version, train yourself, accumulate some profits and then invest in a lifetime license.

Final thoughts

NT8 has a learning curve and new traders are definitely going to take a few weeks to get comfortable with it. The company has excellent customer service with prompt replies to customer queries. The company also provides regular webinars, highlighting key features of the program and how to use them, as well as educational sessions hosted by industry experts.

It is one of the best ones out there and the fact that it comes free is a great incentive for traders to test it out and then decide if you want to stick with it. But it certainly comes packed with all the goods to support any kind of trader.

Aniket Kale Trader & Financial Engineer at Marketcalls plus a B Tech graduate in Computer Science. Interested in Trading Software, Building Trading Systems, Automated Trading & Volume Price Analysis

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2 Replies to “Introduction to Ninjatrader 8 – Part 1”

  1. How can i learn or purchase recorded MATERIAL for learning MARKET PROFILE and ORDER FLOW software. I also wanted to know any specific settings required for NINZATRADER 8.0.

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