A NinjaTrader Chart Trader alternative that sizes the trade for you

With NinjaTrader alone

What the built-in Chart Trader does

Chart Trader comes with NinjaTrader 8 and costs nothing extra. Turn it on from the chart's toolbar or the chart properties and it docks a panel to the side of the chart. From there you:

• pick the account, the quantity and an ATM strategy template;
• buy or sell at market, or join the bid or ask, with one button;
• right-click a price on the chart to place a limit or stop order there;
• drag working orders on the chart to change their price;
• reverse or close the position.

The stop loss and profit target come from the ATM strategy you selected. An ATM template stores the bracket distances and can include auto break-even and auto trail settings. The SuperDOM gives you the same order entry on a price ladder. If you trade one fixed size with one fixed bracket, this is a complete workflow and you may not need anything else.

Where it stops

Where the built-in tools stop

The gaps show up when your size or your plan changes from trade to trade:

• Quantity is a number you choose. Chart Trader does not work out how many contracts fit your dollar or percentage risk for a given stop. You do that sum yourself before every trade.
• The bracket is fixed by the template. A wider stop on one setup means switching or editing ATM templates, and the quantity does not adjust to keep the same risk.
• You cannot see the trade before you place it. There is no planner that shows entry, stop and target with the money at risk and the R:R before you click.
• Management lives in templates. Changing the rules for one open position, or running different rules on different accounts, means more templates.

After the fill

Management without a template per idea

With NTP's default Panel engine, NTP places one OCO stop and target pair sized to your position and manages it itself:

• Break-even ladder: up to 4 stages, such as "at 1R lock 0, at 2R lock 1R", in R, ticks or percent of target.
• Trailing stop, 7 modes: ticks, ATR, candle, moving average (EMA or SMA), Parabolic SAR, fractal, or step to the previous partial level. A trailing stop only tightens.
• Partial exits: up to 10 levels on the profit or loss side, in R, ticks, price, percent of target or spread evenly. Levels can trail once reached.
• Per-position rules: click a position's tag on the chart to give that one trade custom stops, partials or hidden levels, or close 25% or 50%, move the stop to break-even or flatten.
• Slippage fix: after a fill, stop and target shift so their distances are kept from the actual fill price.

Prefer your ATM templates? Switch the panel to the ATM engine and every entry starts your saved template. NTP's quantity, daily guard, schedule and news checks still apply; the template owns the stop and target.

Is it for you?

When to stay with Chart Trader

Stay with the built-in tools if you trade a fixed size with one bracket and are happy with your ATM templates. Look at NTP if you size by risk, move your stop to suit each setup, scale out in stages, or watch several accounts and want each one to keep its own management when you switch. NTP lets you switch accounts with positions and orders open, and its positions list shows every account; it is not a trade copier.

Hidden stops, trailing, partials and schedules run inside NinjaTrader, so it must stay running and connected with the chart open. Test any setup on a simulation account first.