How to copy trades between two MT4 accounts

What you need

• The master’s login and server, with either password. The read-only investor password is enough, because nothing is traded on the master.
• The follower’s login and server, with the trading password, because the copies are placed on it.
• Nothing running on your side. The copier connects to each broker’s trade server itself, so neither terminal has to stay open. If an expert advisor trades the master, that advisor still needs its own terminal. See copying without a VPS.

Every MT4 account can be a follower: MT4 keeps each order as its own position with its own ticket, so separate master trades stay separate copies.

Set it up step by step

1. 1Sign up for the free SnapCopier beta.
2. 2Add the master: choose MT4, search for your broker’s server, and enter the login with the investor password.
3. 3Add the follower with its trading password. For somebody else’s account, send an invite link instead, so they connect it themselves and you never see their password.
4. 4Link the follower to the master and choose its lot rule: in proportion to balance (the default), to equity, a multiplier or a fixed lot.
5. 5Switch on stop loss and take profit copying if you want it. It is off by default, so the follower closes when the master closes.
6. 6Open a small trade on the master and check the copy in the copy log.

MT4 details the copier takes care of

• Partial closes. MT4 closes the order and reopens the rest under a new ticket. The copier recognises the new ticket as the same trade, closes the same share of the copy, and keeps following the rest, so a later close still finds its copy.
• Pending orders. On the master’s server, Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop and Sell Stop are copied, moved and deleted with the master’s; if the master’s order fills and the follower’s does not, the follower opens at market by default. At another broker only the fill is copied, as a market trade, unless Pending orders is set to Always.
• Copies after a disconnection. After a reconnect the follower is compared with its master. Missed opens, closes and stop changes are repaired, and a copy that is already there is not opened again.
• Trades from anywhere. A trade placed by hand, by an expert advisor or from the mobile app is copied the same way, because the copier follows the account rather than a terminal.

What to check yourself

• Different brokers, different symbols. EURUSD at one broker can be EURUSD.m or EURUSDm at another; these are matched automatically, and you can map a symbol by hand. See symbol names across brokers.
• Different account sizes or currencies. The proportional lot rules compare the two balances in the follower’s currency. A cent account is converted too: see cent and standard accounts.
• The copy’s own magic number and comment. Each copy carries the master’s ticket in its comment and the link’s own magic number, not the master’s. An expert advisor on the follower that manages trades by magic number will not treat the copies as its own.
• Your broker’s rules. Some brokers and prop firms restrict copying between accounts. Read their terms before you connect.

Questions