Best Copy Trade Forex Brokers

Want to skip to the answer? Benzinga's top pick for the best copy trade forex broker is eToro.

eToro is at the forefront of the social trading revolution. Established in 2007, the company primarily supplies contracts for difference (CFDs) to traders looking to place bets on stocks, indices, currencies, commodities and cryptocurrencies. 

Did you ever glance at a classmate’s answers when you were taking a test in school? Unlike in school, copying isn’t considered cheating when it comes to copy trade forex. In fact, it’s perfectly legal and many brokers offer copy trading platforms to clients. If you want to make money trading forex but don’t have the skills or time to learn the specifics, copying the trades of a professional is something you can consider.

6 Best Copy Trading Forex Brokers

Benzinga has chosen the five best copy trading forex brokers available today. Use these five as a starting point for your research, but remember, not every trader has the same needs.

• Best Overall for Copy Trading: eToro
• Best for MetaTrader Users: Vantage FX
• Best for Minimum Deposit: RoboForex
• Best for International Traders: OctaFX
• Best for Social and Copy Trading: Zulu Trade
• Best for Multiple Platforms: Blackbull Markets

1. Best Overall for Copy Trading: eToro

Touting itself as the largest social trading platform on the planet, eToro is the giant in the space with clients in 140 different countries. eToro has a firm handle on the stock, ETF, commodity, currency and cryptocurrency markets.

Major forex pairs are limited to 30:1 leverage, while minors get 20:1, commodity CFDs get 10:1 and you can also get 5:1 on stock CFDs or 2:1 on crypto CFDs. (Note: U.S. traders only have access to cryptocurrencies.)You’ll need $200 to open a copy trading account.

Social trading takes shape in a couple of ways on eToro. First, there’s the manual option. Simply search through the vast collection of trader profiles and sift through their stats. If you want to copy entire accounts, you might like CopyPortfolios. CopyPortfolios lets you mimic the portfolios of top traders or create a basket of different securities under one trading strategy. eToro’s social network provides every member with a newsfeed, which also allows you to chat with other users. Few brokers provide a network of experts as large as eToro’s.

2. Best for MetaTrader Users: Vantage Markets

Vantage FX is an Australian-based ECN forex broker which offers deep liquidity and lightning-fast trade executions. ECN stands for electronic communications network and it’s a series of interconnected banks and liquidity providers that match buyers and sellers of different currencies.

Unlike a market maker, an ECN broker doesn’t act as a counterparty to your trades, it finds a suitable seller on its complex network. ECNs are more transparent, have lower spreads and execute trades far more quickly than market maker brokers.

Vantage FX uses ZuluTrade and MyFXBook Autotrade for its social trading functions. Using ZuluTrade, clients have access to 120 different forex pairs and CFDs with leverage up to 500:1. It costs $200 to fund a social trading bankroll, but you can access ZuluTrader right from your MetaTrader 4 platform and choose from over 10,000 traders to follow.

MyFXBook Autotrade is a program for mirroring different traders’ portfolios based on strategies. Low-performing accounts are screened out of the platform so only traders with repeated success can be copied. As an added bonus, no extra download is required; you can trade right on your browser.

3. Best for Minimum Deposit: RoboForex

RoboForex is based in Belize City, Belize and has a lot of benefits for the traders who use it. In fact, more than one million traders make use of the platform in more than 169 countries. The platform has low fees and supports multiple trading platforms.

For instance, traders can use the MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms as they trade forex and CFDs. Unfortunately, U.S. traders cannot use this platform.

4. Best for International Traders: OctaFX

OctaFX was founded in 2011 and is part of a group of global entities. It currently does not allow U.S. traders, but the traders who use the platform can open an account with only $25 as long as they use a credit card to fund the balance.

Traders will experience a low-cost platform (MetaTrader 4) and be able to use OctaFX’s proprietary web and social trading platform. The platform is regulated in Cyrus and has tier 2 regulations.

5. Best for Social and Copy Trading: Zulu Trade

Zulu Trade is the oldest social and copy trading platform and serves 2 million traders across the globe. Traders can follow successsful traders and copy their plays and learn from them. The platfrom is regulated in the EU, Mauritius, and Japan, and unfortunately, because it is not regulated in the U.S., the platform is not available to U.S. traders.

Brokers set their own fees on Zulu Trade, so your fees will be determined by them. In other words, you may pay commissions or spreads, depending on the broker. Likewise, deposit and withdrawal fees are determined by brokers.

6. Best for Multiple Platforms: Blackbull Markets

If you want a variety of trading platforms, Blackbull Markets is a good bet. The platform offers seven trading platforms including MetaTrader 4 and 5. It also offers educational resources for every level of trader. If you're a beginner trader you will find educational resources and tools to help you get in the game, and if you're an advanced trader, you will find what you need to up your game.

Blackbull Markets also offers 0.0 pips, 500:1 leverage, and an average execution speed of 20 ms.

Copy Trading and Forex: The Basics

Copy trading is considered an offshoot of social trading. Social trading is a concept in which novice traders quickly increase their forex or stock market earnings by imitating seasoned traders. To do it, you might seek out a few experts whose trading style or strategy you want to copy. From there, you can use one of two methods:

Copy Trading

When you copy trade forex, you set up your account to copy certain orders from one or many expert traders. Copy trading actually involves linking part of your account to the account of the expert you want to imitate.

Mirror Trading

Mirror trading does not involve linking your account to an expert’s account. Instead, you set up your account to completely copy (or “mirror”) all trades from an expert.

To better explain how copy trading works, let’s invent an expert trader — Frank Forex. Frank Forex has a solid history of great returns in currency trading. Frank’s strategies are complex, so instead of learning them yourself, you hitch your wagon to Frank’s cart.

To copy trade with Frank Forex, you’ll link a portion of your account (minimum and maximum amount will differ by broker) to Frank’s account. When Frank makes a trade, your account makes the same trade in proportion. Most brokers have the option of copying certain types of trades or all the trades made in the linked portfolio. You should carefully review the rules for copy trading before proceeding as unsuspecting traders could get into trouble when they do not filter their settings properly.

If Frank Forex has a down year, you can choose to unlink your account with his and move on to Cindy Currency, the next high-rising trader you’d like to emulate. You should think of copy trading just like shopping for a renewable household item—when a better deal comes along, you should switch.

What to Look for in a Copy Trade Forex Broker

Copy trading works differently depending on the broker you choose, so make sure you do your research. The platforms vary, but the best copy trade forex brokers do have a few things in common. Look for the following features when making your choice:

Low Minimums

Low minimums are always a good feature to have in a forex broker, but we aren’t talking about minimums to open an account or execute a trade. Each broker has a minimum amount that must be put into an expert’s portfolio in order to copy their trades. Make sure your broker doesn’t have minimums that force you into copying only one or two other traders.

Easy-to-Use Platform

One of the appeals of copy trading is you don’t need to do the research yourself. So why would you want to spend a lot of time troubleshooting trading software? Pick a broker with a simple interface and fast trade execution.

Diverse Network of Traders

Diversification isn’t just for your 401(k). Social trading is a brewing phenomenon and a strong user base is the key to any social network. This is even more critical when you copy trade forex. Anyone can scroll through a list and copy the traders with 90% win rates in the current month. You want to be able to tap into a diverse network of traders who are practicing different strategies in different markets.

Remember that copy trading doesn’t just net you free money. Even the best traders go through long, cold streaks and they might have more capital to burn than you do. Copy trading is a way to avoid the nuts and bolts of the forex market, but it’s not an excuse to be ignorant. Try to learn why the traders you copy make their moves.

Get Started Copy Trading Forex

If you’re new to the currency trading game, it might be hard not to feel like you’re at a disadvantage. If you can’t beat ’em, why not join them? Copy trading allows you to do just that.

Remember, though, that copy trading isn’t a shortcut to riches. You’ll still need to pick the right broker and understand the concepts at play when trades are posted to your account, otherwise you’ll likely get burned. If you want to get started copy trading, first open a demo account at one of the brokers listed above. You won’t risk any money and you’ll learn what types of trades you want to emulate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclaimer: eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks andcryptoassets, as well as trading CFD assets.

Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

This content is intended for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or investment recommendation.

Cryptoassets are unregulated and can fluctuate widely in price and are, therefore, not appropriate for all investors. Trading cryptoassets is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.  Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision.