NinjaTrader

Our Take on NinjaTrader

Where NinjaTrader excels is the currently available feature that allows you to connect it to Charles Schwab’s ThinkorSwim platform. This is great because you can use NinjaTrader’s automation capabilities and send orders directly to Schwab’s ThinkorSwim platform to trade commission-free stocks. Unfortunately, this feature costs $99 per month, and since the acquisition of NinjaTrader by Kraken, it is uncertain how the company’s strategy will develop.

Plans, Features, Costs

NinjaTrader is a trading tool specifically developed for futures traders and primarily marketed as the main tool for the in-house NinjaTrader Brokerage.

On March 20, 2025, Kraken, one of the biggest crypto platforms with already 15 million clients, acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.

While we’ve still to wait on how this affects their current business model, the acquisition makes first waves. NinjaTrader is currently one of the most frequently used standard platforms for futures prop firms because of its great compatibility with futures data providers like Rithmic and their focus on futures trading.

The acquisition already led prop firms to stop using NinjaTrader and replace it with other trading tools. If that continues to happen among many prop firms, the popularity of NinjaTrader might get back to its core business, where it combines NinjaTrader Brokerage with its NinjaTrader platform.

However, chances are that the business model does not change that much. Back in 2022, NinjaTrader aquired Tradovate and the brand still exist with a similar business model.

Trading Tool

NinjaTrader comes with advanced charting, depth of market tools, real-time quotes, advanced trade management, market replay, backtesting, trading strategy development (NinjaScript in C#), and order flow analysis.

For simulated trading in the daily time frame, you don’t need a subscription, and using NinjaTrader in simulated mode remains free. For intraday data, you either connect your broker and you still can make free simulated trades, or you subscribe to their in-house Kinetick data feed for an additional fee, or subscribe ot a 3rd party data feed.

As soon as you want to connect NinjaTrader with a 3rd party broker and use live trading, you need to buy one of their plans.

Use Cases

NinjaTrader with a Prop Firm: Free of charge during evaluation, free in simulated funded accounts, paid plan for NinjaTrader with a live funded account.

NinjaTrader with NinjaTrader Brokerage: Free use of NinjaTrader and connection to the Rithmic data feed. On the free plan, the trading commissions for futures contracts are relatively high. You can also subscribe to the monthly NinjaTrader Plan or the Lifetime licence to reduce the commission rates.

NinjaTrader with a 3rd Party Broker: You can connect NinjaTrader to Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab. In both cases, you need a Multi-Broker Add-on for an additional $99 per month. The cool thing about connecting to Interactive Brokers or Charles Schwab is that you can also trade stocks and not only futures contracts via NinjaTrader and use their automation tools.

Costs for NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader costs $99 per month, or $1,499 lifetime. If you use Interactive Brokers or Charles Schwab for live trading, you need the Multi-Broker Add-on for another $99 per month.

Data Feed

Kinetick is a market data provider owned by NinjaTrader. Using their end-of-day data is free of charge; unfiltered intraday market data costs $78.75 per month plus exchange fees. You can also add market depth, increase the maximum number of symbols, and add premium news feeds for additional costs.

Brokerage

In case you use NinjaTrader Brokerage, you pay commissions. Depending on the NinjaTrader subscription, your rates are between $0.09 – $0.39 for micro futures and $0.59 – $1.29 for standard mini futures.

There are additional fees for static SuperDOM orders, CQG Desktop, 3rd party technology integration, and exchange data fees, besides clearing fees and order routing fees.

Brand Popularity

NinjaTrader was founded in 2003 and has continiously grown in popularity. We’ve evaluated the number of monthly global searches for the brand name.

Read Customer Reviews of ninjatrader.com

NinjaTrader currently has a Trustpilot rating of 3.7 out of 5, based on 926 reviews, which is categorized as average. 5 of those reviews are from people invited by the firm using Trustpilot’s supported invitation methods. 155 reviews have been submitted within the past 12 months, of which 65 are rated 1/5 or 2/5.