Last Updated: 2026-10-26
Copy trading sends another strategy's decisions through a product that creates orders for a follower. The decision-maker may be a person, an algorithm or a mixture. The follower still owns the exposure, account permissions, costs and consequences of missed execution. A leader's displayed return is not a promise about the follower's account.
This guide explains the mechanics using synthetic calculations and public documentation. It consolidates unsupported performance rankings from earlier Binance and OKX guides without claiming that those services are interchangeable. No funded comparison or reliable annual-return range is established. Spot assets can lose their purchase value; derivatives add margin and liquidation risk.
Three participants, different incentives
The leader decides the strategy and may receive a profit share, subscription or other compensation. The platform determines eligible orders, account boundaries and execution rules, and may earn trading fees. The follower selects the relationship and bears their own account result. Check each revenue source rather than assuming that profitable followers are everyone's only incentive.
Copying can concern spot purchases, derivatives or a named bot strategy. Those products can have different sizing, custody and exit mechanics even on the same website. Establish the regional entity and your eligibility before considering a deposit. A visible page or foreign-language guide does not authorize access.
Sizing labels need units
Illustration: a leader with $10,000 of relevant equity opens $1,000 of unleveraged exposure, a 10% allocation. A follower applying exactly that ratio to $500 would plan $50 of exposure; on $2,000 it would plan $200. This is arithmetic, not a universal platform formula. Minimum order sizes, reserves, existing positions and price differences can change what is submitted or filled.
Scroll sideways to see every column. Keyboard: focus the table region and use the arrow keys.
| Setting to inspect | Question that must have a concrete answer |
|---|---|
| Fixed amount | Is the number order notional, margin, quantity or an allocation ceiling? |
| Ratio | Ratio of which balance, measured when, and before or after leverage? |
| Margin | Is collateral isolated, shared with other leaders or shared with manual positions? |
| Synchronization | Which entries, additions, reductions and stops are copied or overridden? |
| Limits | What happens below the minimum or above remaining available capital? |
Do not treat an allocation label as proof that losses cannot affect other collateral. A stop is an instruction, not a guaranteed price or maximum loss. Three separately funded $1,000 allocations at 10x each have $30,000 notional against $3,000 equity: 10x overall, not 30x. All three being long the same asset still creates concentration.
Use the exact product documentation
Checked 26 October 2026: Binance has separate spot-copy instructions and futures-copy FAQ. Both describe sizing modes, but that does not make their account rules identical. Save the confirmation for your selected mode.
OKX's profit-sharing rules and trader-tier page distinguish products and tiers. An advertised maximum is not the selected leader's charge. Record the actual rate, profit definition, withholding and settlement rules shown for your regional product. Do not compare one provider's maximum with another provider's typical rate.
These pages describe mechanisms, not independent evidence of performance or your eligibility. For a specific worked account checklist, see Bybit Classic's follower questions; do not apply Classic instructions to another product.
Compare follower fills, not just two ROI numbers
A leader buying one unit at 100 and selling at 102 earns 2 before costs. A follower buying at 101 and selling at 102 earns 1. Another follower could receive a better price; copying is not guaranteed to be uniformly worse or identical. Skipped entries, partial quantities and different exits require order-level reconciliation.
Save the signal time, follower order ID, requested and filled quantity, average prices, fees, funding and open position. An accepted request is not a fill. An unknown order status must be reconciled before a retry, because the first request may have succeeded. A clean graph of closed trades can hide an open loss.
Put every fee on the correct base
If an example assumes 20 trades of $100 each and an incremental execution cost of 0.15–0.40% per trade, that costs $3–$8 in that month. It is not 3–8% per year. You need an account-capital denominator, a consistent period and an exact definition of whether each $100 includes one side or both.
For a separate synthetic profit-share example, $100 profit subject to a 10% share leaves $90 before any costs not already included. To leave the same $90 with a 30% share requires $90 / 0.70 ≈ $128.57 gross profit. That is about 1.286 times the first gross amount, not three times. It does not establish equal risk, achievable returns or a real provider's fee base.
Check whether the reported ROI already subtracts trading fees or funding. Do not subtract them twice. Ask how losing periods, open trades, high-water marks, withdrawals and changes of leader affect settlement; never assume one universal carry-forward rule.
A record can challenge a story without proving the opposite
At 75% wins and an average winner half the average loss, expectancy is 0.75 × 0.5 − 0.25 × 1 = +0.125 loss units before costs. Those two statistics alone do not prove a martingale or inevitable failure. They also do not establish a durable strategy: tail losses, leverage, omitted positions and selected samples matter.
Use a common dated period, all relevant accounts and changes of strategy, open equity and cash flows. Compare follower results after actual costs. Choose review and stopping criteria before outcomes; a fixed number of weeks or leaders does not certify safety.
Before ending copying, inspect whether the action stops new entries, closes current positions or leaves them under exit-only signals. Then reconcile orders and residual exposure. Do not infer "flat" from a successful button response or assume automatic immediate liquidation of every position.
Disclosure: Educational material, not a recommendation to copy a trader or invest a particular sum. AITR may earn commissions from marked affiliate links elsewhere. The linked documentation and calculations are not personal trading records or proof of future profit.