What is Follower?
Quick answer
A follower (or copier) is the person who copies a strategy provider’s trades into their own account. The follower keeps custody and control of their own brokerage account, sets their own sizing and risk limits, and can pause or stop at any time. It is the counterpart role to the strategy provider.
The follower is the other half of copy trading: the person doing the copying. Where the strategy provider supplies the trades, the follower chooses to mirror them into their own account, on their own terms.
What a follower does
A follower picks a strategy provider to copy, and that provider’s trades are routed into the follower’s own brokerage account, sized to the follower’s settings. Crucially, the follower stays in control: they set the sizing multiplier, exposure and daily-loss limits, and whether copying is automatic or manual, and they can pause, adjust, or stop at any time. Their money stays in their own account throughout.
Why it matters in copy trading
The follower role is what makes copy trading different from handing money to a manager. Instead of delegating discretion over pooled funds, the follower keeps custody of their own account and self-directs, choosing which strategy to follow and applying their own risk limits. That control, plus the ability to stop instantly, is central to how copy trading is structured. It does not remove market risk: a follower can lose money if the trades they copy lose.
Frequently asked questions
Back to the full copy trading glossary, or read the complete guide to copy trading.