NinjaTrader Broker - Are they doing a good job?

[torento]

I am looking to obtain for myself and for the trading community as a whole a general consensus on the quality of service offered by NinjaTrader Broker.

I think that a thread like this can only be beneficial for the growth of NinjaTrader broker to be able to recognize traders concerns and potential shortcomings while providing relevant updates and fixes to upgrade and maintain a high quality of service in the brokerage industry. At the same time recognizing what traders like and appreciate about the service in order to assist in the growth and evolution of the brokerage service.

Also I aim to assist traders in the search for a reliable broker.

This is not meant to be a Ninja Bash for anyone who gets a bad fill so please keep it clean, honest firsthand experience please.

Come on Guys Don't be shy please write in with your thoughts and first hand experiences!


What has your experience been? - the Good the Bad and the Ugly (hopefully more good than bad and ugly!)

Emergency Trade Desk - Was it there for you when you needed it most?

Communication - Is Communication prompt or delayed?

Customer Service - Do they make the grade?

Outages - They happen everywhere at some point in time, how often are they occurring?

Speed of Execution - Are you getting good fills?

Intraday to Initial Margin Rate Increases during High Volatility without warning - How is this affecting traders?

Overall do you feel confident trading your capital through NT Broker?


NT Management - I hope you let this thread ride as I feel it can only be a good thing for the growth of NinjaTrader & it's Community + I am also interested myself in the quality of service you provide.
A growing and thriving NinjaTrader who makes customer service a priority is only a good thing for the trading community.
Hopefully some feedback will assist in the growth and development of the Broker Service and provide users with a clear understanding of what to expect.
This is not meant to be a Ninja Bash for anyone who gets a bad fill or receives slippage etc

I would also like to request a Forum for Brokerage Support, there is a Platform Technical Support for Desktop, Web & Mobile, why not a Brokerage Technical Support?
I'm sure this feature would greatly enhance the user experience adding valuable easy to obtain knowledge while at the same time providing another avenue of communication for your Brokerage Support team.

[torento]

Anybody trade with these guys, Anybody at all?

[MicroTrends]

Anybody trade with these guys, Anybody at all?

I like your post and reasoning.. and this is a different angle to look at it as someone who’s been around for while.

NT is a FCM so your question "Anybody trade with these guys, Anybody at all?" is a bit of non sequitur as this is not some guaranteed or independent broker...
this is a Futures Commission Merchant - top of the ladder to the exchange, with 500,000 active traders using the toolset.... so yes plenty trade with NT..
historically NT trading was facilitated through CQG and so on, as the technology, CQG is a shared DMA tier, aggregated data, which cost money to use to all NT and end user, and was limited to 1 connection at a time, and they were great. But this is even better modern and slicker and there is a saving too so we get the best rates too...and we get a view of 2 connections... big savings and big improvements.

Now even better NT can use its own tech and remove some of the again tech trading architecture dinosaurs of the past and give us a straight through process to the exchange and not a shared platform like TT,CQG who are sometimes spread too thinly etc... so there are massive advantages there alone for quality of service.
NT is light, slick and can fix its own issues directly - so there are even more advantages it has control of the tech and whole thing -that's huge - it's all in house.

So back to the more usual things...to consider of Brokerage:
So I think one of the most important element is the start of the journey... which usually is hell and leaves newbies practically in tears or to give up and do CFDS - yikes!.
or the lesser assets " FX and Crypto" which are so easy that is why they are so and popular... versus futures which is the best in the world to trade but - has a real learning curve to it like no other?

I list the traditional hurdles here:

1) Account open and Fund...
how quick to get a live account application done and then fund it...
This was my quickest experience yet..... incredible.... practically instant + PLAID ACH fantastically easy for US Based - I am UK based to that was my only caveat - but wait there are other transfer methods ok good. A follow up from the brokerage side was all good too for the account opening and so forth... not waiting for days with some tennis game of emails but good workable info a beginner could use. Where as this can still go on for weeks for some brokerages 1 month plus... for the so called great FCMs - cannot get close to this.
>>>no more messing around lost in the dark!!!!

2) Connection
The next element which is always a stumbling block in the past is about the connection which one and why and how - how the heck to configure it and so on and this can go for one days and weeks with some brokerage and tech...literally weeks... this problem is gone with NT as its all done invisibly for you... you chose live or sim...!!!
>>>no more connection hell for people...

3) Accessing the account
NT universal account lets you login to all parts with 1 login
account, web app, mobile App,. Desktop
>>>you can access your account online so easy now

4)technology advantages 2 for 1
with traditional FCMS and technology such as TT,CQG etc.
You need multiple connections and double costs to see a web view and a desktop view
>>>with Brokerage you can see it in the web account, in the web and in the desktop same time- 2 for the price of 1.

Conclusion
So to the guy in the street the newbie they don’t to go through the horror that futures trading used to be...!
Now its simple.. now the only thing to really confuse traders would be the concept of contracts etc...
All the major hurdles that stopped people from getting into futures have been resolved by NT Brokerage + the tech offerings in combo..
So yes I give them a score of probably the highest possible now.. out of the brokers and I have had control of accounts from 5mil to 500usd with various brokers over the years in various capacities.
in the larger cap FCM brokers were for me not as quick to act or knowledgeable focused -they had to support a zillion different things and the overall services and average broker knowledge C grade. The average knowledge of inside sales at NT is very high – NT Brokerage and NT Support can interact and communicate – this was not possible in the other FCMS and brokers – you got palmed to specialists band back and forth. So I would be quite happy with a small retail account from 500 to 100K or even a larger account of 500K to a lot more for retail trading and I would and not be worried at all with NT as they got a grip of the whole situation.

There is however 1 small teeny thing. .I want to trade SPI, CN, NK, Z :-) and that’s not supported as yet and might not be by the new accounts - but its ok as I’m allowed to use my legacy multibroker account...ok... so yes i will be using this new NT tech and brokerage for US Indices ... web access to see what the heck is going on my server in NT8 fantastic!

• Based on the above critique
• Tech +service 100%
• Instruments offerings 85%

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[FatCanary]

I'm not going to write as much as MicroTrends , but I have used the NT platform for many, many years. I can remember when Ray had the NT forum as a Google group (I think).

I have been with NT brokerage from day one, and have had no issues. Support for the platform and brokerage has always been first class (whether forum or email).

You'll get few, if any, complaints from me.

[torento]

I have to say that I have received many reports elsewhere that they are doing a good job thanks MicroTrends & FatCanary

[torento]

Thought I'd add this here

NinjaTrader Brokerage CFTC Reporting + links lead to NT's Investments Holdings + Disclosure Statements etc

https://ninjatrader.com/customer-funds

CFTC Financial Data for Futures Commission Merchants

https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/f...data/index.htm