How to Start Copy Trading: A Step-by-Step Guide

Getting started with copy trading is quicker than most people expect, the setup itself takes only a few minutes. The part that deserves real thought is which strategy you follow and how you size it. Here is the whole process, step by step, the way it works with RelayTrades.

Step 1: Connect your own brokerage account

Copy trading runs through your own brokerage account, so the first step is connecting one. RelayTrades connects through SnapTrade, a secure account aggregator, which means your broker login is never shared with us and your money never leaves your account. If you do not have a supported brokerage account yet, you open one with the broker directly first.

Step 2: Choose a strategy or trader to follow

Next, pick a strategy to copy. This is the most important decision you make, because the strategy’s results, scaled to your account, become yours. Look past the flashiest recent returns: review the full track record including its worst drawdowns and how consistent it has been, and make sure the instruments it trades (stocks, ETFs, or options) match your account and your comfort level.

Step 3: Set your sizing and risk limits

Before anything is copied, you set the rules. Choose a sizing multiplier or a maximum position size so a large account’s trades scale down to yours, and set your safeguards, maximum exposure, daily-loss caps, and slippage protection. RelayTrades enforces these server-side before each order, so a trade that would breach a limit is capped or skipped rather than blindly mirrored.

Step 4: Choose auto-copy or manual approval

Decide how hands-on you want to be. In auto-copy mode, qualifying trades route to your account automatically within your limits. In manual approval mode, you get a prompt to accept or decline each copied trade before it is placed, useful if you want a final say. You can use auto for some strategies and manual for others.

Step 5: Monitor, and keep the kill switch handy

Once it is on, copied trades appear in your account and your dashboard. Check in periodically, watch how a strategy actually behaves in your account, and remember you are always in control: you can pause automation, switch a strategy to manual, or hit a one-tap kill switch that halts everything and flattens open positions instantly.

You stay in charge the whole time: your money never leaves your own account, every copied trade respects your server-side limits, and a one-tap kill switch stops everything at once.

A quick pre-start checklist

• A funded brokerage account you can connect (RelayTrades links it through SnapTrade).
• A strategy you have actually reviewed, including its drawdowns, not just its best months.
• Sizing you are comfortable with, start conservative; you can scale up later.
• Risk limits set: maximum position size, exposure, and daily-loss caps.
• A plan for stopping: know where the manual-approval toggle and kill switch are.

That is it. Copy trading does not remove market risk, the strategy you follow can lose money, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Start with money you can afford to risk, keep your limits on, and treat it as a way to automate a strategy you understand.