NinjaTrader screwed up with Zen-Fire data feed

The NinjaTrader (NT) forums today are very busy!

A couple of days ago, NT traders using a Zen-Fire data feed were told they HAD to close their trades (whether in profit or loss) and update to a new version of NinjaTrader.

However, what they were not told was that this new version wasn't properly tested, was full of bugs and hardly worked.

At the cut-off point when everyone was forced to switch over to the new version and problems and snags were to be expected, guess what?! The support desk was closed. Users were assured that all would be fixed by the time markets opened on Sunday night (GMT).

Except that nothing was fixed. The markets are now open, NT traders are screaming blue murder and the responsible parties haven't come forward to admit the mistakes or provide any assurances of a quick resolution. People aren't able to connect, when they do connect they get disconnected randomly, strategies they've setup aren't working, data is all messed up and wrong figures are coming in through the feed (10X the amount they should be!), charts have reverted to previous contract periods, orders are going haywire and people are losing money ....

If anyone is considering NinjaTrader - please reconsider!

Damn........

stick to MT4

I would not speak too soon lets see what happens when MetaQuotes release their new MT4 platform in January.

romram, there are many excellent reasons to avoid MT and there are numerous threads covering this topic. The one thing that can be said in favour of MT4 - despite the lack of volume/L2 data, the fact that it works in favour of the dealer rather than trader, the limitations and frustrations of its programming environment etc - is that it's free. I do not find that one plus as sufficient justification for returning to MT.

Time to check out Trade Station, Multi Charts etc. I'm not sure that just moving from Zen Fire to a different data provider is enough. NinjaTrader itself can't be trusted if they allow such buggy third party integration.

you guys are right, what and who can we trust?

For one, don't trust a platform that your broker is paying for!

NinjaTrader, Trade Station, Multicharts, ProTrader and others are all well established platforms. With each of them you have a choice of different data providers. The only thing I can say is that you should spend enough time doing your research and reading reviews.

I, for one, heartily recommend you avoid using NinjaTrader with ZenFire (or any broker using ZenFire). Mirus, the company behind ZenFire, has demonstrated not only that it screws up big time but that it then doesn't admit it to users and pretends there's no problem. Well, it kept pretending till it couldn't be avoided any more. Even then they didn't have the balls to face users and answer questions. They hid behind their mothers' skirts and refused to talk to anyone.

OMG this is the worst trader's nightmare

Yap Ninjatrader and Zenfire played one on their clients,,,,,thankfully the other data providers are still active. Well guess its time to zero down to MT4

Several days - almost a week - since the problem first appeared, NinjaTrader users are having trouble with their ZenFire connection which keeps going down on them. In fact, many can't connect at all.

Zen is just on of the feeds that Ninja uses and it belongs to Mirus. This brokerage is one of their biggest partners, but Ninja is an independent company.
Zen has developed some sort of a new back-end and it seems the new integration did not go as smooth as expected.

NinjaTrader and Mirus (ZenFire) are closely connected partners. Among other things, NinjaTrader provides support for Mirus customers in their forum and NinjaTrader had to test and approve the software release before it went live.

Did not go as smooth as expected?! That's an understatement. It was a mega disaster for their traders who still can't get a reliable connection! Apparently by Jan 5th the situation may be resolved! Traders won't trust them though. The last time Mirus said it was resolved they weren't telling the truth; the problems continued.

ZenFire's original email forcing traders to close their trades and upgrade their software says there were some rumours about that are not true. Not sure what the rumours are but the informed opinion seems to be that ZenFire relied on a company called Rithmic who abruptly terminated their contract. ZenFire (Mirus) then scrambled around for another partner and released a half baked version of their software because they knew they had no Rithmic feed after Dec 31st. And Mirus is trying to present the new software an "improvement" rather than admitting the truth - that it was a cobbled together solution that they were forced to release in panic before the old version stopped working on Dec 31st.

What users are particularly upset about is all the cloak and dagger. Mirus was not straight with them from the start, did not admit problems when they developed, did not apologise till it was demanded of them and is not talking with customers (they even put their phone on answerphone). This is all in addition to the botched software release.

I would suggest readers here remember the Mirus and ZenFire brands and avoid dealing with them as long as there are alternates.

We have no disagreement about the way it affected traders. But they could have tested their software on a small number of customers, and when you have a "mass migration" this is when all the issues come up. Whether Zen is qualified to be a technology company, only time will tell.
As for Rithmic, it provides direct connectivity to many platforms directly, including Ninja. It seems that it is rather Zen/Mirus ended the relationship with Rithmic to promote bigtick and not the other way around.

We have no disagreement about NinjaTrader either. As you say, it's an independent company. NinjaTrader's responsibility is the charting software and they provide excellent support for it in their forums and on the phone.

That said, NinjaTrader are shielding Mirus from the negative publicity and, intentionally or unintentionally, covering up the extent of the problems at Mirus/Zenfire. That they are close partners makes me suspect that the cover up is intentional. To NinjaTrader: That ain't cool (and it's damaging your brand).

You may be right about Mirus being the instigator in the termination of the Rithmic partnership. The reports I've heard revolve around Rithmic giving Zen/Mirus the boot because of their involvement with BigTick, a competitor product.

The problems, BTW, still continue and Mirus/Zenfire is still treating customers like mushrooms - keeping them in the dark and feeding them sh*t. The revised date for having a stable connection was Jan 5th. Today is the 6th and the latest line is that it'll be fixed "in the coming days"!! Buffoons!

@WideEyed I have read a lot of comments on forums all day because I am doing my due diligence about the rithmic.
Sadly I came across forums that for the most part they are Zen/Ninja/Mirus biased despite the fact that Zen is dysfunctional.
If anyone is interested, I found this about Ninja and Rithmic: http://www.tradelogically.com/questi...-with-rithmic/ where many seem to be happy with the direct rithmic solution. To be honest, I think it is best for a guy like me to learn a little programming and implement the API directly.

I don't think that option exists.

Probably in every trader's top 10 nightmares, has this progressed much since the thread started? I'm looking for a new trading platform and NinjaTrader was on the consideration list.

https://www.fxstat.com/widget/link?t...3=profitfactor

Nope, no progress. In fact, it's going backwards. It's been several days since I've been able to trade and I've been kept hanging on. "It'll be fixed tomorrow", "It'll be fixed by Monday", "It'll be fixed by the 5th of Jan", "It'll be fixed in the next few days". Bloody ZenFire!

And now it looks like it won't be fixed at all as Mirus has sent customers an email saying they can switch you to a different system if you want. When? Probably in "the next few days" (as their phone lines are all busy and they are not replying to emails).

NinjaTrader itself is fine and I would recommend the platform, but the problem is that you then have to choose a data provider, an execution engine, a broker and an FCM. And it's more complex than that. Data providers have various plans and the costs vary significantly based on all kinds of factors including what instruments you want data on (Some offer some limited free data - like Kinetick's free End of Day data. Many don't offer bonds, don't offer European instruments like the FTSE, don't offer even commodities. You need to know what exchanges you want before you sign up). Brokers (depending on the FCM they are routing you through) vary widely in the deposit they require, the net worth of the individuals they're willing to take on, the commissions they charge, the minimum number of contracts you need to trade each month ....

Choose a data provider first and you'll find that various brokers and execution engines won't work with it. Choose a broker first and you may find you aren't rich enough or that you live in the "wrong" country. The choices and combinations are complex and frustrating. Further, if you choose a broker first you may find that the available data providers for that broker don't give you prices on the instrument you want or have a huge cost for the data or don't offer an execution engine that works with NinjaTrader.

I wish there was one page that explained it all in simple English and made it easy to choose! I don't understand the half of it.

When moving from MetaTrader to one of the proper charting platforms like TradeStation, Multicharts and NinjaTrader, this is the one thing nobody tells you - it's a lot, lot more complex than it looks and there are so many parties involved that when things go wrong they can all blame each other while you're sitting at home twiddling your thumbs unable to trade.

I hear a lot of talk about Meta Trader not being this and not being that but I have been trading for 8 years and have never...never.... had a problem with this Platform. One Harmonics Trader (won't call no names) who is always trashing Meta Trader hasn't posted a video in a while. Hum I wonder why ? He's paying big bucks for NinjaTrader..........

I agree, it's always been very reliable for me too. But there are a lot of good reasons to not use Metatrader. For one, it's free.

So, though the platform/broker/feed/execution engine universe is a minefield, I'm going to persist in navigating it and finding a solution that works for me. I could really use the extra data that one gets in a proper feed.

In the meanwhile and till I've got something worked out, I'm using Metatrader. I will tell you though that going back to Metatrader is like trading with one hand behind my back. How do I explain it? Hmm. Consider you normally trade on a 15M chart. Now I take away your 15M chart and expect you to do your same 15M trading but with a D1 or H4 chart instead. That's a bit like how I feel now going back to MT.