NinjaTrader Group, LLC

	Members Registration Investors Careers

Become a sponsor »

NinjaTrader Group, LLC
<
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois and Denver, Colorado, United States
Key People	Raymond Deux (Founder and Executive Chairman), Martin Franchi (Chief Executive Officer), Tobin McDaniel (President), Aditya Nishandar (Chief Technology Officer)
Employees	~300
Products	Trading software, brokerage services, market data, futures trading platform
Twitter	@NinjaTrader_Inc
LinkedIn	Profile
Facebook	Page
Releases	Company News
Blog	https://ninjatrader.com/futures/blogs/ }

NinjaTrader Group, LLC is an American financial technology company that develops trading software and provides brokerage services for futures, forex, and equities traders. Founded in 2003 by Raymond Deux, the company operates a trading platform and brokerage registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a futures commission merchant and member of the National Futures Association.

The company serves approximately 1.9 million users through desktop, web, and mobile platforms, providing charting, risk management tools, and electronic trading capabilities with access to exchanges including CME Group and ICE. NinjaTrader is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Denver, Colorado, Germany, and the Netherlands. In 2025, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.

History

Founding and Early Years

NinjaTrader was founded in 2003 by Raymond Deux, a trader who previously worked at Cadence Design Systems and Team Corporation, where he served as northwest regional sales manager. The initial application provided charting and analysis software to retail traders at no cost, with revenue generated through licensing fees for live trading functionality and partnerships with brokerage firms that integrated the platform.

The company's business model offered free charting and analysis software, generating revenue through licensing fees for live trading and partnerships with brokerages. The platform supported discretionary, end-of-day, and automated systems traders across futures, options, forex, and equities markets, through connections to multiple brokerages.

Transition to Brokerage Services

For its first decade, NinjaTrader operated exclusively as a software provider, partnering with established brokerages to provide market access. In June 2014, the company acquired Chicago-based Mirus Futures, an introducing broker that had been a platform partner.

The acquisition enabled NinjaTrader to launch NinjaTrader Brokerage, combining its trading technology with brokerage services under a single entity. Initially, NinjaTrader Brokerage operated as an introducing broker with Dorman Trading serving as its futures commission merchant for clearing and execution.

The move placed NinjaTrader in direct competition with some of its brokerage partners. Existing Mirus Futures customers transitioned to NinjaTrader Brokerage, and the company continued supporting non-NinjaTrader platforms that Mirus had offered, maintaining connectivity through CQG via Continuum.

Acquisition of Clearing Operations

In January 2021, NinjaTrader announced the acquisition of TransAct Futures, a non-clearing futures commission merchant, along with its subsidiary Infinity Futures, an independent introducing broker. The acquisition provided NinjaTrader with its own futures commission merchant license and clearing operations.

TransAct Futures began as a proprietary trading firm before transitioning to a futures commission merchant and acquiring Infinity Futures in 2010. The deal brought approximately 20 employees from TransAct and Infinity to NinjaTrader. At the time, NinjaTrader employed approximately 180 people and supported over 500,000 active traders.

Acquisition of Tradovate

On January 12, 2022, NinjaTrader announced the acquisition of Tradovate Holdings, LLC, a cloud-based futures brokerage firm and trading technology provider, for $115 million. Tradovate was founded in 2016 by industry veteran Rick Tomsic and had pioneered cloud-based trading infrastructure and an innovative pricing model for futures trading that helped reshape the retail brokerage landscape.

The acquisition combined two of the largest retail futures brokers, with combined trading volume in 2021 of approximately 100 million futures contracts. Tomsic joined NinjaTrader's executive team as chief strategy officer and served on the board of directors. The deal was completed during a period of rapid growth in retail futures trading, as individual investors increasingly accessed derivatives markets through discount brokerages with advanced technology platforms.

Following the acquisition, NinjaTrader integrated Tradovate's cloud-based infrastructure into its technology stack, using the Tradovate platform to power NinjaTrader's web-based trading interface. Tradovate customers were given the option to maintain their accounts on the Tradovate platform or switch to NinjaTrader Brokerage, with both platforms continuing to operate as separate brands under the NinjaTrader Group umbrella. The Tradovate technology enabled NinjaTrader to offer seamless cross-device trading via browser-based access, without requiring software downloads, complementing its established desktop application.

Acquisition of Tradovate

On January 12, 2022, NinjaTrader announced the acquisition of Tradovate Holdings, LLC, a cloud-based futures brokerage firm and trading technology provider, for $115 million. Tradovate was founded in 2016 by industry veteran Rick Tomsic and had pioneered cloud-based trading infrastructure and an innovative pricing model for futures trading that helped reshape the retail brokerage landscape.

The acquisition combined two of the largest retail futures brokers, with combined trading volume in 2021 of approximately 100 million futures contracts. Tomsic joined NinjaTrader's executive team as chief strategy officer and served on the board of directors. The deal was completed during a period of rapid growth in retail futures trading, as individual investors increasingly accessed derivatives markets through discount brokerages with advanced technology platforms.

Following the acquisition, NinjaTrader integrated Tradovate's cloud-based infrastructure into its technology stack, using the Tradovate platform to power NinjaTrader's web-based trading interface. Tradovate customers were given the option to maintain their accounts on the Tradovate platform or switch to NinjaTrader Brokerage, with both platforms continuing to operate as separate brands under the NinjaTrader Group umbrella. The Tradovate technology enabled NinjaTrader to offer seamless cross-device trading via browser-based access, without requiring software downloads, complementing its established desktop application.

Expansion under Private Equity Ownership

NinjaTrader came under majority ownership of Long Ridge Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on technology and financial services. Jim Brown, managing partner at Long Ridge, joined the company's board of managers. In May 2020, Salomon Sredni, former president and chief executive officer of TradeStation Group, was appointed to the board of managers.

Under Long Ridge's ownership, NinjaTrader expanded its executive team. In May 2024, the company added Ryan Pitylak as executive vice president of growth, Aditya Nishandar as chief technology officer, John O'Neil as general manager of evaluation services, and Michael Krafft as vice president of product. In August 2024, Tobin McDaniel joined as president, having previously served as head of SoFi Invest.

Kraken acquisition

On March 19, 2025, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced an agreement to acquire NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, subject to purchase price adjustments. The acquisition provides Kraken with NinjaTrader's CFTC-registered futures commission merchant license, enabling Kraken to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the United States, while NinjaTrader gains access to Kraken's international regulatory licenses for expansion in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

Launch of NinjaTrader Live

On March 17, 2025, NinjaTrader launched NinjaTrader Live, a livestream platform providing real-time market analysis, trading education, and strategy discussion for futures traders. The platform was led by Anthony Crudele, who joined as senior vice president of NinjaTrader Live, and featured daily programming with market commentary from Tracy Shuchart, senior economist of NinjaTrader Live.

The livestream service provided macroeconomic analysis, technical market insights, and trading strategies broadcast during market hours. Programming was available through the NinjaTrader account dashboard, the company website, and YouTube. The initiative represented NinjaTrader's continued investment in educational content for retail traders, following more than two decades of providing training resources and market analysis to its user base. The company stated that the platform would expand to include additional industry contributors in subsequent months.

Products & Services

NinjaTrader trading platform

The NinjaTrader platform is a trading application available on desktop, web, and mobile devices for accessing futures, forex, stocks, and CFDs. The desktop application provides charting with over 100 technical indicators, customizable timeframes, and drawing tools. The platform includes market replay functionality, allowing traders to replay historical tick-by-tick market data for strategy testing.

The platform's SuperDOM (depth of market) tool displays real-time liquidity through bid and ask columns arranged in a price ladder format, enabling point-and-click order entry and management. The Chart Trader feature enables order placement and management directly from charts.

Brokerage services

NinjaTrader Brokerage operates as a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant providing direct market access to global futures and options markets. The brokerage offers no minimum deposit requirements, intraday margins as low as $50 for select contracts, and commissions starting at $0.09 per Micro contract. Commission structures include a free plan with higher per-contract fees, a monthly subscription plan with reduced commissions, and a lifetime license with lower per-trade costs.

The brokerage provides access to contracts including E-mini S&P 500, E-mini Nasdaq, crude oil, gold, silver, Treasury bonds, and international markets. Clearing and execution are handled through NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC. The brokerage offers simulated trading with professional market data.

Kinetick market data

Kinetick is NinjaTrader's market data service, providing streaming real-time and historical data for the NinjaTrader platform. The service offers free end-of-day data for stocks, futures, and forex markets, with real-time subscription plans starting at $50 per month. Kinetick delivers tick-by-tick data directly from exchanges.

The service includes 120 days of historical tick data for range charts, volume charts, and second-based charts. Kinetick supports over 50,000 symbols across domestic and international exchanges, including CME Group, Eurex, Sydney Futures Exchange, and Singapore Exchange. The service integrates news feeds from RTT News, PR Newswire, and Business Wire.

NinjaTrader Ecosystem

The NinjaTrader Ecosystem is a marketplace featuring over 1,000 third-party developers creating indicators, automated strategies, drawing tools, programming services, and educational content for the NinjaTrader platform. The ecosystem enables traders to customize their trading environment through tools or to develop custom applications using the platform's C#-based development framework.

NinjaTrader provides software development kits and APIs enabling developers to build custom indicators, strategies, and integrated applications. The developer community includes forums, code samples, tutorials, and an open-source app share. The company supports developer monetization through the ecosystem marketplace.

Multi-broker connectivity

While NinjaTrader Brokerage handles futures trading, the NinjaTrader desktop platform supports connections to multiple third-party brokerages and market data providers for equities, forex, and contracts for difference trading. Supported brokers include Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, FOREX.com, FXCM, and CQG. Data providers include eSignal, IQFeed, and Rithmic. A multi-broker add-on, available for $99 per month, enables users to connect the desktop platform to third-party brokers.

Key People

Executive Management

• Martin Franchi - Chief Executive Officer
• Tobin McDaniel - President
• Raymond Deux - Founder and Executive Chairman
• Aditya Nishandar - Chief Technology Officer
• Ryan Pitylak - Executive Vice President of Growth
• John O'Neil - General Manager of Evaluation Services
• Michael Krafft - Vice President of Product
• Brian Sass - Chief Financial Officer
• Walter Sledz - President of Revenue & Client Services
• Jennifer Marszalek, Chief People Officer

Risk Management

NinjaTrader provides integrated risk management tools within its trading platform, including automated stop loss orders, target orders, and trailing stops. The platform's ATM (Automated Trade Management) strategies enable traders to define risk management parameters that automatically execute upon order fills. The simulated trading environment allows traders to test risk management approaches using live market data without capital exposure.

As a futures commission merchant, NinjaTrader maintains risk management protocols for customer account oversight, margin monitoring, and compliance with CFTC and NFA regulations. The company's risk management framework includes customer identification programs, anti-money laundering procedures, and supervisory systems.

Controversies

In September 2024, the CFTC ordered NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC to pay more than $980,000 for supervision failures related to handling customer accounts tied to Rajiv Patel and his company Bluprint, which solicited nearly $10 million from investors for securities trading but misappropriated funds. The CFTC found that NinjaTrader did not adequately supervise employees dealing with accounts subject to statutory restraining orders requiring immediate freezing or restriction.

In November 2024, the National Futures Association filed a formal complaint against NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC and its president, Michael Cavanaugh, citing compliance failures in the company's anti-money laundering program and monitoring of suspicious account activities. The NFA investigation found that NinjaTrader relied on automated alerts to spot unusual deposits, but alerts were frequently overlooked or not properly investigated.

The NFA also discovered that NinjaTrader had failed to screen tens of thousands of customer accounts against FinCEN's Section 314(a) lists, which flag individuals and organizations suspected of financial crimes. Additionally, the firm operated over 475 accounts from high-risk countries despite written policies prohibiting such activities.

In May 2025, NinjaTrader settled with the NFA by agreeing to pay a $250,000 fine without admitting or denying allegations of inadequate anti-money laundering programs and supervision failures in violation of [[NFA Compliance Rule 2-9. The settlement included corrective actions to address compliance gaps, enhanced training, improved recordkeeping, and independent testing procedures.

At the time of NFA's 2024 examination, NinjaTrader had over $22 million in excess net capital and approximately 85,000 accounts, with the firm having added over $192 million in customer funds between August 2021 and May 2022, primarily through acquisitions and bulk transfers from other firms.