Copy trading — Mirroring trades automatically between accounts, which firms permit across a trader's own accounts and prohibit between different people.
How copy trading works in prop trading
The distinction firms care about is whose decisions are being copied. Running a copier across several accounts you own is permitted at many firms, and is how experienced traders scale beyond one account's limits — usually with an aggregate contract cap across all copied accounts. Copying someone else's trades, or having someone trade your account, is prohibited almost everywhere.
Firms detect this by comparing fill timestamps and sizes across accounts, and cross-firm detection exists too through shared risk-monitoring providers. Groups placing identical trades across many funded accounts are the specific behaviour these rules target, because the aggregate position the firm ends up hedging is far larger than any individual account suggests.
Key points
- Copying between your own accounts is often allowed; copying between different people generally is not.
- Firms that permit self-copying normally cap total contracts across all copied accounts, not per account.
- Detection uses timestamp and size correlation, and can span firms through shared risk providers.
- A violation typically closes every account involved, not just the one that triggered the review.
Also known as
- trade copier
- mirrored trading
- account copying
Frequently asked questions
Can I copy trade across multiple prop firm accounts?
At many firms yes, provided every account is yours and you stay inside the aggregate contract limit. Firms that allow it usually say so explicitly. Copying between accounts belonging to different people is prohibited at essentially every firm.
How do prop firms detect copy trading?
By correlating entry and exit timestamps, sizes, and instruments across accounts. Near-identical fills within milliseconds across accounts registered to different people are the pattern that triggers review, and several firms share risk data with each other.
Put this into practice
Copy trading is described here as a plain-language educational definition. Firms, platforms, and account programs may apply different conditions or calculations. Verify the current official terms before using this definition to make an account decision.