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NinjaTrader® Strategies vs Indicators

If you are new to NinjaTrader®, two words come up again and again: strategies and indicators. They are both small programs that you add to NinjaTrader, and both are written in NinjaScript®. They do very different jobs. This page explains the difference and how to choose between them. It is part of our guide to NinjaTrader® automated strategies.

What is a NinjaTrader® indicator?

An indicator analyzes the market and draws what it finds on your chart. A moving average, an RSI line, a volume profile and a set of pivot levels are all indicators. An indicator does not place orders. It gives you information, and you decide what to do with it.

Indicators suit traders who make their own decisions and want better information on the screen. Most of the standard studies that ship with NinjaTrader® are indicators.

What is a NinjaTrader® strategy?

A strategy is a program with trading rules built in. When the market meets its conditions, the strategy submits orders to your account on its own: entries, exits, stop-loss and profit-target orders. This is called an automated or mechanical trading system. NinjaTrader® runs it while the strategy is enabled on a chart.

A strategy is a good fit if you want rules followed the same way every time, without making each decision by hand. It does not remove risk, and you stay responsible for the account it trades.

Side by side

  • Indicator: shows information on a chart. Never sends orders. You make the decisions.
  • Strategy: contains entry and exit rules. Can send orders automatically to the account you choose.
  • Together: many strategies calculate indicators inside the code. Many traders also run an indicator on a chart next to a strategy so they can see what it is reacting to.

Which should you start with?

If you have never run an automated system, begin by using indicators for a while. You learn how a market moves and what the data looks like, and you can judge for yourself whether an approach makes sense. When you are ready for automation, test any strategy on a simulated account first. Our page on how to run an automated strategy on NinjaTrader® 8 walks through the steps, and how to evaluate an automated trading system explains what to look at before you trust one.

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Futures trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.