NinjaTrader Review: An Advanced Futures Trading Platform

NinjaTrader is one of the most popular brokers for futures trading, with robust desktop and web platforms that you can customize to fit your needs. It's also an affordable place to invest, with lower fees and margin requirements than many of its competitors. Keep reading our in-depth NinjaTrader review to learn how it works and its pros and cons.

Here's a more detailed look at NinjaTrader and what it has to offer.

What is NinjaTrader and how does it work?

NinjaTrader is a futures brokerage. Unlike other popular stock brokers, it's built exclusively for buying and selling futures contracts.

It offers multiple trading platforms, including for desktop, web, and mobile, and you can trade futures with any of them. The most useful is NinjaTrader Desktop, which allows you to personalize your trading platform. You can install third-party indicators and apps designed for use with NinjaTrader and build automated trading strategies.

Top perks

Powerful futures trading platform

One of the main reasons to use NinjaTrader is the trading platform. It's fast, which is especially important with futures, which involve active trading and investing with leverage. It has useful charting tools for technical analysis, thousands of apps and add-ons, and it's fully customizable to fit your needs. For advanced futures traders looking for a platform that has it all, NinjaTrader is an excellent choice.

SEE MORE: Best Futures Trading Platforms

Competitive commission structure

NinjaTrader's commissions are lower than what most brokers charge on futures contracts, although they do vary based on the pricing plan you choose. A lifetime plan requires a one-time payment of $1,499, but it gets you the lowest commissions NinjaTrader offers: $0.09 per side on micro contracts and $0.59 on standard contracts. Commissions are higher, but still reasonable, with NinjaTrader's $99-per-month and free plans.

No minimum and low margins

If you're looking for an affordable place to start futures trading, NinjaTrader doesn't have any minimum deposit requirements. It also has lower margins than many futures brokers, starting at just $50 for intraday margins on micro contracts.

What could be improved

Only offers futures trading

You can only trade futures contracts with NinjaTrader. It's not a typical stock broker where you can buy and sell individual stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and other types of investments. Although it's an excellent futures broker, it's more limited than many competitors. There are plenty of brokers that offer futures trading and stock trading.

Not beginner friendly

Both NinjaTrader and futures trading aren't recommended if you're an inexperienced investor. The NinjaTrader platform is designed with advanced users in mind and has a considerable learning curve. Because futures trading involves leverage, it's much riskier than your everyday stock investing. There's greater profit potential, which is why people do it. But you can also lose more money, and you can lose it quickly if you're not careful.

Mediocre mobile app

While NinjaTrader offers a mobile trading platform, it has mixed reviews in Google Play and the App Store. Users have complained about a clunky, frustrating user interface, as well as having difficulty placing trades and reviewing charts. You may be better off sticking with the web and desktop platforms, which get much higher marks from investors.

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NinjaTrader offers three plans: A free plan, a plan with a monthly fee, and a lifetime plan with a one-time fee. The commissions you pay depend on the plan you choose. Here's NinjaTrader's fee and commission structure with each plan:

NinjaTrader doesn't offer mutual funds or ETFs. You'll need another broker for those. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available.

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NinjaTrader doesn't charge any fees to deposit money. ACH deposits, incoming checks, and income wire transfers are all free. There is a $30 bounced check fee.

ACH withdrawals are also free. Withdrawals made by domestic wire transfer have a $30 fee, and international wire transfers have a fee of 30 units in the originating currency.

There are also a few more fees on NinjaTrader you should know about:

• Currency conversion: 1% of funds converted, minimum of 10 units of currency being sold
• Outgoing account transfer: $50
• Margin call: $50
• Margin and delivery liquidation: $25 (first violation), $50 (additional violations)
• Minimum account activity fee: $25 for existing accounts that log in to their trading solution but don't make any trades in the live trading environment during the month

There are three versions of the NinjaTrader trading platform available:

• NinjaTrader Desktop: NinjaTrader's flagship and most powerful platform, with multiple monitor support, plus access to thousands of trading apps and add-ons.
• NinjaTrader Web: A cloud-based web platform available from any PC or Mac web browser.
• NinjaTrader Mobile Trading App: Mobile apps are available for Android and iPhone devices.

NinjaTrader's margins vary based on the type of contract and the market. It has $50 intraday margins for micro contracts and $500 margins for many popular futures markets. In markets with less liquidity and more volatility, such as crude oil, NinjaTrader has $1,000 margins.

Here are NinjaTrader's margins for some of its most popular contracts:

NinjaTrader has robust research offerings, although it's worth mentioning that these are all focused on futures trading. Specifically, it has educational resources on the following topics:

• Futures 101
• Platform training explaining how to use NinjaTrader
• Market commentary
• Futures products
• Technical analysis

One of the more useful offerings on NinjaTrader is its livestreams. It has livestreams before the markets open and close every weekday with commentary, analysis, and trading opportunities. Some livestreams also include futures trading in real time, so you can see how other investors prepare and analyze the market.

• You're looking for an advanced futures trading platform with low fees.
• You plan to trade every month. If not, you'll be charged the $25 account activity fee.
• You already have another broker where you can invest outside the futures market.

At The Motley Fool Ascent, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology