How to Choose a Trade Copier: 9 Questions to Ask
There is no single best trade copier. Nine questions, on where it runs, what it copies, how it fails and how it bills, pick the one that fits your accounts.
14 Oct 2026 · 7 min read
Choose a trade copier by asking nine questions before you compare prices: where it runs, which platforms it connects, whose trades it copies, how it sizes each copy, what it leaves out, what happens when a copy fails, which accounts it accepts, how it holds your credentials and how it bills. The answers, set against your own accounts, pick the tool. This guide goes through each question and gives Trepeat's answer beside it, so you can hold any other copier to the same list.
What is the best trade copier for MT4, MT5 or cTrader?
The best trade copier is the one whose answers to the nine questions below match your accounts. There is no single winner, because the questions cut differently for each trader: a copier that is right for three terminals on one always-on PC is wrong for accounts on two platforms and a laptop that sleeps. The table is the short version.
| Question to ask | Why it decides things | Trepeat's answer |
|---|---|---|
| Where does it run? | Sets what you install and what must stay on | On our servers. Nothing to install |
| Which platforms? | Your accounts may not share one | MT4, MT5 and cTrader, any direction |
| Whose trades? | Your own, or another trader's | Your own, between your own accounts |
| How is each copy sized? | Accounts differ in size | Multiplier or equity ratio, per repeater |
| What is left out? | No copier copies everything | Stop loss, take profit and pending orders |
| What if a copy fails? | A silent miss leaves accounts out of step | Kept on the trade with its reason, and alerted |
| Which accounts? | Demo or live, and the account's own rules | Accounts you own. See question 7 |
| Who holds the login? | A cloud copier has to hold it | Encrypted in a vault. No password on cTrader |
| How does it bill? | Per account, per tier, or licence plus VPS | $15 per account per month |
1. Where does the copier run?
A copier runs in one of three places: your own PC, a rented VPS, or the provider's servers. Where it runs sets what you install, what has to stay switched on, and who fixes it when it stops. Ask what happens to copying when your computer sleeps.
Trepeat runs on its own servers. There is no Expert Advisor, no plug-in and no VPS, and copying continues with your computer off. Cloud vs local (VPS) trade copier compares the three places.
2. Which platforms does it connect, and in which directions?
A copier only helps if it reaches every account you hold, as a source and as a follower. An installed copier works inside the terminals, so it covers the platforms it has a piece for, and those terminals usually have to run on one machine. Ask for the exact pairs: MT4 to MT5, MetaTrader to cTrader, and back.
Trepeat connects MT4, MT5 and cTrader accounts and copies between them in any direction. See copying between MT4, MT5 and cTrader, and copying between cTrader and MetaTrader on different computers for the one-machine limit.
3. Whose trades does it copy?
Some tools repeat your own trades onto your other accounts. Others let you follow another trader. They are different products with different rules, and the name "copier" is used for both. Decide which one you are looking for before you compare anything else.
Trepeat is the first kind only. Every account is connected under your own login, and the Terms require the accounts to be yours. Trade copier vs copy trading vs signals sets the kinds side by side.
4. How does it size each copy?
Sizing is where copiers differ most in daily use, because two accounts are rarely the same size. Ask whether size can follow each account's equity, whether you can cap a single order, and what happens to a result smaller than the follower broker's minimum.
In Trepeat each repeater uses a multiplier, from 0.01× to 100×, or an equity ratio. You can set a maximum volume per order and choose how a quantity is rounded to the follower's volume step. Where two brokers define a lot differently, the quantity is converted. A result under the follower's minimum is skipped, not raised to it. The arithmetic is in position sizing when copying trades.
5. What does it copy, and what does it leave out?
No copier copies everything, so read the list of what is left out as closely as the feature list. Stop loss, take profit, pending orders and positions that were already open are the usual gaps.
Trepeat copies opens and closes, in full or in part, as market orders. It leaves out:
- Stop loss and take profit. They are not placed on the follower. The copy closes when the source position closes.
- Pending orders. When one fills on the source, that fill is copied as a market order.
- Positions opened before you pressed Run. Only trades opened while the repeater is Running are copied.
6. What happens when a copy fails?
Every copier fails sometimes: a broker refuses an order, a symbol has a different name, a connection drops. What matters is whether you find out. Ask where a failed copy is shown, whether you are told, and whether the tool ever acts later without asking.
Trepeat keeps a failed or skipped copy on the Trades page with its reason, and raises an alert naming the symbol and the follower account. A copy that keeps failing is emailed. Each repeater has an order confirmation limit, 5 seconds by default, after which a copy counts as failed. If a close is missed, Trepeat alerts you and does not close the copy later. Trade copier not copying lists the usual causes.
7. Which accounts does it accept, and what do the account's rules allow?
Two separate things decide this: what the copier connects, and what your broker or prop firm permits. Check the first on the copier's site and the second in the account's own rules. A copier cannot answer the second for you.
Trepeat currently connects demo-environment accounts only, the type prop-firm evaluation and funded accounts usually run on, and refuses a live account at connection. Its copies are labelled in the order comment and reach the broker from a data-centre address. What your prop firm sees sets that out, and prop-firm rules on copy trading lists what to ask a firm.
8. Who holds your login, and how?
An installed copier leaves your password in your own terminal. A cloud copier has to hold what it connects with, so ask how it is stored and how you take the access away.
In Trepeat a MetaTrader password is stored with authenticated encryption in a vault and is never shown again. MetaApi, our connection provider for MetaTrader, also holds the login. cTrader needs no password at all: you grant access on cTrader's own site and can withdraw it there.
9. How does it bill?
Copiers bill per account, per tier of accounts, or as a licence with a VPS on top. Work out the cost for the number of accounts you run, and include the machine an installed copier needs. Free trade copiers covers what a free one costs in other ways.
Trepeat charges $15 per account per month with every feature included and repeaters unlimited. The smallest subscription is 2 accounts, a source and a follower. The free trial is 1 week on up to 3 cTrader accounts, and MT4 and MT5 accounts connect as soon as you subscribe. Pricing and the free trial has the detail.
Where Trepeat fits
Trepeat fits a trader who copies their own trades between accounts on MT4, MT5 or cTrader and does not want a machine to look after. You connect the accounts, create a repeater, set its sizing and press Run. The cloud trade copier page shows the product, and your first repeater walks from two connected accounts to a first copied trade.