Trading · 105 / 127 · 2 min
Copy trading
You follow someone else's clicks. They can be paid to be followed. Your fill is later than theirs.
The leader can be paid to be followed. Your price is worse, and your fee is real.
A worked case
A top row on a leaderboard is a year of gains. A crowd copies it. The leader is paid a share of the fees. The next month the leader stops, or was a market maker leaving. The copies pay the round trip.
The leader
A leaderboard shows a past result. The person at the top may be paid by the platform, or paid in volume, or already leaving.
Your click
The copy arrives after them. The price has moved. The fee is charged again. If they can withdraw from the account you funded, the leaderboard was a costume.
Social trading
Social trading lets one customer's trades be copied into other customers' accounts. The platforms that popularised it take fees, and leaders can be paid. The copy is not the original fill. It is a later order, in a different size, with another fee.
A leaderboard is a picture of the past. It does not show whether the leader can touch the money you deposited, or whether the platform can. Those are the questions. The rank is not.
Read it yourself
These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.
Apply the check
Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.
The platform, and the leader if they take a cut.
The platform, for how copying works and who can withdraw.
The leader, if they can pull the account. The fee, either way.
Check yourself
Write it in your own words. The course's answer opens after that. Nothing is sent.
After this you can ask who is paid for the copy, and who can withdraw.