Deposits and Withdrawals

The minimum deposit for a NINJATRADER futures trading account is $1 000.

The minimum deposit for a forex trading account is $50.

Day trading margins for popular futures such as the S&P 500 are $500.

Both Mini Dax and FTSE 100 futures have margins of $1 000.

You can use only bank transfers and check to fund accounts or withdraw money.  Although NINJATRADER doesn’t charge any deposit fee, your intermediary bank might charge if you send an international bank transfer. US residents can use checks for deposits.

Fortunately, there is no deposit fee and you can hold your account in three base currencies: USD, EUR, and GBP.

Withdrawals are quickly processed, often within one day, but bank withdrawals cost $30, and $40 is charged for international bank withdrawals.

Cost and Fees, Commissions and Spreads

The cost of trading depends on different factors like commissions, spreads, and margins.

The spread of a currency pair is the difference between the bid and the asking rate. A pip represents the smallest increment that an exchange rate can move.

One pip is 0.01 for currency pairs with JPY as the term currency and 0.0001 for all other pairs.

The amount of money required in your account to open a position is called the margin and is calculated according to the current price of the base currency against USD, the size (volume) of the position, and the leverage applied to your account.

Commissions are the charges imposed by an investment broker on a trader for making trades on the trader’s behalf. The level of commissions depends on the asset being traded and the type of service offered by the broker.

Execution-only brokers, which do not involve in personal investment advice and give traders complete control over how they trade the markets, usually charge lower commissions.

While contract for differences (CFDs) trading is a form of derivative trading that enables traders to speculate on the rising or falling prices of fast-moving global financial markets, it’s trading on shares will incur commission.

CFD trades on other markets have no commission but do wrap a spread around the market price of a certain instrument.

NINJATRADER charges fees and commissions on futures from $0.59 per contract (from $0.09 per micro contract) and platform or maintenance fees from $60 per month. The inactivity fee on idle accounts is $25 per month.

Commission and margin requirements are among the lowest in the industry. A $1 000 minimum initial deposit is required to fund a new account and commissions go as low as $.09 per micro contract with a lifetime license.

The advanced platform and live data are available free of charge for use in a demo account. For live trading, you can use their free platform with all the basic essentials or choose a paid license level for more advanced features and lower commissions.

Leverage

Leveraged product trading magnifies a trader’s potential profit – but of course, also increases the potential loss. This facility that enables traders to get a larger exposure to the market than the amount they deposited to open a trade, is called leverage.

The amount of leverage is expressed as a ratio, for instance, 50:1, 100:1, or 500:1. Assuming that a trader has $1 000 in a trading account and is trading ticket sizes of 100 000 USD/JPY, that leverage will equate to 100:1.

Traders should always keep in mind that, although high leverage offered may be a plus point for the brokerage, but trading at such high leverage should only be attempted by experienced traders that know how to prevent big losses.

NINJATRADER does not give clear information as to the maximum leverage ratio that may be used.

Bonuses

Forex brokers often lure new traders with offers of deposit bonuses. This can be useful, but it is essential to discern what the conditions are to really benefit from a bonus.

The bonus usually compensates traders for choosing a certain broker, since once the account is active, the trader will have the same expenses as any other. The bonus usually only starts giving some expenses back to the trader once the person has proved himself as an active trader.

Hence, although no deposit bonuses are a great way to help you start trading, the terms to benefit from it often require trading with such a high volume before you can withdraw profits, that it may not be worthwhile.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has also recently placed investor protection measures on the marketing, distribution, or sale of CFDs which prevent brokers to provide the retail client with a payment, monetary or excluded non-monetary benefit in relation to the marketing, distribution or sale of a CFD, thus ruling out the offering of such bonuses.

According to the company website and other sources, NINJATRADER does not promise any bonuses.

Trading Platforms, Software, and its Features

The forex trading software, also called the platform, provided by a broker company to its clients to carry out their trades can be a multi-asset one that allows clients to trade forex as well as other asset classes like CFDs on stocks, stock indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies.

Some companies provide their own proprietary platform, which may benefit traders due to specific characteristics developed by specialists employed by the broker, while others prefer to provide the better-known platforms that were tried and tested through time.

If there is a choice, the trader should keep in mind what he would like to trade and find the platform that suits his needs best.

NINJATRADER offers the NINJATRADER platform for active traders who want lots of technical analysis tools. The platform boasts excellent charting, real-time analysis, customizable technical indicators, Chart Trader, and thousands of apps and add-ons from third-party developers.

The NINJATRADER platform has clean, fully customizable charts and one can easily insert technical indicators, strategies, and drawing tools, all customizable within the chart.

The platform supports all the usual order types, including market, limit, stop market, and stop-limit orders as well as advanced OCO (one cancels other) orders.

Markets, Products, and Instruments

Most brokers offer all or some of the following market instruments for trading:

Forex:

Forex trading, or currency or FX trading, involves the currency exchange market where individuals, companies, and financial institutions exchange currencies for one another at floating rates.

Commodities:

As with currency exchange markets, commodity markets offer trading in contract-based tradable goods.

Indices:

Equity or stock indices can represent a specific set of the largest companies of a nation or they can represent a specific stock market. It is actual stock market indexes that measure the value of a specific section of a stock market.

Precious metals:

This involves the trading of gold, silver, and other precious metals as hard commodities that are contract-based tradable.

Energy:

The high volatility of energy prices due to political, environmental, and several other factors, is a typical feature of this product, making it a popular trading choice.

Cryptocurrencies:

Tradable cryptocurrencies include the following:

Bitcoin (BTC) is the digital currency with the largest market capitalization and price levels and dominates 50% of the total crypto market cap.

Litecoin (LTC) is similar to Bitcoin but differs in terms of scalability.

Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and allows developers to create smart contracts on a platform.

Ripple (RPL) is popular among big banks with the Ripple network a next-generation real-time gross settlement system.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created as a new version of the blockchain with different rules.

NINJATRADER brokerage offers a basic range of asset classes with a focus on futures trading on the CME, CBOT, NYBOT, and Eurex exchanges.

You can trade the following asset classes with NINJATRADER:

Futures, Forex, CFDs, and Stocks.

Safety and Regulation

Before deciding to join a brokerage company to start trading, a potential trader needs to establish whether a broker like NINJATRADER is safe and secure to trade with.

One of the most reliable benchmarks to measure the safety of a brokerage is to establish which regulating authorities are watching and overseeing its actions and whether the company complies with those regulations.

In general, a so-called “offshore” broker tends to have a less favorable reputation and potential traders should think carefully before investing with them.

Secondly, the safety of client’s funds should be guaranteed and in the case of the company defaulting or going bankrupts, a safety net of some sorts would come in handy to prevent customers from taking more losses.

NINJATRADER is well-regulated by the National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)in the United States.

NINJATRADER is an introducing broker for Phillip Capital or Dorman Trading, where assets and cash will be held and they are regulated by top-tier financial authorities, like the US CFTC or UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Customer Support

Potential traders need to be assured that the broker company they chose can offer the necessary support and help whenever they may need it. The ease with which such support teams can be contacted may also play a role when choosing a broker.

The customer support team of NINJATRADER can be reached by email, phone, and an online support form24/5, plus NINJATRADER provides 24/7 direct phone support for brokerage clients with critical trade issues. The emergency trade phone number for where you are located can be found on the website.

International traders are supported by dedicated Spanish, Russian and German brokerage service teams.

Education and Training

Before starting to trade, potential NINJATRADER clients should arm themselves with all possible information and trading skills needed to be successful in the world of forex and commodity trading.

If NINJATRADER ’s website itself does not provide enough means, a trader should explore other information sources to obtain that skills and knowledge.

NINJATRADER does offer the following ways to learn more about trading:

A demo account, a well-structured help guide, platform tutorial, general educational videos, and webinars covering many topics, including trading strategies, how-tos, and others.

All of NINJATRADER’s educational offerings can be accessed for free by anyone—clients and non-clients alike.

Research

Potential traders need to be enabled to do as much as possible research about speculative trading before commencing to do it and while trading with a specific brokerage.

Trading successfully relies heavily on knowledge and understanding of the markets and the platforms offered by a broker, therefore research options offered by brokers form an integral part of its features when choosing the right company to trade with.

NINJATRADER offers research options like a high-performance backtesting engine that allows users to test and verify futures trading strategies with historical data. The wide range of educational materials is helpful if you are unfamiliar with the platform or want to enhance your skills.

Conclusion

NINJATRADER is one of the top brokers for futures and forex trading and the unlimited use of its free platform is a great way to practice before deciding to trade live. Because NINJATRADER’s clientele prefers advanced charting and analysis, there is not much offered in terms of research or news.

Disclaimer

NINJATRADER warns potential traders that Forex and CFDs trading always carries a high level of risk, therefore may not be suitable for all investors.

Before clients decide to trade the products offered by NINJATRADER, they are advised to contemplate their investment objectives, financial situation, needs, and level of experience carefully before investing money that they cannot afford to lose.

Especially when traders use NINJATRADER ’s leveraged accounts, they should make sure to maintain a sufficient level of margin to sustain their positions, since trading Forex/CFD and Options on margin and using a higher than necessary leverage can be either beneficial or detrimental to a trader.

It is always possible to sustain a loss of some or all of an initial investment.

While NINJATRADER promises to make all efforts to fill a trade at the requested price, trading online does not necessarily reduce risks associated with currency trading, therefore quotes and trades are usually subject to the terms and conditions of a Client Agreement, which is accessible through the broker’s website.

Potential traders should first acquaint themselves with all these associated risks and seek advice from an independent financial advisor.