The surface layer is ordinary: charts, indicators, SuperDOM, strategy builder, drawing tools, market analyzer, playback, etc. A normal user can use it like any other retail platform. It’s the same as every other charging platform out there, like SierraChart, motive, wave, Quant tower, these are basic retail offerings. It’s really all the same.
But the deeper layer is where the real power is. NinjaTrader’s own docs describe AddOns as letting developers create tools “seamlessly integrated” into the platform, including custom windows/utilities, while the AddOn framework can modify existing windows, create independent windows, subscribe to live market data, and access account information.
This second layer, is like accessing the secret world, where the real things happen. And if you’re just starting trading you have to first learn the mechanics of the market, through screen time, usually 2 to 3 to 4 years, it’s like a university degree, except that you’re your own teacher, you have to push yourself to finish assignment, and the market is the examiner.
You’ll learn everything about the market and interacting with it, that’s really the first couple of years, so everything that’s involved, data feeds, charts, volume profile, price action, market profile, and it comes to point where you understand the environment better, and uniquely to your own self, that you want to create something that better helps you perceive things, and then you go into building tools and I don’t mean indicators and strategies, and only Ninja Trader provides that extension and extensibility to do that. (I’ve checked.)