Install NT8 on Mac

[Genesis2021]

Hi, any Suggestion to what software operates the best. to support NinjaTrader 8 on a Mac OS system?

Would VMware or Parallels be better? Or does it matter, as long the Mac is running Windows 10 properly, then NinjaTrader should work as well?
or Maybe even Boot Camp Assistant?

There is not much support on the internet, over the subject as far as I can see.

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Manfred]

Hello Genesis2021,

Thank you very much for your post.

While we do not officially support running NinjaTrader on a Mac; we have had many clients run NinjaTrader on Mac hardware.

We have specific installation instructions for Parallels and VMWare Fusion which will allow you to run NinjaTrader on your Mac. Below you will find instructions specific to the available options of running NinjaTrader on a Mac computer with the virtualization tools. Please note that Windows is sold separately from Parallels and VMWare.


Mac Installation - Configuring NinjaTrader for Parallels

When installing NinjaTrader on a Mac using Parallels users will need to ensure that the following steps have been taken prior to the installation of NinjaTrader.

1. Start Parallels and select your virtual machine
2. Press the "Configure" button on the top
3. Under "Options", select "Sharing"
4. Uncheck "Share Mac" under "Share Mac User Folders with Windows"
5. Press "OK" and start the virtual machine

Mac Installation - Configuring NinjaTrader for VMWare Fusion:

When configuring NinjaTrader on a Mac running VMWare, users will need to ensure that the following steps have been taken prior to the installation of NinjaTrader.

1. Start VMWare and select your virtual machine
2. Press the "Settings" button on the bottom
3. Under "System Settings", select "Sharing"
4. Uncheck "Documents" from the "Mirrored Folders" list
5. Close the "Settings" window and start the virtual machine

To our knowledge, Boot Camp does not require any special adjustments.

Should you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to let us know!

[rht5692]

Hi, i am using Parallels but i do not find the options as told on your message. I do not want to make a mistake. Could you tell me the precise setup on the screen i have attached to this message Thank you very much for your help
Renaud

[NinjaTrader_Manfred]

Hello rht5692,

Thank you very much for your post and welcome to the NinjaTrader forums!

Looking at your second screenshot, it does seem this setting might have moved. However, as it is currently set to "None", this might already be the correct setting.

You should also be able to test this after launching Windows 11 and checking where the Documents folder is located. If it is on \\MAC\... it would still be shared, whereas if it is located on C:\Documents\... you could be certain it is no longer shared.

If you cannot find this information and would like us to take a look, please send me your platform's log & trace files, we would then be able to easily tell.

You can do this by clicking on Help > Email Support, and selecting the "Platform Technical Support" as the category.

Please also leave the following note in your email, this ensures we can associate it with this post:

ATTN Manfred 3625756

I look forward to your reply!

[rht5692]

Hi Manfred, I get an error message when i try to install an addon Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070043
thank you for your help

[NinjaTrader_Manfred]

Hello rht5692,

This error would usually indicate that the Documents folder is still shared.

As our Technical Support Team is not experienced in the use of Parallels, I would suggest reaching out to Parallels' customer support directly. In our experience, they are very responsive and are happy to assist. You can reach out to them at the following, publicly available address:

https://www.parallels.com/support/

If you could reach out to them and let them know you experience issues removing the network-shared drives, and which version you are using, they should be able to give you the exact steps to accomplish this.

I will also try to get access to a Parallels installation on my end to see how this was modified and ensure our instructions are correct going forward.

Of course, please don't hesitate to let me know, should you experience any issues or have further questions!

[rmoran]

Hi, before installing Ninjatrader 7 and 8, I too would like to be sure which option to deselect in Parallels settings.
This is the settings screen in the latest version of Parallels Desktop (17).
Can you help me?
Thank you

[NinjaTrader_RyanS]

Hello,

You will need to ensure your Windows installation is not sharing files/folders with your Mac installation. For what settings need to be adjusted I'd recommend reaching out to Parallels for further support to ensure this is done correctly.

[CraterHeadz]

Ahem. .NET is Mac native - available direct from Microsoft. Would be a simple port if Ninja were interested in expanding its user base.

[backtester831]

Hi, any Suggestion to what software operates the best. to support NinjaTrader 8 on a Mac OS system?

Would VMware or Parallels be better? Or does it matter, as long the Mac is running Windows 10 properly, then NinjaTrader should work as well?
or Maybe even Boot Camp Assistant?

There is not much support on the internet, over the subject as far as I can see.

Thanks

I've always had problems with Parallels on Mac because it would cause my Macbook to get very hot, and NinjaTrader ran terribly slow in it. Instead of Parallels of VMware, the best solution I was recommended a while ago was to use NinjaMobileTrader VPS, and it's been working great with my new Mac mini M series and my older Macbook Pro.

[CraterHeadz]

Yeah, I just can't see paying up to go slower.

[xabcdtrading]

We've had a ton of users running vmware on mac, and the setup depending on the mac you have will be different. The one thing I can tell you is that every user that has tried Parallels has moved to vmware. Under any sort of load you have huge performance problems (hence why we released this free indicator to check your NT8 performance) .. this blog article has walked you through how to install ninjatrader 8 and vmware as well for each mac type of cpu. The youtube video on that page has over 70K views and 796 likes with lots and lots of comments and solutions provided if you run into anything. Thats probably the best place to ask if you need any assistance.

Good luck - and yes, it can be done pretty easily. Also vmware 13 changed when broadcomm bought it - and its now free for personal use

[Jmp470]

We've had a ton of users running vmware on mac, and the setup depending on the mac you have will be different. The one thing I can tell you is that every user that has tried Parallels has moved to vmware. Under any sort of load you have huge performance problems (hence why we released this free indicator to check your NT8 performance) .. this blog article has walked you through how to install ninjatrader 8 and vmware as well for each mac type of cpu. The youtube video on that page has over 70K views and 796 likes with lots and lots of comments and solutions provided if you run into anything. Thats probably the best place to ask if you need any assistance.

Good luck - and yes, it can be done pretty easily. Also vmware 13 changed when broadcomm bought it - and its now free for personal use

Thank you for putting that performance indicator together. I'm in the process of testing NT8 on VMWare now, via Schwab.

Hopefully, it's as fast as it is on a PC.

[xabcdtrading]

Thank you for putting that performance indicator together. I'm in the process of testing NT8 on VMWare now, via Schwab.

Hopefully, it's as fast as it is on a PC.

Glad you enjoy it. There shouldn't be any real performance degradation. I believe VMWare had a white paper on this where it was around 2-3% which should translate to next to nothing for your setup. If you do, I would mostly be interested in the guest vm configuration or OS config but should be pretty easily figured out ... but I wouldn't be suspecting anything different performance wise.

[Jmp470]

Glad you enjoy it. There shouldn't be any real performance degradation. I believe VMWare had a white paper on this where it was around 2-3% which should translate to next to nothing for your setup. If you do, I would mostly be interested in the guest vm configuration or OS config but should be pretty easily figured out ... but I wouldn't be suspecting anything different performance wise.

Unfortunately, my NT 8 is not working as expected, so I cannot tell you, Yet!

I have a call with Ninja Trader tomorrow to figure out what's going on. I get Schwab working, but my account data does not load for some reason. But, I do have streaming data.