Why is my Signed Machine ID invalid for the trial?

If your Signed Machine ID is being rejected when you try to purchase the copy trading free trial, it's almost always one of two things: the "Invalid Vendor Name" error, or this machine has already claimed a Replikanto trial. This article covers both, plus how to generate the Signed Machine ID in the first place.

How to generate your Signed Machine ID

1. Open the NinjaTrader Control Center, then click Help > 3rd Party Licensing.
2. In the Vendor Name field, enter FlowBots — capital F and B.
3. In the User Defined ID field, enter any text that identifies you or your machine.
4. Click Submit just once, then close the window.
5. Copy the newly generated Signed Machine ID into the Signed NinjaTrader Machine ID 1 field on the checkout page.

For the full walkthrough, including what to do when buying licenses for more than one machine, see How can I generate a signed NinjaTrader Machine ID?

Why checkout might say the Signed Machine ID is invalid

"Invalid Vendor Name" error

This is a known NinjaTrader bug, not something you did wrong. It happens when the Submit button on the 3rd Party Licensing screen is clicked more than 5 times (including across NinjaTrader restarts), which gets your IP address temporarily blocked by NinjaTrader's license server.

• Wait 24 hours for the block to lift, then retry — entering FlowBots as the Vendor Name and clicking Submit only once.
• If it still fails after 24 hours, try a different network (for example, a mobile hotspot) to rule out a persistent block on your current IP.

Machine ID already used for a trial

The free trial can only be claimed once per Machine ID. If this machine already redeemed a Replikanto trial, checkout will keep rejecting the Signed Machine ID as invalid no matter how many times you regenerate it or change the User Defined ID — the hardware portion of the Machine ID (before the dash) doesn't change. You'll need a genuinely different machine to start a new trial, or purchase a licensed version instead.