Rithmic connection lost overnight in NinjaTrader: trace what recovered

Read the affected connection, not just the combined indicator

NinjaTrader shows each provider’s status in the Connections menu and a combined status at the bottom left of the Control Center. With multiple connections, hover over the combined indicator to inspect the individual connection statuses.

For the Rithmic connection, distinguish these documented states. Price-server loss and order-server loss identify different interrupted paths; a moving chart alone does not confirm order-path recovery.

A Rithmic login failure needs a different check

NinjaTrader sign-in and the Rithmic connection use different credentials. In Connections > configure, select the affected Rithmic connection and compare its saved username, password and System with the details supplied by your broker or evaluation provider. A login failure alone does not establish a network outage.

For the specific “bad input (Logon failed)” error, NinjaTrader documents re-entering the Rithmic credentials. It explains that a PC update can change the Machine ID, causing sensitive saved information to be removed. Check whether those fields were cleared; the message does not prove your provider changed the password.

Plug-in Mode is for a connection routed through R|Trader Pro. That setup requires Allow plugins and an established R|Trader Pro connection before NinjaTrader connects. It is not a general fix for login errors. Use the direct or plug-in setup your provider supports.

Connected, but the intended account is missing

A successful provider login is separate from the intended account appearing in NinjaTrader. Confirm the account identifier assigned to that Rithmic username and its current activation with your provider. Restarting the platform cannot establish that access is provisioned.

OneUp Trader’s guide includes checking Help > About for Evaluation (Rithmic), along with account activation and required agreements. These are provider-specific checks: follow your firm’s current instructions and describe the missing account or entitlement to support. Do not assume every firm uses identical setup requirements.

NinjaTrader’s evaluation guide says old provider license keys do not need to be imported for this connection. An inactive account sharing credentials with an active account must be removed by the provider, rather than by deleting an account inside NinjaTrader.

Keep both sides of midnight in the evidence

NinjaTrader documents the Control Center Log tab as showing application and trading events for the current day. For an incident that began before midnight, today’s visible grid may not contain the first disconnect. Preserve the relevant prior-day and current-day logs before concluding that the first visible event began the outage.

In the Log grid, use Find to locate the affected connection or exact error, and right-click Export to save the visible contents as CSV or Excel. Hover over a clipped message to read its full text. An export preserves that grid’s contents; it is not proof that the entire overnight window is included.

Keep the date and time zone with every timestamp. When comparing the desktop log with a provider incident notice or an email, identify which clock each record uses instead of sorting bare clock times.

Record separate timestamps for each recovery milestone

Use the following fields for the actual incident. Leave an unobserved milestone unknown. If the connection drops again, add a new event instead of overwriting the earlier reconnect.

Explain a disabled strategy using its connection-loss settings

NinjaTrader’s Stop Strategy handling stops the strategy after the configured disconnect delay and takes no restart action when the connection returns. Recalculate has its own stop/recalculation conditions and restart limits. A repeated-disconnect incident can therefore end with a connected provider and a halted strategy.

Record the handling mode, disconnect delay and restart-attempt window that applied during the incident. The dedicated settings guide explains those controls; changing them after the event cannot establish how the strategy behaved overnight.

Before re-enabling, compare the account’s actual position and orders with the strategy’s expected state. NinjaTrader documents that startup synchronization can submit orders and does not guarantee that account and strategy positions remain aligned afterward. Reconnect status alone cannot resolve that comparison.

Use the missing milestone to narrow the next investigation

If no provider reconnection is recorded, compare the exact error and time window with the provider’s incident information. If the connection returns but prices remain stale, investigate data access, the contract and trading session. If current data and account updates return but the strategy stays disabled, follow its strategy log and handling settings.

An outage occurring overnight does not establish scheduled Rithmic maintenance. Keep that explanation conditional until a matching provider notice or support response confirms it. Share the affected connection/account identifier, instrument, time zone and relevant log window through the appropriate support channel.

Ninja Watchdog attempts connection recovery and restoration of previously running strategies, with recovery-event email alerts available today. SMS and WhatsApp alerts are coming soon. Use the reported event time alongside the platform timeline; an alert is not proof of position synchronization.