Copy trading 101
The copy trading dictionary: key terms in plain English
Plain-language definitions: leader, follower, multiplier, copy group, OCO bracket, flatten, follower protection, trading day and more.
- Leader
- The account you trade. Its fills are copied.
- Follower
- An account that copies the leader.
- Copy group
- One leader and its followers.
- Multiplier
- How much bigger or smaller a follower trades than the leader. ×2 means twice the leader's size.
- Fill
- An order that actually executed at the exchange, as opposed to one that is only working.
- Fill-driven copying
- Copying only what filled on the leader, not orders that may never fill.
- Micro / Mini
- Smaller and larger versions of the same futures contract, for example MNQ (Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100) and NQ (E-mini Nasdaq-100).
- Bracket / OCO
- A take-profit and a stop-loss linked so that when one fills, the other is cancelled ("one cancels other").
- Flatten
- Cancel working orders and close the position, leaving the account flat.
- Follower protection
- Closing a follower that still holds a position after the leader has gone flat.
- Daily loss limit
- The most an account may lose in one trading day before it stops trading.
- Trading day
- For CME futures, the day that resets at 17:00 Chicago time.
- Round trip
- One trade from flat to flat. Replica counts trades this way.
- Prop firm
- A company that lets traders trade its capital after passing an evaluation.
- Evaluation / funded account
- The test account you pass first, and the account you trade afterwards.