Copy Trades from NinjaTrader to MT5: Lots, Prices and Stops

The most useful warning about copying NinjaTrader trades to MetaTrader 5 that we’ve found didn’t come from a vendor. It came from the administrator of NexusFi, who had built a prototype of exactly this kind of copier and stopped short of trusting it with money. The problem the post described was price. Because price data differs slightly between the two platforms, copying “may cause different entries prices and funny things (positions not synchronized)” (sam028, NexusFi, Apr 2023).

To copy trades from NinjaTrader to MT5, you run a local copier: a Sender on the NinjaTrader chart passes each trade to a Receiver Expert Advisor in MT5, a Lot Multiplier sizes it for your broker, and SL/TP Sync puts the stop and target on the MT5 position.

Sending the order across is the easy part, and a copier running on the same computer does it quickly. The hard part is what the MT5 account does with the order once it arrives. How many lots does it buy, which tickets does it close when you scale out, and what price does it get at your broker? We’ll work through those, and through the question every user of this setup should ask early on: what protects the MT5 position if your computer goes down mid-trade?

Why traders copy NinjaTrader to MT5

Most people who ask for this already have a futures strategy running in NinjaTrader 8, either as NinjaScript or as their own manual routine. They want the same decisions on one or more MetaTrader 5 accounts at forex or CFD brokers. The reasons vary: access to CFD and forex accounts, spreading one strategy across several brokers, or running a funded strategy on a personal account as well. If copiers are new to you, we explain the basics in What Is a Trade Copier and How Does It Work?

If your strategy is an Expert Advisor in MT5 and the account you care about is in NinjaTrader, you need the opposite tool. We covered it in How to Copy Trades from MT5 to NinjaTrader 8. Here NinjaTrader leads and MT5 follows. Every trade on the NinjaTrader chart is sent across, whether you click it or a strategy places it. Nothing you do in MT5 travels back, so manage positions on the NinjaTrader side and let MT5 follow.

Our NinjaTrader to MT5 Trade Copier works this way on one computer, with a Sender on the NinjaTrader chart and a Receiver in each MT5 terminal. It comes with a five-day free trial. The screenshots below come from our own test on 30 October 2026, with NinjaTrader on a simulation account and MT5 on a demo hedging account, and none of them has been edited.

NinjaTrader to MT5 lot size: contracts into lots

Futures contracts have one size for everyone. A Micro E-mini S&P 500 contract, MES, is worth $5 for every point the index moves, as CME’s contract specification states. A lot of a US500 CFD has no such standard. The broker defines it. On our test account one lot moves $1 per point, and yours may be different, so “one lot” tells you nothing until you’ve read the symbol specification in your MT5.

A copier therefore can’t map one contract to one lot and leave it there, and the MT5 lot size has to be worked out per broker. Ours uses a Lot Multiplier on the MT5 Receiver. At 1.0 the MT5 size equals the NinjaTrader size, and any other value scales it, so 0.5 halves the position and 2.0 doubles it. Because every MT5 terminal runs its own Receiver, every account gets its own multiplier.

The simplest way to set it is to match dollars per point rather than contract counts. With the $1-per-point example from the diagram above:

Your MT5 broker quotes US500 at	To match 1 MES ($5 per point)	Lot Multiplier
$1 per point per lot	5 lots	5
Your broker’s value per lot = V	5 ÷ V lots	5 ÷ V

What usually trips people up is the broker’s minimum lot and volume step, which sit in the same symbol specification in MT5. The copier rounds every order to the nearest step, and anything below the minimum is raised to the minimum lot. A multiplier that works out to 0.25 lots per contract is exact on a symbol that trades in steps of 0.01. On one that only accepts 0.1 it becomes 0.3, which is 20% more than you meant. A very small multiplier never skips a trade, it sends the minimum lot instead. Partial fills are rounded one by one, so three one-contract fills at that multiplier give 0.9 lots rather than 0.75. Look up the step and the minimum before you settle on the number.

One setting decides which MT5 positions the copier treats as its own. By default the Receiver manages every position on its chart’s symbol, so when NinjaTrader goes flat, MT5 goes flat too, including any trade you opened by hand or another Expert Advisor opened there. If the account is shared with anything else, give the Receiver its own magic number. It will then manage only the positions it opened.

Both settings sit in the Receiver’s inputs in MT5. In this test the Lot Multiplier was 0.1, so when NinjaTrader went long 2 ES, MT5 bought 0.2 lot of US500. We picked 0.1 to keep the demo positions small, not to match the dollar value of ES. The Magic Number is at its default of −1, which means every position on the symbol, manual trades included. The SL/TP Copy Mode below it is at its default too, percent, which comes up again in the section on stops.

It also pays to decide deliberately how much of the NinjaTrader risk the MT5 side should carry. Copying a funded futures strategy at full size onto a personal account at another broker doubles your exposure to one strategy. A quarter or a half of the size is worth considering.

One NinjaTrader position, several MT5 tickets

NinjaTrader keeps one net position per instrument in an account, so if you buy two contracts and then sell one, the account simply shows long 1. MetaTrader 5 can work the same way on a netting account. Many brokers, though, open MT5 accounts in hedging mode, where every trade becomes a separate position with its own ticket number.

On a netting account each NinjaTrader change is applied as an update to the single MT5 position. On a hedging account the copier keeps the total MT5 volume matched to NinjaTrader’s net. When NinjaTrader reduces the position, it has to choose which MT5 tickets to close. Ours closes the oldest positions first, by open time, the rule known as FIFO (first in, first out), and partially closes the last one when the volume doesn’t divide evenly.

Here is the same rule on a real hedging account. NinjaTrader bought one ES contract three times and is long 3. With the multiplier at 0.1, MT5 holds three US500 tickets of 0.1 lot each.

Then NinjaTrader sells 2. The MT5 panel logs one close of 0.2 lot, the two oldest tickets leave the Trade tab, and the newest one stays open. The panel on the NinjaTrader chart reads 0.10, synced.

If your broker lets you choose, we’d pick a netting MT5 account for a copied futures strategy. You compare one position with NinjaTrader instead of a list of tickets, and the MT5 history reads the same way as the NinjaTrader one. Hedging accounts work fine as well, they just leave more to reconcile at the end of the day.

A futures price is not your broker’s price

Your NinjaTrader order fills on the exchange at the futures price, while the MT5 order fills a moment later at whatever your broker quotes for its CFD, spread included. The futures price also sits above or below the cash index by an amount called the basis, which can run to tens of index points and shrinks as expiry approaches. Some US500 CFDs are priced from the cash index and some from the futures, so check which one your broker uses. Either way the MT5 entry will rarely match the NinjaTrader entry, and the two accounts will show different results for the same trade. The same gap applies to stop and target prices, which is why the copier can transfer them as distances rather than prices. More on that below.

Pending orders are where that gap would do the most damage, and a trader in the same thread put the trade-off in one line. “Copy pending orders can be a problem though, since they become market orders when executed” (TheSwede, NexusFi, Apr 2023). Our copier takes that route on purpose for entries. A limit or stop entry waiting in NinjaTrader isn’t copied when you place it. It reaches MT5 as a market order once it has filled on the NinjaTrader side. An entry stop resting on both platforms could trigger on the CFD quote and not on the futures price, leaving one account in a trade and the other flat. Copying entries on fill rules that out, at the cost of a slightly worse entry. Protective stops are handled differently, as covered below.

Trading hours are the other half of the price question. CME Globex trades the index futures almost around the clock, while many brokers pause their US500 CFD for a daily break that may not line up with the futures schedule. If NinjaTrader trades during a window when the CFD is closed, MT5 will refuse the order with a market-closed error. Compare the two schedules in the MT5 symbol specification before you let a strategy trade near the break. The copier doesn’t retry a rejected order. It shows the reason on the MT5 panel and raises an alert. Once the CFD reopens, the Sync button on the NinjaTrader side brings MT5 back to the NinjaTrader position.

What protects the MT5 position

A stop loss in NinjaTrader is a pending order, so you might expect it to reach MT5 only as a market order once it fills. Ours doesn’t wait for that. With SL/TP Sync on, which is the default, the copier finds the stop loss and profit target working in NinjaTrader and sets a matching SL and TP on the MT5 position at your broker. It recognises them by order name. The default list matches any order whose name contains Stop, SL, Target or TP, ignoring case, which covers NinjaTrader’s ATM strategies (Stop1, Target1) and NinjaScript’s Stop loss and Profit target. When you move the stop in NinjaTrader, the MT5 stop moves with it.

Two details decide whether this protects you. First, a stop whose name contains none of those words won’t be picked up until you add its name to the Receiver’s list. The match works the other way too: any working stop or limit order whose name contains one of them is treated as the stop or target, so give pending entry orders names without those words. Check that the stop appears on the MT5 position before you trust it. Second, a futures stop price copied as-is would sit at the wrong level on a CFD, for the basis reasons above. That’s why the default mode copies the stop as a percentage distance from the price rather than as a price. A Distance mode in points and a Price mode for matching instruments are also available.

In the test an ATM strategy placed the stop at 7678.75 and the target at 7683.75 in NinjaTrader. The MT5 position got SL 7651.9 and TP 7656.9. The numbers differ because US500 at this broker traded about 27 points below ES at that moment, and the copier carries over how far each order sits from the price, not the price itself. Then we moved the stop up to 7680.50 and the target down to 7682.50 in NinjaTrader, and MT5 followed with SL 7654.1 and TP 7656.1.

Resting stops on both platforms have one side effect. Because the MT5 stop triggers on your broker’s quote, it can fill while NinjaTrader is still in the trade, or the other way round. If MT5 closes first, the later NinjaTrader exit finds nothing to close and no new trade is opened. If NinjaTrader closes first, MT5 closes at market.

A VPS is still the better home for this setup. Market exits from a strategy, and stop moves made while the machine is down, depend on NinjaTrader, the copier and the computer all being up. The broker-side stop covers the worst case, not every case.

One NinjaTrader account, several MT5 accounts

Copying one NinjaTrader account to several MT5 accounts works by running one MT5 terminal per account on the same computer or VPS. Each connection is a pair: one Sender on the NinjaTrader chart and one Receiver Expert Advisor on the matching MT5 chart, linked by a Sender ID you choose. For three MT5 accounts, add the Sender to the NinjaTrader chart three times, each with its own ID, and give each Receiver the matching ID. Since each Receiver has its own multiplier, each account can be sized to its own broker’s contract. The terminals can belong to different brokers.

The receiver trades the instrument of the MT5 chart it’s attached to. It makes no difference that NinjaTrader calls the market ES or MES and your broker calls it US500 or SPX500. The same logic means each market needs its own pairs: a Sender for every MT5 account on every NinjaTrader chart you trade, and a Receiver on the matching chart in every MT5 terminal. We go into naming differences in What Is Symbol Mapping.

Here two markets run at once on one MT5 account. ES goes to US500 and 6E, the euro futures contract, goes to EURUSD, each through its own Sender and Receiver.

Plan for the load on the machine as well. Several MT5 terminals plus NinjaTrader take real memory and processor time, and a NexusFi member explained a few years ago why MetaTrader copiers tend to be hungry. Checking only once a second would keep the load low, but it “would add a minimum 1 second extra to the trade copying time” (ycomp, NexusFi, Jun 2019). Test with every terminal open before you rely on the setup.

On speed, our product page lists local copying at under 0.1 seconds. In our NinjaTrader to MT5 test on 30 October 2026, five one-contract ES buys reached MT5 in 12, 34, 34, 9 and 25 milliseconds, 22.8 ms on average. The figure on the panel runs from the moment the Sender in NinjaTrader detects the fill to the moment the Receiver in MT5 gets the order, just before it goes to the broker. Your broker’s execution time comes on top of that and is not in these numbers. Across all the screenshots in this article, taken the same day, single trades took between 9 and 56 ms.

Each trade carries the same ID on both sides. The NinjaTrader panel lists #868c3bdf copied in 12 ms, and the MT5 panel shows long 868c3bdf, qty=1.00, filled. During the trial your own panels show the figure for your machine, and that’s the number to trust.

Everything here runs locally, with both platforms on one machine and no server in between. If NinjaTrader and MT5 have to live on different computers, there’s a separate server-based version that we set up on request rather than through the subscription.

Restarts, reversals and the futures roll

The copier reconnects by itself. Trades placed in NinjaTrader while the link was down reach MT5 once it’s back, at the current price, so the entry can be worse. Two cases work differently. If NinjaTrader or the Sender indicator itself was restarted, trades made while it wasn’t running never reach MT5. If MT5 loses its connection to the broker, new entries are blocked. Closes are still sent, but they fail with an alert while the broker can’t be reached and aren’t retried, so press Sync once MT5 reconnects.

After any restart or long gap, compare the two positions. If they differ, the Sync button in NinjaTrader brings MT5 to the NinjaTrader position in two clicks, or AutoSync does it for you, as described below.

To see what drift looks like, we closed the MT5 position by hand while NinjaTrader stayed long 1. The panel on the NinjaTrader chart turned the MT5 position red, 0.00 and out of sync, with a prompt to sync the position and SL/TP.

One click on the prompt and a second one to confirm, and MT5 bought 0.1 lot again. The panel went back to 0.10, synced.

If you’d rather not watch for this, the Receiver has an Out-of-Sync Action. Set to AutoSync, it brings MT5 back to the NinjaTrader position by itself once the two have differed for 5 seconds (adjustable) with nothing being copied. Set to FlattenAndPause, it closes the MT5 position instead and stops copying new entries until you click Resume on the NinjaTrader panel; exits are still copied while it’s paused. A gap caused by a prop limit is left alone, and so is one caused by the Max Position cap, which the NinjaTrader panel shows in orange as “not synced: capped”. Both actions obey the prop limits. If AutoSync fails three times in a row, for example because the CFD market is closed, the Receiver pauses and raises an alert.

A reversal from long to short closes every MT5 position in the old direction and opens one in the new direction, sized from NinjaTrader’s net position, so no opposite positions are left behind on a hedging account. If a limit is blocking entries, or the Receiver is paused, only the closing half runs. At the Max Position cap, the new position is cut down to the cap.

The quarterly roll needs one habit. The Sender follows the contract on its chart, for example ES 12-26, and doesn’t track the switch to the next one. Move the position while the chart is still on the old contract, and MT5 closes without reopening. Switch the chart first, and MT5 misses the close but sees the new entry, so its position doubles. The safe way is to roll when you’re flat. If you have to carry a position across, switch the chart to the new contract after the move and press Sync. Most CFDs have no expiry and the broker rolls them, so the MT5 side usually needs nothing.

Copying out of a funded account

Prop firms set their own rules on copying. Some don’t allow trades from a funded or evaluation account to be mirrored elsewhere, and others only care about what happens inside their own account. The rules also change over time. Read your firm’s current terms before you connect a funded account as the source.

On the MT5 side the Receiver can enforce limits of its own. There is a daily loss limit and a daily profit limit, a maximum position in lots, a minimum balance, and trading hours. An order that would take the MT5 position past the maximum is cut down to it. Trading hours are set in your broker’s server time, the clock shown in MT5’s Market Watch, not your computer’s. Many brokers run their server on GMT+2 or GMT+3, so a 09:30 to 15:55 session in New York time is often 16:30 to 22:55 in server time; check the offset before you set the window. A news filter blocks entries for a set number of minutes around scheduled releases. A master switch, Enable Prop Limits, turns the set on, and each limit has its own switch and value. Most of them can also close the MT5 positions when the limit is broken. A limit never blocks an exit: exits from NinjaTrader are always copied, and only new entries are stopped. A reversal during a limit still closes the old position and holds back only the new one. The Receiver checks them itself, so they work only while MT5 is running. We look at how firms treat automation in Automated Trading on Prop Firm Accounts.

The screenshot above, from an earlier version whose trading-hours field still says local time, shows the values with the master switch still off. In the next one the limits are on, and a news window was open around an Italian inflation release. The long from NinjaTrader reached the Receiver and was blocked in red, with the reason written next to it. The list under it shows where the account stands against every other limit. NinjaTrader shows the same block, and its panel marks MT5 as out of sync, so the difference is visible in both terminals.

Before you connect real money

Run a week on demo before anything else, with NinjaTrader on a simulation account and MT5 on a demo account at the broker you plan to use. Let your strategy do everything it normally does, including scaling out and trading near the CFD’s daily break, then compare the two trade logs line by line. Check that every stop and target you place in NinjaTrader appears on the MT5 position, at a sensible distance from the MT5 price. Most of the surprises described above show up in that comparison long before they cost money.

The NinjaTrader to MT5 Trade Copier comes with the €25 a month subscription, the first five days are free, and it can be cancelled at any time.

See the NinjaTrader to MT5 Trade Copier →

Need something custom built? We develop automation to order → NinjaTrader developers

FAQ

Can I copy trades from NinjaTrader 8 to MT5 automatically?

Yes. A sender on the NinjaTrader chart picks up every trade on that instrument, manual or from a strategy, and a receiver Expert Advisor in MT5 places it. With a local copier both platforms run on the same computer or VPS.

How do I size MT5 lots for a futures contract?

Match the dollar value per point. One MES contract is $5 per point, so at a broker where one US500 lot is $1 per point you need 5 lots. At any other value, divide 5 by what one lot moves per point. Set that as the Lot Multiplier and check the broker’s volume step.

Does the MT5 position get a stop loss?

Yes, with SL/TP Sync on, which is the default. The stop loss and profit target working in NinjaTrader are set as SL and TP on the MT5 position at your broker and follow them as they move. They’re matched by part of the order name (Stop, SL, Target or TP), so a stop named without those words needs its name added to the Receiver’s settings.

What happens to the copy when the futures contract rolls over?

The Sender follows only the contract on its chart. Roll when you’re flat, or after moving the position switch the chart to the new contract and press Sync. Otherwise MT5 can end up without a position or with a doubled one.

How fast is the NinjaTrader to MT5 copy?

In our test on 30 October 2026, on one computer, five trades took 9 to 34 milliseconds, 22.8 ms on average. That runs from the moment the Sender in NinjaTrader detected the fill to the moment the Receiver in MT5 got the order. Your broker’s execution time comes on top of that and is not in these numbers.

What happens on an MT5 hedging account?

The copier keeps the total MT5 volume equal to NinjaTrader’s net position. When NinjaTrader reduces the position, it closes the oldest MT5 positions first, by open time, and partially closes the last one when the volume doesn’t divide evenly. On a netting account there is only one position, and it is simply reduced.

What if the NinjaTrader to MT5 copy gets out of sync?

The NinjaTrader panel shows the MT5 position in red. Click Sync, or set the Receiver’s Out-of-Sync Action to AutoSync and it corrects itself after a few seconds.