Copy trading is an allocation decision disguised as a convenience feature.
What you are actually buying when you copy a trader: 1. Their position sizing, scaled to your balance — not their skill. A trader who is right 60% of the time but sizes 40% of equity per trade will still ruin a copier during a normal losing run. 2. Their drawdown, in full. Published ROI is the headline; maximum drawdown and the length of the recovery are the numbers that decide whether you actually stay copied through it. 3. Their time horizon. Copying a scalper means paying their fee frequency on your balance.
Diligence that takes ten minutes and filters out most of the field: - Track record length: under 90 days is noise, not signal. - Max drawdown vs your own tolerance. If their worst month is −35% and you would quit at −15%, you will exit at the bottom and realise their loss without their recovery. - Follower AUM concentration: a strategy that works on $50k often does not on $5M. - Fee structure: profit share is charged on gains, typically per settlement period, so a chop-then-recover sequence can be charged twice.
Copy trading is not passive. It is manager selection, and manager selection is a skill.
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