Social trading is a way to put a more experienced trader's decisions to work in your own account without handing them your money. You choose a trader whose record is public, decide how much to allocate, and every trade they make is copied into your account automatically, in proportion to what you allocated. On IDTraders those traders are called master traders, and the people copying them are followers.
How it works, in four steps
- Pick a master. Every master on IDTraders has a public profile computed from their closed trades: return, drawdown, how long they have traded and how many people follow them. A master can describe their style; they cannot write their record.
- Allocate an amount. You set aside part of your balance for that master. That amount is the only money the copy can use.
- Set your limit. You choose an auto-stop: the loss at which the copy stops by itself, whatever the master does next.
- Let it run. When the master opens a trade, the same trade opens in your allocation, scaled to its size. When they close it, yours closes too.
Who holds the money
This is the question that separates social trading from handing money to a manager. On IDTraders your funds stay in your own wallets. The master never sees, holds or withdraws them; the platform only mirrors their trades into your allocation. You can see every copied trade as it happens and stop the copy whenever you choose.
What it costs
There is no fee to follow and nothing is charged on a losing trade. When a copied trade closes in profit, the profit is shared at settlement: you keep your share, and the rest is the fee from which the master, the introducer network and the platform are paid. The profit sharing and fees page shows the exact split.
What social trading does not do
It does not remove risk. A master can lose, and when they lose, so does your allocation. Past results are not a promise of future ones. Social trading changes who makes the trading decisions; it does not change the fact that leveraged markets can fall fast. That is why the auto-stop exists, and why it is set by you, not by the master.
Where to go next
- How to read a master's profile in three minutes
- Proportional copying explained with two followers and one trade
- Social trading versus a managed account: who holds the money
Trading carries risk. You can lose the funds you allocate. Read the Risk Disclosure before you start.
This article is education, not investment advice. Trading and copy trading in leveraged instruments carry a high risk of losing the funds you allocate. Read the Risk Disclosure.