⚖️ First court ruling in Alpha Futures v NinjaTrade

Hi everyone, another week is upon us and the markets are open, so let’s get into it.

The Alpha Futures v NinjaTrader case has now had its first court ruling.

The dispute began after Tradovate/NinjaTrader ended its partnership with Alpha, forcing traders onto AlphaTrader and contributing to the closure of Alpha's Premium Plan. Tradovate later said Alpha had breached its agreement and owed overdue balances, while Alpha disputed this and sued, alleging it was promised 90 days notice, had access cut off abruptly and that Tradovate used Alpha client information to target traders.

This week, a federal judge denied Alpha's request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The judge found Alpha had not shown it was likely to succeed on its trade secrets claim at this stage. Importantly, this does not mean Alpha has lost the wider lawsuit, with its other claims still ongoing.

Both sides have now asked for a settlement conference, so while Alpha's request for immediate restrictions was denied, we could now see the case move towards a negotiated resolution.

Full details in the thread below from @jmutrades on X.

📢  Firm Announcements

• FundedNext removed the margin rule and increased leverage on its Stellar Challenges, with similar changes also rolled out to FundedNext Futures.

• Blue Guardian made several changes across its lineup. Its 1 Step Standard profit target was reduced from 10% to 9%, while minimum trading days on both its 1 Step Standard and 2 Step plans were cut from 5 to 3. It also launched new 1 Step Nano and 2 Step Nano plans.

• Goat Funded Futures added Tradovate, allowing traders to connect directly to TradingView at no additional cost. The firm also confirmed that news trading is allowed during the Challenge.

• TradeDay added Rithmic connectivity, giving traders another option alongside its existing trading infrastructure.

• Lucid Trading added single stock futures to its available markets.

From Payout Junction, here are the firms that paid out the most over the last 7 days 🏆️.

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🕜 Red Folder News

Here are this week’s red folder news events. The key event is the Jackson Hole symposium, with Fed Chair Warsh speaking on Friday in a speech that could have a big impact on the outlook for interest rates.

📈 Markets

BTC Liquidations

Got to start with Bitcoin this week, putting in a monster 25% week and liquidating shorts in epic proportions.

Crypto Fear & Greed

Been a very long time since this was green. Overall market sentiment is now in Greed territory, although we’re still a long way from an extreme reading, so there could be plenty more room to run.

Gold also along for the ride

Interestingly, gold is ripping alongside Bitcoin, putting in a 5% week of its own.

What about the AI trade?

Something that isn’t ripping higher is tech. The Nasdaq posted a 2.5% down week, with Nvidia putting in 6 red candles in a row and registering its worst losing streak in 4 years.

Gonna be an interesting week. Have a good one!

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