Most of us have heard the concept of copy trading, which is currently gaining a lot of popularity and momentum.
As said, it is an effective way to copy the trades of more experienced traders and can help new traders to learn about the market. But, it could also end up copying other trader’s mistakes. ZuluTrade, eToro, AvaTrade and Duplitrade have good number of pro traders on their platforms as displayed on their websites, so what are the key takeaways on how to choose an expert signal provider? Plus do you think copy trading is the best option for a beginner to choose?
No, I do not.
I never had much success with it… Kind of luck of the draw though
I had tried it once a long time ago. Because I thought that this could be seen as an alternative to robotrading. Since I do not trade myself, but someone else provides the strategy and the opening of the trades.
Unfortunately, it had not convinced me, because I could not understand the strategy and did not know why the trader I followed this or that made.
To your question: what kind of beginner do you mean? For which topic? There are several approaches to be successful on the stock market.
If you mean that he learns something from it to trade himself later? No, one learns this only if one trades himself! When I look at exactly how the stock market works. What it reacts to in which situation and when. You can’t learn something like that if you let others do the work. You are not an architect just because you had an architect build your house for you. 
Is it good for someone who wants to become a robot trader later?
No, not here either. Trading is done by a human being with emotions. I hardly know the strategy he or she follows. I trust someone I know nothing about.
That is the biggest problem for me. It is advertised with simple and convenient, etc… But in fact, a beginner can not explain to me for what technical reasons he follows this or that. Because he has many stars? Because so many follow him? Herd instinct is the decision-making tool? For me, this is honestly nothing.
The stock market is not easy, and unfortunately you still have to invest a lot of time if you want to be successful in it.
So my conclusion is: No, for a beginner this is nothing at all.
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I think so!
It depends how an individual wants to earn. If you don’t have the time to trade, select a good trader and start with small amount. If you have time and can risk, its better to trade.
But there are people around who are working 9-5, and are looking for a side income source, I think copy trading is best for them. Requires minimum attention and pretty easy to start with and a good option.
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You are so right! For people who want to go full swing forex in future, copy trading is not for them. So basically I think beginners here need to be categorized into people looking to learn actual forex trading and people looking for quick income.
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Copy trading can be profitable if you get successful traders to copy. So, it is important to choose the right trader. On zulutrade, I prefer to trust only those traders whose ROI for the past 6 months is more than 30% and drawdown is less than 8%.
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It’s a good way of learning about the market without taking complete risk.
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Copy trading can be a good start, provided you know something about the market. Choosing the right trader to follow is a critical part of copy trading. And you also ought to remember, losing all your money is as much a probability in copy trading as it is in manual trading.
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Depends on the trader you follow, best is to see the past record of the traders, view their performance of last few weeks, and then choose a trader after due diligence.
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Copy trading is a good strategy only for those who have at least a basic understanding of the market. When I started copy trading with zulutrade, I checked a few things like the trader’s overall performance and compared his risk appetite with mine. I also checked whether his trading strategies are aligning with my trading style and goals. It helped me look at how the trades were placed and the working of the market, but it wouldn’t be possible had I not covered my basics right.
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I have been successfully trading in forex for some time. Copy trading sounds good, but have some doubts, will my account be restricted on the platform if others copy my trade and lose money? By this I mean, will copy trading platforms ban my account or restrict any trading strategies?
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It really depends on the platform you’re using. Many brokers allow copy-trading, but make sure to ask yours specifically before so that your account won’t get suspended for mirrored trading activity and/or copy trading.
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Agreed! It depends on the platform. Some like etoro, set the copy stop loss at 40%, whereas zulutrade, which restricts traders’ accounts if loss reaches 700 pip or more in 6 months, so it mandates the use of stop loss. Also, you can check out other copy trading platforms to know about their copy trading guidelines for traders.
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Beginners can surely learn a lot from the traders they copy their trades from. But somehow, it will make them too dependent on others. And when it comes to long-term trading, copy trading is a big NO for me. It’s useless to become a trader when you don’t learn any skills.
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I don’t like the idea of copy trading that much. What is the point in making profits when you have to share them with someone else?
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It’s not easy to find a good trader to copy trades. But once you do, trading gets a lot simpler. I suggest taking notes from the trades so that when you are trading on your own, you are already prepared with your strategy.
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Copy trading can give you a good start. But when you wish to stay in the long run, you will have to work on yourself as a trader. Learn to take the responsibility of your career because only you can keep up with your trading goals.
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Thanks for the tips! Just wanted to know for how long have you been copy trading with zulutrade?
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I started 6 months back. Did demo side by side. Thinking of going as a trader on zulu now.
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