Frequently asked questions
Questions traders ask
before they trust a strategy vendor.
Straight answers about who we are, what you get, what the published results are and are not, and how prop-firm accounts fit in. Every answer points to the page that backs it up.
Who is behind Orthant
Is Orthant Futures legit?
Orthant Futures is a small, real business, and nothing about who runs it is hidden. It is a NinjaTrader® Ecosystem vendor, founded by Bud Basu, a former Bell Labs systems engineer and AT&T Labs district manager who later served as a senior vice president, reporting to the CEO, at another global technology company (his story). The business trades as Orthant Systematic Trading, a sole proprietorship in Wesley Chapel, Florida (terms).
It offers monthly subscriptions, not investments. It is not a broker, a commodity trading advisor or an investment adviser, it never holds your money, and it never logs into your account. You do not have to take any of that on trust: every backtested trade is downloadable, a forward test of the engines began September 8, 2026 and is published monthly, and every engine can be run free for 30 days on simulation with no card. What it does not have yet is a long history — the first release shipped in August 2026 — so there are few independent reviews so far.
Who is behind Orthant?
Bud Basu, who designs, builds and runs the engines himself. He is an electrical engineer with a graduate degree in computer science. He began at Bell Labs as a Member of Technical Staff (a systems engineer), was promoted to Supervisor, and became a District Manager at AT&T Labs. He then served as Director and later Vice President of product management and development at a global technology company, and as Senior Vice President of product management and development, reporting to the CEO, at another global technology company, from which he retired. Read his story.
Is Orthant a broker, a fund or a signal service?
None of those. Orthant offers a monthly subscription to its automated strategies, which run as NinjaTrader® add-ons. We are not an investment adviser, a commodity trading advisor, or a broker, and nothing we provide is personalized advice (terms). It is not a signal service or a trade copier either: the engines run on your own computer and place their own orders in your own account.
Does Orthant hold my money or log in to my account?
No. We do not log into your account, trade it, hold your funds, or have any discretionary authority over it (terms). Subscription payments are handled by Stripe; we never see or hold your card number (privacy).
Where is Orthant listed outside this site?
On the NinjaTrader® Ecosystem, as a vendor with its product Orthant Micro in the automated strategies directory, and in Boxcar Trading’s tools directory, and on Trustpilot, where anyone can leave a review. Boxcar Trading is our one prop-firm referral partner: we earn a commission on purchases made through our link or code, and we receive nothing from any other prop firm.
Do you run these on your own accounts?
Yes — that is the whole basis of this. The same engines run on my own evaluation and funded accounts at several firms, one engine per account, exactly the layout we describe here. We are not selling a system we do not trade.
What you get
What does Orthant sell?
Seven automated futures strategies (“engines”) for NinjaTrader® 8, in two tracks. The micro track trades micro contracts and is built for a $2,000 prop-firm drawdown limit; the mini track trades full-size contracts on any account and is designed to keep drawdown under $20,000. Every engine is sold on its own or in its track’s package, month to month. Each engine is designed to run on its own account:
- Aperture — Nasdaq pre-market range breakout (MNQ)
- Iris — S&P breakout (MES)
- Coil — Gold low-volatility reversion (MGC)
- Rift — Gold gap reversal at support/resistance (MGC)
- Surge — Nasdaq momentum expansion (MNQ)
- PathfinderJunior — S&P breakout, risk-boxed (MES)
- Ripple — Nasdaq higher-timeframe momentum scalp (MNQ)
Which markets do the engines trade?
Micro Nasdaq-100 (MNQ), Micro S&P 500 (MES) and Micro Gold (MGC) futures — micro contracts on the micro track, full-size contracts on the mini track.
What platform and data feed do I need?
NinjaTrader® — it is our featured and recommended platform, the one every engine was built and backtested on, and the strategies are NinjaScript add-ons that run inside it. We use Kinetick® for market data, which offers end-of-day data free for NinjaTrader® users. More on the platform and data →
Do I have to watch the engines while they trade?
No. Once you install and enable them, they take their own entries and exits and go flat overnight. Each engine draws its own status on the chart, so you can see at a glance whether it is armed or flat (platform).
Can I run it on more than one computer or a VPS?
Yes. Your license is issued against your NinjaTrader® account, not a machine, so your desktop, your laptop and your VPS all run on the same one, and there is nothing to reissue when you move between them.
Why micro contracts?
Because in a 50K prop account the drawdown limit matters more than the headline size. Micros let the strategy breathe without tripping the trailing drawdown.
Why is this a subscription instead of a one-time purchase?
Because the work does not stop when the file is written. Every edge decays — ours included — so the engines are re-tested on a schedule, re-optimized when the market moves under them, and retired and replaced when they no longer earn their place. That is continuous research, and the subscription is what pays for it: the years of work behind the current book, and the work that keeps it current. A one-time sale would buy you a file frozen on the day you bought it, and we would have no reason to keep testing it. You are leasing a maintained system, not purchasing a static one.
Why take the package instead of one engine?
You can take one engine — every engine is sold on its own. But one engine is one strategy on one instrument: one bet, and if it stops working that is your problem to discover. The package is the portfolio: engines across the Nasdaq, the S&P and gold, the layout that keeps them from colliding at one firm, and every trade of every engine published so you can audit any of it — for less than the engines cost separately. There are no add-ons and no upsell, and our one prop-firm referral partnership, Boxcar Trading, is disclosed on this page. Engines get reviewed on a schedule and retired when they stop earning their place; that maintenance is part of what you are paying for.
Results and the published record
Which NinjaTrader automated strategies publish a full trade record?
Orthant publishes every trade from every engine’s backtest — entry, exit and result, losing trades included — as downloadable files, with costs included and one common window for every engine. Since September 8, 2026 it also runs a forward test of the same engines, unmanaged, on prop-firm evaluation and funded accounts, and publishes the filled orders monthly, kept separate from the backtests.
Whichever vendor you are looking at, ask for the same four things: the full trade list, costs included, the window stated, and forward results kept apart from backtests.
Are Orthant’s results real or backtested?
The results on the backtest pages are hypothetical: backtests produced in the NinjaTrader® Strategy Analyzer, where no orders were executed and no money was at risk. The forward test, which began September 8, 2026, is published separately and is the only place on the site that shows actual order fills. It runs on prop-firm evaluation and funded accounts, which are themselves simulated trading environments: each fill is a real order at a real price, but not real-money risk.
How are the backtests produced?
In the NinjaTrader® Strategy Analyzer, with the settings each engine actually ships with — unoptimized, not refit for the page. Every result is net of commission as charged by the platform and one full tick of slippage on every contract on every trade. Iris is backtested with Tick Replay enabled. Every engine covers the same window, and each is shown on its own account; results are never added together into one figure.
Can I download the trades?
Yes. Every trade behind every number on the site is published as a file you can open in a spreadsheet, losing trades included.
Will there be losing periods?
Yes — plainly. Every real system has them. The design goal is long-term expectancy under a controlled-risk framework, not daily certainty.
Is this a profit guarantee?
No — and no one can honestly offer one. Nothing we promise is tied to your results. What we stand behind is the software: if it does not install or run as described we make it right or refund the subscription, and you can cancel in one click. Nobody here promises that you profit or that you pass an evaluation.
Prop firm accounts
Will this pass my evaluation?
Nobody can honestly promise that, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we can tell you is what these were built against: a $50K evaluation fails on the trailing drawdown, not on the headline account size, so every engine here is designed and sized to live inside that limit on its own. Across the published year each one on sale today had a worst drawdown between $806 and $1,357 against a $2,000 allowance. The trades behind that are all published, so you can check the claim rather than take it.
Can I use Orthant on prop firm accounts?
They should run at any firm that permits automated NinjaScript strategies — but every firm sets its own rules and changes them, so check yours before you start. You are responsible for reading the agreement of any firm you trade with, and for making sure your own configuration complies with it.
Can I run several engines on one account or at one firm?
Run one engine per account, so each account keeps its own drawdown limit. And never more than one equity-index engine and one gold engine at the same firm: independent engines will sometimes hold opposite positions in the same market, and at one firm that can be treated as hedging (why).
Buying, trial and support
How much does Orthant cost?
Every engine is priced on its own, or you take its whole track as a package: $199 a month for every micro engine, $3,000 a month for every mini engine. Single-engine prices are in the pricing section. Month to month; it renews automatically each month until you cancel.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, on the micro track. The micro engines are free for 30 days on simulation. We do not ask for a payment card to start it, and the trial does not turn into a subscription — it simply expires (refunds & cancellation).
How do I cancel?
In one click, from the Stripe billing link on the refunds & cancellation page, or by emailing support@orthantfutures.com, and we will cancel it the same day. The unused days of your billing period are refunded to your card within five business days (how the refund is worked out).
What if the software will not run?
If within 30 days of your first payment the software will not run for you because of a technical fault or a platform incompatibility that we cannot resolve, email us and we will refund that payment (details).
How do I get support?
Email support@orthantfutures.com, or use the contact page.