Prop Firm Hedging Rules Across Accounts: What a Copier Does and Does Not Do

Prop firms have a rule about hedging across accounts, and it is the one traders who run several accounts trip over most. It is not about the account mode your broker gives you. It is about holding opposite positions in the same instrument at the same time on different accounts, a buy on one and a sell on another, usually including accounts that are both yours. This page sets out what the rule usually says, what a trade copier does and does not do about it, and the ways opposite positions appear even when you only copy.

What the rule usually says

In the prop-firm rules directory, nearly every firm lists hedging across accounts as not allowed. The wording the firms use is short and broad: hedging the same instrument across different accounts, including two of your own, is a breach. Two firms in the directory soften it, one allowing it on your own accounts provided it is not used to game outcomes, the other banning opposite trades only when they are manipulative. The firm's current rule wins over any summary, including this one, so read it on the firm's own page.

• Across accounts is not within an account. A rule about two opposite trades inside one account is a separate rule. Check which one yours means.
• The same instrument, or a linked one. Some rules name the exact symbol, others a correlated pair. That is for the firm to say, and a copier does not know it.
• Your own accounts count. Some firms say so in as many words, so do not assume your own accounts are exempt. Whether accounts held elsewhere count is for the firm to say.

What a copier does about it

A copier repeats what the source does, in the same direction. Trepeat has no setting that reverses a trade, and it never opens a position the source did not take. So the act of copying cannot, by itself, put opposite positions on your accounts: a buy on the source is a buy on every follower, sized by the repeater's rule, and the follower copy closes when the source position closes. That is the plain answer to the question most people searching this are really asking.

What a copier does not do is look across your accounts. Trepeat does not compare a position on one account with a position on another, does not know what your firm's rule says, and does not stop an order that would break it. It also does not tell you whether a copier is allowed at all; that is the firm's rule on copying, covered in prop firm rules on copy trading.

Where opposite positions come from when you copy

If you get a warning about hedging while you only copy, it is almost always one of four things, none of them the copying itself.

• A trade you placed by hand. Trading manually on a follower account is supported, and the copier leaves your own trades alone. That includes a manual sell on a follower that holds a copied buy, or a manual trade on a second account that opposes what the first one is repeating. Nothing in Trepeat compares them.
• A source that holds both directions. On a hedging account you can be long and short the same symbol at once, and each position is copied as its own position. A follower then holds both. If your firm counts that as hedging, the source was already doing it.
• A netting follower. A netting account merges same-symbol positions into one net position, so a source that holds a buy and a larger sell can leave a follower showing a net sell. What you see on the follower is a sum, not the source's trades. See netting vs hedging accounts.
• Two sources that do not know about each other. Each repeater follows its own source. Two sources that take opposite sides of one symbol each produce their own copies, and nothing compares the two.

What to do before you connect an account

• Read the firm's hedging rule on its own page, and note whether it says across accounts, whether it names the instrument, and whether your own accounts at other firms count.
• Ask the firm in writing if the wording is unclear: whether opposite positions across your accounts are a breach, and whether copying between them changes the answer.
• If you trade by hand on a follower or run more than one source, look at what every account holds in a symbol before you open the opposite side on another. The dashboard shows the open positions of every connected account in one place.
• Keep the hedging rule and the hedging account apart. A hedging account is a mode your broker runs, and a hedging trade copier handles it. The rule is the firm's.

Trepeat is made for prop-firm evaluation and funded accounts; it currently connects the demo servers they run on (MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeLocker). It does not read or enforce any firm's rules. Nothing here is legal advice or guidance about your finances. For how to run several evaluations side by side, see running multiple prop firm evaluations at once.