How to Set Up CrossTrade's NinjaTrader Account Manager
Set up automated P/L monitoring, risk management, and account controls for NinjaTrader 8 with CrossTrade's Account Manager. A step-by-step setup guide.
CrossTrade's NinjaTrader Account Manager (NAM) is the only continuous monitoring software built for NT8. It watches your accounts every 2.5 seconds and enforces the rules you define: profit targets, loss limits, drawdown protection, position-level exits, end-of-day flattening, and trading windows. Whether you're running one sim account or ten funded accounts at a prop firm, NAM manages them all independently.
This guide walks through the full setup from requirements to your first active monitor, and covers every feature available in the current release.
Already have a CrossTrade account? Jump straight to Account Management in your dashboard.
Requirements
Before you start, make sure you have:
A Pro plan or higher on CrossTrade. NAM is a Pro feature. The CrossTrade XT Add-On v1.12.0 or later installed in NinjaTrader 8. A flat account at the start of each session (6 PM ET). NAM is designed for intraday management, so it expects no open positions when the session begins. And a stable connection between the XT Add-On and CrossTrade servers. If the connection drops, automated actions like flattening won't trigger until it's reestablished.
The Dashboard
Once logged in to CrossTrade, click Account Management in the sidebar. The dashboard displays all your monitors in two views: cards for a quick visual overview and table rows for detailed column-by-column data. Both views show the same information, so use whichever fits your workflow.
Each monitor shows the account name, current status, profit and loss thresholds, real-time session P/L, open position count, auto-flatten time, and action controls. The dashboard updates in real time as your session progresses.
If the futures markets are closed, you'll see a Market Closed banner across the top of the page. This banner reflects the CME holiday schedule and regular session hours so you always know whether your monitors are actively scanning.
Adding Your First Monitor
Click Add Monitor at the top of the dashboard. A dropdown appears with every eligible NinjaTrader account connected through your XT Add-On. Select the account you want to manage and it's added to the dashboard.
One monitor per account. Each monitor operates independently with its own configuration.
Configuring Monitor Settings
This is a unified settings window split into two tabs: Monitor Settings and Account Settings. If you've used the Trade Copier, you'll notice the same modal layout. We built both tools on a shared UX so you only have to learn it once.
To edit existing monitors, click the pencil icon (✏️) in the Actions column to open the configuration modal.
Monitor Settings Tab
This is where you define what NAM watches and what it does when thresholds are hit.
Monitor Mode determines how NAM evaluates your account. There are three modes, and the one you choose shapes the rest of your configuration:
Standard Mode monitors realized P/L. When your daily profit or loss target is hit, the monitor stops for the session. No interference while positions are open. This is the simplest option and works well for traders who want a hard daily cap.
Hybrid Mode adds position-level management on top of your daily limits. Your Daily Profit and Daily Loss thresholds still act as hard stops for the session, but you can also set Max Position Profit and Max Position Loss thresholds that evaluate individual positions independently. When a single position hits its target, NAM flattens just that position and keeps the monitor running. This lets you cut losers and lock in winners automatically without ending your trading day. Daily max loss still acts as the account-level fail-safe.
Unrealized Mode monitors floating P/L continuously and never stops. When your unrealized thresholds are breached, NAM flattens the account (or individual positions), resets the unrealized tracking to zero, and keeps scanning. The monitor stays active for the entire session. This mode also supports Position Profit and Position Loss thresholds that evaluate each open position every one second.
Profit and Loss Thresholds
Set dollar amounts for your profit target and loss limit. NAM checks your account's P/L every 2.5 seconds and compares it against these values. When a threshold is breached, the configured actions fire.
You can customize how P/L is calculated. Choose whether to include commissions and whether to factor in unrealized gains. Setting either threshold to zero disables it, so you can run a loss-only monitor or a profit-only monitor if that fits your strategy.
When a threshold is hit, NAM can take two independent actions:
Position Management: Flatten the account, or do nothing. Alert Management: Disable all webhook alerts, switch to closing-only alerts, or do nothing. These are configured separately for profit and loss targets, giving you full control over the response to each scenario.
Advanced Risk Management
Beyond simple profit and loss targets, NAM offers two additional risk tools that can run alongside your thresholds.
Minimum Profit Drawdown (MPD) locks in a portion of your gains. You set a profit trigger (say, $450) and a minimum floor (say, $250). Once your session P/L reaches $450, NAM begins watching for any drawback. If P/L falls below $250, it flattens the account and stops the monitor. This prevents the scenario where a great session turns into a mediocre one because you kept trading.
Trailing Drawdown (TD) works like a trailing stop for your entire session. NAM records your highest P/L (or Net Liq value, depending on configuration) and calculates a trailing protection level based on either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage. If your current P/L drops below that level, NAM acts. The trailing level only moves up, never down, so your protection tightens as your session improves.
Outlier Protection
Price feed glitches happen. NinjaTrader occasionally reports P/L numbers that don't match reality: stale quotes, bad data, or momentary spikes that could trigger a false kill. Outlier Protection prevents that by cross-referencing reported P/L against independent calculations before allowing a kill to proceed.
When a threshold is breached with Outlier Protection enabled, the system checks quote freshness, looks for price divergence between data sources, and validates the reported P/L against its own math. If anything looks off, the kill is delayed by one evaluation cycle (about 2.5 seconds) to reconfirm with fresh data.
You choose a sensitivity level: Low gives your data the benefit of the doubt and only intervenes when something is clearly wrong. Medium (the default) catches most anomalies without being overly cautious. High is skeptical of everything and best for volatile sessions or unreliable connections. All sensitivity levels automatically scale their thresholds to your instruments and position sizes.
Account Settings Tab
Click the Account Settings tab at the top of the same config modal to access account-level controls. These settings apply to the account itself, independent of the monitor.
Auto-Flattening lets you set a specific time (in 24-hour ET format) for NAM to automatically close all positions and cancel all orders. This runs daily and is useful for ensuring you're flat before the session close. Leave it unconfigured and it won't trigger.
Trading Windows define up to five specific time ranges during which webhook alerts are allowed through to NT8 for this account. Outside of those windows, alerts are blocked. Trading Windows are evaluated regardless of whether the monitor is running.
📘 Auto-Flattening · Trading Windows
The Breakdown Modal
Click any row or card on the dashboard and a full breakdown modal opens for that account. This gives you a detailed view of the monitor's current session without leaving the dashboard:
The daily P/L curve charts the account's session performance over time. If you're running Unrealized Mode, you'll see both the solid session P/L line and an unrealized "shadow" line showing your floating P/L.
Performance stats summarize the session: current P/L, high watermark, position count, and monitor state.
The logs tab shows every action NAM has taken on the account, timestamped and described. Flattening events, threshold triggers, monitor restarts, configuration changes — it's all logged here.
The settings tab displays the current monitor and account configuration at a glance, so you can review thresholds and actions without opening the edit modal.
Monitor Statuses
Every monitor displays one of four statuses:
ACTIVE means the monitor is scanning. NAM is evaluating your P/L every 2.5 seconds and will act when thresholds are breached.
INACTIVE means a position was detected at session start (6 PM ET). By default, NAM requires a clean session to avoid unreliable P/L tracking caused by NT8's handling of overnight positions. You can disable this requirement in the monitor settings if your strategy intentionally carries positions overnight.
STOPPED means a threshold was hit and the monitor did its job. To restart, edit the monitor and set thresholds beyond your current P/L (your new profit target must exceed your current session P/L, and vice versa for loss).
PAUSED means you manually disabled the monitor. Flip the Enabled switch back on to resume.
Global Settings
The Account Management page includes a set of global settings that apply across all your monitors.
Monitor Lock prevents you from restarting a STOPPED monitor during the session. Once an account is killed, you're locked out until after market close at 5 PM ET. This is a discipline tool. You can technically disable it in settings at any time (we won't prevent you from having full control), but the point is to make the impulsive "just one more trade" restart require a deliberate choice.
Non-Emotional Colors replace the green/red P/L color scheme with neutral grey. Green and red trigger dopamine and cortisol responses respectively. If you find yourself making decisions based on the color of a number rather than the number itself, this setting is for you.
Enhanced Closing Only strengthens the Closing Only switch on sim accounts. When enabled, it blocks opening orders from any source, not just CrossTrade webhooks. Manual orders from the chart, SuperDOM, or even a trade copier will be prevented from opening new positions. This only applies to sim accounts.
Account Visibility Manager
If you're running multiple accounts in NT8, you probably don't need all of them cluttering up your Account Management dashboard. The Account Visibility Manager lets you hide accounts you don't want to monitor and keep your dashboard focused on the accounts that matter. Hidden accounts aren't deleted or affected in any way. They're just removed from the dashboard view until you choose to show them again.
Tandem Mode with the Trade Copier
If you're using both NAM and the CrossTrade Trade Copier, Tandem Mode links them together. When enabled on a copier instance, copying only runs while the corresponding Account Manager monitor is active and within your defined risk parameters.
This is essential risk management for anyone running a copier. If your daily loss limit is hit and NAM flattens the leader account, Tandem Mode ensures the copier stops immediately. No stray orders, no surprise positions on follower accounts, and no cleanup headaches. The integration is real-time: the moment a NAM threshold is breached, all linked copying relationships halt until you manually restart them.
Dashboard Controls
Each account row on the dashboard also includes quick-access switches that don't require opening the config modal:
Block Signals stops all incoming webhook alerts from reaching NT8 for that account. Closing Only allows only closing orders through. Block Signals supersedes Closing Only. Lock prevents the Block Signals and Closing Only switches from resetting at the nightly session reset (5:30 PM ET).
These switches let you manually intervene without touching the monitor configuration.
Summary
Here's the full setup path: confirm your requirements (Pro plan, Add-On v1.12.0+, NinjaTrader 8). Open Account Management and click Add Monitor. Select an account. Click the pencil icon to open the config modal. Choose your monitor mode (Standard, Hybrid, or Unrealized). Set your profit and loss thresholds. Configure position management and alert management actions. Optionally add MPD, Trailing Drawdown, or Outlier Protection. Switch to the Account Settings tab for auto-flattening and trading windows. Save and enable.
Once active, click the row or card anytime to check the breakdown modal with your P/L curve, stats, and logs. And if you're running the Trade Copier alongside NAM, enable Tandem Mode on your copier instances to bind them together.
📘 Full NAM Documentation · FAQ
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