How to Connect Apex Trader Funding to Sierra Chart with Denali Data

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Futures trader since 2019 · 6+ years on Sierra Chart · ES & NQ orderflow · This is the setup I run daily

Sierra Chart is the best charting platform in futures. It also handles Rithmic historical data badly, which is why so many prop traders give up and go back to NinjaTrader.

You don’t have to. The fix is a hybrid setup: Apex’s Rithmic connection handles order execution, and Sierra Chart’s own Denali feed handles the data. This is the configuration I run every session on NQ, and this guide is the exact sequence — including the one setting that silently breaks the whole thing if you miss it.

Before You Start: Your Apex Discount

🔥 Apex Trader Funding — use code SPICY at checkout

Apex runs discounts on evaluations regularly and the rate moves. Enter SPICY in the promo field and confirm the discount applied before you pay.

What the evaluation gives you

Code: SPICY at checkout
30 days access, no renewal required
One day to pass
No consistency rule during the evaluation
Up to 20 funded accounts, tradeable simultaneously
EOD drawdown available on select account types

👉 Apply code SPICY automatically

Why You Need Your Own Live Broker Account

This is the part that confuses almost everyone. You’re joining Apex to trade their capital — so why do you need a live brokerage account of your own?

You don’t need it to trade. You need it to unlock the data.

The split:

Apex via Rithmic is the engine. It executes your orders and pays your profits.
Sierra Chart via Denali is the fuel. It feeds your charts clean, fast data.

Sierra Chart’s documentation states it plainly: the platform must be connected to a live funded futures trading account to authorize CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX real-time data on non-professional exchange fees. A prop firm account does not satisfy that requirement.

The workaround is straightforward. Open a dormant live account with a broker like Edge Clear or Stage 5, fund it with the minimum, and leave it alone. It exists only to authorize the data. You never place a trade in it.

Once the live account has authorized your Denali subscription, you switch your trading service back to Rithmic and trade your Apex account normally. The authorization persists.

What This Setup Actually Costs

NinjaTrader is free with Apex. Sierra Chart is not. Here is the honest monthly overhead before you decide whether it’s worth it:

Item	Cost	Why you need it
Apex evaluation	One-time, discounted with `SPICY`	Access to funded capital
Sierra Chart Package 11	~$46 / mo	The only package that unlocks Numbers Bars (footprint) and Volume Profile while allowing external connectivity
Denali — Top of Book	~$5.50 / mo	Enough for footprint and TPO charts where depth isn’t needed
Denali — Level 2	~$34.25 / mo	Includes market depth. Required if you trade from the DOM
Live broker account	Minimum deposit, one-time	Required by Sierra Chart to authorize Denali. Never traded
Apex activation fee	One-time on passing	Activates the funded account

Sierra Chart and Denali pricing changes. Verify current figures on sierrachart.com before budgeting.

Worth being direct about this: if you’re running a single small evaluation, the monthly data cost may exceed what you’re likely to withdraw. This setup makes sense once you’re funded and trading seriously, or if orderflow is genuinely central to your edge. It is not a beginner’s first purchase.

Prerequisites

Have all four of these before you start:

An active Apex account with Rithmic credentials, evaluation or funded. Code SPICY at checkout.
Sierra Chart Service Package 11 or higher. Lower packages won’t give you Numbers Bars or Volume Profile alongside external connectivity.
Rithmic Trader Pro, downloaded from your Apex dashboard. This is the bridge that carries your orders.
A live broker account at Edge Clear, Stage 5 or similar. Funded to the minimum, never traded.

Step 1: Configure Rithmic Trader Pro

Confirm your Apex account is active and your agreements are signed, then download Rithmic Trader Pro from the Apex dashboard.

Open it and set:

User ID and password: your Apex credentials
System: Apex — not “Rithmic Paper Trading”
Gateway: Chicago Area
Check “Remember Me”. This is not optional. Sierra Chart reads these saved credentials later, and if they aren’t stored the connection fails with an unhelpful error.

On first login you’ll get two self-certification forms. Choose Non-Professional unless you genuinely qualify as professional — the professional rate runs well over $100/month in exchange fees.

Step 2: Authorize Denali Through Your Live Account

Do this before the hybrid configuration, because Denali won’t authorize otherwise.

In your Sierra Chart account control panel on their website, open Denali Data Feed
Sign the CME / CBOT / NYMEX / COMEX exchange agreements
Choose your level — Top of Book for footprint and TPO work, Level 2 if you trade from the DOM
In Sierra Chart, connect to your live broker account first. This is what authorizes the exchange data under non-professional fees

There’s usually a free trial on the first month. Once the data is authorized against your live account, you can switch the trading service over to Rithmic and the authorization holds.

Step 3: The Hybrid Configuration

This is where you tell Sierra Chart to pull charts from its own servers while sending orders to Apex.

Go to Global Settings > Data/Trade Service Settings.

Under Main Settings:

Current Selected Service: Rithmic Direct DTC [trading]
Server: Apex-Chicago Area Non-Aggregated
Enter your Rithmic username and password

⚠️ Do not skip this — it’s the setting that makes the whole thing work

Click Common Settings at the top of the same window and set:

Allow Support for Sierra Chart Data Feeds: Yes
Intraday Data Storage Time Unit: 1 Tick

The first is what routes your chart data through Denali instead of Rithmic. Leave it on No and everything appears to connect fine — you just keep getting the Rithmic data you were trying to escape, with no error to tell you. The second is required for Numbers Bars and footprint charts to build correctly.

Click Apply All, then reconnect with File > Disconnect followed by File > Connect to Data Feed.

Step 4: Get Your Symbols Right

Sierra Chart and Rithmic use different symbol conventions, and typing ES gets you a blank chart. You need the full Rithmic format.

Go to Chart > Chart Settings, open the Symbol tab and click Select to browse the Rithmic format.

The format is root + month code + year digit + exchange suffix:

Part	What it is	Example
Root	The contract	`ES`, `NQ`, `MNQ`
Month code	H = March, M = June, U = September, Z = December	`Z`
Year digit	Last digit of the year	`6` for 2026
Exchange suffix	`.CME` for ES/NQ/MNQ, `.CBOT` for YM and grains	`.CME`

So the December 2026 E-mini S&P contract is ESZ6.CME, and the December 2026 Nasdaq is NQZ6.CME.

Miss the exchange suffix and the chart stays blank with no error message. That’s the single most common failure in this whole setup.

Equity index futures roll quarterly on the March/June/September/December cycle, so your symbol changes four times a year. If your chart goes blank for no apparent reason, check whether you’re still pointed at an expired contract before troubleshooting anything else.

Troubleshooting

The four things that account for most failures, in the order worth checking:

Charts still feel laggy after setup. “Allow Support for Sierra Chart Data Feeds” is almost certainly set to No. You’re still on Rithmic data. Step 3.
Chart is blank. Wrong or expired symbol. Check the exchange suffix, then check the contract month.
“Invalid Account” errors. You selected Sim rather than Apex in Rithmic Trader Pro, or “Remember Me” wasn’t checked so the credentials never saved.
Denali won’t authorize. Your live broker account isn’t connected in Sierra Chart, or the exchange agreements aren’t signed. Both are required.

Still stuck? Join the Futures Orderflow Discord — several of us run this exact setup and can usually spot the problem from a screenshot.

Was It Worth It?

For orderflow traders, yes. Numbers Bars and Volume Profile on clean tick data is a genuinely different way of reading the market than candles on a laggy feed, and Sierra Chart does it better than anything else at this price.

For everyone else, be honest with yourself about the monthly cost against what you’re actually withdrawing. NinjaTrader is free with Apex and it is not a bad platform. The reason to do this is footprint, and if you’re not going to use footprint, you’re paying for something you don’t need.

Ready to set it up? Code SPICY at Apex checkout — confirm the discount applied before paying.

👉 Get Apex With Code SPICY

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SpicyFutures.com is an independent affiliate site and earns a commission on referral purchases from Apex Trader Funding. Sierra Chart and Denali are not affiliate relationships — we pay for those ourselves. Platform pricing and requirements are set by Sierra Chart and Apex and change periodically; verify current terms before purchasing. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.