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Copy Groups

How to create and manage copy groups, control which followers copy trades, and use advanced features like ratios, sync toggles, and cross-symbol trading.

⏱ 8 min readLast updated: March 2026

What is a copy group?

A copy group connects one leader account to one or more follower accounts. Every trade placed on the leader is automatically copied to all active followers in real time — entry, exit, stop loss, and take profit.

👑

Leader Account

Places the original trade

copied instantly to
👤

Follower A

Receives copy

👤

Follower B

Receives copy

👤

Follower C

Receives copy

You can have multiple copy groups — for example, one group for your funded accounts and another for demo accounts. Each group has its own independent settings.

Creating a group

You need at least one broker connection set up before creating a group. If you haven't done that yet, see Brokers & Connections first.

1

Go to the Groups page and click + New Group.

2

Enter a group name. Choose something descriptive — e.g. Apex Funded or TopStep Live. The name cannot be changed later.

3

Select a leader account — this is the account whose trades will be copied.

4

Add one or more follower accounts — these accounts will receive the copies.

5

Click Create Group. The group is activated automatically.

💡 Tip

You can mix accounts from different brokers in the same group — a Tradovate leader copying to ProjectX followers, for example. SyncMyTrade handles the cross-broker contract translation automatically.

⚠️ Important

The same account cannot be a leader and a follower at the same time, or appear in more than one role across different groups simultaneously.

Group statuses

Each group on the Groups page shows one of three status badges.

Active

The group is running. Trades placed on the leader are copied to all synced followers in real time.

Paused

The group is disabled. No trades will be copied until you re-activate it using the toggle on the group settings page.

Not Configured

The group has no leader account assigned. Assign a leader in the group settings before activating.

Automatic status changes

SyncMyTrade handles some state transitions for you automatically:

🗑️

You remove all followers from an active group

Group is automatically paused (no point keeping it active)

You add followers to a paused group

Group is automatically re-activated

🚨

Leader account is breached (hits a risk limit)

Group is automatically deactivated to protect followers

ℹ️ Note

If your group was auto-deactivated after a breach, see Troubleshooting → Group auto-deactivated for how to recover.

Managing group members

To change who is in a group, click the group name on the Groups page to open its settings. Changes are staged as pending — nothing happens until you click Save Changes. You can click Discard to undo all pending changes before saving.

Change leader

Click Change next to the current leader, then select a new account from the modal. The old leader is removed and the new one is set in a single save.

Remove leader

Click the trash icon next to the leader. The group will show Not Configured status until a new leader is assigned.

Add followers

Click + Add Followers, select one or more accounts from the modal (checkboxes), then click Add N Followers.

Remove a follower

Click the trash icon next to the follower account. The removal is staged as pending until you save.

⚠️ Important

Changes to group membership take effect immediately after saving. If the group is active when you save, the engine applies the changes in real time — new followers start receiving copies on the next leader trade.

Copy ratio

The copy ratio controls how many contracts a follower trades relative to the leader. The default is ×1 — the follower copies the exact same quantity. Increasing the ratio lets a follower with a larger account scale up their position size proportionally.

Ratios are set per follower, per contract on the Dashboard. Click into a group on the Dashboard, find the follower in the table, and adjust the ratio using the +/− controls. The range is ×1 to ×10.

RatioLeader tradesFollower receivesUse case
×12 contracts2 contractsDefault — match exactly
×22 contracts4 contractsFollower has a bigger account
×31 contract3 contractsScale up aggressively
×52 contracts10 contractsMax scaling for large accounts

⚠️ Important

If a follower's broker rejects an order due to insufficient margin, reduce the ratio for that follower. See Troubleshooting → Failed Copies for how to read rejection details.

Sync toggle

Each follower has a sync toggle on the Dashboard — one per contract. When the toggle is on (blue), the follower receives copies for that contract. When off (grey), the follower is greyed out and receives nothing — even if the group is active.

Toggle On

Follower is active for this contract. All leader trades for this symbol will be copied.

Toggle Off

Follower is paused for this contract. Row is greyed out. No copies received until toggled back on.

There is also a master toggle at the top of the follower table (the “Synced” count header) that turns all followers on or off at once for the selected contract.

💡 Tip

The sync toggle is the best way to temporarily pause one follower account — for example if it's close to a daily loss limit — without removing it from the group entirely.

Cross symbol

By default, a follower trades the same contract as the leader. The Cross setting lets a follower trade a different but related contract instead. The most common use case is when a follower has a larger account and wants to trade the full-size version of a contract while the leader trades the micro version.

Example

Leader trades

MNQ

Micro Nasdaq (small)

Follower receives

NQ

Full Nasdaq (10× bigger)

The follower trades the full-size NQ contract instead of MNQ. Everything else — direction, timing, TP/SL — is identical.

Rules for cross symbol

MNQ leader → NQ follower (Nasdaq micro to full size — same family ✓)

MES leader → ES follower (S&P 500 micro to full size — same family ✓)

MNQ leader → MES follower (Nasdaq to S&P 500 — different family ✗)

NQ leader → MES follower (Nasdaq to S&P 500 — different family ✗)

To set or change a cross symbol, go to the Dashboard, find the follower in the table, and click the value in the Cross column. A modal will show only valid same-family options. To remove a cross and go back to the same contract as the leader, click the × icon next to the cross value.

ℹ️ Note

The Cross dropdown only shows contracts in the same instrument family as the leader's contract. If no options appear, there is no supported cross for that particular contract.

Dashboard controls

The Dashboard provides manual controls for emergency situations — when you need to act fast on open positions or pending orders.

Flatten All

Immediately closes all open positions across every account in the active group. Also cancels any working orders. Use this when you need to exit everything at once — for example, unexpected news or a risk event.

⚠️ This action cannot be undone. All positions will be closed at market price.

Cancel Orders

Cancels all pending (working) orders across the group without closing any existing open positions. Useful if the leader has placed bracket orders that you want to cancel before they fill.

Flatten Position (individual)

Closes a single open position on a specific account for a specific contract. Available by clicking the Flatten button on individual position rows in the Dashboard. Useful when one follower is out of sync and you want to flatten just that account.

ℹ️ Note

For a full platform-wide emergency stop that flattens all groups at once, use the Emergency Stop button in the top navigation bar.

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