eToro copy trading: how CopyTrader works, what it costs and the risks

The short answer

eToro’s CopyTrader automatically opens the same trades as another investor in your account, scaled to the amount you allocate: from $200 to $2 million per trader, up to 100 traders at once, according to eToro’s CopyTrader page as of October 2026. eToro charges no extra fee for copying, but you pay the normal spreads, overnight fees, crypto charges and currency conversion on every copied position.

The risk is not the platform but the person you copy. A copied leveraged trade is a CFD, past returns do not predict future ones, and the FSCS does not cover copying losses. The one control that caps the damage is the copy stop-loss, set at 40% by default.

How does copy trading work on eToro?

You pick an investor, choose an amount and press copy. From then on, eToro’s system mirrors their activity in your account, in proportion. eToro’s “how it works” page gives the rule: if the trader puts 10% of their equity into a new trade, your copy puts 10% of the money in your copy into the same trade. eToro says copied trades usually execute in under a second after the original.

The mechanics worth knowing before you start:

Two details matter more than they look.

Open positions are copied at today’s price, not the trader’s. If the investor bought a share at $50 and it is now $80, you buy at $80. Their profit on that position is already banked in their statistics; yours starts from zero.

Small copies drift from the original. The $1 minimum means a $200 copy of someone who opens a 0.3% position will skip it, because 0.3% of $200 is 60 cents. The more positions a trader runs and the smaller your copy, the less your results will resemble theirs.

What is the copy stop-loss, and how should you set it?

The copy stop-loss (CSL) applies to the copy as a whole, not to individual trades. eToro sets it at 40% of the amount invested by default and lets you choose anywhere from 5% to 95%. When unrealised losses in that copy reach the threshold, eToro closes every copied position and ends the copy.

Forty per cent is a generous default. If you would not accept losing 40% of what you put in, set it tighter before you start, not after a bad week. Too tight, though, and normal swings close you out near a low. Look at the trader’s worst historical drawdown (see below) and set your CSL somewhat beyond it, at a loss you can genuinely afford. Like any stop, it closes at the next available price, which in a fast market can be worse than the level you set.

What does copy trading on eToro cost?

Copying itself is free. eToro’s CopyTrader page says “there is no additional charge for copying another trader”, and our eToro fees guide confirms there is no commission on copy trades. What you pay is the cost of the positions the trader opens, exactly as if you had opened them yourself:

Figures from eToro’s fee schedule and conversion-fee page, as covered in eToro fees explained.

The cost of copying therefore depends almost entirely on whom you copy. A long-term investor who buys shares and holds them costs you little beyond the conversion. A frequent trader who runs leveraged CFDs overnight and swings in and out of crypto can cost you several per cent a year in spreads, financing and crypto fees before performance, and those costs land on your copy at your size, which is why a copier’s return can trail the trader’s even when every trade is mirrored.

What about Smart Portfolios?

Smart Portfolios are eToro’s packaged alternative: themed or strategy portfolios (over 65 of them, including BlackRock-guided “Core” portfolios, thematic baskets and “Top Trader” portfolios that bundle several Popular Investors) that you invest in through the same copy mechanism. eToro’s portfolios page lists a $500 minimum and no portfolio management fee, though it adds that “other fees apply”: the same position-level costs as above. Portfolios are rebalanced periodically on each portfolio’s own schedule, not daily.

How are Popular Investors paid?

By eToro, not by you. eToro’s Popular Investor programme page sets out the terms as of October 2026:

• Payments start at Champion tier, which needs an average of $400,000 in assets under copy (AUC), $10,000 of the investor’s own equity and at least ten copiers.
• The rate is 1.5% a year of average monthly AUC, paid monthly by the 10th. At Elite Pro level, the top tier, the rate drops to 0.5% on assets above $20 million.
• To join at all, an investor needs at least $2,000 in equity, two months’ trading history, a risk score of 7 or less, a worst weekly drawdown no deeper than 25%, and no single position above 50% of the portfolio.
• eToro can withhold payments for breaking programme rules, including leverage restrictions and risk score limits.

Two consequences for a copier. The investor is paid for the money copying them, not for the profit they make you, so the incentive is to gather and keep copiers. Against that, the programme’s risk rules do push Popular Investors away from the most reckless strategies, since a high risk score costs them their income. Neither makes them advisers: eToro states plainly that copy trading “does not amount to investment advice”, and the investors you copy are not regulated individuals.

How do you read a trader’s risk score, drawdown and history?

Every eToro profile shows a risk score from 1 to 10, a monthly return history, drawdown figures, portfolio breakdown and copier numbers. eToro describes the risk score as being built from the volatility of the assets held, how concentrated the portfolio is and the use of leverage, shown as an average so that a trader cannot lower it by briefly closing positions. eToro does not publish the full formula.

A practical checklist, in order of importance:

1. Length of record. Two good years tell you little. Look for at least three, ideally including a falling market such as 2022.
2. Worst drawdown. The deepest peak-to-trough fall is the loss you must be prepared to sit through. If it was 45% and your stomach stops at 20%, this is not your trader, whatever the return.
3. Risk score over time, not today. A score that jumps between 3 and 7 suggests a strategy that changes with mood.
4. What they actually hold. Real shares and ETFs, or leveraged CFDs and crypto? This decides both your risk and your costs.
5. Assets under copy and copier trend. Large AUC is a sign of trust, not of skill. A sudden flood of copiers after one great year is often the worst time to join.
6. Their own money. Check how much equity they hold. Someone running a big book for copiers on a small personal stake has less to lose than you.

Why don’t past returns predict future ones?

eToro’s own disclaimer says past performance “is not a reliable indicator” of future results, and that is not just compliance language. Three effects work against a copier.

Survivorship bias. The leaderboard you browse is made up of traders who are still standing. Those who blew up, closed their accounts or fell below the programme’s thresholds have disappeared from view, so the visible group looks more skilled than the full population of traders who tried. A top-ten list is partly a list of who got lucky.

Selection on recent returns. Most people sort by last year’s gain. The highest one-year returns usually come from concentrated or leveraged bets that happened to work, which is exactly the kind of strategy most likely to reverse.

You join late. Strong returns attract copiers after the gains are made. You get the trader’s next period, not their last one, and you buy their positions at today’s prices.

Are copied trades on eToro CFDs?

Some are. A copied trade has the same form as the original: if the investor buys a share without leverage, you own the share; if they short a stock or use leverage, eToro executes it as a CFD, and so does your copy. That is how eToro handles leveraged and short positions generally, as set out in eToro fees explained.

That matters because eToro’s risk warning reads “55% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider” as of October 2026. Copying a CFD trader means taking CFD risk, with overnight fees and leverage, on someone else’s timing. Retail leverage is capped under FCA and ESMA rules (30:1 on major currency pairs, lower on other assets), and UK retail clients cannot hold crypto CFDs at all under the FCA’s ban.

How is copy trading regulated in the UK and EU?

The FCA treats copy trading as portfolio management where trades are executed automatically without the client confirming each one, according to its copy trading page (last updated July 2026). A firm offering it therefore needs portfolio management permission, with the suitability and reporting duties that come with it. The FCA says it follows question 9 of ESMA’s MiFID investor-protection Q&A, which describes copy and mirror trading as “automatic execution of trade signals”. eToro (UK) Ltd is authorised under firm reference 583263, as covered in Is eToro safe?.

ESMA, the EU securities regulator, published a supervisory briefing on copy trading in March 2023. It asks national regulators to check how firms describe costs and charges, assess whether copying suits the client, pay and incentivise the traders being copied, and vet those traders’ qualifications. In 2025 ESMA said the same thinking applies to crypto copy trading under MiCA.

What regulation does not do: it does not make the traders you copy regulated advisers, and it does not protect you from their decisions. The FSCS (up to £85,000) covers eToro failing, not a copied investor losing your money.

Which other platforms offer copy trading?

Of the brokers we score, few match eToro’s built-in approach. Our best copy trading platforms ranking covers two:

For a UK investor who wants to copy people who buy real shares, eToro is effectively the only mainstream FCA-regulated option among the brokers we cover. The others copy forex and CFD strategies, which brings the CFD risks above by design.

Verdict

CopyTrader is the most polished copy trading product available, and eToro’s terms are reasonably fair: no copying fee, a clear $200 entry point, a default stop-loss and a public track record for every investor. The cost and the risk sit in the trades you inherit. Copy a patient, low-leverage investor and you pay little beyond the 0.75% conversion; copy a high-flying CFD trader and you take on leverage, overnight fees and a strategy that looked best just before you arrived. Choose on drawdown and record length rather than last year’s return, set your own copy stop-loss, and treat it as money you can afford to lose. The full assessment is in our eToro review.

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CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. A majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.