Before you start
Neon Ledger runs on top of NinjaTrader and uses your own connections, data and accounts. It doesn't come with any of them.
- A Windows 10 or 11 PC that runs NinjaTrader 8 well. Bots trade only while the PC is on, so turn sleep off.
- NinjaTrader 8, installed and signed in.
- Accounts: evaluation or funded accounts from a prop firm, a broker account, or NinjaTrader practice accounts.
- Market data from your firm or broker. The DOM, the heatmap and liquidity zones also need the order book (Level 2).
- For the phone: Tailscale on the PC and on the phone. It's free for personal use.
- Disk space for price history: a few gigabytes per market.
Try it first
Demo mode runs the city, the platform and a sample bot on practice prices before you connect anything. It's a quick way to see whether your PC runs it well.
Step 1
Install
Run the installer. It checks that NinjaTrader 8 is there, installs the Neon Ledger app, and adds its NinjaTrader add-on through NinjaTrader's own Import menu.
When it's done, an icon sits by the clock with three lights: NinjaTrader, bots and phone. Green means connected and running. The setup wizard then opens in your browser.
Step 2
Mark your accounts
The wizard lists every account NinjaTrader knows. Give each one a kind.
| Kind | What it means |
|---|---|
| Practice | A NinjaTrader simulation account. Bots can trade it from the start, so this is where a new bot proves itself. |
| Prop firm | Pick the firm and the plan, and its rules fill in: profit target, drawdown, daily loss limit, daily profit goal and contract cap. You can change any number. |
| Never trade | Neon Ledger refuses every order on it, whether from you, a bot or a copy group. Use it for a personal account you trade elsewhere. |
Need a practice account? In NinjaTrader's Control Center, open the Accounts tab, right-click and choose Add Simulation Account. Give it the balance of the account you're practising for.
Rules that come on by themselves
- Daily loss limit. When the account's day reaches it, the account locks until 6:00 PM ET. Closing a trade always works.
- Daily profit goal. New trades stop at your plan's consistency limit, and a trade that would cross it takes its profit there.
- Passed means locked. An evaluation that reaches its target locks for good, until you unlock it yourself.
- End-of-day drawdown. The line follows your firm's end-of-day rule, not the intraday high.
- No opposite positions. A long and a short across one firm's accounts are refused, with micros and minis counted as one market.
- Bots and your firm. Bots stay off a firm that bans them unless you accept that firm's rule, shown in its own words.
Step 3
Connect your data
This is where most setups get stuck, so it's a step of its own. After each part, a Test button turns green or says in plain words what's wrong.
| Part | What it feeds | How you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Live prices and orders | Charts, bots, the city | Your firm's or broker's NinjaTrader connection. Pick your firm in the wizard to see which connection to add (most firms use Tradovate or Rithmic) and which login it takes. |
| Order book (Level 2) | The DOM, the heatmap, liquidity zones | Some firm connections send none. The wizard tests it, and if nothing arrives you can buy CME market depth on your own NinjaTrader login and add it as a second connection. |
| History | Strategy tests | One button downloads it from your NinjaTrader and shows the progress and the space it needs. NinjaTrader keeps about a year of tick data. |
| Daily levels | Gamma levels on the chart (optional) | MenthorQ levels need your own MenthorQ subscription. You paste them each day. |
Adding a connection in NinjaTrader
- In the Control Center, choose Connections then Configure.
- Add the connection type your firm names, and enter the login your firm gave you for it. That is often a different login from your firm's dashboard.
- Tick Connect on startup, save, and connect.
Two connections
NinjaTrader takes its prices from the connection that connects first. If you add your own data connection for the order book, connect it before your firm's.
Notes from real firm setups
Checked in November 2026. Firms change their setups, so their own guides come first.
- Lucid Trading. The connection fails until you sign in once at trader.tradovate.com with your Tradovate login, not the dashboard one, and accept the market data agreements there.
- Funded Futures Family. The connection has to be the Tradovate type. Set up as another type, it can't log in.
- Take Profit Trader. Its connection sends no order book, so the DOM shows trades only until you add a data connection with depth.
Keep the clock right
Order-flow timing depends on the PC's clock, and a clock two seconds off is enough to throw it out. In Windows, open Settings, then Time & language, then Date & time, turn on Set time automatically and press Sync now.
After setup, the Data health light keeps checking: prices arriving or frozen, the order book arriving, the right contract month after a roll, and the clock.
Step 4
Start your first bot
Choose New bot, give it a name and a colour, pick a strategy, and pick its accounts. It appears in the city as a district of its own.
- MMXM or 90-Minute CRT: ready to run, each with its rulebook.
- Your own: build it from menus by choosing the levels, the setup, the confirmation, the stop, the target, the hours and the money.
Every bot starts on Paper: it finds its setups and logs the trades it would take, without sending orders. Test it on your own NinjaTrader history whenever you like. When you're ready, move it to a practice account, then to your own accounts. The first time a bot trades a prop account, you confirm that firm's rule yourself.
Last step
Pair your phone
- Install Tailscale on the PC and on the phone, and sign in to the same Tailscale account on both.
- In the setup wizard, scan the QR code with the phone's camera.
- The app opens in the phone's browser. Add it to your Home Screen. On iPhone, notifications need the app on the Home Screen and iOS 16.4 or later.
The phone talks straight to your PC over your own Tailscale network. Neon Ledger runs no server in between, so nothing outside your network sees your trades.
Every day
- Bots switch on at their own hours. Each account's day starts over at 6:00 PM ET.
- If you use MenthorQ levels, paste the new day's levels before the session.
- Stop all bots is one click on the PC and one tap on the phone. Close bot trades closes their open trades and leaves them on.
- Set Windows Update's active hours around your bots' hours, so an update doesn't restart the PC while they trade. After a restart, NinjaTrader waits at its login window, and nothing trades until you log in.
When something's off
The lights by the clock show which part is down: NinjaTrader, the bots or the phone. The city shows the same on each district. For help, Send a support report bundles the logs without account numbers or keys.
More answers are on the questions page.