Can You Make Money Copy Trading?
June 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Quick answer
Yes, you can make money copy trading, but it is not guaranteed, and many copy traders lose money. Your outcome depends mostly on the skill of the trader you follow, how you size each copied trade relative to your account, the fees involved, slippage, and the risk limits you set. Copy trading is a way to automate a strategy you have chosen, not a guaranteed income, so treat it like any other form of trading: real upside, real risk.
Part of the complete guide to copy trading.
The honest answer is yes, it is possible to make money copy trading, and also yes, it is possible to lose money. Copying a trader does not change the fundamental fact that trading carries risk. What copy trading does is automate the execution of a strategy you have chosen, so your results track that strategy (scaled to your settings) minus fees and slippage.
What actually determines whether you profit
- The trader you follow: their skill and consistency are the single biggest factor. A losing strategy copied perfectly still loses.
- Your sizing: how each copied trade is scaled to your account. Over-sizing relative to a small account amplifies both gains and losses.
- Fees: any subscription cost to follow a strategy, plus your broker’s commissions, eat into returns, especially on small accounts.
- Slippage: the difference between the signal price and your actual fill. Fast-moving or thinly traded instruments can fill worse than expected.
- Your risk settings: position-size limits, daily-loss caps, and exposure limits cap your downside, but can also cap a runaway winner.
- Market conditions: no strategy works in every market. Past performance is historical and not indicative of future results.
Setting realistic expectations
Be wary of any service promising guaranteed or "risk-free" returns, those do not exist. A realistic view is that copy trading can save you time and let you follow strategies you find compelling, but your account can still go down. Treat any track record as historical information, not a promise.
How to improve your odds
You cannot control the market, but you can control your process. Review a strategy’s full history (including its worst drawdowns, not just its best months), start with sizing that you are comfortable losing, diversify rather than copying a single high-risk trader, and keep hard risk limits in place. With RelayTrades, those limits (maximum position size, total exposure, daily-loss caps, and slippage protection) are enforced server-side before any copied order is placed, and a one-tap kill switch lets you stop everything at once.
Copy trading is a tool to automate a strategy you understand and have chosen deliberately. It can be profitable, but it does not remove risk, so size your positions and set your safeguards accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
Related reading
Is Copy Trading Worth It? An Honest Look
Copy trading can be worth it if you choose strategies carefully, size positions to your account, and keep risk controls on. It is not free money. Here’s an honest breakdown.
Read moreCan You Lose Money Copy Trading?
Yes, you can lose money copy trading. Copying a trader does not remove market risk. Here’s how losses happen and how risk controls help contain them.
Read moreCopy Trading Risks and How to Manage Them
The main copy trading risks are market risk, over-sizing, slippage, over-concentration, and over-trusting a track record. Here is how to manage each one.
Read moreOr read the complete guide to copy trading and browse the glossary.
Copy trade on your own broker, with safeguards you control.
Connect your account, follow the strategies you choose, and keep position-size limits, slippage protection, and a kill switch in your hands at all times.
Get startedRelayTrades provides software and automation support, not investment advice or capital management. All trading involves risk; past performance is not indicative of future results.