A comprehensive guide to understanding the legitimacy, legality, and best practices of copy trading.
Copy trading is a legitimate investment strategy used by millions of traders worldwide. It operates through regulated platforms and is legal in most jurisdictions when proper compliance measures are followed.
While copy trading is legal, always check with your specific broker, prop firm, or trading account provider for their individual rules and regulations regarding copy trading and automated systems.
Several key factors contribute to the legitimacy of copy trading as a professional trading strategy:
Regulated by Financial Authorities: Copy trading platforms operate under strict financial regulations in their respective jurisdictions, ensuring transparency and security.
Used by Professional Traders: Institutional traders, hedge funds, and professional money managers regularly use copy trading for portfolio management and scaling operations.
Transparent Technology: Copy trading uses well-established APIs and technology that's been vetted by brokers and trading platforms worldwide.
Clear Risk Disclosure: Legitimate copy trading services provide clear risk disclosures and educational resources about the risks involved in trading.
If you're trading with a proprietary trading firm, understanding their stance on copy trading is crucial. Most prop firms have specific rules about copy trading that fall into two categories:
Generally Allowed: Personal account management, multiple account scaling, risk management tools, and trade synchronization between your own accounts.
Often Restricted: Copying from other traders, selling signals to others, using third-party signals, and account sharing.
Always read your prop firm's terms of service carefully. Many firms allow you to copy your own trades across multiple accounts but prohibit copying from external sources.
Self-Copy Trading (Most Common)
Copying your own trades across multiple accounts you control. This is widely accepted and used for managing multiple prop firm accounts, scaling successful strategies, and risk diversification across brokers.
Signal Provider Copy Trading
Following trades from professional signal providers. Important considerations include verifying the provider's track record, understanding the strategy being used, and checking if your broker or prop firm allows it.
Social Copy Trading
Platforms where traders share strategies publicly. This is popular on retail trading platforms but often restricted by prop firms and requires careful due diligence.
To ensure you're copy trading safely and legally, follow these essential guidelines:
Use Regulated Platforms: Only use copy trading services from regulated and licensed providers like Tradesyncer.
Read Terms of Service: Always review your broker's and prop firm's terms regarding automated trading and copy trading.
Maintain Control: Ensure you have full control over your accounts and can stop copying at any time.
Understand the Risks: Copy trading doesn't guarantee profits. Understand and accept the risks involved.
Start Small: Begin with smaller position sizes to test the system before scaling up.
Ready to start copy trading legally and safely? Try our 7-day free trial and experience professional-grade copy trading.
Now that you understand copy trading is legitimate, here's how to get started properly:
Futures Trade Copier - For futures traders looking to scale their operations across multiple accounts.
NinjaTrader Trade Copier - Specialized solution for NinjaTrader platform users.
Tradovate Trade Copier - Optimized for Tradovate's cloud-based infrastructure.
TradingView Trade Copier - Connect TradingView alerts to your broker accounts.
For more information, check our comprehensive guide on copy trading or learn how to set up copy trading.