Your Strategy Runs 24/5. Your Laptop Does Not.
A Windows machine sized properly for NinjaTrader 8, that stays up when your power, your internet and Windows Update all decide otherwise.
Provisioned in under 60 seconds · US, UK, EU and Asia locations · $2.99 trial
What actually goes wrong
None of these are trading mistakes. They are the losses that have nothing to do with your edge, and they are the only ones hosting can remove.
Windows restarts at 3am
NinjaTrader was flat when you went to bed and your strategy was armed for the Asian session. Windows disagreed about priorities.
The line drops mid-session
A NinjaScript strategy managing a position stops managing it. The exchange does not care that your router rebooted.
The trailing threshold keeps moving
On a funded futures account, a disconnect while a position is open is not a missed trade. It is an unmanaged one, against a threshold that does not pause.
The workspace grinds at the open
NinjaTrader 8 holds tick data and indicator series in memory. Add instruments and order-flow studies and a laptop starts dropping frames exactly when the volume arrives.
What we will and will not claim about latency
Your NinjaTrader order does not go straight to the exchange. It goes to a Rithmic or CQG gateway first, and most of those sit at 350 East Cermak in Chicago rather than at the CME matching engine in Aurora. The distance from your machine to that gateway is the only leg hosting can change, and it is the leg a home connection loses on: fifteen to twenty hops through a consumer router before the traffic is even on a backbone.
What we will not do is print a sub-millisecond number next to a logo. A latency figure means nothing without the location it was taken from, the host it was taken against and the date. Ours carry all three or they do not go on the page.
Tell support which broker and data route your account uses and we will measure it from the location you would be provisioned in, before you pay for anything.
What comes with it
Provisioned in under 60 seconds
Order, receive RDP credentials by email, connect. The Windows prerequisites NinjaTrader 8 needs are already in place, so the install is a few minutes rather than an afternoon.
Auto-restart watchdog
If NinjaTrader crashes or stops responding, the watchdog restarts it. An overnight failure costs seconds, not a session.
Placed against your data route
Your fills reach a Rithmic or CQG gateway before they reach the exchange. Tell us which route your account uses and we will measure it and put you in the location that suits it, rather than guessing from a map.
Reach it from anything
RDP from Windows, Mac, iPad or a phone. The workspace is exactly as you left it, on a machine that has been up all night.
Dedicated CPU and RAM
Not shared hosting. Your cores are yours, so the open feels the same every day.
Backups
Automated backups cover the workspace, templates and NinjaScript you would hate to rebuild.
Sizing it honestly
NinjaTrader 8 is heavier than MetaTrader. We would rather tell you the cheapest plan is the wrong one than sell it to you and watch you leave.
Core
$29/mo2GB RAM, 1 vCPU
Not our recommendation for NinjaTrader 8
Core suits a light charting platform or an MT4 terminal or two. NinjaTrader 8 on 2GB alongside Windows Server is tight before you have opened a chart, and it will feel it.
Choose CorePro
$39/mo4GB RAM, 2 vCPU
The floor for NinjaTrader 8
One NinjaTrader instance, a handful of instruments, a data feed client and a strategy or two running live. This is where most futures traders should start.
Choose ProScaling
$79/mo8GB RAM, 4 vCPU
Multiple accounts or order flow
Several NinjaTrader instances for separate funded accounts, or one instance beside Bookmap, ATAS or a deep order-flow workspace.
Choose ScalingHosting for the rest of the futures stack
NinjaTrader VPS — Frequently Asked Questions
Is NinjaTrader 8 preinstalled?
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Not on the public Core, Pro and Scaling plans. Those ship as Windows Server machines with the prerequisites NinjaTrader 8 needs already in place, and you install and license it yourself, which takes a few minutes. We do build preinstalled NinjaTrader images for partner programmes, so if you are coming through one of those you will get the configured version.
What VPS specification does NinjaTrader 8 need?
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We would not run NinjaTrader 8 on less than Pro (4GB RAM, 2 vCPU). It is a .NET application that keeps tick data and indicator series in memory, so RAM is the first thing to run out. If you are running several instances for separate funded accounts, or NinjaTrader beside an order-flow platform, go to Scaling (8GB RAM, 4 vCPU).
Which location is best for NinjaTrader?
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It depends on your data route rather than on the exchange. CME matches in Aurora, Illinois, but your NinjaTrader connection terminates at a Rithmic or CQG gateway first, and most of those are at 350 East Cermak in Chicago. For European or Asian futures, or for NinjaTrader on forex, the answer moves again. We would rather measure your specific route than sell you a city name, so ask support before you order.
Can I run NinjaTrader strategies 24/5 on the VPS?
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Yes, that is the main reason people host it. NinjaScript strategies run on the machine rather than on your desktop, so they keep running when you close the lid, and the watchdog restarts NinjaTrader if it falls over overnight.
Can I run several funded futures accounts on one VPS?
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Yes, subject to your prop firm's rules on how many accounts you may trade and whether copying between them is allowed, which is their decision and not ours. On the hardware side, each NinjaTrader instance wants its own memory, so plan on Scaling once you are past two or three.
Do prop firms allow a VPS?
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Hosting the platform you trade from is ordinary practice and is a separate question from automation or copy trading, which firms do set rules about. Read your firm's current rulebook on those two specifically. We do not track individual firms' terms and would rather say so than reassure you about a rule that changed last month.
What if I want to test it first?
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There is a $2.99 trial. Install NinjaTrader on it, connect your data feed, and see how the workspace behaves through a real open before you commit to a month.
Put it on a machine that stays up
Sixty seconds to provision. $2.99 to find out whether it suits you.