Questions people ask

Before you buy or install

What does R2 actually do?

R2 chooses which of its strategies (books) to run on each prop-firm account, works out how many contracts that account can afford under its firm's rules and the risk level you chose, writes that into NinjaTrader, switches the strategies on, and watches them. It reports to you on the dashboard and, if you connect it, on Telegram. It does not invent trades and it does not override your firm's limits. Everything it decides, it explains in plain words. It does not replace NinjaTrader: NinjaTrader does the trading, and if you cannot see live prices on a chart there, fix that first.

What do I need?

A Windows 10 or 11 PC or VPS. NinjaTrader 8, installed and logged in at least once, with your firm's data connection working so you can see live prices on a chart. At least one prop account visible in NinjaTrader's Accounts tab. A NinjaTrader workspace with a chart in it. Your download link and licence key, which arrive by email when you buy.

Windows says the installer is unrecognised. Is that safe?

The installer is not yet signed with a paid certificate, so Windows has no reputation record for it. Click More info, then Run anyway. If you want to be certain the file is the one we built, the guide shows how to check its hash. R2 installs for your user only and needs no administrator rights.

Does R2 need to be running all the time?

Yes, on the same machine as NinjaTrader. While R2 is closed nothing re-plans, re-attaches or switches a book back on after a NinjaTrader restart, and no alert is sent. Strategies already running in NinjaTrader carry on by themselves. R2 starts itself when Windows logs in, and a watchdog restarts it within a couple of minutes if it ever stops.

Setup

How long does setup take?

About half an hour of your time, most of it waiting. The wizard has eleven steps and every step explains itself on screen. The first plan can take up to an hour and a half on a large desk; the window shows progress and an estimate.

The wizard stopped at the attach step and says the workspace does not exist.

R2 puts its strategies on a chart inside your NinjaTrader workspace, and on a fresh NinjaTrader there sometimes is not one. In NinjaTrader: Workspaces, New Workspace, give it a name; New, Chart, any instrument; Workspaces, Save As, same name. R2 will not create one for you because a workspace is your own window layout.

What is the licence key for?

It gates setting up, and nothing else. The wizard will not go past step 2 without a valid key, because everything after it changes what NinjaTrader trades. Once your accounts are set up, nothing stops working if the key later lapses or is used elsewhere: R2 keeps managing the accounts it manages and shows a reminder line across the top of its window instead.

Can I move R2 to another machine?

A key runs on one machine at a time. Install R2 on the new machine and enter the same key. If the registry still lists your old machine as the holder, R2 tells you so and names it; email support with your key and the key is moved for you. Close R2 on the old machine once the new one is running.

Accounts and firms

R2 ships with no firms. Why?

So that nobody inherits somebody else's assumptions. In Settings, or at wizard step 5, pick the firm and plan you bought per account. If yours is not listed, choose a firm that is not in this list and type its rules in: daily loss, drawdown, target, consistency rule.

What goes in the target box?

The profit needed to pass, above your starting balance, not the balance to reach. A firm that says "trade to $53,000" on a $50,000 account means a $3,000 target. R2 warns you if it looks like you typed a balance.

I added a new account in NinjaTrader. What happens?

Within a minute R2 notices an account it has no decision about and asks: NinjaTrader is showing an account R2 has not seen before. Should R2 manage it? Press Manage it and the wizard opens at the accounts step with the new account ticked; pick its firm and risk and go through to the plan. R2 plans only the new account. Its book goes on at the next attach, which you start. Press Leave it alone and R2 never touches it; you can change your mind in Settings.

What does "set aside" mean?

An account you told R2 to ignore. It still appears on the dashboard, at the bottom, so a dashboard with everything ignored does not look like a dashboard with no accounts. R2 never trades it and never counts it.

Risk and the plan

What do Very low, Low, Medium, Aggressive and Turbo mean?

How much risk R2 takes on the account, which decides how big it sizes you. The figures below are what each level actually delivered when R2 was tested on 2021 to 2026: at the start of every quarter it chose sizes using only the history before that date, then was scored on what really happened next, on the firms R2's own desk trades.

Every level can always be chosen. Very low is the slowest and safest; Turbo the fastest, and R2 asks you to confirm before setting it. These are a record of a test, not a promise about the future, and your firm's rules can move them.

What does "not traded by choice" mean?

R2 looked at that account and decided it cannot reach the firm's target within the loss limit your risk level allows. The rest of the line says why. The account stands aside: its book switches itself off, and it trades nothing until a plan can size it again. R2 tells you once when that happens. Nothing is broken and nothing is waiting; Attach cannot help. Change the risk level in Settings if you want R2 to try again.

Why are all my accounts at one firm on the same book?

Firms judge hedging across every account you hold with them, not one account at a time. Two accounts on different books can be long on one and short on the other at the same moment, and the firm counts that as hedging. So R2 puts every account at a firm on one book: the one you pinned, or else the one most of those accounts would get anyway. An account that cannot be sized safely on that book stands aside instead of trading a different one. Accounts at different firms can still be on different books.

A new plan gives an account a different book, but it is still trading the old one.

That is on purpose. A book change waits for the attach, and until then the account keeps trading its current book at its current size. That way nothing switches off halfway through. New sizing for the book an account already has applies straight away. The Plan page lists the accounts that will change book at the next attach.

I changed one account's risk. Does everything re-plan?

No. Within a minute R2 notices what changed and re-plans only the accounts you changed. Every other account keeps its book and size exactly as it was. It takes minutes. If the new plan gives the account a book it does not have yet, an attach notice appears.

What does RE-PLAN on the Summary page do?

It re-plans every account against the latest backtests, which takes about half an hour on a large desk. It asks you to type REPLAN first, 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 until you press Attach. An account keeps its current book unless a challenger is worth at least 15 percent more per session (counting the accounts lost on the way). It is the button for "look at everything again", not for "I changed one account".

How do I stop everything, or one account, right now?

Five buttons on the dashboard, each behind a typed word (Esc or CANCEL does nothing):

• HALT ALL (type HALT) stops R2's books on every account, so R2 places no new entry, and blocks the 09:00 pre-open routine. It does not stop your own (non-R2) strategies: they keep running and trading - stop those in NinjaTrader yourself. R2 writes its own halt marker first, so the halt holds even if NinjaTrader is closed or not answering: no book is switched on and no attach runs until you resume, and NinjaTrader stops every R2 book the moment it next answers. The header shows HALTED. Open positions are not closed.
• RESUME (type RESUME), shown only while halted, lifts the halt. It works even when NinjaTrader is not answering. 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 in the top bar (type FLATTEN), shown only while something is open, closes every open position at market on every account that holds one - every contract, whichever strategy opened it - and switches R2's books on those accounts off. They stay off until you press Enable on the account's card. Your own (non-R2) strategies are not switched off: they stay enabled and can open a new position - disable them in NinjaTrader. Flat accounts keep trading; HALT ALL stops R2's books on those.
• Flatten n on an account's card does the same for that one account.
• Disable on a card (type DISABLE) stops the account's books - both of them on an account that runs two (the button then reads Disable all (2)). Positions stay open. R2 leaves the account off, through restarts and attaches, until you press Enable.

Does R2 stop the account at my firm's daily loss limit?

No. R2 uses the daily loss limit when it plans: in its replay of the past, a day that breaks the limit counts as losing the account, so sizes that break it often score badly and are not chosen. It also sends an urgent alert once the day's loss reaches three quarters of the limit. R2 does not flatten an account because of the day's loss by itself. What does close or stop things: your own FLATTEN, HALT ALL and Disable buttons (above); the add-on's end-of-day sweep, which at 16:58 New York cancels the orders and closes any position a managed book left open, and raises an alert when it has to; and the 09:00 pre-open check, which stops a flat account's book when the plan stands it aside, and keeps an account it refuses (too little headroom, not flat, not connected) from being switched back on by R2 that day. If you want a hard stop at the daily loss limit, set it at your broker or in your firm's own risk settings as well.

Can I set some slots to 0, or limit how many trades are open at once?

Not by hand. Each book reads its slot sizes from R2's plan every time it starts, so a slot you set to 0 in NinjaTrader's dialog is set back to the plan's size at the next start. To trade smaller, choose a lower risk level for the account: R2 then sizes the book down, and some slots can come out at 0. There is no setting for how many slots can be open at the same time.

Can I pick the book myself?

Yes. In Settings, pin a book on that account's row. On auto R2 re-picks as the account's balance, headroom and days traded change; pinned, it stays. If the pinned book is not currently a candidate, the plan says so and the account is not traded until you unpin it or its backtest is re-run.

Where do the numbers on the Plan page come from?

From each book's own Strategy Analyzer backtest in NinjaTrader, never from a guess. R2 refuses to size an account on a book with too few trades or too short a history. The pass chance, days to pass and chance of losing the account are simulated from that backtest at the chosen size against your firm's rules. They are estimates, not promises. The "days to pass" figure counts trading days the book is actually active and includes the firm's own gates such as minimum days: a book that trades one day in four takes four times as long as its raw numbers suggest, and the card accounts for that.

How does R2 choose a book and a size?

R2 replays each book's past trades through your firm's rules, from your account's real balance and floor, starting on every day of the last seven years. That gives a pass rate and a chance of losing the account for every size.

First, only sizes that fit your risk level count. Among those, R2 takes the one worth the most money per session: it weighs the chance of a payout, what a pass is worth to you, what a lost attempt costs you, and how many sessions an attempt takes - including the sessions a lost account uses up. A size that loses more accounts does not win just by being a little quicker. You can set the attempt cost and pass value for each firm in its settings; until you do, R2 assumes $100 and $2,000.

R2 plans as if a firm's daily loss limit ends the account, even where the firm only ends the day. That is deliberate: tested on 2021 to 2026, planning on the softer rule chose bigger sizes and lost more accounts at every level up to Medium. A firm can be marked as day-only in its settings.

What is the performance alarm?

Each day R2 compares every book on your accounts with its own backtest. It adds up how far each day fell short of what the backtest leads it to expect, and resets the total when the book does well. If the total grows larger than a healthy book's does about once in two and a half years, you get one message and those accounts are re-planned after the New York close. The book and its contracts stay unless another book is worth at least 15 percent more per session, so an alarm on a book that is just having a bad run changes nothing. R2 never pauses an account because of it.

Tested on the shipped books, the alarm caught a book whose edge had gone completely in about three months (median 70 trading days). A book that has lost half its edge takes longer to show, and about half the time it takes longer than a year.

Attaching and NinjaTrader restarts

What is an attach?

Putting a strategy on each account inside NinjaTrader with the contract sizes R2 worked out. It closes NinjaTrader, writes the strategies onto their charts, starts NinjaTrader again, and switches the books on. It takes two to four minutes.

Does an attach touch my own chart indicators?

From 1.7.77 it only removes an indicator NinjaTrader on your machine cannot build (one left in a workspace whose code is no longer installed), because NinjaTrader abandons a chart it cannot restore and saves it back empty. The attach log names anything it removes. Before 1.7.77 an attach also removed NinjaTrader's own indicators, vendor indicators and loggers such as JarvisBarLogger; if you lost some, R2's copy of your workspace from before the attach is in Documents\NinjaTrader 8\dashboard\backups.

Can I add a book in NinjaTrader myself instead of pressing Attach now?

Yes, if it matches what an attach does: the account R2 planned it for, an NQ 5-minute chart, and at least 60 days of data loaded (the volume filter needs that much history; with less the book is switched on and never trades). You do not need to type the slot sizes - the book reads them from R2's plan when it starts. Attach now remains the simpler way, and it is the one R2 checks.

What time zone should NinjaTrader be set to?

Your PC's own, which is NinjaTrader's default (Tools > Options > General > Time zone). R2's books read times in NinjaTrader's time zone and convert them to New York from your PC's, so the two must match. If NinjaTrader is set to New York time on a PC that is not, every session trades at the wrong hour. R2 raises an urgent notice when they differ.

Will R2 restart NinjaTrader while I am away?

Not for an attach. A restart needs someone to log NinjaTrader back in, so an attach never closes NinjaTrader on its own: when something needs attaching R2 tells you, on the dashboard and on your phone, and waits for you to press Attach now. If it is left waiting, R2 reminds you once a day. An attach also refuses to start while any account R2 manages holds a position or working orders, and names them.

R2 does start or restart NinjaTrader in two cases. If NinjaTrader hangs (it stops answering and its heartbeat goes stale), R2 ends it and starts it again, at most once an hour, and sends an urgent alert saying whether positions were open. And after a reboot, if the session is on and NinjaTrader is not running, R2 starts it. NinjaTrader then waits at its login window until someone logs in.

Why does Attach now ask me to type ATTACH?

So that a stray click can never restart NinjaTrader. The box explains what is about to happen; type ATTACH, press CONFIRM, then keep your hands off the mouse. R2 works NinjaTrader's own windows by bringing them to the front and clicking them, and a moving mouse sends its clicks astray.

Why do I have to log in to NinjaTrader again?

NinjaTrader asks for your username and password on every start. It has no remembered login, and R2 will never type your password. R2 waits at that point for as long as it takes.

R2 will not let me attach. It names accounts that are not connected.

NinjaTrader binds a strategy to its account at the moment it loads it. An account that is not connected then comes up with a blank Connection column and an Enabled box that will not tick, not for R2 and not for you. Connect every account first, check each appears in the Accounts tab with a balance, then press the button again.

What is the right order to shut down and start up?

Shut down: close R2 first, then NinjaTrader, and say yes if it asks to save the workspace. Start up: open NinjaTrader first, log in, wait for the green light at the bottom of the Control Center and for your accounts to appear, then open R2. Getting this backwards is the most common way to end up with R2 and NinjaTrader disagreeing about what is running.

NinjaTrader is at its login window. Can I just close it?

No. Never close NinjaTrader while it is sitting at its login window. A logged-out NinjaTrader does not know about your charts yet, and closing it there can save an empty workspace over your real one. Either log in or leave it alone.

Telegram

Do I need Telegram?

No, but without it R2 can only tell you things on this machine. With it, anything urgent, a morning check before the open, one message per trade signal, and an end-of-day report reach your phone.

How do I connect it?

On your phone, message @BotFather, send /newbot, answer its two questions and it gives you a token. Open your new bot and press Start. On the Summary page press TELEGRAM, paste the token, press Connect, then Send a test message. R2 never shows the token again and never sends it anywhere but to Telegram.

Will it flood me?

No. The same fact is not repeated more often than every thirty minutes, one fact across several accounts is one message, and only urgent things are sent between the morning check and the daily report. A trade taken on eight accounts is one message with the split underneath.

Updates

How do updates arrive?

R2 checks every hour. Checking never installs anything - it only shows you that a newer version exists. When there is a newer version a notice appears on the Summary page with what changed and an Update now button. Press it: R2 downloads the update, checks every file against its signature, restarts itself, and is back in about half a minute. You can also run the newer installer over the top.

Does an update close NinjaTrader?

Never. The parts that live inside NinjaTrader are put in place the next time NinjaTrader is closed, and the notice says it is waiting for that. Leave R2 running so it can finish the job.

Money and rules

How does R2 enforce my firm's rules?

By sizing, and by watching. Every book is sized so that the backtests respect the firm's daily loss limit and drawdown floor at your chosen risk level. Then R2 evaluates the rules against what NinjaTrader reports and warns you as headroom shrinks, in steps, on the page and on your phone. For firms whose floor trails the daily close, R2 moves the floor the way the firm does. The books flatten before the session close on their own.

Will R2 close a position to stop a breach?

Not because of a warning. Rule warnings and critical notices are information; what to do about them is your call. R2 sends orders outside its books in three cases only: when you press FLATTEN (all open accounts) or Flatten n (one account), which close every position on the account at market and switch R2's books there off (your own strategies stay enabled); and the end-of-day sweep at 16:58 New York, which cancels the orders and closes any position a managed book left open, and tells you it did. HALT ALL and Disable stop R2's books but send no orders.

What is the consistency rule notice?

Some firms refuse a payout if one day made too large a share of the total profit. The notice says how much more total profit is needed before a payout is allowed. Nothing stops the account trading; the plan already aims at that real target rather than the headline one.

Can R2 guarantee I pass?

No. Every figure it shows is from a backtest or from your real fills, and the page says which. The pass chance and days to pass are estimates from history at the size chosen. Past results do not decide future ones, and R2 never promises a return.

VPS

Should I run R2 on a VPS?

If you want the accounts to keep trading when your own machine is off. Any Windows VPS with 4 GB of memory and 2 cores will do; 8 GB is more comfortable with NinjaTrader open. Near Chicago is nice but not worth a premium: the books trade five and fifteen minute bars and a few milliseconds change nothing. A stable connection matters more than a fast one. Before you pay for a month, log in to your broker's own web platform from the VPS: some brokers refuse data-centre addresses, and some firms require a VPS address to be registered or do not allow one at all. If it refuses, do not keep retrying; ask your provider for a different address and ask your firm what they allow.

NinjaTrader looks frozen on my VPS, but the trades are still running

That is Remote Desktop, not NinjaTrader and not R2. It is the single most common thing people report about a VPS, and nothing is wrong.

When you disconnect from a Remote Desktop session, or minimise it, or it simply loses focus, Windows stops drawing that desktop. Nobody is looking at it, so nothing repaints. NinjaTrader's charts, the Accounts grid and the position figures all stop changing, and the numbers on screen are however old the last paint was. The trading engine runs on entirely different threads and never stops, which is exactly why your positions keep moving while the window does not.

The part that matters: the stop and target for every open trade are resting orders at your broker, not instructions held inside NinjaTrader. A window that is not repainting cannot cancel them and cannot stop them filling. Stale paint is not a stale position.

To bring it back, reconnect and move the mouse over the Control Center. It catches up in a second or two.

Is it safe to close the Remote Desktop window with live positions open?

Yes. Closing the Remote Desktop client with the X, or Start > Disconnect, ends your VIEW of the VPS and nothing else. The session keeps running, NinjaTrader keeps running, R2 keeps running, and the strategies keep trading. This is the normal way to leave a VPS.

Start > Sign out is the one to avoid. That ends the Windows session and closes every program in it, NinjaTrader included, and then nothing is managing your open positions. If you have signed out by accident, log back in and check NinjaTrader's Strategies tab: the books need to be running again, and R2's Attach now will put them back.

What still needs a person on a VPS?

Two things. Windows auto-logon, which you turn on once so a reboot gets as far as a desktop; R2 will not do this because it would have to hold your Windows password. And the NinjaTrader login after any reboot, because NinjaTrader has no auto sign-in. R2's morning check tells you if either is outstanding, in time to fix it before the open. Reboot the VPS once on purpose and confirm R2 comes back before you rely on it.

Getting help

Something on the dashboard looks wrong. Where do I start?

The Notifications strip on the Summary page. Every notice R2 can raise, with what it means and what to do, is in the notices guide. The setup guide's last section covers the common ones: no strategy attached, attached but not trading, not traded by choice, an old contract, nothing updating.

NinjaTrader shows an error box on start.

Send it to support with NinjaTrader's own log from its log folder under Documents. R2 never deletes those.

How do I contact support?

Use the support address in your welcome email. Include your licence key, the version shown at the bottom of the Summary page, and what the notice said. If support asks for your machine id, it is on the licence step of the wizard and on the Settings page.