The dashboard, page by page

The top bar

The bar across the top is the same on every page.

The R2 mark. The small robot and the name. Its eye turns red while R2 is halted.

The clock. The time of the last snapshot R2 received.

The feed pill. Says live when NinjaTrader is reporting, connecting while the page first loads, and STALE with an age in seconds when NinjaTrader has stopped writing. Stale usually means NinjaTrader is closed or sitting at its login window.

The portfolio pill. How many managed accounts are trading out of how many, how many contracts are open, and today's combined result. It adds HALTED when a halt is in force.

The HALTED pill. A red HALTED beside the version while a halt is in force - R2's own or NinjaTrader's. It shows even when NinjaTrader is closed, because R2 keeps its own halt marker.

The version pill. The version of R2 that is running. R2 looks for a newer version every hour.

The tabs. SUMMARY, JOURNAL, ACCOUNTS, PLAN, STRATEGIES, INTAKE. Click one to open that page. The page you are on is remembered in the address, so a browser refresh keeps you where you were.

SETTINGS. Opens the settings overlay. See the Settings section below.

REFRESH. Asks for a fresh snapshot straight away. The page already refreshes itself every three seconds, so you rarely need this.

HALT ALL. R2's emergency stop. It terminates R2's books on every account, so no new R2 entry is placed, and blocks the morning pre-open routine until R2 is resumed. It does not stop your own (non-R2) strategies: they keep running and trading - stop those in NinjaTrader yourself. It asks you to type HALT first, then reads halting… while it waits for NinjaTrader. R2 writes its own halt marker before asking NinjaTrader, so the halt holds even if NinjaTrader is closed or not answering: R2 switches no book on and runs no attach until you resume, and NinjaTrader stops every R2 book the moment it next answers (the page then says NinjaTrader did not confirm, rather than Refused). Open positions are not closed by a halt; use FLATTEN for that. While halted, HALT ALL is replaced by RESUME.

RESUME. Shown only while halted. Asks you to type RESUME. It lifts the halt, even when NinjaTrader is not answering (R2 deletes the halt marker itself). Within about 20 seconds R2 switches every planned book back on in NinjaTrader, and they trade from their next signal. Books you switched off with DISABLE or FLATTEN stay off. Open positions are not touched.

FLATTEN. Only appears when at least one account holds an open position, and shows how many accounts are open (for example FLATTEN 2). It closes every open position on every account at market - every contract, whichever strategy opened it. Before it does, it lists each account with its side and size, and asks you to type FLATTEN. It also switches R2's books on those accounts off, and R2 leaves them off until you press ENABLE on each card. Your own (non-R2) strategies are not switched off: they stay enabled and can open a new position - disable them in NinjaTrader. Accounts that are flat keep trading; HALT ALL stops R2's books on those.

NUMBERS SHOWN / NUMBERS HIDDEN. Presentation mode, for filming or sharing the screen. When it reads numbers hidden, every account name on the page - cards, tables, tooltips, confirmations and messages - shows only its last four characters (more where two accounts would look the same). Buttons still act on the real accounts. The choice is remembered on this browser.

The palette button. The small button on the far right shows the name of the current colour scheme, INDIGO to begin with. Each press moves to the next scheme: indigo, crimson, emerald, onyx. Your choice is remembered on this browser. The three status colours (green, amber, red) are the same in every scheme.

Summary

The Summary page is the one R2 opens on. It has four parts, top to bottom: the action strip, Notifications, Portfolio, and one card per account.

The action strip: what R2 can do

A strip of buttons under the header, labelled what R2 can do. Every one of these hands the job to R2's own window, which does the work and shows the progress. The button briefly reads asked… while the request is passed on. If R2 is already showing a dialog, a second press is ignored until that dialog is closed.

SETUP WIZARD

Opens the setup wizard at step 1. Use it to walk through setup again, or to add an account. Your choices are saved as you go, and step 8 writes the plan. NinjaTrader is not closed or changed until step 9 of 11, and you can close the wizard at any point. The wizard is described in full in the setup guide, section 4.

RE-PLAN

Re-plans every managed account against the latest backtests: which book each account trades and how many contracts on each slot. Each account keeps its current book, re-sized for today's balance, unless another book is worth at least 15% more a session. It asks you to type REPLAN, because the result is written into the live plan straight away: new sizes and stand-asides change what trades at the next NinjaTrader start, and an account stood aside has its book switched off at the next pre-open. Book changes wait for ATTACH. On a large desk this takes about half an hour. R2's own window shows the progress and a time estimate in its plan panel, and the Plan page shows the result when it is done. An account keeps its current book unless a challenger is worth at least 15 percent more per session. Use it when you want R2 to look at everything again. If you changed one account in Settings, you do not need this: SAVE re-plans that account by itself.

BACKTEST

Opens the setup wizard at its Strategies step, which runs NinjaTrader's Strategy Analyzer for any book that has no result yet. It asks you to type BACKTEST: the wizard's steps after the backtest plan new accounts from the results and write the live plan. Use it when the Strategies page says a book has never been run. It can take a long time; the wizard shows each book as it gets to it.

COMPILE NT8

Asks NinjaTrader to compile R2's strategies. It asks you to type COMPILE first, because every running strategy stops for a minute or two while NinjaTrader compiles. The confirmation names every account holding a position: compiling does not close it, but the book comes back waiting for the account to be flat, so nothing manages that position until its stop or target fills or you close it. R2 opens the NinjaScript Editor, presses its compile key, and switches the books back on when NinjaTrader is done. You rarely need this: the wizard compiles at step 3, and R2 compiles by itself at the New York close whenever something new has arrived. If nothing comes back within six minutes, R2 says so and asks you to press F5 in NinjaTrader yourself.

TELEGRAM

Opens the Connect your phone (Telegram) dialog in R2's window. Use it to set up phone alerts or to send a test message. The steps are in the setup guide, section 9. The dialog has two buttons: Connect, which checks the bot token and finds your chat, and Send a test message.

DAILY REPORT

Opens the last end-of-day report in a text window. If there is no report yet, R2 says so: it is written after the New York close.

HELP

Opens a short box in R2's window called What R2 does, describing the main window and each button in a few lines. If the phone dashboard is set up, the box shows its address with the key hidden; press Copy phone link to put the whole link on the clipboard. Anyone with that link can control R2, so it is never shown on screen.

ATTACH PLAN

Only appears when the plan has given at least one account a book it does not have yet, or a book sits on its chart under NinjaTrader's finished flag (only an attach clears that), and shows how many are waiting (for example ATTACH PLAN (2)). It writes the planned books onto their accounts in NinjaTrader. This is the same job as the ATTACH NOW button on a notice. It asks you to type ATTACH, because NinjaTrader closes and restarts, every running strategy stops for a minute or two, and NinjaTrader will show its login window. Log in when it does and the strategies start. R2 refuses to start while any account it manages holds a position or working orders, or while NinjaTrader's position report is more than two minutes old, and names the accounts: a position open across the restart would be left unmanaged. While the attach runs the button reads attaching…. Cancel and nothing happens. R2 never restarts NinjaTrader on its own, because only a person can log NinjaTrader back in. Full details are in the setup guide, section 7.

LOAD NT8 DATA

Asks NinjaTrader to download the historical contract data every book needs. No confirmation. The button reads asking NinjaTrader… while it works, then tells you either that NinjaTrader already holds every contract, or how many contracts it is fetching. Progress then shows in Notifications. Use it when a notice says a book has no data, or after adding an instrument.

Notifications

What needs a human. One row per thing that needs you, with the account on the left and the message on the right. When several accounts have the same message, they are collapsed into one row (for example 3 accounts); hover over it to see which.

The messages you will see most often:

• no strategy attached - nothing is on that account yet. Press ATTACH NOW or ATTACH PLAN.
• not traded by choice: ... - R2 looked at the account and decided not to size it. The rest of the line says why. Nothing is broken and nothing is waiting.
• attached but NOT trading - NinjaTrader has the strategy but has not started it. R2 clicks it on by itself within a few seconds if nobody is using the mouse.
• only ... to the drawdown floor - the account is close to its firm's limit.
• holds ... with NO strategy attached - a position with nothing managing it. Look at it.
• consistency rule: needs ... more total profit before a payout - a payout gate, not a trading problem.

Some rows carry a button:

• UPDATE NOW - a newer R2 is available. It asks you to type UPDATE, then downloads the update, checks every file against its signature, and restarts R2. The page waits for R2 to come back. NinjaTrader is never closed for an update.
• ATTACH NOW - a book is waiting to go onto an account. Same behaviour as ATTACH PLAN above; it asks for ATTACH.
• LOAD DATA - NinjaTrader is missing data a book needs. Same as LOAD NT8 DATA.

× hides one for today. Every row has a small × on its right. Press it and that notice is hidden on this browser until it changes or a new trading day starts. It comes back by itself if the amount changes. The heading shows how many items are visible, a clear all link that hides every visible notice for today, and an N hidden link that brings the hidden ones back.

A quiet list and an empty list look the same and mean different things, so R2 says which: Nothing needs you. Every mapped account is trading and clear of its limits. means all is well. No account is set up yet, so R2 is not watching or trading anything means you have not given any account a firm yet.

Portfolio

Every account R2 manages, added up, from NinjaTrader's view. Four tiles: Day P&L, Combined balance, Combined headroom, and Trading now · of connected. Under them is the combined equity curve, drawn from closed trades on the managed accounts. Two closed trades are needed before it draws anything. The heading says how many accounts are managed and how many are set aside.

The account cards

One card per account, managed accounts first. Accounts R2 leaves alone come last, marked set aside - R2 leaves this account alone. Each card shows:

• the account name, its firm and status, and a small risk chip showing the risk level. Click the chip to open Settings on that account's row.
• a no hedging chip if the firm forbids opposite positions in correlated indices.
• a small equity curve for that account.
• Drawdown headroom - how far the account is from its firm's floor, with a bar. If the floor rises at the close under end-of-day trailing rules, a line says so.
• Today - today's result, and the daily loss limit if the firm has one.
• Profit - profit since the account started.
• Firm balance - shown only when the firm's own figure is known, with how old it is.
• Estimate - how many trading days until the account passes or can be paid. This is an estimate from the median pace of the chosen book's backtest and the firm's own gates. It is never a promise.
• To target or To payout buffer - progress towards the firm's profit requirement.
• Consistency - the firm's best-day rule, if it has one.
• Days traded, and the minimum days the firm needs.
• the gates still to pass, or Withdrawal available once they are all met.
• the strategy on the account, its state, and its contracts per slot. Hover over the numbers to see what each slot is called.

At the bottom of each card:

• ENABLE - appears when the account's books are attached but not running. Starts them (both, on an account that runs two: Enable all (2)). Asks you to type ENABLE, because this starts real trading on that account.
• DISABLE - appears when a book is running. Stops every running book on the account (Disable all (2) on an account that runs two). Asks for DISABLE. Open positions are not closed. R2 leaves the account off, through restarts and attaches, until you press ENABLE.
• FLATTEN n - appears when the account holds a position, with the size. Closes every open position on that one account at market, whichever strategy opened it, and switches R2's books on it off; they stay off until you press ENABLE. Your own (non-R2) strategies on the account stay enabled and can open a new position - disable them in NinjaTrader. Asks for FLATTEN.

Journal

Every closed round trip on the accounts R2 runs, taken from NinjaTrader's own fills. This is what actually happened, not what a backtest thinks should have. Results are net of the commission you set in Settings when the broker reports none on the fill.

At the top:

• a count of trades;
• All accounts - a dropdown to narrow the journal to one account;
• All instruments - the same for one instrument;
• a range dropdown: All time, Last 5 days, Last 20 days, Last 60 days;
• HIDE - folds the trades away. The button then reads SHOW, and a line says the trades are hidden. The choice is remembered on this browser, so if the journal looks empty, check for this line first.

Below that, in order: a row of tiles (Net P&L, Profit factor, Trade win %, Day win %, Expectancy, Avg win / loss, Best / worst day, Max drawdown); the equity curve by trade; a calendar of trading days coloured by result, with ‹ and › buttons to move between months; breakdowns By account, By instrument, By setup, By exit, By weekday and By entry hour (New York); and the trades themselves, one row each, with entry and exit price, points, result, and the setup and exit names.

Accounts

The same information as the Summary cards, as one table with a row per managed account: account, firm, risk, balance, day, floor, headroom, profit, to target, consistency, days, estimate, strategy, state. Click a column heading to sort. The risk chip in each row opens Settings on that account, the same as on the cards. An account that runs two books lists both.

Plan

What R2 decided for every account. The plan is written by RE-PLAN, by SAVE in Settings (for the accounts you changed), and by the wizard. Strategies pick new sizing up at their next NinjaTrader start, which is what an attach is for.

The plan. One row per sized account: Account, Book, Paired with (when R2 sizes two books together), Contracts per slot, Total, Headroom, and Why, which says where the choice came from and the reason in plain words. The heading says how many accounts and when the plan was made. If there is no plan yet, the table says no plan yet - press Re-plan above.

Two buttons sit in the heading:

• RE-PLAN - the same action as RE-PLAN on the Summary page. No confirmation.
• ATTACH PLAN (n) - only shown when accounts are waiting for their book. The same action as ATTACH PLAN on the Summary page; it asks for ATTACH.

Not planned. Shown only when R2 chose not to size some accounts. One row each: the account and Why not, in plain words. Most often the firm's target cannot be reached within the loss limit your risk level allows. That is a choice, not a fault: nothing is waiting to be attached for those accounts. Raising the risk level in Settings is how you change it.

Planner report. Shown when the planner produced one: what the run itself said.

Strategies

Every book R2 ships, measured from its own Strategy Analyzer backtest, re-run every trading night after the New York close. Never from live fills, except in the last panel.

The strip at the top says when the results are from, when the nightly run happens, when it last ran and when it last adopted a result. On its right are three chips that narrow the whole page:

• BOOKS ON ACCOUNTS - only the books currently on your accounts;
• CANDIDATES - books that passed the gate and could be chosen;
• ALL - every book.

The chosen chip is remembered on this browser. The page takes a few seconds to reload after a press, and the chip shows that it is working.

Correlation web. One node for every slot of every book live on a managed account. Strands join slots whose daily backtest results move together: closer means more alike. Green is under 0.40, amber to 0.70, red past 0.70, which means one bet taken twice.

Combined profit. The selected books' backtest profit added together, at the backtest's own sizing, with the deepest drawdown along the way. When the selection is BOOKS ON ACCOUNTS the drawdown is also measured against the accounts' combined allowance and marked inside limit or past limit. With the other two chips it is not measured against a limit, and the panel says so.

Books. One row per book. Click a column heading to sort. The dot at the start of a row is drift: green means the book is behaving like itself, amber means it is on the way to drifting, red means it is past its own worst drawdown or its recent profit factor is under 1.0. Click a book and its mini-journal opens above the list: where the result came from and when, the drift verdict and why, its tiles, its curve and its trades.

Traded live. What each book and each slot has actually traded on your accounts, from live fills: trades, net, win %, average trade, best and worst. A slot with no trades yet says so rather than borrowing a backtest number. If the accounts have not traded yet, the table says so and fills in as they do.

Intake

Bring in a NinjaTrader strategy of your own. R2 checks it against its rules, adds the small amount of plumbing it needs and nothing else, gets it into NinjaTrader, backtests it in the Strategy Analyzer, and makes it a candidate if it passes the same gate as the books. Every book R2 ships is already backtested; you only need this page for a strategy of your own.

The strip at the top counts candidates, strategies waiting on NinjaTrader, strategies being backtested, and refusals, and says whether NinjaTrader is running.

Bring one in. One strategy source file (a .cs file) at a time:

• the drop area, drop a .cs here, or click to choose;
• instrument - what the strategy is written for;
• bar period (minutes);
• how it gets into NinjaTrader - two choices. The first compiles it into R2's own add-on library, which R2 puts in place while NinjaTrader is closed and which loads at its next start. The second places the source in NinjaTrader, and R2 compiles it at the New York close (or you press COMPILE NT8).

Drop the file and the check runs at once. A line under the form says what happened. The what happens next list shows the seven stages: received, checked, formatted, compiled or placed, in NinjaTrader, backtested, candidate.

The rules. The ten rules a strategy must meet, in order, with what each one means. Intake checks every rule and names all it breaks, worst first. R2 converts one thing by itself: a single literal quantity shared by every entry becomes a size input. Everything else it refuses, with the line and the fix.

Brought in. Every strategy ever brought in, newest first: strategy, file, received, stage, sizing, note. Click a row to open its report above the table: every rule checked and its verdict, the fix for any refusal with the line it is on, any conversion line by line, the Strategy Analyzer job and its result, and the history of stages. A refused or failed strategy has two extra controls: RUN IT AGAIN, which re-runs the same file from the start, and Download the annotated file, which gives you your original with a comment above each line to fix. Fix it and drop it again.

Settings

SETTINGS in the top bar opens an overlay called Accounts & firms. It maps each NinjaTrader account to a firm rule set, a risk level and a book. While it is open the page stops refreshing, so nothing moves under you. If a re-plan is running the overlay can take a moment to open; the button reads opening… while it does.

Accounts. One row per account NinjaTrader reports, managed accounts first, with four choices each:

• firm - the firm and plan the account is with. Choose ignore - not managed, not shown and R2 leaves the account completely alone; it still appears at the bottom of the Summary page as set aside. An account matched by a name prefix says (by prefix).
• risk - the pass rate you are willing to accept: Low 70%+, Medium 60-70%, Aggressive 50-60%, Turbo 30-50% · as likely to lose it as pass it. Choosing Turbo opens a confirmation that says what it costs and asks you to type TURBO; cancel and the row goes back to what it was. Leave Low unless you have a reason.
• hedging - hedging allowed or NO hedging - firm forbids it. Whether this firm lets one account hold opposite sides of two correlated indices at once. R2 warns when a forbid account does it.
• book - auto or a pinned book. On auto R2 re-picks the book as the account's balance, headroom and days traded change. Only books with a verified backtest are offered.

Add or edit a firm. A Firm dropdown with every firm you have, plus + new firm…. Below it, the rule fields for that firm: a short firm key, label, phase (eval or funded), starting balance, max loss limit, whether it locks at the start balance, daily loss limit, consistency fraction and whether it is perpetual, the profit needed to pass, the profit needed before a payout, and minimum trading days. R2 ships with no firms at all, so the first thing to do on a fresh install is add yours.

Updates. Says which version is running and when R2 last looked for a newer one. CHECK FOR AN UPDATE looks now. If one is available it tells you to close Settings and press UPDATE on the Summary page.

Commission. What one contract costs you per round turn, by instrument. The journal charges this when your broker reports no commission on the fill. Leave a box empty to remove that instrument; use the last row to add one.

How often a book must trade. The Minimum trade frequency dropdown: every day, every second day (the default), every third day, one day in four, one day in five. R2 will not put an account on a book that trades more rarely than this. Raising it leaves only the busier books in the running; lowering it lets every book compete. It does not change how much you risk on a trade.

SAVE. Writes everything above. Within a minute R2 notices which accounts changed firm, risk or book and re-plans only those. Every other account keeps its book and size exactly as it was. R2's own window shows the progress. If the new plan gives an account a book it does not have yet, a notice appears with ATTACH NOW. If a field is wrong, SAVE says Not saved and why.

CLOSE. Closes the overlay without saving.

R2's own window

R2's window normally shows the dashboard itself, with one line of text along the bottom. That status line says what R2 last did (for example updated 10:31:05, planning 3/18, or NinjaTrader is compiling). When R2 is planning, a panel appears above the status line: the plan progress panel. It names the account being planned, how many are done, how long it has run and roughly how long is left, and it stays on screen with the final result (Done. 18 accounts planned in ...) so finished and still-running never look the same. If a plan fails the panel says so and that nothing was changed.

If the dashboard cannot be shown inside the window (for example the browser component is missing), R2 falls back to its older list view: a headline, a list of things that need you, a table of accounts, and a bar of buttons along the bottom. In that view:

• OPEN DASHBOARD opens the dashboard in your browser.
• SETUP WIZARD opens the wizard at step 1.
• RE-PLAN AND WRITE POLICY is the same as RE-PLAN on the dashboard.
• ATTACH STRATEGIES opens the wizard at its Attach and start step.
• BACKTEST STRATEGIES opens the wizard at its Strategies step.
• TELEGRAM opens the phone dialog.
• DAILY REPORT opens the last end-of-day report.
• HELP opens the What R2 does box.
• UPDATE NOW appears only when a newer version is available.
• COMPILE NINJATRADER appears only when a compile is wanted.
• Double-clicking an account row moves it to the next risk level; press RE-PLAN AND WRITE POLICY afterwards to apply it.

The setup wizard. SETUP WIZARD opens an eleven-step window: Welcome, Your licence key, NinjaTrader, Your accounts, Which prop firm is each account with?, How much risk on each account?, Strategies, The plan, Attach and start, Alerts on your phone, You are set up. It moves with NEXT and BACK, and the last step has FINISH. It remembers where you were if you leave. The attach step has its own log that names each account as it gets to it and ends with every strategy is on and trading, or says why it could not. Every step is described in the setup guide, section 4.

The Telegram dialog. Connect your phone (Telegram). Paste the bot token from BotFather, press Connect, then Send a test message. R2 never shows the token again.

The licence box. If R2 ever needs your licence key again it asks the moment you press something that sets up trading, with a box to paste into and OK. A lapsed key never stops a desk that is already trading; it only declines to set up new accounts.

Confirmations

Anything on the dashboard that changes what is trading opens the same small dialog: a title, a sentence or two saying exactly what is about to happen, a box, and two buttons, CANCEL and CONFIRM. You must type the word shown in the box before CONFIRM does anything. Capitals do not matter, and Enter confirms. Press CANCEL or Esc and nothing happens; type the wrong word and nothing happens, and the page says so.

The dialog exists so that a stray click can never restart NinjaTrader, close a position, or start real trading. Reading the sentence is the point; it names the accounts and the consequences.

The words, and where they are asked:

SETUP WIZARD, TELEGRAM, DAILY REPORT, HELP and LOAD NT8 DATA ask for no word. None of them changes what is trading by itself; the wizard's attach step asks in its own window. SAVE in Settings asks no word either, but when you change an account's book or risk it re-plans that account and writes the live plan; the page says so when you save, and tells you when the re-plan has finished or failed.