Journaling Copied Trades: What to Record Per Copy
One entry for the decision, and a line on each copy only when it differed. A worked example prices a fill difference in R, with made-up fills.
3 Nov 2026 · 5 min read
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Keep one entry for the decision, and on each copy write down only what differed from the plan. A copied trade has one set of reasons (yours) and several sets of fills (each broker's). The reasons go in your normal entry. The fills only need a line when a copy did something you would want to remember: a different price, a different time, or no trade at all.
What to record for each copy
| Item | Worth recording? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fill price against the plan | When it is more than a pip or two away, or on a tight stop | It is the cost of copying, and a tight stop makes the same distance a bigger share of 1R. |
| Time of the fill | When it is noticeably late | A late fill in a fast market explains a price difference without a mystery. |
| Cause, if you can tell | Yes, in a few words | Spread, speed, a news minute or the broker. Patterns show over months. |
| Did not copy, and the reason | Always | A leg that never opened looks like a flat result unless you write it down. |
| Closed by hand instead of by the copier | Always | It is a decision of its own and belongs in the notes, graded separately. |
A worked example: pricing the difference in R
Made-up inputs, arithmetic only. The source buys at 1.1000 with a stop at 1.0980, so 1R is 20 pips. Four copies follow. For a buy, a fill above the source price is worse for the copy, so the adverse distance is the fill minus the source price, and dividing by the 20 pips of risk turns it into R.
| Copy | Fill | Adverse (pips) | Cost in R | Note to write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copy A | 1.1000 | 0 | 0.00R | Matched |
| Copy B | 1.1002 | 2 | 0.10R | Wider spread at the follower's broker |
| Copy C | 1.1005 | 5 | 0.25R | Filled a few seconds later, during a quick move |
| Copy D | none | n/a | n/a | Did not copy: follower offline |
Copy C starts 0.25R behind the plan before the trade has moved. The same 5 pips on a 5-pip stop would be a full 1R, which is why the line is worth writing on short-stop trades and rarely worth writing on wide ones. Copy D has no cost to compute, and its note is the whole record.
Do not over-record
- A one-tick difference on a wide stop is not an event. Writing it on every copy turns the journal into a log nobody reads.
- Do not rate a copy's execution as your own. The grade is for your decision. A late fill is a note, not a mark against the trade.
- Do not expect the numbers to match. Each follower's broker sets its own price, as why follower fills differ explains, and trade copier latency lists the delays in order.
Fitting it to your own method
What counts as noteworthy depends on how you trade. A scalper on a 5-pip stop will want every copy's fill price and time. A swing trader on a 100-pip stop may only need the did-not-copy line. Decide your threshold once, for example "write it if the fill is worse by more than 5% of 1R", and write the threshold on the first page of the journal so you apply it the same way in month six.
What Trepeat's journal holds
We're working on a free journal and a backtester, with no date yet. Today Trepeat is a trade copier for MT4, MT5 and cTrader, currently on demo accounts, and you can add notes, a grade and screenshots to any copied trade once it closes, with a calendar of your results.
One entry sits on the trade you took, and the journal list expands to show each account's leg. The note field holds up to 4,000 characters, which is where the lines above go. See the journal documentation, and journalling across several accounts for the decision-versus-leg split.
Written by the Trepeat team.