NinjaTrader7 has just been released. Simply brilliant.

I just finished a 3 month course in which I was required to use Ninja in the process. The truth is ninja is a decade behind the cutting edge and is still predominately “menu” driven. Even their trade bar requires you to go to a pop up to execute a trade. It is a very unstable plateform that has data retrieval problems and requires you to again and again rebuild the data base to correct errors. Trade Navigator from from Genesis Technologies is icon drive and every thing including drawing tools and time frame chgs are one click away. They seldom ever have a data problem the truth of the mater is if Ninja customers new what was available in Navigator there would be a mass migration to Navigator. There is a reason why Larry Williams and the big dogs use it. Their from the chart trading is more advanced and easier to use with no “Pop Ups required. Ninja support is via e-mail, navigator has the best support in existance and is a phone call away. Needless to say I was very disappointed with Ninja. Talk to Melissa at Genesis

As stated, this program is slugish and uses a ton of resources. Pretty much useless in normal market conditions.

I have been using NinjaTrader for discretionary trading of futures using the Zen-Fire feed and its head and shoulders above the Transact AT platform I was using. Charting is excellent and there is a lot of 3rd party components available.

Horrid UI, good features. NinjaTrader looks like it was written by a group of PhDs, the automating trading features are good and reliable but the user interface is one of the worst I’ve ever come across. You’ll need their manual at all times and even simple tasks like adding a new stock requires navigating a painful and tedious maze of menus and buttons. The only reason to choose NinjaTrader over OpenQuant is if you absolutely need NT’s features, but otherwise the horrible interface should drive everyone away. Avoid it unless absolutely necessary.

NinjaTrader has come along way since it first started out as a simple IB front end. I have used NinjaTrader for several years for only order execution and just recently dropped TradeStation and exclusively use NinjaTrader for all my charting and system development. It takes some time to get your head around C# but the development aspect of NinjaTrader is light years ahead of Easy Language. Their support forum is top notch and the development community is helpful and growing. A lot of defectors from other platforms are adopting NinjaTrader. In a few more years I think NinjaTrader will be the gold standard.

This is a follow up on my previous review. The new version improves the handling the core tick data from ZenFire which remains a very very good feed (great job ZenFire). But the old problems in NT are replaced by new ones. System does not terminate active strings and is left in opentasks on Windows Task manager even when shut down. One has to end process in the Task Panel (on both Vista and XP – both on multicore processors) to end so one can restart. The system does not crash as often as before when refreshing data data but hangs up just the same. Market replay is abysmal with massive memory hogging. One can only hope NT7 is better. In my opinion a much better option is to go with a direct entry DOM execution platform like OEC or TT or CQG and run charts separately. This remains an amateur’s platform. With it’s glossy look and easy programming features making it a geek’s dream but an unreliable and almost nearly an impossibility for a professional. Buyer beware. And of course its better than TS (TS code belongs in the Dark Ages so that’s not even a fair comparison). Seriously, run the OEC DOM or TT DOM or CQG DOM in comparison and you will realize the difference. And except for the CQG platform the other two are retail end white label software.

This is a great, versatile platform and I converted to a lifetime license a few weeks ago, as with the ZenFire feed it’s a rock solid combination for my day to day futures trading. The support team does an excellent job of giving competent quick replies, though some will need some time getting used to their ‘no inbound’ calls support model. I also make good use of their C# / NinjaScript programming language that allows you to leverage existing systems by having the confidence to execute them to multiple broker technologies, and that without any messy code conversion needs! What I read so far on the upcoming NinjaTrader 7 release is very sweet as it will support my multicore systems more efficiently and allows you to chart multiple timeframes and symbols on one chart (even min and tick in a nice way) … overall very happy and I also like their ‘try it for free’ pricing model, this will make more and more NinjaScripts cirle around the net…convenient perspectives indeed )