A built-in prop firm copier is a trade copier (software that repeats a lead account's orders in follower accounts) supplied by the firm or its platform, such as the TopstepX Trade Copier, Tradovate Group Trade or Rithmic's R|Trader Pro copier, and it reaches only accounts inside that one firm or platform; a third-party copier is separate software that connects to accounts at several firms and platforms at once. Use the built-in tool when every account sits at one firm on one platform, and a third-party copier when accounts span firms or platforms, need sizing or symbol mapping the native tool lacks, or must keep copying while your PC is off.
Built-in copiers such as the TopstepX Trade Copier and Tradovate Group Trade list no separate fee and keep every login inside the firm or platform, but no documented built-in copier reaches beyond its own firm or platform. A third-party copier adds one system that must stay up and one shared login per connected firm, and in return saves one order entry per trade for every firm beyond the first, with per-account sizing and symbol mapping on top.
Which prop firms and platforms have a built-in trade copier?
Three built-in copiers are documented as of September 2026: the TopstepX Trade Copier at Topstep, Group Trade on Tradovate and the R|Trader Pro Trade Copier from Rithmic. NinjaTrader's desktop platform documents none, and ProjectX has wound down the platform service it ran for most partner firms.
- TopstepX Trade Copier. Topstep's TopstepX help article states: "The Trade Copier lets you mirror trades from a Lead account to 1 or more Follower accounts automatically".
- Tradovate Group Trade. Group Trade sends one order to a group of accounts instead of following a lead. Tradovate's platform page says "Tradovate's Group Trade allows traders who trade multiple accounts to define unlimited groups, add accounts to those groups, and assign quantities to the accounts in the group." Tradovate's Group Trade support article, as quoted on Tradovate's forum in May 2025 (we could not load the original), limits a group to accounts held with the same brokerage provider.
- R|Trader Pro Trade Copier. Rithmic's desktop platform includes a copier that a firm must enable for its logins, and some firms charge for it. The DayTraders.com Help Center calls it "a trade-copying feature provided by Rithmic that allows traders to replicate trades across multiple accounts", prices it at $10 per month and lists two settings adjusted account by account, Quantity Multiplier and Fractional Quantity Rounding.
- NinjaTrader. No built-in copier is documented for NinjaTrader's desktop platform (NinjaTrader 8), and 2026 threads on NinjaTrader's community forum discuss third-party copier add-ons instead.
- ProjectX-based firm platforms. ProjectX, the technology behind TopstepX, posted on its home page: "After careful consideration, we've made the decision to wind down our ProjectX third-party service offering for most of our partners." Partner support ran through February 28, 2026, and the notice covers most partners, not all.
How does the TopstepX trade copier work?
The TopstepX Trade Copier sends every order from the Lead account to its Follower accounts, and the account with the smallest limit has to lead. Topstep's rule reads: "The Lead account must have the lowest Maximum Position Size (MPS) of all accounts in the group." Maximum Position Size is the most contracts an account may hold at once; Topstep's Trading Combine Parameters set it at 5 contracts for a $50K account, 10 for $100K and 15 for $150K. The same help article limits copying to Trading Combine and Express Funded accounts: "Live Funded Account® accounts cannot use the Trade Copier."
The TopstepX copy settings list no ratio or multiplier. Assuming equal-size copies (an inference from the MPS rule, not Topstep's text), a group of $50K, $100K and $150K Trading Combines leads from the $50K and sends at most 5 contracts, so the $100K follower uses at most 50% of its MPS (5 of 10) and the $150K follower 33.3% (5 of 15). Larger accounts in a mixed group sit partly idle, which makes choosing the master account a real decision.
According to the TopstepX Copy Trading page, you cannot create, close or adjust orders in a Follower account while copying, and Personal Risk Settings switch off on followers except the Personal Daily Loss Limit and Personal Daily Profit Target. The page warns that "Latency or execution timing differences may result in minor discrepancies between copied account balances." Topstep's help article adds that a group whose Lead and Followers sit at different Scaling Plan tiers may disconnect automatically at the start of a new trading day.
Topstep's Express Funded Account Parameters allow up to five active Express Funded Accounts (XFAs) and up to $750K of buying power through a trade copier, exactly 5 x $150,000. Other firms' limits are in how many prop firm accounts you can have.
Can a built-in copier copy trades between different prop firms?
No. Every documented built-in copier works inside one firm's accounts or one platform connection, so none copies from Topstep to a Tradovate-based firm, from Rithmic to Tradovate, or into MT5 or cTrader. Each native copier lives inside its own order system, which holds only its own accounts: TopstepX sees Topstep accounts, Group Trade sees one brokerage provider's, and the R|Trader Pro copier is not documented beyond its Rithmic connection.
A third-party copier sits outside the firms and holds a separate connection to each account's platform: with a lead at a Tradovate-based firm and followers at a Rithmic firm and an MT5 firm, it watches the lead and places matching orders at the other two, so each trade is entered once. Only that design drives a Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic and ProjectX mix from one entry. Which firms permit outside copying, and what they forbid, is covered in can you copy trade multiple prop firm accounts.
How do built-in and third-party copiers compare, feature by feature?
Built-in copiers win on cost and native support and lose on reach, sizing options and symbol mapping (trading one instrument on the lead and another on followers, such as ES into MES). The grid compiles each vendor's documentation as of September 2026; "not documented" means the pages we could load are silent, not that the feature is missing. The last column describes Thor, this blog's own server-side copier; other third-party tools differ, as the best futures trade copiers comparison shows.
| Capability | TopstepX Trade Copier | Tradovate Group Trade | R|Trader Pro copier | Third-party server copier (Thor) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copies across firms | No, Topstep accounts only | No, one brokerage provider only | Not documented beyond one login | Yes, where each firm allows it |
| Copies across platforms | No | No | No | Yes: Tradovate, Rithmic, ProjectX, NinjaTrader, TradingView (webhooks), MT4, MT5, cTrader, DXTrade, TradeLocker |
| Account types | Trading Combine and Express Funded only | Accounts with one brokerage provider | Logins where the firm enabled it | Any connected account the firm allows |
| Sizing | Follower MPS must be ≥ lead's; no ratio setting documented | Fixed quantity per account | Quantity Multiplier per account, with Fractional Quantity Rounding | Decimal multiplier per account (e.g., x0.2, x1.8) |
| Symbol mapping | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Yes (e.g., ES lead to MES followers) |
| Protective orders on followers | Managed from the lead; followers locked | Not documented | Not documented | Built-in TP/SL controls |
| Copying with your PC off | Not documented | Not documented | Reported as server-side on user forums, not confirmed on Rithmic's pages | Yes, runs on Thor's servers |
| Cost | No separate fee listed | No separate fee listed | $10/month at DayTraders | $39/month flat or $351/year, 14-day free trial |
| Firm support | Native to Topstep | Native to Tradovate | Rithmic feature the firm must enable | Depends on each firm's rules |
Can a built-in copier size followers differently from the lead?
Only partly: each native tool documents at most one sizing method, and none documents symbol mapping. Multiplier sizing follows one formula, follower quantity = lead quantity x multiplier, then rounded by the tool's rule (floor rounds down, half-up rounds 0.5 up). The table applies illustrative settings to lead trades of 1 to 4 contracts; check which rule your own tool uses.
| Sizing method (illustrative) | Lead 1 | Lead 2 | Lead 3 | Lead 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equal size 1:1 (TopstepX, by inference) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Fixed 2 per account (Group Trade style) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| x0.5, floor | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| x0.5, half-up | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| x1.5, floor | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| x1.5, half-up | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
A fixed quantity ignores the lead's size: a fixed-2 follower holds 200%, 100%, 67% and 50% of lead trades of 1, 2, 3 and 4 contracts, so scaling in on the lead never scales the follower. Rounding decides whether small trades copy at all: at x0.5 with floor rounding a 1-contract lead trade becomes 0.5 and is skipped, while x1.5 turns a 3-lot into 4 or 5 depending on the rule. Copy trading position sizing methods compares every option.
When is a built-in prop firm copier the better choice?
A built-in copier is the better choice whenever all your accounts sit at one firm on one platform and you need no sizing or symbol mapping it lacks. The firm or its platform built it and enforces rules through it (TopstepX will not let a follower smaller than the lead follow), TopstepX and Tradovate list no separate fee, no login leaves the firm, and no extra system sits between your order and the firm's servers. With one firm, a third-party copier adds a system and a shared login while saving zero entries per trade.
Topstep's Terms of Use state: "Using any VPN or VPS on Accounts is strictly prohibited and may result in account termination and forfeiture of profits." Topstep does not say whether a server-hosted copier counts, so ask Topstep in writing before connecting any remote service to a Topstep account.
No copier, native or third-party, is the answer when the goal is to offset risk between accounts. Topstep prohibits hedging across accounts, and its hedging guidance holds traders fully responsible for anything created by automated systems or third-party tools, including opposite positions opened by copy trading software.
What does a third-party copier add, and is it worth paying for?
A third-party copier turns a trade across F firms into one entry instead of F, so it saves work only from the second firm onward; the price is one more system that must stay up, F logins held by another company and a subscription. The table counts each firm as one login and treats built-in copiers as working per firm, so entries saved per trade = F - 1.
| Firms (F) | Entries per trade (built-in / third-party) | Systems that must stay up (built-in / third-party) | Logins shared with another company (built-in / third-party) | Entries saved per trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 / 1 | 1 / 2 | 0 / 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 2 / 1 | 2 / 3 | 0 / 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 / 1 | 3 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 / 1 | 4 / 5 | 0 / 4 | 3 |
Manual work grows with every firm: in an illustrative day of 4 trades with 3 actions each (entry, stop move, exit), three firms on their own built-in copiers take 4 x 3 x 3 = 36 actions and one third-party copier takes 4 x 3 x 1 = 12; over 21 trading days the totals are 756 and 252.
Thor costs a flat $39 a month, or $351 a year on the annual plan; at the monthly price that is $7.80 per account per month across 5 accounts, $3.90 across 10 and $1.95 across 20. The R|Trader Pro copier at DayTraders costs $10 a month ($120 a year), and the TopstepX and Tradovate tools list no separate fee. The larger cost is the extra system: a server-side copier keeps managing exits when your PC is off, but its own uptime becomes a failure point, which is why copier failover and redundancy matters before you scale.
Which copier should you use for your situation?
Pick by where the accounts live and what the followers need: the native copier for a single-firm fleet, a third-party copier for multiple firms, symbol mapping or PC-off copying, both side by side for Topstep plus other firms, and neither for hedging.
| Your situation | Right tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Every account at Topstep, in Trading Combines or Express Funded Accounts | TopstepX Trade Copier | Firm-built, no separate fee listed, and Topstep bans VPN and VPS use on accounts |
| Every account under one Tradovate brokerage provider | Tradovate Group Trade | Built in, fixed quantity per account |
| Every account on Rithmic at a firm that offers the R|Trader Pro copier, and you want ratios | R|Trader Pro copier | Per-account multiplier, $10/month at DayTraders |
| Accounts at two or more firms or platforms | Third-party copier | No built-in copier crosses firms; saves F - 1 entries per trade |
| ES lead into MES followers | Third-party copier | No native tool documents symbol mapping |
| Copying must continue with your PC off | Server-side third-party copier, or a native tool confirmed to run server-side | PC-off behaviour is not documented for TopstepX or Group Trade |
| Topstep accounts plus accounts at other firms | TopstepX copier for Topstep, third-party copier for the rest | 2 entries per trade and no open question under the VPS rule; 1 entry if Topstep confirms in writing that a remote copier is allowed |
| You want to offset risk between accounts | Neither | Topstep prohibits hedging across accounts |
Once the tool is chosen, setting up copy trading across multiple prop accounts walks through lead, follower and risk settings.
Go deeper
- Best Futures Trade Copiers in 2026: Thor vs Replikanto vs ETP vs Tradesyncer vs Tradecopia
- How to Copy Trades Across Platforms: Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic & ProjectX (2026)
- Copy Trading Sizing Methods: Fixed Lot, Proportional, Risk-Based
- What Happens When Your Copier Dies Mid-Trade: Failover, Redundancy and Recovery
Frequently asked questions
What happens to TopstepX follower accounts if I turn the copier off mid-trade?
They are flattened at once. Topstep's help article states: "Turning off the Trade Copier mid-trade will immediately flatten all Follower accounts." Remove followers only when every account is flat with no working orders.
What happens if the TopstepX lead account hits a loss limit?
At the Daily Loss Limit, or on auto-liquidation, every Follower is flattened with the lead and nothing copies while the lead is locked out. At the Maximum Loss Limit the lead is permanently violated, and Topstep says to unlink the Followers in Settings to trade them independently; any new group needs the lowest-MPS remaining account as lead.
Can a personal Tradovate account and a prop firm account share one Group Trade group?
No, according to Tradovate's Group Trade support article as quoted on its forum. Two accounts from the same prop firm provider can share a group, but a Tradovate brokerage account cannot be linked with a prop firm or evaluation account.
Can Tradovate Group Trade attach brackets or run from TradingView?
Not reliably, so check your own platform first. Search listings of Tradovate's Group Trade support article say it does not support ATM strategies and is unavailable on mobile and inside TradingView, while search listings of a later NinjaTrader Prop post describe Group Trade with ATM brackets on NinjaTrader Web; we could load neither page.
Do Topstep's rules allow trade copiers at all?
Yes. Topstep's Trading Combine, Express Funded Account and Live Funded Account parameter pages all mention using a trade copier to duplicate trades across accounts, and Trading Combines have no count limit. Only one Live Funded Account can be active, and receiving it closes all Express Funded Accounts.
Can I run a built-in copier and a third-party copier on the same accounts?
Avoid it. DayTraders' R|Trader Pro copier page warns: "Using multiple copiers simultaneously may cause execution errors, duplicate orders, or unintended trading behavior." Give each account exactly one copier and check that no two tools can open opposite positions, which Topstep can treat as hedging.
When does an R|Trader Pro copier subscription expire?
At DayTraders, at 5:00 PM ET on the last day of the month, whatever the purchase date, so a purchase late in the month covers only a few days. DayTraders sells it in the member dashboard under Rithmic Add Ons, and other firms may price or enable it differently.
Is it safe to give a third-party copier my prop firm login?
Only after checking three things: how the vendor stores credentials, whether you can revoke its access yourself, and whether your firm allows outside services on its accounts. A breach or bug at the vendor reaches every connected account at once.