Copy Trading
Copy Trading Setup
Everything to set up copy trading: connect a broker, connect a signal source, add an AI key, build a strategy, test it, and go live.
Copy trading means the app watches a signal source you follow (a Discord room, TradingView, or Telegram) and places the same trades in your broker, the moment a call goes out.
The whole setup, start to finish. This page walks each step.
Two rules that run through everything below: the app only trades while it is running on your computer, and you test before you go live. Both are covered at the right step.
1. Connect a broker
A broker is where your trades land. Connect at least one, choosing by what your signal source posts.
| To trade | Use |
|---|---|
| Options | Interactive Brokers (IBKR), Tradier, Robinhood, Schwab |
| Stocks | Tradier, Robinhood, IBKR, Schwab, STG / DAS |
| Option spreads | Tradier, Robinhood, IBKR, Schwab |
| Crypto | Robinhood Crypto |
| Memecoins | Solana |
| Prediction markets | Polymarket |
Limit orders are available on Tradier, IBKR, and Robinhood. Tradier is a common first pick for options and stocks. Robinhood is a good option if you already have an account: the same login covers stocks and options, and its stop loss / take profit are handled by the app.
Brokers connect one of a few ways: an API token you paste (Tradier), your credentials plus a 2FA code entered in the app (Robinhood), or local software the app talks to on your computer (IBKR, STG / DAS).
The broker issues you a token on its site; you paste it into the app. Tradier works this way (paste a live or paper access token from dash.tradier.com). No password is stored, only the token.
You enter your broker email or username, password, and a 2FA code directly in the app. Robinhood (stocks and options) works this way: the app stores your login and enters your 2FA codes at sign-in. (The multi-account RSA brokers in the broker reference also use credentials + 2FA.)
IBKR runs its own Trader Workstation or IB Gateway on your computer, and the app talks to it locally. The broker’s only setting in the app is Mode: choose Live or Paper. The app connects on 127.0.0.1 at port 7496 for Live or 7497 for Paper automatically.
Make sure the IBKR software is running in the matching mode with API access enabled first.
On the Brokers page, click a broker card, choose Add account, enter its details, and choose Save account. The app verifies the connection itself; there is no separate test button.
The Brokers page. Each card shows a broker, its accounts, and its health state.
Broker health shows four states. Only one is a problem:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Verified in the last minute. Ready now. |
| Idle | Logged in and valid, just not re-checked recently. Normal, especially overnight. |
| Warming | A browser-based broker is starting up. Wait a moment. |
| Offline | Broken. Process not running or session failed. The only state that needs attention. |
Per-broker signup and setup detail is in the broker reference.
2. Connect a signal source
Pick where your calls come from. Each has its own page under Signals.
| Source | How it connects | Needs an AI key? |
|---|---|---|
| Discord | Sign in with a burner account (see warning) | Yes |
| TradingView | Your alerts reach the app as structured data | No |
| Telegram | Sign in with your phone number and a code | Yes |
Discord monitoring signs in as a self-bot, which listens to channels in servers you belong to. Use a secondary burner Discord account, never your main one.
- Open Signals then Discord and choose Connect Discord (or Add account). A real Chrome window opens; the app enters your email and password, and you complete any 2FA there. Your password stays on your machine.
- Once connected, the app enumerates the channels across your Discord servers for you. You pick which channel to follow later, inside your strategy (step 4), from a channel picker grouped by server.
Full walkthrough: Discord strategies.
Your TradingView alerts are delivered to the app as structured data, so no AI reading is needed. Your strategy name must match the alert. Set alerts to fire once per bar close to avoid repainting.
Full walkthrough: TradingView strategies.
Add a Telegram account with the API credentials (api_id and api_hash) from my.telegram.org. Telegram sends a code straight to your phone; enter it in the app. Telegram calls are read by AI just like Discord.
Full walkthrough: Telegram strategies.
3. Add an AI key (Discord and Telegram)
Discord and Telegram calls arrive as plain English (“in SPY 540c @ 1.20”), so the app uses AI to read them. In Settings → Signal Parser, choose a provider (OpenAI or Google Gemini), paste your API key, and pick a model (gpt-4o-mini is the recommended default: cheap and handles signal parsing well).
- Your key is billed by the provider directly. Reading a call costs a fraction of a cent; keep a small balance with your provider.
- TradingView does not need an AI key, its alerts are already structured.
Step-by-step for getting an OpenAI key: Create an AI key.
4. Build a strategy
A strategy is the rulebook: watch this source, trade this instrument, into these brokers, at this size, with these exits. On the Strategies page, choose New strategy. The editor is organized into sections down the page.
The strategy editor. The four sections below are all a first strategy needs.
For a first strategy you only need the top sections. The rest are optional and have sensible defaults.
- Basics: name it and set the Instrument (this decides which brokers and fields appear). Leave Direction on Both and Ticker on ALL to start.
- Signal source: pick Discord, TradingView, or Telegram. For Discord, pick the channel from the Channel picker. Turn Inherit trade details from message on so it uses what the message says instead of the strategy defaults.
- Brokers: pick one to start. Pick several and one signal fires into all of them at once.
- Sizing: a default quantity in contracts or shares, a dollar amount, or a percent. Keep it small for a first strategy.
The editor has more sections down the page (Risk management, Protections, and more). You can skip them for now and add them once you have a working trade. Every field is documented in the strategy reference.
Protections are worth turning on before you go live. In the Protections section, Duplicate protection, Slippage cap, and Maximum trade value (a hard dollar cap per trade) are the ones to reach for first.
A worked example, following a channel that posts calls like BTO SPY 450C 1/19 @ 2.50:
| Section | Setting | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Basics | Instrument / Direction / Ticker | Options / Both / ALL |
| Basics | Expiration | -1 (read from the signal) |
| Signal source | Source / Inherit trade details from message | Discord / On |
| Brokers | Broker | Tradier |
| Sizing | Dollars | 500 |
| Risk management | Stop loss / Take profit | 30% / 100% |
| Protections | Duplicate protection / Slippage cap | On |
That call becomes a $500 order for SPY 450 calls expiring 1/19, with a 30% stop and 100% target, into Tradier. Save it, but do not turn it on yet.
5. Test before you go live
Never point a fresh strategy at real size. Test it first. Going live untested is how a small misconfiguration becomes a real loss.
- Send a test signal. With the strategy still off, use Test signal (the Simulate button in the strategy editor) to push a sample call through the strategy. Confirm it reads the call correctly and would send the order you expect. While the strategy is off, nothing is placed in your broker.
- One real trade, smallest size. Drop the size to the minimum (one contract, or the smallest dollar amount), turn the strategy on, and either post a test call in a channel you own or wait for one live call. Confirm it fills in your broker and the exits behave.
Check the fill price, that it hit the right broker and account, and that stop and take-profit are set, before you scale the size back up.
6. Go live
When your tests pass, open the strategy and turn it on. The strategy shows Running. From now on, every matching call is read and traded automatically.
The app must stay running. Trades only happen while the Companion App is open on a computer that is on and online. Close it, or let the computer sleep, and nothing trades. Many users run it on a machine that stays on all day.
Watch it work on the Overview page: live profit, what each strategy is doing, broker health, and every signal and fill as it happens.
The Overview page. Your live picture once strategies are running.
Where to go next
- The App, Day to Day: the screens you’ll use once you’re live
- Strategies & Settings reference: every setting, per instrument
- The Web Dashboard: start, stop, and check on strategies from any browser