Tradecopia monitors your leader account for executed trades and sends matching order instructions to your follower accounts in real time.
You might need this article if:
You want to understand how Tradecopia actually copies trades step by step
You're seeing fill price differences between your leader and follower accounts and want to know if that's normal
A follower missed a trade and you want to understand where in the process something could have gone wrong
You're new to Tradecopia and want to understand how the replication system works before configuring anything
The two phases of replication
Every copied trade passes through two distinct phases:
Phase | Who controls it | What can affect it |
Order replication | Tradecopia | Connection stability, application state, copy group configuration |
Order execution | Your broker | Liquidity, market conditions, broker execution engine |
Tradecopia is responsible for the first phase. Everything after the order instruction leaves Tradecopia is handled entirely by the broker.
What Tradecopia does
When a trade executes on your leader account, Tradecopia detects the fill event and sends a matching order instruction to each follower account in your copy group. The follower's broker receives that instruction and processes it through its own execution engine.
Tradecopia does not place trades independently — it mirrors broker events. It detects that a trade happened on the leader and tells each follower's broker to do the same thing.
What correct replication looks like
Replication is working correctly when the trade count and order actions match between your leader and your followers. If the leader opens a long position on NQ and each follower opens a corresponding long position on NQ, replication has worked — regardless of differences in fill price, execution speed, or commission.
Fill price differences between accounts are normal, expected, and are not a sign that something went wrong. They reflect differences in each broker's execution engine, liquidity routing, and the conditions at the moment each order arrived. Two brokers receiving the same instruction at the same moment will often fill at slightly different prices.
Cross-broker execution differences
When you replicate across different brokers — for example, a Rithmic leader with a Tradovate follower — each broker processes orders through its own independent infrastructure. This can produce:
One broker filling while another does not, particularly on limit orders
Different fill speeds between brokers
Partial fills on one broker while another fills fully
Small fill price differences, especially in fast-moving markets
These are properties of operating across multiple broker environments. They are not replication failures.
TopStepX followers: When TopStepX is used as a follower, entries are sent as market executions after the leader fill is detected. Fill prices on TopStepX followers will naturally differ from the leader and from followers using other brokers. This is how the TopStepX integration works by design — it is not a bug.
What Tradecopia does not control
How fast or at what price your broker fills an order
Whether your broker accepts or rejects an order
Liquidity availability at any given price level
Prop firm rules applied to your follower accounts
Commission structures and exchange fees
Internet connectivity between your machine and the broker
If a follower order was rejected by the broker, the cause is always on the broker side. See Why was my follower's order rejected by the broker? for a diagnostic guide.
The app requirement — desktop plan
On the desktop Pro plan, Tradecopia runs on your local machine. The application must be open and connected throughout your trading session. If the app is closed, your computer sleeps, or the connection drops, replication pauses — trades placed during that window cannot be copied retroactively.
Pro+ Lite and Pro+ users: This does not apply to you. On cloud plans, your Tradecopia instance runs on Tradecopia's infrastructure continuously — your local machine and connection are not factors in replication. If you were previously on the desktop plan, this is one of the key differences. See Why didn't Tradecopia copy my trades when the app was offline? if you have switched from desktop and experienced this issue before.
For a full list of what must be in place for replication to work, see What does Tradecopia need to copy trades?.
Related articles
What is Tradecopia? — product overview
What does Tradecopia need to copy trades? — four conditions required for replication to run
Why was my follower's order rejected by the broker? — if a follower missed a trade with a rejection error
Why have some of my follower accounts stopped receiving trades? — if specific followers have stopped receiving trades
Why did my follower accounts miss trades that were placed on the leader? — desktop plan app-offline scenario