copy trading
Copy trading is not one product. There are three delivery routes and they differ in who holds the account, who sets the sizing and who you complain to when a leader does something surprising.
The three routes
01
Broker native
The broker runs the service inside its own platform. Pepperstone publishes a CopyTrading product where a signal provider is copied onto a linked MT4 or MT5 account.
02
Platform native
The trading platform provides it and several brokers expose it. cTrader Copy Trading is available at brokers offering cTrader, including IC.
03
Third party bridge
An external service connects to your account through an API or terminal. Adds a counterparty and usually a subscription.
Questions that change the answer
- 01Who holds the money? In every legitimate route it is the broker, never the copy service.
- 02What access does the service have? Trading permission is normal, withdrawal permission is never acceptable.
- 03How is the leader paid, and by whom?
- 04Can you close a copied position manually without breaking the link?
- 05What happens on a disconnect: does the link resume, and do orphaned positions stay open?
A reasonable starting configuration
Small allocation, equity-ratio mapping, a written maximum drawdown at which you unlink, and a calendar reminder to review the leader statistics monthly rather than watching the equity curve daily. Most of the damage in copy trading comes from allocating too much, too early, to a record that was too short.
The service does not hold your money. It holds permission to move it, which is close enough to matter.
Written by Aram Latifi. Ex-quant developer, now writing about the plumbing of retail trading. No affiliate links on this site.
