Lately I’ve noticed people searching the net asking exactly what CopyTrader is, so I thought I’d do my best to give a succinct description of the forex trading platform and what it does, providing the most relevant details to give the new user a clear picture. Here goes…
CopyTrader is a function of eToro’s Openbook platform, which enables retail (individual) traders to copy the trades of other traders in the Forex (FX) currency markets, and commodities markets (Gold, Silver, Oil).
The system allows you (through OpenBook) to select traders to copy via a very simple process. There are two main ways of selecting traders. Firstly, you can either just click the ‘copy’ symbol on a traders ‘info’ in the ‘trading feed’ which shows who is buying or selling an ‘instrument’, such as the USD/EUR currency pair, or gold.
Secondly, you can search the rankings on OpenBook to find the best performing traders, which is the preferable option. By doing it this way, you can search for traders by certain criteria, and also have a look at their performance. Once a trader has been selected (out of a maximum of 5), the process of copying them is extremely straightforward, although obviously you will need to have opened an account (either free ‘demo’, or funded).
For inexperienced traders, it is a way to emulate the trades of potentially more successful trades, and a demo account can be opened, so that even if the trades of the more experienced don’t work out, then nothing has been lost other than a small bit of time.
CopyTrader has been going since mid 2011, has a lot of users, and whilst in beta form, improvements are on the way, (this doesn’t mean that is is problematic, all software is in a continuous state of improvement). You can either trade using the online Webtrader 2.0 platform, or there is a downloadable version (Windows only).
From a beginner’s perspective, the platform is remarkably easy to use in comparison with other Forex and Commodities platforms. This is eToro’s selling point – simplicity. Of course, this does in no way guarantee successful trading, however, it does take away a lot of the pain of learning to navigate and customize some of the archaic software that other trading platforms offer.
The copy process is free as well, which is a bonus as to my knowledge it is the only free one out there (and I’ve looked hard!). By unleashing CopyTrader on the retail trading world eToro have thrown down the gauntlet to the other major trading platforms, and while they may be kicking the behinds of their software developers, and as yet, no-one has come up with anything close to it. Anyway, check it out for yourself, you can deposit, but you don’t have to, just open a demo account. If you have any further questions that need answering about Copytrader please leave a comment below.