Rithmic Connection Guide: Connect Rithmic to NinjaTrader 8

This guide shows how to connect a Rithmic prop firm account to NinjaTrader Desktop (NinjaTrader 8), and what to check when the connection fails. Setup takes a few minutes: install NinjaTrader Desktop, turn on Multi-provider, add a Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage connection, enter your firm’s Rithmic login and pick the right System entry.

Important: Some prop firms may require you to sign agreement documents. Be sure to review their instructions carefully before proceeding. Rithmic’s own market data agreements are accepted in R | Trader Pro, not in NinjaTrader: log in to R | Trader Pro once with the same username and password and accept anything waiting there before you connect NinjaTrader.

Step 1: Download NinjaTrader Desktop

Please make sure you have the latest version of NinjaTrader Desktop (8.1.8.4) installed on your computer through your NinjaTrader Account Dashboard.

If you don’t have a NinjaTrader Username and are unable to log into the Account Dashboard, you can visit this page for instructions on how to download NinjaTrader Desktop without a NinjaTrader Brokerage Account: How Can I Download NinjaTrader Desktop Without a NinjaTrader Brokerage Account?

Step 2: Enable Multi-Provider

Before connecting your Rithmic prop firm account, you need to enable Multi-Provider. Multi-Provider is not enabled by default in new installations of NinjaTrader Desktop.

1. On the initial login screen, log into NinjaTrader Desktop using your NinjaTrader Account Dashboard Username and Password (the same credentials used to download NinjaTrader Desktop).
2. Next enable “Multi-Provider” in the NinjaTrader Control Center by navigating to Tools > Settings (called Options in some versions).
3. Under General, check the box next to ‘Multi-provider’, then hit OK.

After enabling this setting, restart your platform. The “Configure” button will then appear in the Control Center > Connections dropdown, allowing you to create your prop firm account. (NinjaTrader 8.0.28.0 has no Multi-provider setting and does not need it.)

Step 3: Add the Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage connection

After restarting the platform, select Configure in the NinjaTrader Control Center Connections menu.

Next, double-click “Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage” from the list of available connections, or select it and click the “Add” button at the bottom of the window. Once “My Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage” appears in the Configured section below, you can edit the Connection Properties. Despite its name, this connection does not need a NinjaTrader Brokerage account: it is the connection type NinjaTrader uses for Rithmic logins, prop firm logins included.

Step 4: Enter your login and choose the System entry

Enter the Rithmic username and password provided by your prop firm in the fields on the right. Type them rather than pasting them: a space copied along with a username or password is the most common reason a correct login is refused. Then choose your firm’s entry in the System drop-down menu.

Which System entry? Most evaluation and simulated funded accounts use Rithmic Paper Trading (Chicago), or the Rithmic Paper Trading entry nearest you if your firm says so. A few firms have their own entry in NinjaTrader’s list (Apex, Funded Futures Network and MES Capital), and live brokerage accounts usually use Rithmic 01 (Chicago). Some firms, including Lucid Trading, Tradeify, DayTraders.com and Legends Trading, run their own Rithmic system that NinjaTrader does not list at all. Your firm’s credentials email always wins; which Rithmic System entry each prop firm uses lists the entries our customers actually connected on.

Step 5: Connect

Lastly, go to the NinjaTrader Control Center > Connections > select your new data feed. Your firm’s accounts appear in the Control Center’s Accounts tab once it connects.

Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage vs Multi-provider

The two names come up together and are easy to mix up.

• Multi-provider is a setting. It lets NinjaTrader Desktop run connections to more than one provider and adds the Configure button to the Connections menu. Without it you cannot add a Rithmic connection at all. If Configure is still missing, see why Configure is missing from the Connections menu.
• Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage is the connection type. It is the Rithmic connection every current NinjaTrader license has, and the one prop firm Rithmic logins use. Only license keys issued before July 15, 2014 also see an older connection called just “Rithmic”.
• Neither one lifts the one-connection limit. On a current license NinjaTrader runs one Rithmic connection at a time, with Multi-provider on or off. How to run multiple Rithmic connections in NinjaTrader 8 explains the limit and the ways around it.

Troubleshooting a Rithmic connection in NinjaTrader

Before anything else, connect each login on its own, with no other Rithmic connection running. Then match what you see below.

“Logon failed” or “check your account connection parameters”

NinjaTrader shows the same message for a wrong password, a wrong System entry and an unaccepted data agreement. Check them in that order: retype the username and password by hand (a hidden space is the usual culprit), check the System entry (next section), then log in to R | Trader Pro and accept any agreement waiting there. Less often, a firewall or security suite blocking Rithmic’s high ports, or a computer clock that is wrong, causes the same message. Every cause and fix: Rithmic “Logon Failed” in NinjaTrader 8.

“The IB you are trying to connect to is not authorized to use NinjaTrader”

Try again before you change anything. This message often clears on its own, and the same settings then connect. If it keeps happening, NinjaTrader is not enabled for that firm or login, and only your firm can change that.

Wrong System entry

Rithmic runs several gateways, and a login exists on only one of them. On the wrong entry a correct password is refused with the same logon error, so traders retype a good password again and again. Compare your entry with your firm’s credentials email and with the System entry each prop firm connected on.

“Session count exceeded” or “Disconnect enforced by broker or 2nd login to the same account”

Each Rithmic login allows a set number of sessions at once. R | Trader Pro left open, a second computer, a VPS that is still running, or your firm’s web or mobile platform signed in with the same login all take one. Close what you are not using and reconnect. More detail: Rithmic “Session Count Exceeded”: what it means and how to clear it.

“Provider ‘Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage’ already has a running connection”

This is not a login problem. NinjaTrader Desktop runs one Rithmic connection at a time, whatever login it uses. Disconnect the Rithmic connection that is already running, and untick Connect on start up on all but one of your Rithmic connections. To keep several Rithmic firms connected together you need an add-on such as Unlimited Prop Firm Connections, our paid add-on for NinjaTrader 8.

No Configure button in the Connections menu

Multi-provider is off, or NinjaTrader has not been restarted since you turned it on. Go back to Step 2.

The connection fails or drops on a weekend

Rithmic has a weekly maintenance window from the futures close on Friday until markets reopen on Sunday evening, and logins can fail or come and go during it even when nothing is wrong on your side. Outside that window: if every Rithmic firm drops at once, the problem is upstream; if one firm drops while the others hold, it is that firm or that login. See is Rithmic down, or is it your connection?, and if NinjaTrader stays disconnected after Rithmic is back, NinjaTrader will not reconnect.

A trade closed at Rithmic still shows open in NinjaTrader

See Rithmic trade closed but still showing open in NinjaTrader for why it happens and how to check the real position.

Guides for individual prop firms

Firm-specific settings, including the System entry each firm’s accounts connect on: Apex Trader Funding, Bulenox, Tradeify, Take Profit Trader, Lucid Trading, and the full list in our connection guides. Not sure your firm is on Rithmic at all? See Rithmic vs Tradovate and prop firms that use Rithmic.

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.