What you are setting up
LPFT Elite is a complete trading system: a bot that decides when a trade should happen, and a desktop app that applies the rules and places the order for you. It is not a signal group and it is not copy-trading. The software runs on your own computer, in your own broker account.
| The piece | What it does | Who provides it |
|---|---|---|
| LPFT Elite Bot 2.1 runs inside NinjaTrader | Watches the market and decides when a trade should happen. | Included with membership |
| LPFT Copilot desktop app | Applies the session window, the news filter and your loss limit, sends the order, manages the exit, and records every trade your broker actually executed. | Included with membership |
| NinjaTrader Windows | Where the bot runs. Free with most prop firms. | You provide |
| A futures account prop firm or your own | Where the money and the trades live. | You provide |
The whole thing in one line
Every step below wires up one of those arrows. It takes about two hours, once.
What it costs to run
Your membership does not cover the third-party tools the method runs on. Here is the complete list, including the ones people discover late.
Required for everyone
| Tool | Cost (USD) | Your discount | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| NinjaTrader where the bot runs | free with most prop firms | nothing to discount | free sim account |
| Live market data in NinjaTrader | through your firm's connection. A live account needs a data subscription from its broker. | none | none |
| Futures commissions | from $0.39 per micro, per side | none | free sim account |
| Prop firm account if you use one | your firm's own fees | none | none |
Plus one automation engine
| Engine | Extra cost (USD) | Your discount | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine D, through NinjaTrader the route for most prop firms | nothing you already run NinjaTrader | nothing to discount | none |
| Engine C, direct to your firm the firm's own API key | $29/mo $14.50/mo with the firm's own code | set by the firm, not by us | none |
| Engine A, direct to Tradovate Tradovate API add-on | $25.00/mo | none available | none |
| Engine B, through TradersPost Starter plan or above | $49.00/mo or $41.65/mo billed yearly | 20% off, for as long as you stay subscribed code LPFT | 7-day free trial |
On Engine D there is nothing extra to buy. Your running cost is your commissions, market data on a live account, and your prop firm's fees if you use one.
Prices verified 28 July 2026 and set by those companies, not by us. Check their pages for today's number.
Those are partner links. They cost you the same or less than going direct and they help support LPFT. The setup works identically either way.
NinjaTrader: where the bot runs
1. Install it and log in
Create a free NinjaTrader account, download NinjaTrader Desktop from your account page and install it. For most members the free version is all they need: it runs the bot and connects to most prop firms.
2. Windows only
NinjaTrader runs on Windows. On a Mac you need Windows as well, for example Parallels on the Mac or a Windows PC. Everything still runs on your own computer, never a VPS and never someone else's machine. Any recent PC is enough. Plan on 8 GB of memory or more.
3. Real-time data through your account
The bot needs live prices. A prop firm account brings its data with its connection. A live account at your own broker needs that broker's real-time data subscription. A bot acting on delayed prices is worse than no bot.
Your futures account
Your contract size is set by your account size
This is part of the published method, not a preference. Trading a different size is allowed, but it makes you ineligible for the 90-Day Guarantee, because your results would no longer compare like-for-like with ours.
| Prop account size | Contracts per trade |
|---|---|
| $50,000 | 3 MNQ |
| $100,000 | 7 MNQ |
| $150,000 | 1 NQ |
| $250,000 | 2 NQ (1 NQ = the safer alternative) |
| $300,000 | 2 NQ |
| Your own funded account | Contracts per trade |
|---|---|
| $1,000 - $9,000 | 1 MNQ per $1,000 (e.g. $4,000 = 4 MNQ) |
| $10,000 and up | 1 NQ per $10,000 (e.g. $30,000 = 3 NQ) |
Which engine your account can use
| Your account | Which engine |
|---|---|
| A prop firm account, on almost any firm | Engine D, through the NinjaTrader you already run. Most firms hand you NinjaTrader whatever feed sits behind it, so this one door reaches most of the list, and there is nothing extra to buy. |
| A prop firm that sells its own API access | Engine C, nothing else has to be running. You buy the key from the firm. |
| Your own funded Tradovate account, $1,000+ balance | Engine A, straight to Tradovate. |
| Your own broker, through your own NinjaTrader | Engine D, the same door, no prop firm involved. |
| A firm we cannot reach directly | Engine B, TradersPost still gets there, and the app names the firms this applies to. |
Tradovate, NinjaTrader and Rithmic
- Tradovate and NinjaTrader are the same brokerage. NinjaTrader acquired Tradovate; today it is one clearing firm with several front ends. Your login is the same account whether you open Tradovate Web, NinjaTrader Desktop or mobile.
- NinjaTrader Desktop has its own separate app login for the software licence. Sign into that first, then connect your Tradovate brokerage account inside it, and choose the newer NinjaTrader connection type rather than the legacy Tradovate one.
- Rithmic accounts cannot use Engine A. Rithmic and Tradovate are separate routing systems, and a Rithmic-brokered account is not reachable through the Tradovate API at all. If your firm put you on Rithmic, connect it in NinjaTrader and use Engine D.
Prop firm accounts are normally approved within minutes, so opening one should not hold up the rest of your setup.
Your bot comes with the app
Once you activate the Copilot, its Settings show the LPFT bot for NinjaTrader. Download it and import it into NinjaTrader once: Tools → Import → NinjaScript Add-On. One bot carries both strategies, Reversal and Trend, and you pick which one runs in its settings. When a new version comes out, the Copilot tells you and you import it the same way.
Install and activate the app
LPFT Copilot is a normal desktop app for Windows and Mac. Your licence key arrives in your signup email, you enter it once on that computer, and you never enter it again - not even after an update.
Your settings and your trade logbook are stored on your own computer, outside the app folder, so updating or reinstalling never wipes your history.
Choose your engine
Your orders can reach your broker one of four ways. All four trade exactly the same method, on exactly the same signals, at exactly the same moment. The difference is the plumbing and the price, and, for most people, which one their account actually allows. Most prop firm accounts use Engine D, through the NinjaTrader you already run, and it costs nothing extra.
Four ways in. Pick exactly one.
Pick one to look inside. You can always come back - and in the app you can switch engines later with a single dropdown.
Apex Trader Funding
Blue Guardian Futures
BluSky Trading
Bulenox
Earn2Trade
Elite Trader Funding
Funded Futures Network
FundedNext Futures
FundingTicks
FXIFY Futures
Goat Funded Futures
Leeloo Trading
Legends Trading
Lucid Trading
MyFundedFutures
OneUp Trader
Purdia Capital
Take Profit Trader
The Futures Desk
The Trading Pit
Top One Futures
Topstep
TradeDay
Tradeify
UProfit Trader
Your own NinjaTrader account
Your own Tradovate accountEvery firm above can be connected. Whether automated trading is allowed on your account is your firm’s own rule, it changes without notice, and it is yours to check - we do not track or interpret it for you. The app asks you to confirm you accept that before it will place a single order.
Direct to Tradovate
The Copilot app on your computer talks straight to Tradovate. Nothing sits between your machine and your broker, which is what makes it both the cheapest to run and the strongest protection you can have: if an exit order is ever dropped, the app can replace it and force your position flat directly at the broker.
- Extra cost: $25.00/month for Tradovate's API add-on. There is no partner discount on it - nobody gets one.
- You need: your own live, funded Tradovate account with at least $1,000 in it.
- It cannot be used with prop firm or evaluation accounts, or anything brokered through Rithmic.
- Your broker password is encrypted and stored on your own computer. It never reaches us and it never leaves the machine.
Through TradersPost
Your app hands the order to TradersPost in the cloud, and TradersPost passes it to your broker. It costs more per month, and in exchange it works with almost everything - including prop firms, evaluation accounts and Rithmic-based firms that the direct route simply cannot reach.
- Extra cost: from $49.00/month on the Starter plan.
20% off, for as long as you stay subscribed with code
LPFT, and a 7-day free trial to try it. - You need: an account at any broker or prop firm TradersPost supports.
- No broker password is stored anywhere - not by us, and not by the app.
- Several accounts at once can run from a single strategy.
Direct to your prop firm
The app talks to your prop firm's own interface and places the order there. Nothing sits in between, so there is no TradersPost subscription to pay - you buy your firm's API access instead, and it is usually cheaper.
- You need: a firm that issues traders an API key. Topstep and The Futures Desk both do. Every other firm on the list takes door D instead, which costs nothing extra.
- Your firm's rules are yours to check. Some firms allow automation while you are being evaluated and restrict it once you are funded. We do not track or publish anybody's rules - they change without notice. Ask your own firm, and the app will ask you to confirm you accept that before it places an order.
- It is in beta. Same engine, same rules, same protection - a newer door on the front. You can switch back to TradersPost from one dropdown at any time.
Through NinjaTrader
If you already trade in NinjaTrader, this is your door - whether that is your own brokerage account or a prop firm's. The app uses NinjaTrader's own Automated Trading Interface, so it hands the order to the copy of NinjaTrader running on your computer, and whatever NinjaTrader is connected to is what receives it.
- Extra cost: none. No API fee and no TradersPost plan. You are using the platform you already have.
- No API key, and no broker password is ever given to us or to the app. We connect to NinjaTrader, not to your broker.
- You need: NinjaTrader 8 open and logged in while you trade, with its Automated Trading Interface switched on. That is four settings and a restart.
- On a prop account this is the route for firms that give traders NinjaTrader and no API key at all.
- It is in beta, and switching back to another engine is one dropdown.
| Engine | Extra cost a month | Works with |
|---|---|---|
| D, through NinjaTrader | Nothing | Most prop firms, and your own NinjaTrader account. |
| C, direct to your firm | $29 $14.50 with the firm's code | Firms that sell their own API key. |
| A, direct to Tradovate | $25.00 | Your own funded Tradovate account ($1,000+). |
| B, through TradersPost | $49.00 20% off, for as long as you stay subscribed, code LPFT | Firms we cannot reach directly. |
You must pick one: the strategy cannot execute without an engine behind it. You are not locked in - one dropdown in the app switches between them, instantly.
The bot on your chart
You open one chart in NinjaTrader, add LPFT Elite Bot 2.1 from your indicators and paste your personal bot link from the Copilot into its settings. The bot builds its own bricks from the prices, so there are no chart settings to get wrong. Its panel on the chart says connected, licence active when everything is right.
Your member guide shows every click with a screenshot.
Size, risk, news and time zone
Contract size
You pick your account type and size and the app prints the published contract count for it, then warns you if what you typed does not match. The published size is part of the method, not a suggestion - a mismatched size is not claim-eligible.
Your daily loss stop
Measured in points per contract, with a minimum of 100. Critically, it is measured against your broker - only trades your broker actually executed count, never an estimate derived from the strategy's alert stream. You also set a dollar limit inside your broker: the app's stop is the everyday one, the broker's is the one that still works when your computer does not.
The news filter
One toggle. On, it holds new entries around high-impact US economic events - one hour before to one hour after - and around major Nasdaq earnings. Off, it trades through them. A trade already open is never closed by the filter; it keeps its target, its trailing protection and the 3:00 PM flat-out exactly as normal.
Your time zone
The session is fixed to the US market: new entries 10:30 AM - 2:15 PM ET, everything flat by 3:00 PM ET, Monday to Friday. Set your time zone and the app shows every one of those times in your own clock - the trades still happen at the same real moment as everyone else's.
Your trading day
Open the app by 9:55 AM ET. It runs a readiness check across your whole setup - licence, engine, broker, your bot, your contract size and your loss limit. It tells you if anything needs fixing while there is still time to fix it.
Then the app waits for a signal, checks it against the session, the news filter and your loss limit, places the order, manages the exit, and flattens everything by 3:00 PM ET.
Some days produce no trades at all. The method stands down in strongly trending conditions and around major news. A quiet day is the filter doing its job, not a broken bot.
There is also a night session
Your bot also runs a second session in the evening: 18:30-00:00 ET, Mon-Thu. It is switched on in the bot as it ships, and you can switch it off in the bot's settings. It is not covered by the 90-Day Guarantee. The guarantee is judged on the morning session, which has not changed, and night trades are never counted for a claim and never counted against one.
It runs on the same engine and the same rules as the morning, on its own hours, with its own loss limit for that session. It has a shorter live record than the morning session and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use it if you want it, at your own risk.
You can stop it at any time
There are stops at every level: flatten and exit now, pause new entries, a kill switch, the bot on your NinjaTrader chart, and your broker's own controls, which work even with your computer off. The member guide lists exactly what each one stops and what it does not.
The 90-Day Guarantee
Every trade in your logbook is one your broker actually executed. Nothing is estimated and nothing is derived from the bot's intentions - if your broker did not fill it, it is not in there. The list is hash-chained, so it cannot be quietly edited after the fact, which is exactly what makes it worth something as evidence.
Your day count runs on the dashboard from the day your membership starts, eligibility is computed automatically, and there is no form to keep or remember to fill in.
Where the real guide is
Everything above tells you what the setup involves. The 81-page member guide is the one that tells you how: every click, every screenshot, NinjaTrader and the bot, every engine end to end, and what to do when something goes wrong. It is one PDF.
| Where it lives | How you get it |
|---|---|
| A 81-page PDF print it, read it offline, keep it | Linked in your signup email the moment you join. |
| Inside the Copilot app Setup guide tab, tick off as you go | Already there when you activate your licence. |
Already a member? Your PDF link is in your signup email, and the same guide is in the app under Setup guide. Need the app itself? Download LPFT Copilot →
Questions before you start? Email info@livepropfirmtrading.com or ask in the community - both reach a human.