What is a Rithmic VPS?
Rithmic is the dominant US futures order-routing gateway used by the major prop firms — Apex Trader Funding, Topstep, MyFundedFutures, Bulenox, Earn2Trade, and most newer futures prop-firm brands. A Rithmic VPS is a Windows VPS hosting your trading platform (NinjaTrader 8, Sierra Chart, Quantower, Bookmap) inside Chicago where the Rithmic gateway is co-located.
The critical metric is round-trip latency to the Rithmic gateway. A PropVPS Chicago instance in Equinix CH4 reaches the Rithmic gateway in under 500μs; from there Rithmic routes to the CME matching engine in Aurora in another ~100μs. End-to-end an order leaves your trading platform and hits the CME order book in roughly 600μs. The same workflow from a home connection in any non-Chicago city adds 15–100ms.
Why Rithmic users need a Chicago VPS
Every Rithmic-routed order touches Chicago. The gateway is Chicago-resident; the CME matching engines are Chicago-resident. There is no path to fast Rithmic execution from anywhere else. A New York VPS reaching the Rithmic gateway adds 16ms — enough to fail the entry condition of any tape-reading or order-flow strategy that depends on tick-level timing.
The latency case is sharpest for prop firm scalpers chasing daily payouts. Apex’s standard $50,000 evaluation has a $2,500 daily drawdown cap. A single tick of avoidable slippage on ES (worth $12.50) compounds across 50–100 round-trip trades to a meaningful share of that allowance. A Chicago Rithmic VPS removes that tax.
PropVPS Rithmic VPS specifications
Hardware: Intel Xeon E-2388G dedicated cores, ECC DDR4 memory, NVMe SSD storage. OS: Windows Server 2022 with NinjaTrader 8 pre-installed, the Rithmic R | API and R | Trader Pro connectors available for one-click setup, plus Sierra Chart and Quantower for traders who prefer those interfaces.
Network: dedicated public IPv4 per instance, BGP-redundant uplinks, direct cross-connect from CH4 to the Rithmic gateway. We publish per-prop-firm latency benchmarks measured to Rithmic on the locations page.
Rithmic VPS for prop firm compliance
Apex, Topstep, MyFundedFutures, and Bulenox all require a dedicated IP per trader account. PropVPS allocates a unique static IPv4 per instance — never shared NAT — so Rithmic sees a stable identity on every order. The prop firm can audit the IP against the trader’s account holder without ambiguity.
Most prop firms also require reasonable uptime during the RTH window. PropVPS guarantees 99.99% (≤ 52 minutes downtime per year), backed by a service-credit policy. In practice the Chicago location has multi-quarter uptime exceeding 99.999%.
| Workload | Recommended plan | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Single funded account, 1–2 charts | Challenger | 4 cores / 4GB |
| Apex / Topstep multi-symbol scalp | Algo Scalper | 8 cores / 8GB |
| Automated NinjaScript via Rithmic | Algo Scalper | 8 cores / 8GB |
| Multi-account portfolio (5+ funded) | Portfolio Node | 12 cores / 12GB |
References & sources
- [1]Rithmic Trading Gateway is the primary CME order-routing infrastructure used by Apex Trader Funding, Topstep, MyFundedFutures, and major futures prop firms. Rithmic product overview
- [2]The Rithmic gateway is co-located in Equinix CH4, Chicago, with direct fiber to the CME Aurora matching facility. CME Group co-location services
- [3]Apex Trader Funding requires VPS hosting with a dedicated IP per trader account. Apex Trader Funding FAQ