Does NinjaTrader Connect Automatically on Startup?
Yes. Every connection in NinjaTrader 8 has its own Connect on start up setting, and any connection with it ticked connects by itself when the platform opens. It is not new either: it is there in NinjaTrader 8.0 as well as 8.1. If a guide or a forum thread told you otherwise, it was wrong.
People miss it because of where it lives. It is not in the platform options. It sits inside each connection’s own settings, so you turn it on connection by connection.
Turning it on
- No Configure on the Connections menu? Turn on Multi-provider first: Tools > Settings > General, tick Multi-provider, click OK, then close NinjaTrader and open it again. NinjaTrader hides Configure until it is on (why Configure is missing).
- In the Control Center, open the Connections menu and choose Configure.
- Select the connection in the list of configured connections.
- In its Credentials section, tick Connect on start up.
- Untick Ask password on connect and make sure the password is saved. Otherwise the connection stops at launch and waits for you to type it.
- Click OK, then repeat for every connection you want up when NinjaTrader opens.
The next time the platform starts, the Log tab in the Control Center shows an “Auto connecting” line for each of them. That is the quickest way to confirm the setting took.
It works the other way too. If a connection keeps coming up every time you open NinjaTrader and you do not want it to, this is the box to untick. A connection nobody trades through can still cause trouble while it is connected, for example by putting your charts on delayed market data.
What stops it working
More than one Rithmic connection. NinjaTrader runs one Rithmic connection at a time, so ticking the box on two Rithmic connections will not bring both up. Running multiple Rithmic connections covers the limit and the ways around it.
The same login signed in somewhere else. If R|Trader Pro, another PC or a VPS is using the same Rithmic credentials, the connection at launch can knock that session off or be knocked off itself. See Rithmic session count exceeded.
No saved password. A connection set to connect on start up with no password stored fails with “Password should be specified”.
A login the firm has closed. A prop firm login that has been locked broker side, or an account whose evaluation has ended, still tries to connect at launch and fails. Nothing on the chart tells you. You find out in the Log tab, or when you try to place an order.
Running unattended on a VPS
Connect on start up only runs once NinjaTrader is open. For a machine that reboots overnight or after a Windows update, the platform itself also has to start without you.
- Launch NinjaTrader with Windows. Put a shortcut in the Windows Startup folder, or use a Task Scheduler entry with a delay of around 45 to 60 seconds so Windows services are fully up before the platform starts.
- Let the connections come up on their own. Tick Connect on start up on each one, with the password saved.
- Check your strategies. NinjaTrader restores the strategies you had running when it starts, once their account’s connection is up. After an unattended restart, look at the Strategies tab to confirm they came back the way you left them.
With several prop firm connections
Connect on start up takes care of launch. What it does not do is tell you which of your connections failed to come up, and with five or six prop firms that is the part that costs you: one of them fails quietly and you find out at the moment you try to trade.
That is the gap Unlimited Prop Firm Connections covers. Connect All brings up the connections you tick with one press, skips logins the broker has locked instead of stalling on them, and names the ones that failed rather than leaving you to find them.
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.