Everything You Need to Know About Copy Trading (2024)

Click here to get this post in PDF

Everything You Need to Know About Copy Trading (1)

The forex market is already very attractive to retailtraders looking to expand their portfolio. The market itself is easy to enterthanks to online brokers and trading platforms. There are a lot of bonuses toget you started and more moneymaking opportunities on the market too. Themarket volatility of today certainly doesn’t decrease the appeal of forextrading, since there are thousands of new investors entering the market everyday.

Getting started with forex trading is even easier now, mainly because you can turn to social trading and copy trading for help. Copy trading in particular lets you copy the trades of expert traders in real-time, giving you the opportunity to learn about the market from the best while making money at the same time. Here are the things you need to know before getting started with copy trading.

You Need a Good Platform

Not all forex trading platforms offer copy trading as afeature, and not all brokers support this functionality. Some of the topbrokers, however, take copy trading seriously and allow customers to reallybenefit from the feature.

At the top of that list, we have eToro. If you look at thereviews for eToro on websites like investingoal.com, youwill find that the platform is made for copy trading. eToro also provides awealth of tools to help you search for the right traders to follow.

You can go into detail about which traders to follow. Youalso get more than enough information, including a vast trading history ofdifferent expert traders to use as you try to find the right experts to connectwith.

It Comes with a Lot of Benefits

Copy trading has its own benefits. As mentioned before, itis a way to learn about the market while making money in the process. Unlikesocial trading, however, copy trading doesn’t require you to be completelyhands-on with the process.

If you are only looking for an opportunity to invest, copytrading is for you. As long as you spend enough time finding the best tradersto copy, you will be able to copy their ROI over a long period of time.

There is also the fact that copy trading is very simple.There is no need to set up complex macros or make your own virtual server theway you would with trailing stops and automated signals. In the case of eToro,every feature you need is built into a neat platform.

You Can Manage the Risks

Keep in mind that the risks you face when trading forexpairs regularly are still present when copying the trades of others. The onlydifference is that you are not the one making the trading decisions and theexpert traders you follow do most of the riskassessment (and some management) for you.

That said, you can be more profitable by taking active steps to manage your own risks. Diversifying and optimizing your portfolio with investment portfolio management tools can really help you a lot. For instance, you can easily spread your risks and mitigate them better. You also have the option to use Copy Stop Loss as a way to limit your risks.

At the same time, you can filter transactions to copy based on their risk level. The more you understand the expert traders’ styles and trading habits, the more you can pick the best trades and manage your risks.

People May Copy Your Trades

Copy trading isn’t just an easy way into the potentials oftrading forex or other instruments. It is a way to learn from the best traderson the market. The goal is still to master the market yourself so you can makeindependent trading decisions in the future.

There is actually an added benefit to that. Develop your owntrading strategy, manage your portfolio independently, and you too can be thetrader whose positions are copied by others. Platforms that allow copy tradingfacilitates new traders too.

In fact, you may get paid for being copied by other traderson the platform. Before you can reach that level, however, you have to provethat your strategy works. This is done by keeping your portfolio healthy andyour trades profitable.

Allocate Your Resources

One last thing to know about copy trading is the fact thatyou can scale your trades. By default, you can only risk a maximum of 20% ofyour account when copying the trades of others. From that amount, you can setthe portion you want to tradein individual positions.

Unless you have plenty of room in your margin, it is best toscale down the trades you copy to a more manageable level. Besides, scalingdown means reducing the risks you bear and gaining more options, or morestrategies to implement, to mitigate those risks.

So, are you interested in copying the trades of forex and commodity experts? With so many platforms offering copy trading as a feature, getting started will not be a difficult thing to do.

You may also like: New Business Ideas: How You Can Get Your Business Off The Ground

Everything You Need to Know About Copy Trading (2024)

FAQs

What do I need to know before copy trading? ›

Understand the risk: Copy trading can be risky because losses are replicated in the same way that wins are. While you have some control over the risk (for example, how much money you will allocate to your trading account and the risk settings), you do not control the trades of the trader you are following.

Can you really make money from copy trading? ›

As mentioned before in the introduction, copy trading can be a profitable way of investment, and that answer is just a concise summary of a longer story. However, the worth of copy trading goes beyond the potential for financial gains. It's a pursuit that's well worth dedicating time to understand comprehensively.

How do you successfully copy a trade? ›

Decide your investment amount.

Be balanced and don't put all your eggs in one basket - choose how much to allocate to each chosen trader if you have selected more than one person to copy. The copy trading platform will then automatically replicate all the selected trader's positions in your trading account.

How much money do I need to start copy trading? ›

You can kickstart your copy trading journey from as low as USD$200. RISK WARNING : Trading derivatives carries significant risks.

How to copy trade for beginners? ›

Using CopyTrader is simple: Choose the Popular Investor whom you wish to copy, set the amount to allocate for copying this trader, and click COPY. Going forward, you'll be mirroring their positions automatically in real time and in proportion to the amount invested. You can start or stop copying a user at any time.

Is copy trading good for beginners? ›

Learn from experienced traders: One of the most significant advantages of copy trading is that less experienced traders can learn from more successful traders. By following successful traders, novice traders can gain insights into the trading strategies and techniques used by professionals.

What are the risks of copy trading? ›

What are the risks of copy trading? The greatest risk a trader will face when copy trading is market risk. If the strategy a trader is copying is unsuccessful, they can lose money. Traders also face liquidity risk if the instruments they are trading experience illiquid conditions when markets are volatile.

Is copy trading illegal in the US? ›

Is copy trading legal in the U.S.? Yes, copy trading is legal in the U.S. – provided that your broker is properly regulated by either the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the case of forex or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for stocks.

What is the best trader for copy trade? ›

eToro, ninjaTrade, Zulutrade, Ayondo (free), and Pelican (fees) are copy platforms. All the traders performance is shown and you just copy them. Those people don't pay very much to the main trader, so a lot of successful traders have their own subscription services.

Is copying trades illegal? ›

In the United States, copy trading is generally considered to be legal as long as it is done through a regulated broker or trading platform. The main regulatory agency for the financial industry in the United States is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has jurisdiction over securities trading.

Is copy trading smart? ›

Copy trading is generally ideal for beginner traders as it allows them to trade way beyond their level of experience or expertise. Some of the significant downsides of copy trading are that it inhibits learning, and traders can suffer losses if they follow unsuccessful traders.

How long does copy trading take? ›

Trades are typically executed in less than a second from the instant the trader you copied executes their own trades.

Is $10 enough to start trading? ›

It is possible to begin Forex trading with as little as $10 and, in certain cases, even less. Brokers require $1,000 minimum account balance requirements. Some are available for as little as $5.

How much money do I need to make $1000 a day trading? ›

In order to make $1,000 in a day on a stock that increases 10% in a day, you would have to invest $10,000 in that stock. If you wanted to trade on margin, you could invest a little more than $5,000 and still make $1,000 on that trade.

Why do I need $25 000 to day trade? ›

Why Do I Have to Maintain Minimum Equity of $25,000? Day trading can be extremely risky—both for the day trader and for the brokerage firm that clears the day trader's transactions. Even if you end the day with no open positions, the trades you made while day trading most likely have not yet settled.

Is copy trading illegal? ›

In the United States, copy trading is generally considered to be legal as long as it is done through a regulated broker or trading platform. The main regulatory agency for the financial industry in the United States is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has jurisdiction over securities trading.

Is it safe to copy traders? ›

What are the risks of copy trading? The greatest risk a trader will face when copy trading is market risk. If the strategy a trader is copying is unsuccessful, they can lose money. Traders also face liquidity risk if the instruments they are trading experience illiquid conditions when markets are volatile.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Ouida Strosin DO

Last Updated:

Views: 6270

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (76 voted)

Reviews: 91% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Ouida Strosin DO

Birthday: 1995-04-27

Address: Suite 927 930 Kilback Radial, Candidaville, TN 87795

Phone: +8561498978366

Job: Legacy Manufacturing Specialist

Hobby: Singing, Mountain biking, Water sports, Water sports, Taxidermy, Polo, Pet

Introduction: My name is Ouida Strosin DO, I am a precious, combative, spotless, modern, spotless, beautiful, precious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.