Investing in Strategies

Once you are logged in with your cTrader ID and you have created your Demo or Live account, you can start investing in the strategies. Demo accounts deal with virtual money only, but you can still use it for copying Live strategies. Live accounts deal with real money but can also be used for copying Demo strategies. Usually, the ability to copy certain types of strategies is regulated by the brokers by providing Investors with two types of membership - Full membership and Demo membership.

• Traders with Full membership can copy any available strategies.
• Traders with Demo membership can copy only free of charge strategies.

Check your account membership type before you start investing in strategies - FM or DM abbreviation in your account preview means Full or Demo membership respectively.

Note that Investors with Hedging accounts only can copy strategies. Copying is impossible for the Netting accounts.

Copying Strategies

Demo strategies are marked with the blue Demo icon and are always Free to copy as they deal with the virtual money only. Live strategies which are marked with the green Live icon, can be Free as well, but mostly, copying them intends trading with the real money and the fees from the Strategy Providers will be charged. Before you start copying a Live strategy, check the fees information which can be found on the Start Copying button.

• M - Management Fee in percentage, which is the annual percentage of Investor’s Equity calculated daily and paid at the end of each month.
• P - Performance Fee in percentage, which applies to the net profit using a high-water mark model and is paid at the end of each month.
• V - Volume Fee in USD, which is based on the volume traded while copying the strategy and charged for opening and closing each position.

1. To start copying, select a strategy you would like to copy and click Start Copying to the right. Alternatively, click on a strategy and use the Start Copying button to the upper right of the Strategy profile page.

2. The Start Copying form will pop-up. In the Start Copying form select your account from the drop-down and specify the amount of funds to allocate from it by typing or using toggles. If only one account is linked to your cTrader ID, then there will be no alternative option for account selection. Make sure that the allocated funds amount is equal to or higher than the Minimum Investment specified below.

Note that if your account leverage is lower then the Strategy Provider’s leverage, then there’s a chance that your margin will not be enough to copy all the trades of this strategy and you may reach the Stop Out earlier than the Strategy Provider.

Hover the cursor over the Information icons to learn the detailed information on the Fees and Conditions before you start.

When done, confirm that you agree to cTrader Terms and Conditions and click Start Copying.

3. Now the allocated funds from your account are converted into a Copy Trading Account and you have started copying the strategy. All the open positions of the strategy have opened for you with the current market rates. The Copy Trading Account is now displayed in the Accounts list under the account you have allocated the funds from.

The green indicator next to the strategy name in the Copy Trading Account preview means that the strategy is being copied. When you stop copying, the indicator becomes orange. Also, the current equity and All Time ROI percentage are displayed in the Copy Trading Account preview. Click on a Copy Trading Account preview to proceed to the Investment profile or use the Settings icon to the right to manage it.

The Copy Trading Accounts can be filtered by their status (Active, Stopped, or Removed by Provider). Click the cog icon to the upper right of the Accounts list and check the required status from the drop-down to show the accounts with this status, or uncheck to hide them from the list.

Managing Copy Trading Account

When copying a strategy, a Copy Trading Account can still be managed. You can dynamically add or remove funds from it, set or remove Stop Equity Loss, or just stop copying. All the options are available from the Copy Trading Account Settings button to the right of the Copy Trading Account preview.

Adding Funds

1. While copying, the funds can be added to the Copy Trading Accounts at any time. To add funds to a Copy Trading Account, click the Settings button to the right of the Copy Trading Account preview and select Add Funds from the drop-down.

2. The Add Funds form will pop-up. Specify the amount of funds to be added to the Copy Trading Account from the account the funds were initially allocated from. You can type the required amount or use toggles. Check the total available amount of funds on your account below, you cannot add more funds than this amount.

Note that when adding funds to a Copy Trading Account, the existing positions can change due to the recalculation of position sizes according to the Equity to Equity ratio.

When done click Add Funds to confirm.

The equity amount will be automatically updated in the Copy Trading Account preview.

Removing Funds

1. While copying, the funds can be withdrawn from a Copy Trading Account at any time. To remove the funds from Copy Trading Account back to the parent account, click on Settings to the right and select Remove Funds from the drop-down.

2. The Remove Funds form will pop-up. Specify the amount of funds you would like to remove from the Copy Trading Account by typing or using toggles. The funds you remove will be transferred back to the account they were allocated from. Check the available for removing amount of funds below, you cannot withdraw more funds than this amount.

Note that if after withdrawal the amount of funds on your Copy Trading Account will be lower than Equity Stop Loss level you have set, then the Equity Stop Loss will be removed automatically. Learn more about Equity Stop Loss.

Note that when withdrawing funds from a Copy Trading Account, the existing positions can change due to the recalculation of position sizes according to the Equity to Equity ratio.

Also, when you remove funds from a Copy Trading Account, a certain amount of unrealized Performance and Management Fees can be realized proportionally to the withdrawn amount. This fee amount will be automatically calculated and displayed to the bottom of the Remove Funds form before you submit your removal.

When done click Remove Funds to confirm your action.

The equity amount will be automatically updated in the Copy Trading Account preview.

Set Equity Stop Loss

1. The Equity Stop Loss for a Copy Trading Account can be set at any time while copying. It allows an Investor to limit losses when copying strategies. Once the equity drops below the specified level, the copying is stopped and all the opened positions copied from the strategy are closed automatically. To set Equity Stop Loss, click Settings and select Set Equity Stop Loss from the drop-down.

2. The Set Equity Stop Loss form will pop-up. Specify the Equity Stop Loss Level - once the equity drops to this level, the Copy Trading Account will stop copying the strategy and close all open positions. You can type the required amount, use toggles or use the slider. Click Set Equity Stop Loss to confirm your action.

Now the Equity Stop Loss is set. To remove it click on the Copy Trading Account Settings, select Remove Equity Stop Loss and confirm your action in the pop-up.

Note that if after removing the funds, the amount of funds on your Copy Trading Account is lower than Equity Stop Loss level you have set, then the Equity Stop Loss will be removed automatically.

Stop Copying

1. An Investor can stop copying a strategy at any time. To stop copying, click on the Copy Trading Account Settings and select Stop Copying.

2. The Stop Copying form will pop-up. In this form, the amount of unrealized Management and Performance Fees that will be charged from you once you stop copying are displayed.

Note that when you stop copying a strategy, all the existing open positions for your Copy Trading Account will be closed.

Click Stop Copying to confirm your action.

The strategy that is not being copied is highlighted with an orange indicator.

Sometimes, when you stop copying a strategy, the market can be closed for some of the copied positions. In this case, the Copy Trading Account will obtain the Stopping status and will be highlighted with the grey indicator. Once the market is opened, the open positions are closed, and fees are charged, the status will change to the Stopped automatically.

Restart Copying

1. An Investor can restart copying a strategy at any time so long as it is still being provided for copying. To restart copying, click on the Copy Trading Account settings and select Restart Copying.

Alternatively, click Restart Copying to the upper right of the Investment profile.

The Restart Copying form will pop-up. If you have enough funds on the Copy Trading Account, then just click Restart Copying and the copying will start again.

2. If your Copy Trading Account balance is lower than the strategy’s Minimum Investment, then you will not be able to restart copying and will be suggested to add funds first. Click Add Funds.

The Add Funds form will pop-up. Specify the amount of funds to be added to the Copy Trading Account. You can type the required amount or use toggles. Check the total Available Funds on your trading account and the Minimum Required amount below. You cannot add more funds than Available Funds and less than Minimum Required. When done, click Add Funds.

Investment Profile An Investment profile contains the detailed information on trading by a Copy Trading Account at the moment. Select a Copy Trading Account from the Accounts list to the left of the cTrader Copy main page to expand the Investment profile to the right.

To the top of the Investment profile the following information is provided:

• Name of the strategy being copied by the account (click to expand Strategy profile)
• Number of the Copy Trading Account
• Copy Trading Account All Time Return of Investment percentage
• Current equity of the Copy Trading Account
• Equity Stop Loss Level (if set)
• Copying status (Started, Stopped, Stopping, or Close Only):
  • Started - copying process is on
  • Stopped - copying process is stopped
  • Stopping - copying process is being stopped. Once the open positions are closed and fees are charged, the status will change to Stopped
  • Close Only - new positions are not being copied, only closing positions are copied. It is only possible due to specific broker conditions. In case you see this status, you should contact your broker for assistance

Note that the above mentioned Add Funds option is also available to the upper right of the Investment profile.

Charts

Each Investment profile contains a selection of charts for the fast and convenient tracking of the trading dynamics while copying the strategy. Scroll down the profile page to view them all. The following charts are available in a Strategy profile: ROI (%), Equity, ROI (Monthly), and Volume Breakdown. Hover the cursor over the charts to view the exact information at the required point.

ROI (%)

The ROI (%) chart displays the time on the X-axis and the profit in percentage on the Y-axis. The chart allows tracking the percentage of income while copying the strategy in relation to the balance from the beginning of copying. You can select a timeframe from 1 week up to All the Time to apply for the chart to the upper left. ROI chart is updated on a daily basis. Check the ROI Calculation section for more details on how ROI is calculated in cTrader Copy.

Equity

The Equity chart plots time on the X-axis and a cash value on the Y-axis. This chart shows the changes in the Copy Trading Account equity in relation to the account balance over the chosen time period.

ROI (Monthly)

The ROI (Monthly) chart displays the income percentage the copied strategy has generated per month since it has started being copied.

Volume Breakdown

The Volume Breakdown pie chart tab displays the Symbols that were traded and their volume, and the percentage that symbol made up of the total volume copied from the strategy.

Details

The basic copied strategy details are displayed in the Details section to the right. Here the copied strategy name, currency, and leverage can be found, as well as the copying conditions.

The Conditions section contains the required Minimum Investment amount and the fees the Investor will be charged for copying.

• Minimum Investment - a minimum amount of funds required to be allocated from a trading account to a Copy Trading Account to start copying the strategy. The funds cannot be withdrawn from a Copy Trading Account if it results in equity falling below the Minimum Investment while the strategy is being copied.
• Performance Fee - an amount charged for copying the strategy on Net profit made using a “high-water mark” model.
• Management Fee - an amount that a Strategy Provider charges Investors for managing their funds.
• Volume Fee - an amount an Investor is charged per one million of volume copied.

Please find detailed information on the cTrader Copy Fees.

Tables

The Investor’s positions, history, transactions and trading statistics are displayed in the tables with configurable columns. Drag and drop the columns headings to replace the columns. Right-click on a column heading to enable or disable the required columns.

Positions

In the Positions table, the Investor’s current open positions are listed.

This is a standard configurable cTrader Positions table with an additional Unrealized Volume Fee column. This column displays the amount of the Volume Fee to be charged by a Strategy Provider when closing the position. To enable Unrealized Volume Fee column, right-click on any column heading and check Unr. Volume Fee in the drop-down.

Note that a follower cannot manage or close the positions from the Investment profile. All the positions can be closed at once only when the strategy copying is stopped.

History

The History table lists all the deals that have filled or attempted to fill the orders during copying the strategy.

This is a standard cTrader History table, with an additional Volume Fee column. This column displays the amount of Volume Fee charged by a Strategy Provider. To enable Volume Fee column, right-click on any column heading and check Volume Fee in the drop-down.

Transactions

The Transactions tab contains the details of all the Copy Trading Account Deposits and Withdrawals, as well as the fees charged, with the following details provided:

• ID - Transaction unique ID
• Time - exact time of a Transaction
• Type - type of Transaction (Withdrawal or Deposit)
• Amount - amount of a Transaction
• Note - detailed explanation of a Transaction (e.g. a deposit from an account, a fee etc.)

Trades

All the copied trades statistics are listed in the Trades table. The trades info can be filtered by the standard time period from 1 day to All the Time, or by a custom time frame specified.

Below the filters you can find the following Trades statistics with the division by All Trades, Long Trades and Short Trades:

• Net Profit - a Net realized Profit and Loss of all the copied trades.
• Profit Factor - a ratio of the Total Net Profit divided by the Total Net Loss.
• Commision - a total amount of commission paid to the broker.
• Max Balance Drawdown - a maximum amount of balance drawdown based on the end of day balance.
• Total Trades - a total number of trades taken.
• Winning Trades - a total number of the winning trades.
• Largest Winning Trade - a closing deal with the largest positive result.
• Losing Trades - a total number of the losing trades.
• Largest Losing Trade - a closing deal with the largest negative result.
• Average Trade - an average profit for all trades.
• Sharpe Ratio - a ratio to measure risk-adjusted performance.
• Sortino Ratio - an alternative to the Sharpe ratio, using downward deviation in place of standard deviation.
• Total Pips Won - a total number of pips won minus the pips lost by the Investor.
• Average Pips Won Per Trade - Total Pips divided by the number of trades.
• Average Trade Duration - a total length of time that the account had an open trade divided by the number of trades.
• USD Volume Traded - a total amount traded in USD.

Symbols

The Symbols tab lists all the symbols a Copy Trading Account is trading based on the closed positions considering the statistics of Trades, Pips, Net Profit, Won and Lost percentage in the corresponding columns. You can filter the list of symbols by standard time period from 1 day to All the time or by a custom time frame specified.

Summary

In the Summary section, the basic financial statistics of a Copy Trading Account is displayed. Here you can view the following:

• Account Age - how long a Copy Trading Account exists for.
• Starting Balance - an account balance when it started following the strategy.
• Total Net Profit - a total Net profit of the Copy Trading Account.
• Deposits - total deposits in the Copy Trading Account.
• Withdrawals - total withdrawals from the Copy Trading Account.
• Ending Balance - a current balance of the Copy Trading Account.