How to copy trades on MT5: from one MetaTrader 5 account to another
Updated
Copying trades on MT5 means that every trade on one MetaTrader 5 account, the master, is repeated on one or more other accounts, the followers. The accounts can be your own, at the same broker or at different brokers, or they can belong to people who follow your trading.
This guide covers the two common ways to do it, what each account needs, and how to set it up with SnapCopier, a copier that runs in the cloud. Copying between MT4 and MT5 has its own guide: how to copy trades between MT4 and MT5.
Two ways to copy trades on MT5
| Copier in the terminal | Cloud copier | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | An expert advisor on the master’s terminal passes the trades to one on each follower’s terminal | A service connects to each broker’s trade server and follows the master account directly |
| What has to keep running | Every terminal, usually on one computer or VPS | Nothing on your side |
| Where the accounts can be | Wherever the terminals can run | At any brokers |
| Trades placed from the mobile app or another terminal | Copied while the master’s terminal runs | Copied: the copier follows the account, not a terminal |
A copier in the terminal is a good fit for two or three accounts on a computer that is on anyway. The more accounts you have, and the more the copies matter while you sleep, the more a cloud copier saves you. Copying without a VPS explains the difference in more detail.
What each account needs
- The master: its login, server and either password. The read-only investor password is enough, because nothing is ever traded on the master.
- Each follower: its login, server and trading password, because the copies are placed on it.
- A hedging follower. An MT5 account is either hedging or netting. A netting account merges trades into one position per symbol, so it cannot hold separate copies of separate master trades. The master can be either. See hedging vs netting accounts.
The two accounts can be at the same broker or at different ones. Between brokers, symbol names, contract sizes and prices can differ; the copier handles the first two, and copying between brokers covers what to check.
Set it up step by step
- 1Sign up for the free SnapCopier beta.
- 2Add the master: choose MT5, search for your broker’s server, and enter the login with the investor password.
- 3Add the follower the same way, with its trading password. If the follower is someone else’s account, send them an invite link instead, so they connect it themselves and you never see their password.
- 4Link the follower to the master and choose how it sizes its copies: in proportion to balance (the default), to equity, a multiplier or a fixed lot. The settings show a sample calculation before anything is copied.
- 5Decide whether stop loss and take profit are copied. They are off by default, so the follower closes when the master closes.
- 6Open a small trade on the master and watch the copy appear in the copy log, with the reason for anything that was skipped.
What is copied on MT5
- Market orders, sized by the follower’s lot rule. See how lot sizes are calculated.
- Pending orders, all three MT5 kinds: Limit, Stop and Stop Limit, including moves, deletes and fills, when the follower is on the master’s server. If the master’s pending order fills and the follower’s does not, the follower opens at market by default. On another server only the fill is copied, as a market trade, unless Pending orders is set to Always.
- Partial closes, as the same share of the copy, and full closes.
- Stop loss and take profit, when you switch them on, either at the master’s exact prices or at the same distance from the follower’s own entry.
- Trades already open when you link a follower are skipped by default and can be taken over. See connecting with open trades.
Reverse copying, which opens the opposite direction, swaps limit and stop orders. A Stop Limit order has no opposite, so it is not copied in reverse.
Masters, followers and how many of each
- One master, many followers. Each follower has its own lot rule and limits, or inherits the defaults you set on the master.
- One follower, several masters. A follower can copy more than one master at the same time.
- An account is either a master or a follower. A follower is not copied on to a third account, so chains and loops cannot happen.
Questions
Can I copy trades between two MT5 accounts at the same broker?
Yes. The accounts can be at the same broker or at different ones; each account connects to its own broker’s trade server.
Do I need MetaTrader 5 running to copy trades?
Not with a cloud copier. If your master trades with an expert advisor, that advisor still needs its own terminal somewhere; the copying does not.
Are trades from an expert advisor or the MT5 mobile app copied?
Yes. The copier follows the master account itself, so it does not matter where a trade was placed. A magic number filter lets you copy only some advisors, or leave them out.
Can a netting account copy trades?
Only as the master. A follower has to be a hedging account, so that every copy stays its own position.
Try it with your own accounts
Connect a master and a follower and watch the first copy appear in the log.
Join the free betaMore guides
- Copy trades between MT4 and MT5How to copy trades from MT4 to MT5 or back: the two ways to do it, in the terminals or from the cloud, what differs between the platforms and what to check.
- Hedging vs netting accountsMT5 accounts are either hedging or netting. What the difference is, why a follower has to be a hedging account, and what a netting master can be used for.
- Lot sizing when copying tradesBalance ratio, equity ratio, multiplier or fixed lot: how a trade copier sizes each follower’s trade, with worked examples, rounding and margin protection.