I have had some limited experience trading commodities dating back about 9 years. Recently, I decided I wanted to get back into commodity trading and began researching platforms and brokers. I am mostly interested in trading in agricultural commodities.
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I stumbled across NinjaTrader and thought this would be a great platform to use. So, I purchased a quarterly subscription and opened an account with NinjaTrader. I'm sure this platform is great for many people but it has turned out to be a complete headache for me. Here is what you need to know about this platform:
- NinjaTrader provides no phone support. You do have access to emergency help in the event something goes wrong in a trade. But all questions are posted in a forum or via e-mail. And sometimes, the responses don't really make any sense. And sometimes, you have to resend your email to get a response.
- I also signed up with NinjaTrader as my broker. I did have a conversation with the broker about what I wanted to do. He never informed me how limited the offerings were in agricultural commodities and I was very specific with him regarding what I was looking to trade. They are very aggressive about getting you to set up your account to begin trading. They probably have a quota they have to meet regarding the number of accounts they open each month. I was told once I funded the account (Minimum $50) I could begin practicing with live data.
- Papertrading....oh boy. So, NinjaTrader says you can paper trade with live data. But what is not being said here is that it is NOT real time data. It is a simulation their system creates and it is very frustrating if you are trying to really understand a specific item. I was practicing Live Hogs. The simulation behaved like something else with extreme highs and lows that are not allowed in this commodity; and trade volume that was out of this world. In addition, the Superdom showed that there was high volume trading after hours which does not exist in these commodities. That did not work for me.
So, I tried the market play back feature which would allow me to practice using the previous day's data. This worked somewhat for me but I needed more data to work with and it was difficult getting it to go back further. I tried to add Live Cattle and the charts wouldn't populate; in addition only one hogs contract was available.
I have an email into Support inquiring about playback to see if this problem can be resolved.....no response. Just crickets - I emailed the NinjaTrader broker who was so good about getting me signed into an account, only to discover that once you're signed up, there's no more response. I'm waiting for him to confirm that I can actually trade in the commodities I want to trade in...... so far, only crickets.
- When I pull up the commodity in NinjaTrader Coninuum, it just freezes. I tried it in Hogs, Live Cattle and WTI. It freezes; I have to close the program and reopen in order to get the chart to repopulate.
- NinjaTrader's tutorial video library is lacking. It's very difficult to figure out how to solve your problems. They do have a help library with everything sorted so you can find information but I'm unable to solve my playback problem. I have to reach out to support......and wait.
- Funding your account can be a challenge. NinjaTrader uses a program called Plaid, something similar to Zelle or Venmo. If your bank is not set up with them, then you can't fund your account electronically. You have to send them a check or wire the money; however, if you already have an account with another broker (I had one with TDAmeritrade), you can wire money from an existing broker. You will pay a wire fee to your existing broker. (And consequently, pay NinjaTrader a fee when you pull the money out) Moving forward, if you want to add money to your account, you'll have to fund your existing broker, transfer money and pay another wire fee. I think NinjaTrader charges a withdrawal fee in addition to the wire fee as well.
Bottom line: I am no closer to live trading than I was almost 2 weeks ago when I first signed on to this platform. I can't get my demo/practice obstacles cleared. My journey has exposed me to many people/organizations who seem more intent on selling me something than actually providing a service. NinjaTrader may also offer traders a false sense of security; it's great that they have so many bells and whistles but those features may actually end up luring new traders into a downward spiral.
I've cut my ties with NinjaTrader and have decided to sign up with TrackNTrade. I downloaded the program yesterday and today will get my orientation. So far it's a really nice program; they offer phone support and their rep has been amazing answering all of my questions. I'm glad I bit the bullet and made the change.
