NinjaTrader vs Tradovate

Yes, NinjaTrader 8 desktop can connect to Tradovate accounts. Whether a prop firm account allows it depends on the firm, so check its rules.

Tradovate is quicker to start: it runs in the browser with nothing to install. NinjaTrader 8 has more to learn but more charting and automation. Both have a $0 Free plan as of November 2026.

Yes. Both pricing pages say exchange, clearing and NFA fees apply on top of the listed commission, as of November 2026.

Neither is better in general; your firm picks. Use the connection your firm gives you, and journal the trades the same way either way.

NinjaTrader has a history and trade report view that shows your past trades and some statistics, but that's not a trading journal in the review sense: it doesn't capture your entry reason, notes, emotional state or the context around each trade, and it doesn't track your journaling habits over time. A dedicated journal like Dusk Analyst stores the trade data and lets you layer review notes, tags and analysis on top, then report on win rate, profit factor, P&L and equity curve - the metrics that actually improve decisions. If you want the terminal's data without the manual copying, Dusk Analyst's EA reads the closed-trade history and syncs it automatically on Pro.

Every NinjaTrader terminal keeps a closed-trade history in its Account History view, and that data can be exported to a file for import elsewhere. Save the history as a report or CSV (the fields are standard: time, ticket, symbol, volume, price, commission, swap, profit), then import the file into Dusk Analyst on any plan - the free tier includes CSV import. On Pro you don't even need to export: the Dusk Analyst EA reads the same history automatically and pushes each close as it happens, including catch-up for periods the terminal was off.

Yes - Dusk Analyst's free tier is $0 forever and works with NinjaTrader: two accounts, manual entry and CSV import, with win rate, profit factor, P&L and equity curve calculated for you. That's a genuinely usable free journal, not a trial. If you want every closed NinjaTrader trade to sync itself, Pro adds the read-only EA at a flat $25/month with unlimited accounts and AI insights, and every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days, no card.

No - the EA is deliberately light. It's a single read-only file that does two things: it watches for closed trades in the account history and it sends them over HTTPS with your per-account API key. It never places orders, never repaints charts and doesn't interfere with your indicators or other EAs; it runs on its own chart window, following the usual one-EA-per-chart convention. The network call is a few kilobytes per closed trade, so even on a slow connection there's no noticeable impact on the terminal or your execution.

Yes. The free tier costs $0 forever and includes two accounts, manual trade entry and CSV import - enough to journal a live account properly, with win rate, P&L and equity curve all calculated for you. There is no credit card required to start. Pro ($25/month flat) adds unlimited accounts, MT4/MT5/cTrader/NinjaTrader auto-sync, AI insights on your trading (1,000 trade-analyses a month), monthly reports and full export, and every new account gets Pro free for 5 trading days with no card. The pricing is deliberately simple: one plan, one price, no per-feature upsells.

Yes, and it needs no card. Every new Dusk Analyst account gets Pro free for 5 trading days from sign-up: auto-sync from MT4, MT5, cTrader and NinjaTrader 8, AI Insights with 1,000 credits, monthly reports and unlimited accounts. After that Pro is $25/month, and you can cancel anytime from Billing in the app. If you skip it, the account moves to Free with every trade kept.

Yes - CSV import is available on every plan, including free. If you've been tracking trades in a spreadsheet, broker export or another journal, export the CSV from wherever it lives and import it into Dusk Analyst; the journal matches it against your accounts and keeps your history continuous. Import is also the fallback for platforms that don't run MT4, MT5, cTrader or NinjaTrader 8. For MT4/MT5/cTrader/NinjaTrader terminals, Pro auto-syncs going forward and the EA backfills any trades your terminal missed while it was off. Any platform that exports a CSV of your trade history works. Dusk Analyst recognises TradingView, Tradovate, cTrader, MT4 and MT5 exports on sight; for anything else you map your columns once and that parser is saved for next time. Comma, semicolon and tab files are all handled, day-first and month-first dates are detected from the file itself, and any row that cannot be read is listed for you rather than dropped quietly.

Pro includes 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month. One credit covers one trade, so asking a question about a 40-trade week costs 40 credits and you can keep asking. The allowance resets on the 1st of each month and the counter sits in the top bar of the app, so you always know where you stand. Narrowing a question to one account or a shorter date range makes the same allowance go much further. Free accounts get a small number of AI credits to try AI Insights, alongside the full journal, analytics and weekly reports, and the free Pro week (5 trading days, no card) includes the full monthly allowance.