Trade Pilot
Draggable bracket order entry for NinjaTrader 8. Draw your trade on the chart, adjust by eye, fire with one click. Designed for the speed scalpers actually need.
Order entry that disappears behind the trade.
Trade Pilot replaces the rigid, dialog-driven order entry workflow of the default NinjaTrader Chart Trader with something faster and more honest to how traders actually think: draw your trade on the chart, adjust it by eye, then fire it with one click.
You arm a bracket with a target direction. Trade Pilot paints three live rays on your chart — entry (cyan), stop (red), target (green) — and computes position size, dollar risk, and reward-to-risk in real time. Drag any line and everything else recalculates instantly. When you're ready, one click sends the market order with stop and target attached as an OCO bracket.
Header. Live position status — FLAT, LONG N, or SHORT N.
Order Management. Sizing, risk, stop distance, target mode.
Trailing Stop. Trail mode toggle. Active only after fill.
Manual Entries. Buy/Sell Current, Arm Long/Short, FIRE, Clear.
Order Controls. FLATTEN ALL — emergency exit.
Five sections, three chart rays
The Trade Pilot panel mounts inside the NinjaTrader Chart Trader. Click any section header to expand or collapse. Your layout persists across sessions.
Entry
Labeled ENTRY (Qty: N). While armed, tracks current market price tick by tick. Does not move after fill — fixes at actual fill price.
Why entry tracks: 'wherever the market is when I pull the trigger.'
Stop
Labeled ($XXX) SL T: NNN. Dollar risk and tick distance shown live. Drag to move. Trailing modes advance it automatically after fill.
Stop stays put while armed — your trade-management decision.
Target
Labeled ($XXX) RR: X.XX. Dollar reward and RR multiple shown live. Drag to move. In RR mode, dragging auto-switches Target Mode to Ticks (the RR is no longer 'clean').
Why entry tracks but stop doesn't. Your entry is reactive — wherever the market is when you fire. Your stop is intentional — once placed at a swing low or below a zone, it should stay there even as price wiggles.
Six stages from sizing to flatten
Every Trade Pilot trade follows the same cycle. Understanding the flow is the difference between fumbling through the panel and trading with muscle memory.
Decide sizing
Set Order Management values once at session start. Qty Type = Auto, Risk = $ amount per trade, Stop Unit = Ticks, Target Mode = RR.
Auto-sizing means every trade risks the same dollar amount regardless of stop placement.
Arm the bracket
Click ARM LONG or ARM SHORT. Three rays appear. Status bar turns amber. FIRE button replaces Arm buttons. Until you fire, nothing is submitted.
Adjust by eye
Drag stop → recomputes ticks, qty (Auto), and RR. Drag target → updates ticks. Entry tracks price.
This is where Trade Pilot earns its keep.
Fire
Click FIRE. Market order submitted for computed quantity. Stop and target attached as OCO bracket. Confirm dialog optional.
Position goes live. Header shows LONG N / SHORT N.
Manage live
Drag stop or target to modify the live broker orders. Enable Trail to advance the stop automatically as price moves in your favor.
Close or flatten
Target hits, stop hits, or FLATTEN ALL. FLATTEN is nuclear — use only when the thesis is wrong.
When there's no time to arm and drag
BUY CURRENT and SELL CURRENT fire a market order for the current sizing configuration with stop and target computed automatically. No drag step. No preview. One click and you're in with a bracket.
Speed-required entries
Breakout confirmation — price blows through a level, can't miss the move.
Re-entry after stop — setup still valid, original plan applies.
Sequential scalps — same pattern, sizing dialed in.
Stop placement matters
Contested levels — use Arm so you can position the stop precisely.
First trade of session — use Arm to pressure-test sizing.
News events — spreads widen, slippage balloons.
Offset Ticks. Both Quick Market and Arm respect the Offset field. Set non-zero to enter N ticks away from current price — useful for 'buy on the pullback' entries without limit orders.
Three modes ship in v1.1
A trailing stop advances your stop toward current price as the market moves in your favor. It never moves backward — once advanced, the trail is a one-way ratchet.
HighLow
Tracks prior bar's low (longs) or high (shorts), offset by configurable tick buffer. Updates every tick.
Best for: discretionary swing-style trades where the chart already tells you where the stop should be.
ATR
Classic Chandelier-style. Close ± ATR(period) × multiplier. Computes on bar close — does not update intra-bar. Default period 14, multiplier 2.0.
Best for: volatility-adaptive trend following.
TickTrail
Simplest and fastest. Stop = current price ± N ticks, every tick.
Best for: scalps and short-holds where you want a mechanical, predictable trail that doesn't overthink market structure.
Universal safety rules. All trail modes obey three rules that cannot be overridden: only moves in favor (never loosens), never crosses current price (prevents instant-fill self-stops), tick threshold (prevents order-modify spam from sub-tick recomputations).
Three presets to start with
Trade Pilot's defaults are calibrated for a generic NQ/MNQ scalper. Pick the preset closest to how you trade.
NQ Scalper
| Qty Type Auto | Risk-based sizing. Most consistent approach. |
| Risk $200 | 0.25%–0.5% per trade is typical. Adjust to account size. |
| Stop Value 40 ticks | 10 points on NQ. Tune to your typical setup. |
| Target Mode RR 2.0 | 2R target — gives room for partial runners too. |
| Trail Mode TickTrail 20 | 5 points on NQ. Simple, fast, reliable for sub-15-min holds. Turn ON once trade is up 1R. |
| Require Confirm OFF | Scalpers lose edge to one extra click. |
Swing Trader
| Risk $500 | Higher dollar risk for wider setups — same % of account. |
| Stop Value 120 ticks | 30 points on NQ. Wide enough to survive normal noise. |
| Target Mode RR 3.0 | Bigger structural targets deserve bigger RR. |
| Trail Mode ATR (14, 2.5) | Volatility-adaptive. Won't choke on normal bar swings. |
| Require Confirm ON | Swings are fewer, higher-stakes trades. Extra click is cheap. |
Prop Firm Trader
| Risk Unit % | Percent-of-account so risk scales with balance. |
| Risk Value 0.3% | Conservative for pass phase. |
| Max Contracts Cap 5 | Hard ceiling. Protects against tiny-stop computing huge qty. |
| Target Mode RR 2.0 | 2R minimum for most firms. |
| Trail Mode HighLow (offset 4) | 1 point buffer. Avoids wick stop-outs. Prop firms love the equity curve. |
| Require Confirm ON | Prop accounts have rules. Extra click is a sanity checkpoint. |
How traders misuse Trade Pilot
Most mistakes come from confusing the tool with the trade decision.
Firing without checking the sizing
Auto sizing computes contracts from Risk ÷ Stop Value. If risk is $500 and stop is 2 ticks wide, you fire enormous size. Always glance at the entry line label — ENTRY (Qty: N) — before clicking FIRE.
Treating Arm as a commitment
Arming a bracket costs nothing — it's a preview. No order is submitted until FIRE. Confusing UI state with a trade decision is what makes traders fire bad arms 'because I already committed.'
Dragging the stop tighter during a live trade
A live trade's stop is where you decided based on structure. Moving it closer mid-trade because price is wiggling is the textbook taking-a-small-loss-just-before-the-winner. If the stop needs to move, the trade is wrong — flatten.
Turning Trail ON while still armed
Trailing only activates after fill. While armed, the stop stays where you placed it (intentionally, so you can set against structure). Don't expect the stop to track price while armed.
Using Quick Market for every trade
One-click fills skip the Arm step — the step where you make a decision about where the stop belongs. Quick-Market-only traders are trading generic stops, not trade-specific stops.
Firing without sensor or zone context
Trade Pilot doesn't know whether you're trading a valid setup. If you arm and fire mid-range with no confluence, the bracket is perfectly placed for a bad trade.
Leaving TickTrail on during news
20-tick TickTrail gets smoked in the first three seconds of a CPI print. Either turn trail OFF before scheduled news or use ATR trail. Better: don't hold trades into news unless that was the plan.
Using FLATTEN ALL as a normal exit
FLATTEN is a panic button. Market-closing a runner because you got nervous costs you the planned target. If you reach for it during normal volatility, the problem is sizing — cut size.
Frequently asked
Trade Pilot can be applied to supported NinjaTrader 8 chart instruments when the connected account, provider, order types, and instrument settings are compatible. Tick size, sessions, liquidity, and routing differ by market. Validate the exact instrument and connection in simulation before live use; equal behavior is not guaranteed.
Multiple chart instances can be configured, subject to NinjaTrader and system-resource limits. Each chart has its own visible settings, but instances can still interact through the same account, instrument, position, or working orders. Test multi-chart behavior and use unambiguous order identifiers before live use.
Compatibility depends on the provider connection, account permissions, supported order types, and the firm's current rules. A preset is a configuration starting point, not a representation of every firm's limits. Trade Pilot and Trade Shield do not guarantee an evaluation pass, payout, fill, or prevention of a rule violation.
Behavior depends on the broker, provider, order type, OCO handling, connection state, and whether an order was accepted upstream before the disconnect. Do not assume every stop or target remains active. Verify working orders with the broker or provider, follow a written disconnect procedure, and test reconnection behavior in simulation.
Use the Offset field. Setting Offset = +4 on a long means buy 4 ticks above current price as a stop order — useful for 'buy on the breakout' entries without manual order entry. For pure limit entries, use NinjaTrader's standard Chart Trader alongside.
By design. Entry tracks current market price while armed and fixes at fill price after live. The line you'd want to drag is either the stop (intentional placement) or target (intentional placement). The entry is reactive.
Manually in Order Management, or implicitly: dragging the target line auto-switches to Ticks mode (the RR is no longer clean once you hand-place it). Switch back to RR by clicking the Target Mode dropdown.
The documented Trade Pilot workflow uses a single-target bracket. Partial exits or scale-out actions performed elsewhere in NinjaTrader are outside that automated workflow and can change the account position or remaining orders. Test the exact sequence in simulation and verify working quantities after every manual change.
Draw your trade. Adjust by eye. Fire with one click.
Draggable bracket order entry. Draw your trade on the chart, adjust by eye, fire with one click. Auto-sizing from risk, three trail modes, OCO brackets attached on fire.