XABCD Trading
How To Get NinjaTrader Live Data For Free
How Do I Get Live Data on NinjaTrader 8?
Since NinjaTrader released 8.1 there have been some changes to how free data is distributed. The information below for each market data has been updated to reflex these changes as well as all the links and content. We will continue to update these as changes are made without delay. There is only one free option, and your next best option would be a low cost paid method.
Futures: When you create your account on ninjatrader.com and download and install NinjaTrader, your free data for 14 days starts and you can use the same username and password you login to their site as your username and password for your data feed inside of the NinjaTrader 8 program. The only free way at this point to get more data is by going to open a real live account with interactive brokers.
NinjaTrader will supply you with free futures data for 14 days for every account that gets created on their accounts page. This is only for 14 days with no options to extend. After you must fund an account and pay for data. Once your account is created, data will automatically flow to your account. No need to setup anything in the platform.
NinjaTrader Data Pricing After The 14 Day Trial
Option 1 - NinjaTrader Data This is probably going to be the most common route as you would open up your NinjaTrader futures account to get the cheapest data. There is no account minimum but you do need to pay for your data through this account. At $4 per exchange or a bundle of $12 a month, $144 dollars in data for the year would require you to deposit $150.
Option 2 - Tradeovate Data You could enable live trading on your tradeovate account for $12.95 a month. I imagine the only folks wanting to do this would be because they could not open up a NinjaTrader futures account for whatever reason. It would be far less costly than the last option of using Kinetic.
Option 3 - Kinetick Data At $70usd a month for just having an account with your data fees on top of that, this is going to be the most expensive way. The data is not any different than in option #1 so i'm unsure of who would want to go this route. Paying 2 months of this data would cost you more than a years worth of data in option #1.
The Only Free Futures Data for NinjaTrader
Requirements: An Interactive Broker Account with $20 in commissions / month
Strengths: Level 1 + level 2 data. Supported in almost every country
Drawbacks: They do not supply tick data
Next best alternative: Pay NinjaTrader $12/month for their data. Paid, but cheapest.
Strengths: Level 1 + level 2 data. Supported in almost every country
Drawbacks: They do not supply tick data
Next best alternative: Pay NinjaTrader $12/month for their data. Paid, but cheapest.
Interactive Brokers will supply you with free futures data forever- but only if you do $20 in commissions. Otherwise it will cost you $1.50 for level 1 data or $11 for level 2. Full pricing guide on different exchanges can be found on their market data section and can open an account if you're interested. You can use the NinjaTrader Connection Guide for Interactive Brokers and the exact setup instructions.
Other Options for Futures Data on NinjaTrader 8
IQFeed is another option but from looking at their pricing calculator it seems to be very expensive. I don't think this is an option most people would choose because of the price and other options available to those trading with NinjaTrader 8. It seems that NinjaTrader has made a compelling reason to use them as a futures broker and all your other services and needs so that they can control that experience which should provide you the customer the best experience.
Forex To get a free forex feed, you can only get one for 90 days (there is a solution, hold on) through forex.com. FXCM is no longer an option for those thinking they could get data the old way prior to the 8.1 upgrade. City index is always an option too for international users as they do supply FX data.
FOREX.com is the only way to get free FX data into NinjaTrader 8 without having a broker account . This data will last for 90 days and they won't extend it. So you would want to go this route if you just wanted some quick access to data. If you don't want to go through the annoying process of changing your user info every 90 days you could open up a live account (doesn't require funding) in order to start getting data. However, opening a live account (without sending in your verification documents) won't let you trade but does seem to give you endless data that doesn't expire.
Interactive Brokers is an option if you have an account with them. It should be noted though that you won't get any tick data. You would only be able to get data on the 1 minute and higher which is probably good enough for most. This would however require you to open an account with them so mostly people already with interactive brokers accounts will explore this option as opening one is not that easy. The easier route would be to go through forex.com account opening procedures.
Stocks The only option at this point to get stock data for free into NinjaTrader 8 would be to use TD Ameritrade. You can setup a connection with TDA into NinjaTrader 8 and bring in your stock data (no futures data or forex data) into your NinjaTrader Desktop platform.
You can however use Interactive Brokers to get stock data into NinjaTrader but you will be paying for that through Interactive Brokers. This isn't a free route, but it can be a popular choice.
Crypto Coinbase is the only option to get crypto data into NinjaTrader. Their setup is very easy, but if you wanted you can follow this walk through. You can't place orders through the NinjaTrader platform on coinbase, but you can use them for the data. The only way to actually trade crypto on NinjaTrader would be using future contracts.
Want Free Data Forever with NinjaTrader 8 That Doesn't Expire?
As mentioned above, Interactive Brokers doesn't charge a base fee, and the non-pro data is less than $5 a month. If you trade and pay more than $20 in commissions they will also cover that $5 for you making it basically free. Watch this video for more info on that and a step by step guide.
What Data Providers and Brokers Are Supported in 8.1 and On For New Customers?
The data providers supported in 8.1 is the following:
- Kinetick
- eSignal
- IQFeed
- Cedro Technologies
- Portara CQG
- Global Datafeeds
- TrueData
- Lenz + Partner
The following brokers are supported in 8.1 is the following:
- Interactive Brokers
- TD Ameritrade
- Forex.com/City Index
- cTrader
- NinjaTrader Brokerage
What Data Providers and Brokers Are Supported Older NinjaTrader Clients? (Before 8.1)
Previous Customers and Lifetime License Holders
You will still be able to access your previous data providers and brokers from what we understand. A full list of all supported data providers can be found below.
You can get both Real-Time Futures Data and Real-Time Forex Data without any cost to you. There are two ways to do this:
Futures / Stocks Data
Free Data OptionsFutures + Stock for free is for 2 weeks maximum. This isn't a "ninjatrader" fee, this is an exchange fee which is a part of trading futures and stocks for everyone regardless of your trading platform.
If you would rather not pay monthly exchange fees your only option is to look at forex or crypto.
If you already pay for data, and its with one of NinjaTraders supporting brokers or data feed providers, then you can bring that into NinjaTrader 8 without any additional charge.
Forex / Crypto
Free Data OptionsForex and Crypto do not run on centralized exchanges, so there should not be any cost in adding forex or crypto to NinjaTrader.
A list of providers below indicate where you can get free FX quotes.
There are currently 15 data providers that can be used with NinjaTrader 8. The market data for each provider is different on if they support Forex, Futures, Indexes, Equities, Crypto, CFD's and if they support Options on any of those instrument types.
Kinetick (Owned by NinjaTrader)Trial Available
Equities, Futures, Forex and Indexes. Options supported on equities and futures.
BarChart
Equities, Forex, Futures and Indexes
CoinbaseFree Crypto Data
Crypto Currencies
Continuum
Futures and Indexes
CQG
Futures and Indexes
cTrader
CFD's
eSignal
Equities, Futures, Forex and Indexes
FOREX.comFree FX Data
Forex and CFD's
FXCMFree FX Data
Forex and CFD's
Rithmic
Futures
IQFeedTrial Available
Equities, Futures, Forex, Indexes. Options supported on equities and futures.
OandaFree FX Data
Forex
Interactive Brokers
CFDs, Equities, Futures, Forex and Indexes. Options supported on equities and futures.
TD Ameritrade
Equities, Indexes. Options supported on equities.
How Much Does Paid NinjaTrader 8 Data Cost?
What is Non-Professional Data?
You probably do qualify for much cheaper data than what you see quoted on most data providers websites. This is because non-professional traders qualify for non-professional data. This does not mean the data is any different, it just means its cheaper. Think of it as non-professional pricing.
Do I Qualify for Non-Professional Data?
Each data provider will probably have their own questionnaire to qualify. If you are a retail trader at home trying to learn how to trade, you probably qualify. You won't qualify if you are using the data for commercial purposes, or acting as a broker, managing accounts for others or if what your using the data for is not your own account or for your own use.
What Data Provider Should I Use?
You first need to figure out all the markets you want to trade, then look at the chart above and see which ones provide the data you require. Once you have that narrowed down, there is no correct answer for everyone. Data providers are like brokers. It really depends on what providers will suit your needs. Some might have restrictions based on what country you are living in. So it will be up to you to determine what one will fit your needs.
Free and Trial Options for NinjaTrader Live Data
CQG - Futures Data (Free NinjaTrader Live Data)
- Duration: 2 weeks
- Provider: CQG
- NinjaTrader Live Data: Yes
- Get Your Data: Get A Free Data Connection for Futures
You can get futures data from CQG that will get you live data (not delayed data) for a period of 2 weeks. We have noticed that sometimes it can take up to an hour before the account information will be delivered to your email. However, in more recent times we've seen this speed increased to about 5 minutes.
FXCM - Forex Data (Free NinjaTrader Live Data)
- Duration: Doesn't Expire
- Provider: FXCM
- NinjaTrader Live Data: Yes
- Get Your Data: Get A Free Data Connection for Forex
The forex data is also in real time and provides you to access for FX live real-time quotes for forex traders. This account data is delivered within 5 minutes of signing up and so far from what we have seen this will never expire. It also works great if you're going to be using our XABCD Pattern software for NinjaTrader 8.
Paid Options for NinjaTrader Live Data
IQFeed - Forex Data (Paid NinjaTrader Live Data)
- Cost: Varies but starts at $30/month with a $50 startup fee
- Duration: Month by Month Fees
- Provider: IQFeed
- NinjaTrader Live Data: Yes
They offer the most symbols that we've seen in the most markets right down to some of the obscure instruments. However, this comes at a cost. The more symbols you also scan at once, the more you can expect to pay depending on how many exchanges you need. The cost could be reasonable, all the way to pretty expensive. They do have a calculator where you can figure out what your monthly fees will be in total.
Bring Your Existing Data into NinjaTrader 8
You can bring your existing paid data inside of NinjaTrader 8. All you have to do is setup a "Connection" between the two. NinjaTrader has "Connection guides" for each supported broker or data provider you can connect too. There are some interesting limitations on some that we will discuss below.
Interactive Brokers and NinjaTrader 8
Limitations
Interactive brokers limits how many queries you can access. So if you plan on scanning a large number of symbols, interactive brokers might not be the way to go. You will get what you think is delayed data, but that is only because they are stopping you from getting more until your 5 minute limit has been lifted.
Cost
Varies a lot depending on which markets you want and they also have live and delayed fee pricing. Pricing Details on Interactive Brokers
Provider
Interactive Brokers is a broker and not a data feed provider only. They provide data feeds to their existing customers. You would need a broker account with them to access their data.
Like IQ feed, what ever symbols you can trade in interactive brokers (which i've never seen a market you couldn't trade) you can get data. However they have their own structure and like IQFeed you will also pay for the markets you need only.
The big thing to caution traders about is Interactive brokers limits the amount of API calls and what this basically means is you're going to be limited to the amount of data you can scan in the market analyzer. Because of this a lot of people will use a service like IQFeed or a free service if they trade FX or Futures like the ones mentioned above and only submit their orders through to interactive brokers.
TD Ameritrade and NinjaTrader 8
Limitations
Futures data can not be brought into NinjaTrader 8. So only stock data you'll be able to get into NinjaTrader 8. The good news is that the stock data that you bring in will be free. There are no minimums to open up nan account although they do say a 2,000 deposit is required to be considered for margin and certain option privileges.
Cost
Getting quotes for stocks on TDA is actually free!
Provider
TDA is not just providing data services but also broker services. A lot of their other fees can be higher even though they do not charge their users for stock data. This is probably a good reason of why their fees are higher because someone is paying the exchange the money that you are not.
TD Ameritrade will let you bring in your stock quotes but won't let you bring in futures. This is however a popular way for existing TDA users to get stock quotes without having to setup a new data provider.
