If you are considering running NinjaTrader Desktop Application in a virtual server environment, there are a number of technical aspects that typically get overlooked which I would strongly encourage you to consider. Over the course of a 4 month period, I have been trading Futures with a variety of Propfirms, mainly using Tradovate as my broker. Throughout this period, I experimented using different Hosting Providers and machines with varying setups. Here is my comprehensive conclusion:

There exists a significant and often not well-understood difference between a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS). In a Virtual Private Server environment, you are sharing a CPU within the same physical machine with several other users. This means that you or your “neighbors” within the same machine are utilizing the power of your machine to perform their individual transactions. Depending upon the number of neighbors, which could be 1, 8, or even 16, the performance of your machine can drastically suffer. You may start noticing that the performance of your operations is sluggish, and this is primarily because other processes from other machines are consuming the power of the “brain” of your machine. You could be fortunate to have low performer neighbors, but if you have some that execute transactions heavily, there is no way you can influence this. On the other hand, using a VDS, your CPU is exclusively assigned to you, meaning that only your processes impact the performance of the machine. Although the VDS is slightly more expensive, probably 10/15 USD more per month as compared to the VPS, it is definitely a worthwhile investment to ensure your transactions are executed accurately and efficiently.

Another critical aspect to consider when running NinjaTrader is the pre-installed Windows software on the machine. My recommendation is to opt for the lightest possible option, since you are not running a Web Server or an E-Mail server. Essentially, you only need Windows and that's it. Most of the providers offer Windows Server with a lot of pre-configurations, but it is best to avoid these since they will have several services running in the background that you will never use. IMPORTANT: As soon as you receive your machine, which you normally access via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), make sure you change the default user “Administrator” to something else, as well as the RDP port to connect (making sure you allow the new port in the firewall). On the internet, there are thousands of bots attempting to hack into machines, and the user and the port are the most common ways to gain access to your machine, or at least continually try to get in. Additionally, your provider knows both the User and Port, so it's better to change these so only you have this information.

In my experience, I found that installing and running NinjaTrader for copy trading purposes, 4 GB of RAM was sufficient, as it felt responsive and everything ran smoothly. However, if you desire faster performance, you can increase the memory later on using the configuration panel, which will likely increase your monthly price by approximately 5 USD. If you plan to use the server solely as a copy trader, 4GB is adequate. If you plan to use it for charting and several additional indicators, it might be worth upgrading the memory.

Since my trading experience was solely with futures, I decided to test servers in the USA, UK, and Germany. I found that the best latency response when connecting to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was achieved using servers located in New York.

The market offers several options to purchase large hard disks. However, from my experience, a 50 GB NVMe hard disk is more than sufficient.

It's important to note that some providers also label the VDS as Self-managed VPS. There are countless providers, and it's astonishing how many poor services are available. The image illustrates most of them. However, people often overlook one main factor in an attempt to save a few dollars per month.

People often rent monthly Virtual Private Servers (VPS) rather than Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS). With VPS, you could be sharing your CPU with up to 16 other clients on the same physical machine. However, with VDS, you have the entire CPU to yourself, which can make a SIGNIFICANT difference, especially when using Ninja Trader.

Over the past few months, I've tested and benchmarked many of these providers. Some I would even categorize as deceitful, as they don't own their resources and mask their service behind irrelevant traffic offering crazy prices.

In my view, Contabo and Scalahosting are highly competitive. However Scalahosting has the edge because they use the latest processors and don't overload the pre-installed Windows machines with unnecessary services for trading, such as web hosting and email. All we need is a basic installation of Windows to install NinjaTrader, and nothing more. Their customer support is also amazing, you can check their evaluations in Trustpilot.