NinjaTrader VPS: run NinjaTrader 8 on a Windows server 24/7 (setup, latency, sizing)

Short answer: a NinjaTrader VPS is a Windows server that keeps NinjaTrader 8 and its strategies running while your PC is off. NinjaTrader asks for 64-bit Windows 11 or Windows Server 2016 or later with .NET Framework 4.8 and recommends four cores and 8 GB of RAM. For CME futures, a server near Chicago beats Europe on latency.

Below: what NinjaTrader 8 needs, an honest look at latency for CME and European markets, the setup on a Windows VPS, how to keep it running across disconnects and reboots, Windows updates, backups, and which plan size fits. Requirements and menu names come from NinjaTrader’s own help guide, read 21.10.2026; the setup steps follow the same pattern as running MetaTrader on a VPS, which covers a few Windows details in more depth.

What does NinjaTrader 8 need on a Windows VPS?

Source: NinjaTrader 8 help guide, “Minimum System Requirements”, as of October 2026. Two lines matter on a server. Windows Server 2022 already includes .NET Framework 4.8; on Windows Server 2019 you install 4.8 from Microsoft first. And a VPS has no graphics card, so Windows draws NinjaTrader’s charts in software on the CPU. That works, but every open chart costs processor time, which is why the core count matters more here than for a MetaTrader terminal.

Latency: is a European VPS right for NinjaTrader?

It depends on what you trade, and for the most common NinjaTrader use the honest answer is: not if you chase milliseconds. The matching engines for all CME Globex products (E-mini and Micro equity index futures, crude oil, gold, treasuries) sit in CME Group’s data centre in Aurora, Illinois, west of Chicago, according to CME’s co-location pages. Your orders travel through your broker’s and data provider’s servers, which for CME products are usually in the same region.

• Physics first. Amsterdam to Aurora is about 6,650 km along the great circle, Frankfurt about 7,000 km. Light in fibre covers roughly 200 km per millisecond, so the round trip can never be shorter than about 67 ms from Amsterdam or 70 ms from Frankfurt, and real cable routes are longer. A VPS in the Chicago area is a few milliseconds away.
• When Europe is the right place: Eurex futures such as FDAX or FESX, whose trading back end runs in Frankfurt; a European broker or data feed; strategies on minute bars or longer, where 70 ms does not change a fill that matters; and a platform you simply want running while you travel or your home connection drops.
• When it is not: scalping CME futures on tick data, or anything where you would also pay for a lower-latency data feed. Use a server near Chicago for that.

Measure rather than guess. Ask your broker or data provider for the server address you connect to, then compare from the VPS and from home:

Test-NetConnection BROKER_SERVER -Port PORT   # TcpTestSucceeded : True = reachable
ping -n 10 BROKER_SERVER                       # "Average = ...ms", if the server answers ping
tracert BROKER_SERVER                          # the route, hop by hop

Some servers do not answer ping, so a failed ping alone proves nothing. Frankfurt vs Amsterdam explains how to compare two locations fairly.

How do I set up NinjaTrader 8 on a Windows VPS?

1. 1Order the server with Windows Server 2022

   Choose Windows Server 2022 as the operating system, so .NET 4.8 is already there. Windows takes a few minutes longer than Linux to finish its first start.

2. 2Connect over Remote Desktop

   Log in as Administrator with the password you set when ordering. The client for each system is in connecting to a server with RDP.

3. 3Download and install NinjaTrader

   Get the NinjaTrader desktop installer from NinjaTrader’s own website with Microsoft Edge, which Server 2022 includes (on Server 2019, see getting a browser onto Windows Server). Install it, start it and sign in with your NinjaTrader account or licence key.

4. 4Add your connection

   In the Control Center, Connections → Configure, pick your broker or data provider under Available, click Add, enter the credentials and confirm with OK. Connect once by hand and check that data arrives.

5. 5Turn on Connect on start up

   Back in the connection’s settings, tick Connect on start up so NinjaTrader connects by itself after a restart. NinjaTrader’s help guide warns to test the connection first: wrong saved credentials can stop the platform from starting.

6. 6Open your charts, save the workspace, enable strategies

   Set up charts and strategies, then save the workspace from the Control Center’s Workspaces menu so a restart brings them back. Under Tools → Options → Strategies, choose what a strategy does when the connection drops (Keep Running, Recalculate or Stop Strategy; the NinjaScript default is Recalculate).

7. 7Close the Remote Desktop window

   Close it with the X. Do not sign out; the next section explains why.

Close Remote Desktop, do not sign out

NinjaTrader is a desktop program and runs inside your Windows session. Closing the Remote Desktop window only disconnects you: the session keeps running, NinjaTrader with it. Sign out ends the session and closes NinjaTrader. The simple check: disconnect for a few minutes, reconnect, and NinjaTrader is still open with no restart in its Log tab. If you have a second Windows account, quser run from that session lists the first one as Disc (the output below is illustrative):

quser
# USERNAME        SESSIONNAME   ID  STATE   IDLE TIME  LOGON TIME
# administrator                  2  Disc          4  10/21/2026 8:12 AM

If sessions disappear some time after you disconnect, a session time limit is set; the group policy to check is in the MetaTrader VPS guide.

What happens after a reboot?

After a restart nobody is signed in, so NinjaTrader does not run. Three pieces bring it back, and the third one cannot be automated:

• Start NinjaTrader at sign-in. Press Win+R, type shell:startup, and copy the NinjaTrader 8 shortcut from the desktop into that folder.
• Sign in automatically after boot. Microsoft’s Sysinternals Autologon signs the Administrator in at startup, so the shortcut fires without you. With Connect on start up, NinjaTrader then connects too. The trade-offs are in the MetaTrader guide’s reboot section.
• Re-enable strategies by hand. NinjaTrader 8 has no supported setting that enables automated strategies when the platform starts; its support staff describe this on the NinjaTrader forum as deliberate, so that no strategy sends orders without you switching it on. After any restart, connect over Remote Desktop, check positions, and enable each strategy again, with the start behaviour you want for open positions.

Keep Windows updates out of market hours

The most common unplanned restart is Windows Update. CME Globex closes for the weekend from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening (US Central time) for most products, and Eurex is closed at weekends too, so that is when updates belong. Set active hours under Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update to cover your trading day, or run sconfig, set Windows Update to Download only, and install updates yourself on Saturday. Update NinjaTrader itself at the same time, never with a strategy running. Switching updates off altogether is the wrong fix on a server that is reachable from the internet.

Back up the NinjaTrader 8 folder

Everything you build lives in Documents\NinjaTrader 8 of the Windows user: workspaces, templates, NinjaScript code, the trade database and downloaded data. NinjaTrader’s own backup packs it into one file:

1. 1Disconnect, then export

   Disconnect from all connections, as the help guide asks, then Tools → Export → Backup File in the Control Center.

2. 2Pick what to include

   Configuration files, Database, Historical chart data, Log and Trace files, Market replay, NinjaScript files, Templates and Workspaces. Historical and replay data make the file large and can be downloaded again; the rest is what you cannot recreate.

3. 3Copy it off the server

   NinjaTrader saves backups to Documents\NinjaTrader 8 Backup. A backup on the same server does not survive the server, so copy the file to your PC, for example through Remote Desktop’s clipboard or a redirected local drive.

To restore, on the VPS or a new PC: Tools → Import → Backup File, select the file, choose the items and click Import. The backup dialog can also remind you on a fixed day of the week or month.

Why did NinjaTrader forget my licence key and passwords?

NinjaTrader derives a machine ID from the hardware, firmware and Windows installation it sees. When that ID changes, it removes the licence key and saved connection passwords on purpose, so that copied files are useless on another computer; this is how NinjaTrader’s support staff explain it on its forum. Their list of triggers includes a changed Windows product ID and changes to the virtualisation software, so on a VPS the ID can change after host maintenance, a migration, a resize, or when you activate your own Windows key on a server that started on the evaluation licence. If that is your plan, activate Windows before you set NinjaTrader up. Keep your licence key and connection credentials somewhere safe outside the server (the key is shown under Help → License Key), and expect to re-enter them when NinjaTrader reports a new machine ID. If NinjaTrader connects by itself after reboots, this is also the moment it will not, so check after any planned maintenance.

How big a VPS does NinjaTrader need?

Start from NinjaTrader’s recommendation of four cores and 8 GB. At VMHeaven that is Standard KVM 2: 4 vCores, 8 GB of DDR4 and 40 GB of disk for 9.99 EUR a month in Amsterdam. Windows Server, updates and NinjaTrader’s historical data fill 40 GB faster than you expect, so for many charts, Market Replay or Tick Replay, Standard KVM 3 (6 vCores, 12 GB, 60 GB, 14.99 EUR) gives the software renderer and the data more room. Hi-CPU KVM 4 has the same four cores and 8 GB on AMD EPYC 7443 with 80 GB of disk for 19.99 EUR in Amsterdam, if you prefer those cores. Watch Task Manager → Performance for a week of normal trading and size from what you see.

Windows Server 2022 and 2019 can be picked on every VPS line. Windows comes on Microsoft’s time-limited evaluation licence and you activate your own key whenever you like; see the evaluation licence explained. What Frankfurt has in stock today, at its own prices, is on VPS in Germany.

Keep the trading server locked down

The server holds your broker credentials, so protect Remote Desktop like the trading account itself: a long unique Administrator password, RDP allowed only from your own IP address in Windows Firewall, and Network Level Authentication left on. The full checklist is in securing a Windows RDP server.

Frequently asked