Connection Guide: Getting Connected to Your ETF Account

Every Elite Trader Funding (ETF) account is traded through a third-party platform, not on our website. A connection guide is the step-by-step article that shows you how to take the credentials on your Trader Dashboard and enter them into the platform you want to trade on, so your ETF accounts appear there and you can place orders.

Because every platform has its own login screen, data agreement and settings, we publish a separate connection guide for each one. This page explains what they all have in common and points you to the right guide for your setup.

• Wait for activation. After your purchase, your account is created automatically. Activation can take up to 20 minutes, and you will see it on your Trader Dashboard when it is ready.
• Get your credentials from the Trader Dashboard. Your platform username and password are shown there — not in your ETF login. Every connection guide starts from that same screen.
• Copy and paste, never retype. Typing credentials by hand is the single most common cause of failed logins. Watch for extra spaces, and make sure you are pasting into the right field.
• Do not change your platform username or password. They are issued by the data feed and must stay exactly as shown on your dashboard.
• Be ready to sign a market data agreement. The first time you log in you will be asked to accept the data agreements and classify yourself as Non-Professional or Professional. Choose the classification that is actually true for you — it determines your data fees.

Your credentials are tied to a data feed, and the feed decides which platforms you can connect to. Using the wrong credentials on the wrong platform is the second most common connection problem.

• Tradovate — works on the Tradovate web, desktop and mobile apps, and connects out to NinjaTrader and TradingView.
• Rithmic — works on R|Trader Pro and on a wide range of third-party charting and execution platforms such as NinjaTrader, Quantower, Sierra Chart, Bookmap and others. Rithmic is not available on macOS.
• Tickblaze — a self-contained platform with its own data and broker connections, set up from inside the Tickblaze desktop app.

Note: Tradovate credentials cannot be used to log in to Rithmic-only platforms, and Rithmic credentials cannot be used on Tradovate. If a platform rejects your login, check the feed before anything else.

For the full compatibility table, including operating system support, see Supported Platforms & Data Feed.

Tradovate feed

• Tradovate Connection Guide — the Tradovate web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android apps. Start here if you bought a Tradovate account; the first login must be done on a computer so you can sign the data agreement.
• Connect Tradovate to TradingView — charting and trading from TradingView. TradingView access must be selected at checkout, and your Tradovate setup has to be finished first.
• NinjaTrader Connection Guide — NinjaTrader on Windows, using either Tradovate or Rithmic credentials.

Rithmic feed

• Rithmic Connection Guide — R|Trader Pro, the Rithmic desktop platform. Windows only.
• NinjaTrader Connection Guide — select Rithmic as the brokerage and Rithmic Paper Trading as the system.
• Connecting Your Rithmic Account to Quantower — Quantower works with Rithmic credentials only.
• Other Rithmic-compatible platforms — ATAS, Bookmap, EdgeProX, eSignal, Finamark, Investor/RT, MotiveWave and Sierra Chart each publish their own Rithmic setup guide, linked from Supported Platforms & Data Feed.

Tickblaze

• Tickblaze Connection Guide — registering with Tickblaze, installing the desktop platform, creating your data and broker connections, and signing the market data agreements.

The guides differ in the details, but they all follow the same five steps:

1. Install or open the platform — download the desktop app, or open the web platform.
2. Log in with your Trader Dashboard credentials — copied and pasted, not typed.
3. Choose the correct system or server — for example Rithmic Paper Trading, and the gateway closest to you.
4. Accept the data agreements — selecting the classification that applies to you.
5. Select your ETF account and confirm the connection — most platforms show a green indicator once you are connected.

If you have more than one active ETF account, all of them appear in the platform's account list once you are connected. Choose the one you want to trade before placing an order.

• Login rejected. Re-copy the credentials from your Trader Dashboard, check for trailing spaces, and confirm you are using the right feed for that platform.
• No real-time data right after connecting. Market data can take a few minutes to activate on a first login. If you see a message that real-time data is required to trade a contract, log out and back in.
• Data agreement not signed. Most "connected but cannot trade" cases come down to an agreement that was skipped or only partly accepted. Log in from a computer and complete all of them.
• Logged in twice. You cannot run the Rithmic data feed in R|Trader and in your charting platform at the same time. Turn data off in one of them.
• Scheduled maintenance. Platforms and feeds go down for routine maintenance every weekday between 4 and 5 PM CST, and Rithmic has additional weekend maintenance windows. See Routine Maintenance Every Weekday Between 4-5 PM CST and Rithmic Routine Weekend Maintenance.
• Wrong operating system. Rithmic and NinjaTrader are Windows-only. Mac users can trade on Tradovate or TradingView, or run Windows through Parallels — see Running NinjaTrader on Mac with Parallels and Windows 11.

ETF does not operate these platforms. Subscription costs for the platform you choose are your responsibility, and you should check each provider's own system requirements and guidelines.

Accounts on a Rithmic data feed also carry a separate monthly connection cost per active Rithmic account. Full details are in Rithmic Data Feed Pricing Update.

If you have followed the guide for your platform and still cannot get in, our support team can check your account from our side. See How Do I Contact Support or open a ticket through the chat on your Trader Dashboard. Telling us which platform, which feed and what the error message says will get you an answer much faster.