What is copy trading? A definition and five settings

What is copy trading? Per the SEC’s investor.gov glossary, certain digital platforms let investors copy the trades of other investors in certain types of investments. In practice a follower allocates funds and the platform reproduces a lead trader’s positions in proportion. The UK’s FCA classifies copying without manual input from the account holder as portfolio management.

This is an evergreen explainer, and the hub for this site’s posts on the mechanics. On 18 October 2026 this desk read the SEC glossary entry, the FCA’s copy-trading page and the copier help pages of cTrader Copy, Bybit and Bitget. Platform rules below are those pages’ words on that day. Products and availability vary by jurisdiction, and nothing here says any platform is authorised.

What is copy trading, in the regulators’ words?

The investor.gov glossary entry is a single sentence: platforms “enable investors to copy the trades of other investors”. It is a definition, not a ruling, and it says nothing about who must be registered to offer the service.

The FCA’s copy-trading page, last updated 27 July 2026 per the page, goes further. It classifies copy trading “as portfolio or investment management where no manual input is clear from the account holder”, which carries the standard obligations of authorised management, and says retail traders typically copy through CFD platforms. Where the client must act before each transaction, it is not portfolio management, though advice or order transmission may still apply. The FCA supports the view in question nine of ESMA’s MiFID Q&A, which treats copy and mirror trading as an automatic execution of trade signals. Our post on whether copy trading is legal takes that classification jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

Per the FCA, copy trading “typically involves setting a proportion of funds” to execute the copied trader’s trades, while mirror trading “simply implements fixed strategies based on trading preferences”. Social trading is the wider setting: the FCA describes the CFD platforms retail traders copy through as ones that integrate information sharing and social media with online CFD trading. Copying is the step where the platform places the orders for you. eToro CopyTrader and ZuluTrade are familiar copy products; this desk did not read their pages for this post and prints no figures for them.

The five settings every copy product defines

The FCA notes that platforms vary in their minimum copy amounts and in the proportions between copied and copying accounts, and that some allow Stop Loss orders. Those differences sit in five settings.

Setting	The question it answers	One platform’s rule, read 18 October 2026	More here
Allocation	How big is each copied trade?	cTrader Copy: investor’s equity / provider’s equity x provider’s volume	(this post)
Minimum	What does it take to start?	Bybit Copy Trading Classic: 100 USDT; a Master Trader may set more	Minimums compared
Lead’s pay	How is the trader you copy paid?	Bybit Copy Trading Pro: profit share up to 30%, calculated every 7th day, only above the high-water mark	High-water marks
Entry gap	What if price moves before your copy fills?	Bitget futures: an optional slippage limit skips the copy if price moved beyond the set share (example 1%) of the elite trader’s fill, on listed pairs	(this post)
Lead stops	What happens to your open copies?	cTrader Copy: when the provider modifies or closes positions, the same actions apply to your copy account	When a lead stops

Read the rows as questions to put to any product, not as a ranking. Each answer is one platform’s rule and another may set it differently. The pay row is where the house question applies most: measured over what period, counting whom, after which costs. Bitget’s own settings page adds that it does not endorse the parameters elite traders recommend. The cTrader Copy FAQ says fees can be performance, management and volume fees in any combination, and that some strategies are free.

Questions readers ask

What’s the catch with copy trading?

The losses copy too. A copy reproduces the lead trader’s positions in proportion to your allocation, so a drawdown lands on your account at the same scale, and any profit share comes off the gains. The FCA notes that retail copying typically runs through CFD platforms. A leaderboard return also says nothing on its own about the window, the survivors or the costs behind it.

How does copy trading actually work?

You choose a lead trader and allocate funds, and the platform places orders on your account whenever the lead trades. cTrader Copy, per its help page, moves allocated funds into a separate copy-trading account and sizes each copy by the ratio of your equity to the provider’s. Minimums, fees and what happens when the lead stops are set by each platform.

Is copy trading the same as mirror trading?

Not quite, per the FCA. Mirror trading simply implements fixed strategies based on trading preferences, while copy trading typically sets aside a proportion of funds to execute another trader’s trades. The FCA supports ESMA’s view that both are an automatic execution of trade signals under MiFID, and says both have led to people-based portfolios that invest in other investors.

A definition says what the service is, not whether the trader at the top of a leaderboard will stay there. Copy trading transfers risk, not skill: copied losses are yours in full, and past performance does not predict future results. This explainer recommends no platform or trader and is not financial advice.