What happens to exit orders when NinjaTrader closes or there is a broker disconnection?

This article explains what happens to your exit orders — Take Profit (TP) and Stop Loss (SL), including those attached to an Advanced Trade Management (ATM) strategy — when NinjaTrader is closed or when the connection to your broker drops. The outcome depends on one thing above all: whether those orders are managed locally by your NinjaTrader platform or natively on your broker's servers.

Where your orders actually live

• Orders that have already reached an Accepted, Working, or Suspended state are typically held at the brokerage or the exchange — or on NinjaTrader's or the broker's servers when the exchange does not support that specific order type.
• Orders that are simulated locally on your PC depend on NinjaTrader running and connected in order to be managed.
• Orders in a TriggerPending state (applicable to MIT orders) that are held locally on your PC may become Unknown and cannot be recovered by the NinjaTrader Desktop app after a connection loss, if your provider does not offer native support for them.

When NinjaTrader is closed

• For an ATM strategy to activate and function, NinjaTrader needs to be connected and running.
• By default, the Stop Loss and Profit Target orders submitted automatically through an ATM strategy use One Cancels Other (OCO) functionality. If your NinjaTrader Brokerage account is used, most OCO functionality is simulated locally on your PC, unless the Server Side ATM Strategy beta feature is enabled in NinjaTrader Desktop 8.1.
• If NinjaTrader is closed, any OCO functionality simulated locally on your PC for those ATM orders stops being actively managed by your local platform. Orders already in an Accepted, Working, or Suspended state remain where they were sent.
• If a pending entry order fills while NinjaTrader is not connected, the attached ATM strategy is not submitted. No trailing stop or automatic break-even logic can be updated while the platform is closed.

Rejected ATM orders

• If an ATM strategy entry is rejected, its stops and targets are not entered.
• If a Stop Loss or Profit Target order is rejected, all Stop Losses and Profit Targets for that ATM are canceled. This relates to rejection rather than closure, but it shows how the system responds to order failures.

When the broker connection disconnects

The consequence for your exit orders depends on how your broker handles OCO orders.

Locally simulated OCO

If your broker (for example Forex.com/City Index, or Rithmic) or NinjaTrader itself (for most NinjaTrader Brokerage accounts by default) simulates OCO functionality locally on your PC, a connection loss means those orders are no longer actively managed as an OCO pair by your platform. This can leave one of the orders — TP or SL — active while the other is not automatically cancelled when the first one fills, or vice versa.

Native server-side OCO

Some brokers — for example Continuum/CQG, FXCM, and Interactive Brokers — natively support OCO functionality on their servers. When your orders are managed this way, they should remain active and linked on the broker's side even if your local connection drops.

Errors you may see

• A connection loss between your computer and the brokerage servers can produce messages such as Close operation failed. Operation timed out. Manually close your position.
• Remember that an ATM strategy requires NinjaTrader to be connected in order to operate at all.

What this means when you use Replikanto

• If you place a pending order with SL and TP on the main account using Replikanto, the same order is copied to your other accounts. Once those orders are in a working or accepted state, they reside at the exchange and will be filled whether or not NinjaTrader is connected.
• Replikanto logs broker disconnections. During a disconnection, follower accounts become unavailable and trade copying is paused.
• Replikanto does not control the connection between NinjaTrader and your broker. Monitoring your positions and orders — and managing them if discrepancies appear because of connection issues — remains your sole responsibility.

Summary

For critical trades, the decisive question is whether your broker offers server-side OCO order management, since that provides far greater protection against a NinjaTrader shutdown or an internet disruption. If OCO orders are simulated locally instead, the continuity of NinjaTrader's connection and operation is essential for them to work correctly.