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Do I need both Follower and ATM Copy enabled?

Rodolfo Machado
Updated

Short answer: yes. To have the leader's ATM strategy used on the follower accounts, you must enable both Follower and ATM Copy for every account that should behave that way. The two settings do different jobs, and the same named ATM strategy must exist on every NinjaTrader instance involved.

What each setting does

  • Follower — enables copying itself. With it on, Replikanto copies the leader account's trades to that account.
  • ATM Copy — a per-follower toggle in the Follower Accounts table (the ATM C column). It decides how exits are handled: with it on, the follower runs the leader's ATM strategy locally; with it off, Replikanto copies the leader's exit orders to that account instead.

A green indicator means ATM Copy is on for that follower; a grey indicator means it is off. Because the toggle is per follower, enabling it once does not apply it to the rest — set it on every account that should run the ATM strategy.

Requirements for it to work

  • The same ATM strategy — same name and same configuration — must be present in the NinjaTrader instances of all nodes involved. This applies to local-network followers and to internet-based Remote Copy, and it is the most common reason ATM Copy does not behave as expected.
  • The trade must be placed on the leader account from within NinjaTrader Desktop, using an ATM strategy. If you trade from outside NinjaTrader Desktop, exit orders are copied from the leader even with ATM Copy enabled, and the ATM strategy is not applied to the followers.
  • ATM strategies cannot be applied to an already open position. A predefined ATM strategy added from the Positions tab will not be copied to the followers.

How exits behave in each mode

ATM Copy enabled

Replikanto copies the entry and instructs each follower to run the same named ATM strategy for its own exits. NinjaTrader on each follower places that strategy's stop-loss and profit-target orders, with One Cancels the Other (OCO) behavior: when the profit target or the stop-loss triggers, the remaining order is cancelled automatically.

The split of contracts across targets is done by NinjaTrader according to the strategy definition, not by Replikanto. Any quantity left over after distribution goes to the first target — that is a NinjaTrader rule. To change the distribution, change the quantities in the ATM strategy itself.

ATM Copy disabled

Replikanto copies the leader's exit orders to that follower instead of using an ATM strategy there. In this mode the Ratio is applied to each target individually: a leader ATM of 1/1/1 copied at Ratio 3 gives the follower 3/3/3 — an even distribution rather than NinjaTrader's default of putting the leftover on the first target.

Can a follower use a different ATM strategy?

No. Followers always follow the leader's strategy, either by copying its exit orders or by running the same strategy locally. Running the same strategy is what keeps the followers in sync with the leader for as long as possible.

Common pitfalls

  • Mismatched strategies break exits. If a follower node's strategy has a different name or different targets, exits may fire at the wrong levels, behave inconsistently between nodes, or not fire at all.
  • Custom Stop Strategy with a Ratio other than 1. A Custom Stop Strategy on a target does not account for the follower's scaled quantity, so the stop can close more contracts than expected. Use a regular stop loss when copying at a ratio other than 1.
  • Ratio and Pre-allocation change the quantities. Each follower may trade a different quantity than the leader, and NinjaTrader distributes that quantity across the targets — define your target quantities with the followers' quantities in mind.

Verify your setup

  1. Export the ATM strategy configuration from one NinjaTrader instance and import it into the others, so names and settings match exactly.
  2. Confirm the strategy name appears exactly the same on every node.
  3. Test with one small trade before running ATM Copy in production.
  4. Check that every follower placed its stop-loss and profit-target orders at the expected levels.

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