NinjaTrader Group today (Wednesday) announced the appointment of four experienced executives to its team. The strategic expansion comes as the popular trading software provider aims to enhance its NinjaTrader platform and meet the growing interest of retail traders in the futures markets.

As the company's CEO acknowledged in a conversation with Finance Magnates, "We have experienced tremendous growth in this space over the last 2-3 years and we believe the next phase of growth will be exponential."

NinjaTrader strengthens leadership position as retail traders embrace futures

Appointments include Ryan Pitylak as Executive Vice President of Growth, Aditya Nishandar as Chief Technology Officer, John O'Neil as General Manager of Evaluation Services, and Michael Krafft as Vice President of Product.

With more than 15 years of experience marketing, strategy and operations, Pitylak will focus on developing products centered on trader education, social experiences and partner networks. He previously worked at ZenBusiness, where he helped the company secure a $275 million funding round.

With a background in technology leadership and innovation, Nishandar will drive the company's technological advancements. He was previously a senior director at Carta Liquidity and spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs.

Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader, said, "Our recent executive hires reflect NinjaTrader's commitment to investing in top talent to enhance our leadership position in retail futures trading."

O'Neill will focus on creating an industry-leading experience for retail proprietary traders. The new General Manager of Evaluation Services has previous ties to organizations such as FXCM.

Krafft, Vice President of Products, will utilize his expertise to deliver innovative client-facing applications and solutions. Over the past few years, he has worked with TrueML, Alight Solutions and American Express.

French added, "All of the new leaders we've recently added to the team have a wealth of experience delivering industry-leading technology and services to a wide range of industries."

Some time ago, the company also hired Hazim Macky, former vice president of engineering at American Cryptocurrency Cash, to swap Coinme as its chief technology officer.

Retail traders want access to futures markets

As Franchi highlights, NinjaTrader is one of the more popular platforms among retail investors interested in futures contracts. It currently supports 1.7 million users and has been growing over the past 2-3 years.

"We believe the next phase of growth will be exponential," the CEO commented to Finance Magnates. "Institutional support for the retail futures trading community has never been stronger, and our efforts to work with exchanges to develop innovative new products and develop world-class education for new traders are helping to drive growth."

The NinjaTrader CEO also spoke about the growing interest of investors in the futures markets and their desire to engage with the company's platform and content. He acknowledged that while traders have traditionally had to open a funded account and trade with real money, today's traders are also looking for ways to learn and participate in futures trading to expand their knowledge.

NinjaTrader, for example, offers demo trading solutions where traders can practice, refine strategies and familiarize themselves with the futures market without risking real capital.

French concludes, "We believe we will see tremendous growth in this asset class."

At the end of October, NinjaTrader launched a new version of the platform and added multi-device trading integration a few months ago. At the same time, the brand was updated and a new website and logo were launched.