No Data Showing. The process isn't clear to me, can someone clarify?

[epitoma]

Newbie working on getting Ninja set up to use and practice with Futures. I can't see any Futures chart data and I'm trying to troubleshoot but nothing I'm reading is clear enough for me. I think I might be missing a really basic step to be honest.

What I THINK is supposed to happen: I should be able to open NT8 and see old Futures data so I can backtest practice without needing to pay for a license.

What is actually happening: I can bring up data on individual stocks (like AAPL) but if I switch to a futures commodity the chart screen is blank. I'm not clear on what Connection I need to be able to look at old Futures data and do simulated trades.

Do I need to connect to the Ninja Trader Continuum to be able to see old Futures data?
I got my free Demo login last month and then didn't do anything so that free demo login is expired, which makes me think I have to pay for a NT8 license, but shouldn't I be able to see old data for free? I think this is the part I'm not clear on.

Setup: Ninja 8 8.0.22.2 64-bit, on a Macbook using Parallels.
I have my brokerage account set up but not funded (for later when trading live).
I've submitted my license key to Commissions Verification.

From what I understand I need these 3 different things. Maybe?
- Ninjatrader 8 paid for.
- A brokerage account set up. (Phillips)
- Market data subscription? (like Kinetick)

I'm just been trying to follow the steps I'm prompted with from start to finish, but some of the steps seem to be arbitrary and nonlinear.

Thanks in advance!

PS: I should note I have no problem paying for anything but I want to do a decent amount of paper trading first and didn't want to jump into paying for anything that wasn't immediately necesary.

*edited for typos.

[NinjaTrader_ShawnB]

Hello epitoma,

Thanks for your note.

Data is not provided by NinjaTrader License keys. Data is provided by the broker or data provider you are connected to. You will need a connection to a supported brokerage account, data provider, or demo account that supplies Futures data to NinjaTrader to load live and historical Futures data in NinjaTrader. I have provided a link below to our Help Guide that goes over understanding the data provided by all of the connectivity providers. Expand the section labeled Understanding the data provided by your connectivity provider

• Data by Provider

Here is the NinjaTrader Frequently Asked Questions page which will cover the most common questions users have when trying NinjaTrader.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any other NinjaTrader inquiries you may have.

[epitoma]

Hello epitoma,
Data is not provided by NinjaTrader License keys. Data is provided by the broker or data provider you are connected to. You will need a connection to a supported brokerage account, data provider, or demo account that supplies Futures data to NinjaTrader to load live and historical Futures data in NinjaTrader. I have provided a link below to our Help Guide that goes over understanding the data provided by all of the connectivity providers. Expand the section labeled Understanding the data provided by your connectivity provider

Thanks for the reply. It looks like Kinetick is the preferred data provider for Ninja. I will likely use them. Only other question is everything on the Kinetick site claims that Futures data is available end of day free, but I can't see any of that data when I do select the Kinetick (free). This is what seemed to not be functioning correctly before.

[NinjaTrader_Spencer]

Hello epitoma,

Thank you for your post.

The Kinetick End of Day (Free) will only provide historical daily data. You would need to sign up for a Kinetick Realtime account to receive real-time data through Kinetick.