How VolNinja Works

VolNinja is designed around one principle: your trading stays with you. Your positions, your orders, your account, and your broker connection all live on your own machine. The app you actually use is served from the cloud and connects back to your machine over a private link — so you get a polished interface you can open anywhere, without your trading data ever leaving home. This article explains how those pieces fit together.

The two halves

VolNinja has two halves that work together:

• The engine on your machine. This is the part you install and run yourself. It does all the actual trading: it holds your data, connects to Interactive Brokers, prices your positions, and places your orders. Everything sensitive lives here.
• The app in the cloud. This is the interface you look at — the Dashboard, templates, strategies, the Risk Lab. It's served from the cloud and runs in your browser, so it's always up to date and reachable from any device. It also handles signing in and billing.

The app in the cloud is the cockpit; the engine on your machine is what's under the hood. They talk to each other over a private, encrypted link that only you can open.

Your trading data stays on your machine

All of your trading data — every position, order, template, strategy, and your Interactive Brokers login — lives on the machine where the engine runs. Your broker connection is made from your machine to your account, and orders go straight there.

The app in the cloud is how you see and drive that engine, but it doesn't keep your trading data. Your positions and orders are relayed straight through to your browser and are never stored in the cloud.

Why the app lives in the cloud

Serving the app from the cloud is what makes VolNinja reachable from anywhere. Because the interface isn't tied to the one computer your engine runs on, you can:

• Open your trading app in any browser — your phone, a laptop, a tablet — and see your live positions.
• Always run the latest version, with nothing to update on your side to get new features.
• Keep the heavy, sensitive work — data and broker access — on your own machine, while the part you interact with is hosted for you.

When you pair a device, your machine opens a private, encrypted connection to the cloud, and from then on the cloud app can reach your engine. The connection is initiated by your machine and stays private to you — nobody else can see your trading or reach your engine. See Remote access for logging in from elsewhere, and Managing your account to review or revoke paired devices.

Run the engine on your computer or a cloud server

You choose where the engine runs:

• On your own computer — the simplest setup. VolNinja trades while your machine is on and Interactive Brokers is connected.
• On a small cloud server you control — so it keeps trading around the clock without your computer needing to stay awake.

Either way the principle holds: the engine and all its data live on the machine you run, and orders go to your broker account.

What this means for you

• Privacy — your trades and broker account are never stored in someone else's cloud.
• Control — it's your machine, your broker, your rules; VolNinja is software you run, not a managed service. It doesn't send signals or place trades on your behalf beyond the rules you set.
• Reach — a hosted, always-current app you can open from any browser, backed by an engine that stays entirely yours.

Next, get it running: Installing & starting VolNinja and Connecting IBKR. When you're ready to trade for real, read Paper vs live — trading safely first.