If you run a strategy on one MetaTrader 5 account and want it mirrored on a second — a bigger live account, a client account, or a funded account at a prop firm — MT5 will not do that for you on its own. The platform ships with a public Signals marketplace, but it has no built-in way to privately copy your own trades from one account to another. For that you need a trade copier, and copying between two MT5 accounts has one wrinkle that MT4 never had: MetaTrader 5 accounts can run in two completely different position models — netting or hedging — and that single setting decides whether your follower ends up looking exactly like your master or quietly different.
This guide walks through what you actually need, why netting versus hedging is the thing that trips people up, how position sizing works when the two accounts have different balances, and the step-by-step setup. It is written to be platform-neutral: the same logic applies whether both accounts sit at the same broker or at two different ones. If you are after the MT4 version instead, we have a companion walkthrough on copying trades between two MT4 accounts.
Does MetaTrader 5 have built-in copy trading?
Partly, and it is worth being clear about the difference. MT5 has the Signals service, where you subscribe to a public signal provider and your terminal mirrors their trades. That is social copy trading between strangers, with the provider ranked in a marketplace. It is not the same as copying between two accounts you control, where you decide the master, the follower, the risk, and the symbols — and where nothing is published to a public board.
For private account-to-account copying you add a dedicated copier: a small piece of software that reads orders on the master account and reproduces them on one or more followers in real time. It runs on a Windows PC or a VPS, sits alongside your terminals, and never needs you to hand your trades to a third-party signal network. A dedicated MT5 trade copier is the tool built for exactly this job, and it is what the rest of this guide assumes.
What you need to copy between two MT5 accounts
Three things. A master account where the trades originate (your strategy, your signal, or your own discretionary trading). A follower account that should receive them. And a copier running somewhere that is online whenever the master trades. The follower account needs permission to place trades — the password you give the copier must be the trading password, not the read-only investor password, or every copied order will be rejected before it reaches the market.
Because copying happens in the present tense, the copier has to be running at the moment a trade opens or closes. If it is offline, that trade is simply missed and will not back-fill later. Most people who copy seriously run the copier on a VPS so it stays up when their own machine is asleep. One reason traders choose our local forex trade copier for MT4, MT5 and cTrader over a hosted signal network is that a direct, local setup has fewer moving parts between the two terminals — and you keep full control of both accounts.
The one thing that makes MT5 different: netting vs hedging
This is the part that has no equivalent on MT4, and it is where most "my follower does not match my master" confusion comes from. Every MT5 account is set by the broker to one of two position-accounting models:
- Hedging — each order is its own independent position ("ticket"). You can hold a Buy 1.00 and a Buy 0.50 on EUR/USD at the same time as two separate lines, and you can even be long and short the same symbol at once. This behaves like classic MT4.
- Netting — there is only ever one position per symbol. A second Buy does not open a new line; it adds to the existing one. Two buys of 1.00 and 0.50 on EUR/USD become a single net position of 1.50. A sell on the same symbol reduces or flips that net position.
Neither is "better," but they count positions differently, so a copier has to translate between them. The diagram below shows the same two fills landing in each model.
What happens when the two accounts use different models
Problems only appear when your master and follower are set to different models. A good copier handles all four combinations, but it helps to know what to expect so you can read your follower correctly:
| Master → Follower | What the follower shows | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hedging → Hedging | Ticket-for-ticket mirror — the cleanest case. | Nothing structural; just sizing and symbols. |
| Hedging → Netting | Multiple master tickets collapse into one net follower position. | You cannot close one "leg" on the follower — there is only the net. |
| Netting → Hedging | Each net change on the master becomes a single follower ticket. | Partial reductions open offsetting tickets rather than shrinking one. |
| Netting → Netting | Net-to-net — both accounts track one position per symbol. | Clean, as long as sizing keeps the net proportional. |
The practical takeaway: if you want your follower to look exactly like your master — same number of lines, same partial-close behaviour — set both accounts to the same model, ideally both hedging. If they must differ, expect the follower to still carry the same net exposure, just displayed as fewer or more tickets. Your profit and loss tracks the net either way; it is only the on-screen layout that changes.
Same broker or different brokers?
Copying between two MT5 accounts at the same broker is the simplest setup: the symbols, contract sizes, and trading hours are identical, so an order on the master maps straight across. The only thing to confirm is whether the two accounts are in the same symbol group.
Copying to an account at a different broker adds two small jobs for the copier. First, symbol mapping: one broker may call the pair EURUSD while the other uses EURUSD.m or EURUSD.pro, so the copier needs to translate the name or the trade is rejected. Second, lot rounding: brokers have different minimum lot sizes and steps, so a scaled-down volume has to be rounded to something the follower broker will accept. A capable copier does both automatically, but it is worth checking the mapping once when you add a new follower broker.
Sizing the copied trades
You rarely want the follower to trade the exact same lot size as the master — the two accounts usually have different balances. Copiers give you a few sizing modes:
- Fixed lot — every copied trade uses a set size (e.g. always 0.10), regardless of what the master did. Simple, but ignores the master’s own sizing.
- Multiplier — the follower trades a ratio of the master (e.g. 0.5×, so a 1.00 master lot becomes 0.50).
- Balance-proportional — the follower is scaled by the ratio of the two balances. If the master is a $50,000 account opening 1.00 lot and the follower holds $5,000, the follower trades 1.00 × (5,000 / 50,000) = 0.10 lot, keeping the risk-per-trade proportional on both sides.
Two cautions. Balance-proportional sizing can round below a broker’s minimum lot — a tiny follower account might compute 0.004 lots, which the broker will reject — so set a sensible minimum-lot floor and understand that very small accounts cannot track large ones tick-for-tick. And on a netting follower, sizing has to keep the net proportional, not each individual add. For a deeper look at modes and risk, see our guide to trade copier lot sizing.
Step by step: set up MT5-to-MT5 copying
The exact buttons vary by copier, but the flow is always the same:
- Install the copier and both terminals on one always-on machine. A VPS is ideal so copying continues when your own computer is off. Both MT5 terminals log in — the master and the follower.
- Let the copier place orders. In each terminal, confirm that automated order placement is allowed so the copier can execute, and that the follower is logged in with its trading password, not the read-only investor password.
- Assign roles. In the copier, set one account as the master (source) and the other as the follower (receiver).
- Choose the sizing mode. Pick fixed, multiplier, or balance-proportional, and set a minimum-lot floor. If the follower is at a different broker, confirm the symbol mapping.
- Test with one small trade. Open a single minimum-lot position on the master and watch it appear on the follower. Check the symbol, direction, and size, then test a partial close so you understand how your netting/hedging combination behaves.
- Go live and monitor. Once the test copies cleanly, let it run — but keep an eye on the copier’s status and the follower’s open positions, especially after broker maintenance or a terminal restart.
Want to copy the other way, from an MT5 master down to an MT4 follower? That direction has its own walkthrough: see our guide on copying from MT5 to MT4.
Keeping it reliable
Copying is a live, present-tense process. The copier only acts on trades that happen while it is connected, so uptime is everything. Three habits keep an MT5-to-MT5 setup healthy: run it on a VPS so it is never interrupted by your laptop sleeping; check after any broker server maintenance that both terminals reconnected and the copier resumed; and remember that a trade missed while the copier was down will not retroactively appear. If the follower ever drifts from the master, the quickest safe fix is usually to flatten the follower and let fresh trades copy forward, rather than hand-matching old positions.
Can you copy trades on the MT5 mobile app?
No — and this catches a lot of people. The MetaTrader 5 mobile app is a terminal for placing and watching trades, not a host for a copier. Account-to-account copying needs the copier software plus both terminals running together on a PC or VPS. Your phone is still useful as a monitoring window: you can log the follower into the mobile app and watch copied positions appear, but the copying itself happens on the always-on machine, not the handset.
Frequently asked questions
Does MetaTrader 5 have built-in copy trading between your own accounts?
Not directly. MT5 includes the public Signals marketplace for subscribing to third-party providers, but there is no native feature to privately copy your own trades from one account to another. For that you add a dedicated trade copier that runs alongside both terminals.
Can I copy trades on the MT5 mobile app?
No. The mobile app cannot host a copier. The copier and both MT5 terminals must run on a PC or VPS that stays online. You can use the phone app to monitor the follower account, but not to do the copying.
What happens if my master is a hedging account and my follower is netting?
The follower keeps the same net exposure but displays it as a single position per symbol rather than separate tickets. You will not be able to close an individual "leg" on the follower because there is only the net position. Your profit and loss still tracks the master; only the on-screen layout differs. To avoid surprises, set both accounts to the same model where you can.
Can I copy between two MT5 accounts at different brokers?
Yes. A copier handles this with symbol mapping (translating names like EURUSD to EURUSD.m) and lot rounding (fitting the scaled volume to the follower broker’s minimum lot and step). Confirm the mapping once when you add a new follower broker, and set a minimum-lot floor so small volumes are not rejected.
Will copying keep running if I turn my computer off?
Only if the copier runs somewhere else that stays on. If it is installed on your own PC and you shut it down, copying stops and any trades placed in the meantime are missed — they do not back-fill. This is why most traders run an MT5-to-MT5 setup on a VPS.
Is copying between MT5 accounts the same as between MT4 accounts?
The core idea is identical — a copier mirrors orders from a master to a follower. The difference is the netting/hedging position model, which only exists on MT5 and changes how positions are displayed and partially closed. If both your accounts are on MT4, the same step-by-step logic applies, minus the netting/hedging layer.
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