How to Connect Elite Trader Funding to NinjaTrader (Tradovate)
Elite Trader Funding runs two data feeds, and which one you hold is settled at checkout. That is what catches people here. Their checkout carries an option labelled NinjaTrader, and it is the Rithmic one — their own checkout copy says choosing NinjaTrader does not include the ability to utilise the Tradovate (CQG) connection, and that if you want Tradovate and NinjaTrader both, you select the Tradovate option. Traders see the word NinjaTrader, click it, and then cannot work out why the credentials on their dashboard will not go into a Tradovate connection. Establish which feed you are on before you touch the platform.
What you need before you start
- An Elite Trader Funding account on the Tradovate feed — the Tradovate Bundle at checkout, which they describe as letting you execute trades from TradingView, Tradovate and NinjaTrader.
- Your Tradovate username and password, taken from the Trader Dashboard. In their words, your platform username and password are shown there, not in your ETF login.
- One sign-in at trader.tradovate.com before NinjaTrader ever opens, to accept the terms of use and select non-professional status.
- NinjaTrader Desktop on Windows. Elite Trader Funding list NinjaTrader as Windows-only and publish a separate Parallels guide for Mac users.
Connecting Elite Trader Funding to NinjaTrader
Confirm which feed your account is on
Open the Trader Dashboard and look at the credentials it is showing you. The two feeds do not overlap at all: Elite Trader Funding state that Tradovate credentials cannot be used to log in to Rithmic-only platforms, and Rithmic credentials cannot be used on Tradovate. If you find Rithmic credentials there, our Rithmic connection guide is the one you want instead.
Sign in to Tradovate on the web once
Go to trader.tradovate.com and log in with the dashboard credentials. Accept Tradovate’s terms of use, selecting the non-professional status option only, then click Access Simulation. Elite Trader Funding are specific that a first-time connection has to be made from a computer in order to complete and sign the data agreement, and that live market data can take a further one to five minutes to activate afterwards.
Enable Multi-Provider
Tools, then Settings, then General. Tick Multi-Provider, apply, and restart NinjaTrader. Without it, Configure does not appear in the Connections menu at all.
Elite Trader Funding’s own article calls this Tools then Options, which is how older NinjaTrader 8 builds label it. Current builds label it Tools > Settings > General, so use whichever your menu shows.
Add the connection
Control Center, Connections, Configure. Select NinjaTrader from the Available connections list and click add — that is the connection type which carries Tradovate prop accounts, and Elite Trader Funding say the same thing in their own guide: for Tradovate (CQG) credentials, select NinjaTrader and click Add. Rename it to Elite Trader Funding so you can tell it apart later.
Enter the credentials and set the Account Type
Type the username and password rather than pasting them. Elite Trader Funding tell you to copy and paste into Tradovate’s web login, and that is fine there, but a trailing space that a web form quietly tolerates will fail NinjaTrader’s logon outright.
Set Account Type: Simulation. That is correct for a funded Elite Trader Funding account as much as for an evaluation. Live in that dropdown is for a retail brokerage account and will not find yours.
Select your new connection
Connections, then Elite Trader Funding. A green light at the bottom left of the Control Center is what you are after.
If it will not connect
- Logon failed. Either a trailing space carried over from the dashboard, or Rithmic credentials being offered to a Tradovate connection. Check the dashboard again and confirm which feed you bought.
- Connected, but the charts are empty. The data agreement has not been signed, or has not taken effect. Log in at trader.tradovate.com, complete the agreement, then log out and back in — Elite Trader Funding are explicit that logging out is what finalises the agreement and activates real-time data. The symptom they tell you to watch for is the message about real-time market data being required to trade the contract. More on this in connected but no data.
- Connected, but your funded account is not in the list. Global Simulation Mode is on. Elite Trader Funding publish this fix themselves: open the Control Center, click Tools, and untick Global Simulation Mode, then log out and back in to refresh. They document it for their Rithmic accounts, but the switch is platform-wide and does the same thing on the Tradovate route. See also no accounts were found.
- No Configure option. Multi-Provider is switched off. See why Configure is missing.
- No equity button, or you cannot switch between accounts. That is Privacy Mode in Tradovate’s own settings, which hides the equity button and the account selector. Turn it off, log out and back in, and your linked accounts become selectable again.
Elite Trader Funding and NinjaTrader: questions we get
Which Elite Trader Funding accounts can use Tradovate?
The evaluation and sim-funded plans can — 1-Step, Fast Track, End of Day, Static, Diamond Hands and Direct to Funded all run on whichever feed you picked at checkout, and the Tradovate Bundle covers NinjaTrader.
LIVE ELITE cannot. Once an account is promoted to the live programme, Elite Trader Funding restrict it to Rithmic-compatible platforms and state plainly that Tradovate and NinjaTrader are currently not supported in LIVE ELITE. That is the only platform exclusion they publish. If you are heading that way, plan on the Rithmic route for the live stage.
Can I run Elite Trader Funding next to another prop firm?
Yes, and on this route there is nothing to buy. Tradovate does not cap the number of connections, so a Tradovate account at Elite Trader Funding sits happily beside another firm in the same Control Center. The one-connection-at-a-time restriction people run into is NinjaTrader’s own handling of Rithmic, and it does not apply here.
If what you actually want is one order reaching several accounts at once, that is a different job from having the connections open, and it is what a trade copier does.
Is my Elite Trader Funding website login the same as my connection login?
No. This is the single most common setup mistake at every prop firm and Elite Trader Funding are unusually direct about it: the platform username and password come from the Trader Dashboard, not from the account you log into their website with.