Copying a signal provider means copying their slippage problem too
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 8:14 pm
Copy trading looks simple. A strategy that scalps profitably gets mirrored to follower accounts. The numbers on the provider's page, however, come from a single account with a single broker.
Followers get fills later than the provider, sometimes by a second or more, at different prices. For a swing trader that's immaterial. For a scalper aiming at four pips, a half-pip difference on entry and again on exit wipes out a big slice of the edge.
Spread differences between brokers add to it. The provider might trade on a raw account with tight costs, while followers pay wider spreads.
The result is a familiar pattern: the provider shows steady gains, and followers show a much flatter or negative curve over the same period.
Before following anyone, check how the platform handles latency, whether the strategy's average profit per trade is large relative to typical slippage, and what the realised results are for actual followers, not just the master account.
Has anyone compared a provider's results with their own copied performance?
Followers get fills later than the provider, sometimes by a second or more, at different prices. For a swing trader that's immaterial. For a scalper aiming at four pips, a half-pip difference on entry and again on exit wipes out a big slice of the edge.
Spread differences between brokers add to it. The provider might trade on a raw account with tight costs, while followers pay wider spreads.
The result is a familiar pattern: the provider shows steady gains, and followers show a much flatter or negative curve over the same period.
Before following anyone, check how the platform handles latency, whether the strategy's average profit per trade is large relative to typical slippage, and what the realised results are for actual followers, not just the master account.
Has anyone compared a provider's results with their own copied performance?