Connecting Deluxe Trader Funding to NinjaTrader 8 (Rithmic)

Deluxe Trader Funding runs its evaluations on Rithmic. The firm states that your Rithmic User ID and password are available in your member area once you have a Qualification Account, and it describes no Rithmic welcome email, no separate portal registration at Rithmic’s end and no credential-activation step beyond that. Those credentials are what a Rithmic connection logs in with, whichever front end you point at them.

The thing that catches people out here is the username. At signup you choose your own website username and password for the member area itself, and that pair belongs to the membership dashboard and nothing else. The Rithmic User ID is a different value, shown to you inside the member area after purchase. Put the website username into a Rithmic login dialog and you get a rejection that tells you nothing about what actually went wrong, so check which of the two you are holding before you type anything.

One caution before the steps. Deluxe Trader Funding documents exactly one platform — Rithmic R | TRADER — and publishes nothing at all about NinjaTrader, in either direction. Which front ends are enabled on a firm’s Rithmic configuration is provisioned firm by firm at Rithmic’s end, and we have not been able to verify Deluxe’s independently. If NinjaTrader is the reason you are choosing this firm, email support@deluxetraderfunding.com and confirm with them what you may use on your account before you buy, and check the names in your member area against the ones used below.

What Deluxe Trader Funding documents

• Rithmic R | TRADER — the only platform named anywhere on the firm’s site. Its FAQ carries a step-by-step R | TRADER setup and nothing for any other software.
• A Rithmic User ID and password — both stated as available in your member area once your account is live.
• System and gateway — the firm’s own Rithmic connection instructions say to select System Rithmic Paper Trading with the Chicago gateway, offering Europe or Frankfurt for European traders and Tokyo or Singapore for Asia.
• Market data — the firm states that non-professional data is included with the Qualification Account at no cost, and that professional classification is charged at $112 per month per exchange across CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. Choose deliberately.
• Windows only — the firm states Rithmic works on Windows and is not compatible with macOS or Chrome OS. NinjaTrader Desktop (NinjaTrader 8) is Windows-only in any case.
• Three account stages — Qualification, then a post-qualification account the FAQ calls both a Forza Account and a Master Account, then a Funded Account. The firm gives the Rithmic system name once, in a general connection section, and never says whether the later stages move to a different one.
• Automated trading — the terms require third-party trading algorithms to be approved by the firm’s management before use. That is a rule about algorithms rather than about any particular platform, but it bears directly on NinjaScript strategies, so read it if you plan to run one.
• Support — email and a chat widget on the site. There is no Discord or ticket system to escalate through.

What you need before you start

• NinjaTrader Desktop installed on Windows and updated.
• Your Rithmic User ID and password from the member area — not your website login.
• Rithmic R | TRADER installed, for the one-time agreement acceptance described below.
• A decision on your market-data classification. You self-classify as non-professional or professional at first connection and it is awkward to reverse.
• A weekday. The firm states Rithmic is under maintenance at weekends and logins are not possible then, so a Saturday failure is not a setup error.
• If you have passed and are waiting on a Forza account, the firm’s written confirmation that it is live. Activation is manual — it follows a completed application, a signed agreement and a one-time activation fee the firm says covers data flow and account maintenance — so expect a gap between passing and being able to connect at all.

Connecting Deluxe Trader Funding to NinjaTrader

1. Turn on Multi-Provider and restart

In the Control Center go to Tools > Settings > General and tick Multi-Provider, then click OK and close NinjaTrader completely before reopening it. This matters because without it the Configure option under Connections never appears, and people spend a long time hunting a menu that is not there. If Configure is still missing after the restart, our note on the missing Configure item covers the rest.

2. Do your first Rithmic login in R | TRADER

Log in once with R | TRADER before you touch NinjaTrader. On a first connection Rithmic presents two documents: review the first and click I Agree, then review the second, select Non-Professional or Professional, and click Submit. An unaccepted Rithmic agreement is one of the most common causes of a logon failure that looks exactly like a wrong password, and clearing it here saves you guessing later. While you are in R | TRADER, the firm asks you to have Market Data and Allow Plugins switched on — those are R | TRADER checkboxes with no NinjaTrader equivalent, so do not go looking for them in NT8.

3. Add the Rithmic connection in NinjaTrader

In the Control Center choose Connections > Configure, and from the Available list pick Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage. That is the stock Rithmic entry and the one Rithmic-fed accounts use; the Available list is organised by connectivity provider, so do not go looking for the firm’s own name in it. Give the connection a name you will recognise at a glance in the Connections menu.

4. Enter the credentials, System and gateway

Put the Rithmic User ID and password from your member area into the User name and Password fields. Set System to Rithmic Paper Trading (Chicago), which matches the System and Chicago gateway the firm publishes in its R | TRADER instructions. NinjaTrader has no separate Gateway field because the region is part of the System entry; traders in Europe or Asia can pick Rithmic Paper Trading (Europe) or Rithmic Paper Trading (Tokyo), and NinjaTrader has no Frankfurt or Singapore paper entry. The System field is the one to get right — pairing correct credentials with the wrong system produces a rejection with no useful detail in it. Broadly, Rithmic evaluation credentials sit on Rithmic Paper Trading and funded ones on Rithmic 01, but Deluxe Trader Funding does not say which system its Forza or Funded accounts use, so ask the firm rather than assuming.

5. Connect and check the Accounts tab

Select the connection from Connections and watch the status in the Control Center. Once it is connected, open the Accounts tab: your account appears under its Rithmic account ID, not as Starter, Pro, Elite or Forza, so none of the firm’s own naming will be visible. The firm also states that any additional accounts you open must be registered under the same Rithmic User ID, so several similar-looking accounts may appear at once. Confirm which one is selected in your order entry window before you send anything.

Questions we get about Deluxe Trader Funding and NinjaTrader

My credentials are correct but the login is rejected

Work through it in order: are you using the Rithmic User ID rather than your website username; is the System set to Rithmic Paper Trading; have the two Rithmic agreements actually been accepted; and is it a weekend, when the firm says logins are not possible. Our write-up of Rithmic logon failures goes through the remaining causes.

Which System do I use after I pass?

We do not know, and we would rather say so than guess. The firm names Rithmic Paper Trading in a general connection section and says nothing about whether the Forza or Funded stages move to a different system or issue fresh credentials. Ask support when your account is activated, and keep the confirmation.

Can I run more than one account at once?

The firm states that additional accounts are registered under the same Rithmic User ID, so those normally appear together in the Accounts tab of a single connection. NinjaTrader Desktop runs one Rithmic connection at a time, so the limit only matters once you add a second login, such as another firm’s. Our Unlimited Prop Firm Connections add-on lets you connect and manage multiple Rithmic accounts at the same time, from one window, with per-connection monitoring, and it tells you which System entry your firm uses, or adds that entry to NinjaTrader’s System list when it is missing.

Can I run a NinjaScript strategy on the account?

The firm’s terms state that third-party trading algorithms must be approved by its management before use, and they also restrict certain automated and scalping approaches. Send them a description of what you intend to run and get an answer in writing before you deploy it.

Why does nothing connect at the weekend?

The firm states plainly that Rithmic is under maintenance at weekends and that logging in is not possible during that window. Nothing is broken — do your first-time setup on a weekday so you can tell a real problem from a closed gateway.

Related

• All NinjaTrader connection guides — the same walkthrough for every firm we cover.
• The general Rithmic connection guide — systems, gateways and market-data agreements in more depth.

Affordable Indicators, Inc. is not affiliated with or endorsed by Rithmic, NinjaTrader, or any prop firm or broker named here; your firm’s and broker’s own terms govern how you may use your account, so check with them first.