How Many Traders Should You Copy?
June 21, 2026 · 5 min read
Quick answer
There is no single right number, but many copy traders follow roughly two to five strategies rather than just one. The goal is diversification: if you copy only one trader, your results are entirely tied to their decisions and drawdowns. Copying a few non-correlated strategies spreads that risk. The limit is your account size and total exposure: each strategy needs enough capital to size positions sensibly, and your combined exposure must stay within your risk limits. Quality matters more than quantity.
Part of the complete guide to copy trading.
Once people decide to copy trade, the next question is usually how many traders to follow. There is no magic number, but there is a clear principle behind the answer: diversification versus dilution. Copy too few and you are exposed to one person’s bad week; copy too many and you spread your account too thin to size any position sensibly.
Why one is risky
If you copy a single trader, your entire result is tied to their decisions, their style, and their worst drawdown. Even a genuinely skilled trader has losing streaks. Concentrating everything in one strategy means a single bad stretch defines your experience. For most people, that is more risk than they intend to take.
Why too many is also a problem
- Each strategy needs enough capital to size positions meaningfully; spread across too many, position sizes get tiny.
- Overlap: copying five traders who all trade the same handful of large-cap stocks is not real diversification.
- Combined exposure can quietly exceed your risk limits if several strategies buy at once.
- It gets hard to monitor and understand what is happening in your account.
A sensible range
For many people, two to five well-chosen strategies is a reasonable range, enough to diversify away single-trader risk, few enough to size and monitor properly. What matters more than the exact count is that the strategies are genuinely different (different styles, instruments, or time horizons) so they do not all win and lose together. A good question to ask is whether your group would still hold up if one of them had its worst month.
Diversification is about non-correlation, not just count. Three strategies that all trade the same way in the same names behave like one. Two that behave differently in different conditions are real diversification.
Let your limits decide the number
In practice, your account size and risk limits set the ceiling. RelayTrades lets you set sizing per strategy plus account-wide exposure and concurrent-position limits, enforced server-side before any order is placed. Start with one or two strategies you understand, keep total exposure within your limits, and add another only when you have the capital to size it properly and the bandwidth to monitor it.
Frequently asked questions
Related reading
How to Choose a Copy Trading Strategy to Follow
Choose a copy trading strategy by reviewing its full track record (including drawdowns), the instruments it trades, its style and frequency, and how well it fits your goals.
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 moreCopy Trading for Beginners: How to Start Safely
A beginner’s guide to copy trading: how it works, what to set up first, and the risk controls to keep on so you can start small and learn safely.
Read moreOr read the complete guide to copy trading and browse the glossary.
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