How-to guide

How to copy trades on Tradovate

Last reviewed 17 July 2026

Copying trades between Tradovate accounts — whether at a single prop firm or across multiple firms — comes down to two main paths. Tradovate's own built-in Group Trade feature covers same-firm copying at no cost. For cross-firm setups or per-account risk control, an external trade copier is required. This guide walks through both approaches: what each covers, how to set them up, and when one is enough versus when you need to go further.

Two paths to copying Tradovate trades

Before choosing a setup, understand the two categories:

If all your accounts are at a single prop firm and you only need quantity scaling, Group Trade is often enough. If you run accounts across multiple prop firms, or you need per-account daily loss caps, an external copier is the standard answer.

Path 1: using Tradovate's built-in Group Trade

Group Trade works within a single Tradovate login — typically meaning all accounts held under one prop firm. Here's the setup:

  1. Log into your prop firm's Tradovate portal. Use the URL provided by your prop firm (Apex, MyFundedFutures, Tradeify, and others each have their own Tradovate portal).
  2. Open the account switcher. In the Tradovate web interface, this is usually in the top-right — showing your currently selected account.
  3. Enable Group Trade for your accounts. Select which account is the leader and which accounts are followers. Set a quantity multiplier for each follower (1x for identical size, 0.5x for half size, and so on).
  4. Save the configuration. The setup persists across sessions; you don't need to re-enable each time you log in.
  5. Trade normally on the leader. Orders placed on the leader account will mirror to the configured follower accounts automatically.

This is free and requires no external software. It's the baseline option and covers many single-firm setups adequately.

What Group Trade doesn't do: it doesn't work across different prop firm logins, doesn't offer per-account daily loss caps, doesn't automatically quarantine an account when it hits its limit, and doesn't offer detailed trade tracking or R-multiple analysis. For those, you need an external copier.

Path 2: using an external trade copier

An external copier is required when Group Trade isn't sufficient. Typical reasons:

External copiers come in two architectural categories:

For most futures prop firm traders, the local pay-once category is the strongest fit — lower total cost over multi-year use, credentials stay local, execution independence from vendor uptime. For a full comparison of the two architectures, see the Tradovate trade copier guide.

Setting up an external trade copier

The setup process for a local desktop copier typically looks like this:

  1. Install the application. Download the copier's installer for your operating system (Windows for most Tradovate-native copiers). Run and complete the install.
  2. Authenticate with Tradovate. The copier will ask for your Tradovate credentials for each account you want to include. For prop firm accounts, these are the credentials provided by your prop firm's Tradovate portal.
  3. Designate the leader account. Choose which account is the master — the one where you place trades manually.
  4. Add follower accounts. Add each account that should mirror the leader. Set per-follower multipliers and any per-account risk caps.
  5. Test with a small order. Place a tiny position on the leader (one micro contract) to confirm the copy fires correctly to each follower. Verify the multipliers work as expected.
  6. Configure risk rules. Set per-account daily loss caps to match each firm's rules. Configure lockout or panic-stop features if available.
  7. Trade normally on the leader. Orders on the leader will mirror to all configured followers with your specified multipliers and risk rules.

Total setup time is typically 15-30 minutes for a small setup (2-5 followers), longer for large multi-firm configurations.

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Related references: for the exact policy each major Tradovate prop firm publishes on cross-firm copy trading, see the prop firm rules matrix. For choosing between local and cloud copier categories, see the Tradovate trade copier guide. For firm-specific guides, see trade copier for Apex Trader Funding and trade copier for Tradeify. For a comparison of pay-once trade copier options, see the one-time payment trade copier guide. For copiers that handle cross-firm setups, see cross-firm trade copiers for Tradovate.

Frequently asked questions

Does Tradovate have a built-in trade copier?

Tradovate's Group Trade feature copies orders between accounts that share the same brokerage login. It works within a single prop firm but cannot mirror trades across accounts at different firms. It also scales position size by a fixed quantity ratio only, without per-account daily loss caps or per-follower risk control. For cross-firm copying or per-account risk control, an external trade copier is needed.

How do I copy trades between two Tradovate accounts at the same prop firm?

Log into your prop firm's Tradovate portal, open the account switcher, and enable Group Trade. Select the leader account and the follower account(s), configure the quantity multiplier per follower, and save. Orders placed on the leader account will mirror to the followers automatically. This is free, works within a single prop firm login, and doesn't require additional software.

How do I copy trades between Tradovate accounts at different prop firms?

Tradovate's built-in Group Trade only works within a single prop firm login. To mirror trades between accounts at different prop firms (for example, an Apex account to a MyFundedFutures account), you need an external trade copier that supports multiple broker logins. This requires installing separate software; local desktop copiers and cloud-based copiers are the two main categories.

Is copy trading allowed by Tradovate prop firms?

Most Tradovate-supporting prop firms permit copy trading — including cross-firm copying — with variations by firm. Apex, MyFundedFutures, Tradeify, Lucid Trading, Phidias, and Alpha Futures explicitly allow cross-firm copy trading. Take Profit Trader permits same-firm copying but prohibits cross-firm. Verify each firm's rules directly before setting up a cross-firm configuration.

Can you trade multiple accounts on Tradovate at the same time?

Yes. Tradovate supports holding multiple accounts under one login, and you can place orders on each of them. What Tradovate does not do by default is mirror a trade from one account to the others automatically across different logins. Within a single prop firm login, Tradovate's built-in Group Trade feature copies orders between your accounts using a fixed quantity ratio. Across accounts at different prop firms — which means separate Tradovate logins — you need an external trade copier that can hold multiple broker sessions at once.

How do you manage multiple prop firm accounts?

Traders running several funded or evaluation accounts typically manage them in one of three ways. Manually placing each trade on each account works for two accounts but breaks down beyond that within a single session. Tradovate's built-in Group Trade handles accounts under one prop firm login with quantity scaling only. An external trade copier handles accounts across different prop firms and adds per-account risk controls — the important one being a daily loss cap per account that quarantines only the account that hits its firm's limit, leaving the others trading. For multi-firm setups, the per-account risk handling matters more than the copying itself.

Can I trade two Tradovate accounts at the same time?

Yes. You can hold and trade two or more Tradovate accounts at the same time. If both accounts sit under the same prop firm login, Tradovate's free Group Trade feature can mirror orders between them with a quantity ratio. If the two accounts are at different prop firms, they are separate Tradovate logins and Group Trade cannot bridge them — that requires an external trade copier that maintains both broker sessions simultaneously.

Is there a free trade copier for Tradovate?

Yes, within limits. Tradovate's built-in Group Trade feature is free and copies orders between accounts that share the same brokerage login, using a fixed quantity ratio per follower. It covers basic same-firm multi-account setups at no cost. What it does not do: mirror trades across accounts at different prop firms (those are separate logins), enforce per-account daily loss caps, or automatically quarantine an account that hits its firm's limit. If your setup is one prop firm and you only need quantity scaling, the free option is genuinely sufficient. Paid copiers become relevant for cross-firm setups and per-account risk control.

Do I need a VPS to copy trades on Tradovate?

A VPS is not required. Local desktop copiers run on your own machine and copy trades between your accounts without any cloud infrastructure. A VPS becomes useful only if you want the copier to run 24/7 without keeping your desktop powered, or if you want execution independence from your local internet connection.

About this guide

Maintained by Syncopy, a local-first desktop trade copier we're building for Tradovate futures prop firm traders. Pre-launch. Syncopy handles the cases Tradovate's built-in Group Trade doesn't cover — cross-firm copying, per-account daily loss caps with auto-quarantine, R-multiple tracking, and multi-account risk management — while staying Tradovate-native and running entirely on your own machine.

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syncopy.app · Privacy · 2026