Forex guide · 7 min read · Updated 8 October 2026

How to copy trades between MT5 accounts

Three ways to copy trades from one MetaTrader 5 account to another: a local copier EA, a hosted cloud copier, or by hand. What each costs, what can go wrong and how to size each account.

If you trade more than one MetaTrader 5 account (a couple of funded accounts, a challenge and your own account, say) you soon want every trade you take on one account to appear on the others. That is what a trade copier does: it watches one account (the master) and opens, changes and closes the same trades on the others (the followers).

Way 1: a copier EA on your own computer or VPS

You install MetaTrader 5 once per account, all on the same machine, and run a copier Expert Advisor on each one. The master writes its trades to a shared file and every follower reads it, several times a second.

• Pros: fast (followers fill within a second or so), cheap, and your logins never leave your machine.
• Cons: the machine has to stay on. A laptop that sleeps stops copying, which is why most people use a Windows VPS.

Way 2: a hosted (cloud) copier

You connect each account on a website and the provider runs the terminals for you. There is nothing to install and nothing to keep switched on.

• Pros: no VPS, and it works from your phone.
• Cons: you hand the provider each account's login (for the master, the read only investor password is enough), it costs a little more, and copies can be a touch slower.

Way 3: by hand

Fine for one extra account and a slow strategy. With two or more accounts, or anything time sensitive like a London open entry, you will miss fills and make sizing mistakes.

Size every follower from its own balance

Copying the master's lot size is the most common mistake. A 0.50 lot trade is 1% on a 50,000 account but 2% on a 25,000 one. A good copier sizes each follower by risk %: it reads the master's stop loss and works out the lots that risk, say, 1% of that follower's balance. Our position size calculator shows the maths.

Protect each account on its own

• A daily loss stop a little inside the account's rule (3.5% on a 4% daily limit, for example).
• A maximum loss stop inside the overall drawdown. See trailing drawdown explained if yours moves.
• A late trade filter, so a follower that reconnects after a minute does not open a trade at a much worse price.

Check the rules first

Many prop firms allow copying between your own accounts, some only within their own firm, and some not at all. Read the rules or ask support before you connect a funded account. Our guide on whether copy trading is allowed on prop firms covers what to look for.

The Order Block Copier does all of this for MT5: risk % sizing from the master's stop, a daily and maximum loss stop on every follower, and late trade protection. Lite runs on your own VPS; Cloud and Premium are hosted for you.