If you trade funded accounts, you've probably faced the same problem: you pass three challenges at different firms, your strategy is identical on all of them, and now you're executing every trade three times by hand. A trade copier solves this — but prop accounts have constraints that make copier choice matter far more than it does for personal accounts.
First: check your prop firm's rules
Before setting up any copier, read your firm's terms on copy trading. Policies differ widely: most firms allow copying between your own accounts, some restrict copying the same trades across multiple firms, and almost all prohibit sharing your account credentials with third-party services. Breaking these rules can void a funded account — no copier is worth that. If the terms are ambiguous, ask their support in writing.
Why credentials are the deal-breaker for funded accounts
Many copiers connect to your account server-side, which requires your trading password. With a funded account, that means a third party holds login access to an account that isn't even fully yours — a problem on three levels:
- Terms violations — credential sharing is explicitly banned by most firms.
- Security — a breach at the copier provider exposes your funded account.
- Attribution — logins from unfamiliar servers can look like account sharing to the firm's risk team.
The alternative architecture is an EA-based cloud copier: a small Expert Advisor runs inside each MT5 terminal and authenticates with a revocable per-account key. Your password never leaves your terminal, and all trading activity originates from your own machine. This is how MetaToolsLab works.
Sizing across accounts of different sizes
Funded accounts rarely match: you might have a £10k, a £25k, and a £100k account running the same strategy. Per-slave lot multipliers handle this — set 0.4× on the small account and 4× on the large one, and a 1-lot master trade scales correctly everywhere. Two details to verify in any copier:
- Lot-step handling — if your master trades 0.01 increments but a slave broker's minimum step is 0.1, partial closes need to be accumulated, not dropped.
- Drawdown alignment — multipliers scale positions, but each firm's daily-loss limits differ. Size to the tightest limit, not the average.
Cross-firm broker differences
Different prop firms use different brokers and feeds, so the same instrument may be named differently (US500 vs US500.cash, XAUUSD vs GOLD). A copier needs per-slave symbol mapping or trades on those instruments silently fail. Spread and execution differences between feeds also mean SL/TP levels can fill slightly differently — sub-second copy speed keeps this divergence small.
Setting it up
With an EA-based cloud copier the flow takes about 10 minutes: designate one account as master (or run a separate personal account as the master), install the Master EA there, then install the Slave EA on each funded account with its own key and multiplier. The full walkthrough is in our EA setup guide. No VPS is required — each terminal just needs to be running, wherever it already lives.
Frequently asked questions
Do prop firms allow trade copiers?
Most allow copying between your own accounts, and many explicitly allow EA-based copiers since the trades originate from your own terminal. Restrictions usually target credential sharing, account management by third parties, and sometimes copying identical trades across competing firms. Always confirm with your specific firm.
Can I copy from a personal account to a funded account?
Technically yes — the master can be any MT5 account. Whether it's allowed depends on your firm's rules about trade origination. Running your personal account as master also keeps your strategy development separate from evaluation accounts.
Do I need a VPS to copy trades across prop firm accounts?
Not with a cloud copier. Each EA connects independently over HTTPS from wherever that terminal runs. A VPS only becomes relevant if you want terminals running 24/7 without your own machine on.
Built for funded accounts. MetaToolsLab never touches your broker password — each account uses its own revocable EA key. Free 14-day trial, no card required.