How do you copy trade options automatically?

Connect a broker that can execute options orders, hold the right options approval on your account, subscribe to a trader who trades options, and set your sizing and risk limits. When the trader fills an options order, a matching contract order is sized to your limits and placed in your own account.

Which brokers can execute copied options trades?

Through RelayTrades, options are available on E*TRADE, Webull, tastytrade and Moomoo. Public and Wealthsimple connect for stocks and ETFs. You also need your own account approved for the options level the strategy involves.

Are option spreads copied?

No. Multi-leg orders such as vertical spreads are detected and skipped, because filling one leg without the other would leave you with exposure the trader never took. A trader who mainly trades spreads is not a good fit for copying.

Why was my options copy skipped?

The most common reason is sizing. Contracts are whole units and your cap rounds down, so a cap smaller than one contract resolves to zero and the copy is skipped. Other reasons include a risk limit being hit, a multi-leg order being excluded, or a slippage-protected limit that the market moved past before it could fill.

Do I need options approval to copy options?

Yes. Options approval is granted by your broker on your own account, and what you are approved to trade is what can be copied into it. No platform can route an order your broker will not accept.

Is copying options riskier than copying stocks?

The risk profile is different and often sharper. Options can move quickly, lose value to time decay, and expire worthless, and spreads are frequently wider, which increases slippage. Size conservatively and only copy strategies whose risk you understand.

How to Copy Trade Options Automatically

By The RelayTrades Team · Reviewed for accuracy · Updated September 18, 2026 · 7 min read

Educational information, not investment advice. See our editorial standards.

Quick answer

To copy options trades automatically you need three things: a broker that can execute options orders through the platform, options approval on your own account, and a trader who actually trades options. After that the mechanic is: the trader fills an order, the fill is detected, a matching contract order is sized to your limits and routed to your broker. Two details decide whether it works in practice. Contracts are whole units, so a cap that is too small rounds to zero and the trade is skipped rather than placed. And multi-leg orders such as vertical spreads are not copied at all, because copying one leg of a spread would leave you with exposure the trader never took.

Part of the complete guide to copy trading.

Automatic options copying is mechanically the same as copying stock, with three extra things that decide whether it works: your account permissions, how contract sizing rounds, and what happens with multi-leg orders. Here is the whole path, end to end.

What you need before anything routes

A broker that can execute copied options orders. Through RelayTrades that means E*TRADE, Webull, tastytrade or Moomoo. Public and Wealthsimple connect for stocks and ETFs.
Options approval on your own account, at the level the strategy requires. Your broker grants this, not the platform, and what you are approved for is what you can copy.
A trader who trades options, and whose style you understand well enough to judge.
An account type that suits the trader’s frequency. Options proceeds settle the next business day too, so a cash account following an intraday options trader will run out of settled cash.

The mechanic, step by step

Connect your brokerage account through SnapTrade, so your broker login is never shared with RelayTrades.
Subscribe to a trader and set your sizing: a multiplier, or a fixed dollar or percentage cap per trade.
Set your safeguards: maximum exposure, concurrent-position limit, daily-loss cap and slippage protection. These are enforced server-side before an order is sent.
Choose automatic routing or manual approval. Manual approval shows you each trade before it goes.
When the trader fills an options order, the contract is identified, your size is computed in whole contracts, your limits are checked, and the order is placed in your own account.

Sizing in contracts is not sizing in dollars

A share position can be scaled smoothly. Contracts cannot. Your dollar or percentage cap has to resolve to a whole number of contracts, and it rounds down. If your cap is smaller than the price of a single contract, the result is zero contracts and the copy is skipped, not placed. That is the correct behavior, because the alternative is silently exceeding the limit you set, but it means a cap set too tight on an expensive contract will quietly take you out of a strategy. If copies are being skipped, this is the first thing to check.

Multi-leg spreads are not copied

A vertical spread is one position expressed as two legs, and it only makes sense if both land. If a copy engine treats a spread as separate orders, it can fill your long leg and miss the short one, which leaves you holding exposure the trader never had, at a risk profile they never chose. RelayTrades detects multi-leg orders and skips them rather than copying part of one. That means a trader who works primarily in spreads is not a good fit for copying, and it is better to know that before you subscribe than to discover it in your position list.

Options can lose value quickly and can expire worthless. Copying automates execution; it does not reduce the risk of the strategy you are copying.

Your fill will not be the trader fill

A copied order is placed after the trader’s order fills, because detection cannot begin until there is a fill to detect. On a fast-moving contract the price can move in that gap, and options spreads are often wider than stock spreads, which widens it further. Slippage protection exists for this. You set a tolerance, and a copied order that would otherwise go in as a plain market order is placed with a price limit inside that band, so it cannot fill beyond the price you accepted. The trade-off is real and worth stating: a limit that the market has already run past does not fill, so protecting yourself from a bad price sometimes means not getting the trade. Expect your fills to differ from the trader’s fills, and set the tolerance at the point where the trade stops being one you wanted.

What automation does not remove

Time decay still runs against a long option every day it is held. A position that expires out of the money is a total loss of the premium. Short options carry assignment risk. Automation changes who places the order, not what the instrument does. Only follow options strategies whose risk you can describe out loud.

The bottom line

Automatic options copying is reliable when the pieces line up: an options-capable broker, the right approval level, a single-leg trader, a sizing cap large enough to buy a whole contract, and an account type that matches the trading frequency. RelayTrades is automation software, not a broker-dealer or adviser. This is general information, not investment advice. All trading involves risk, you can lose the full premium on an options position, and past performance is not indicative of future results.