Looking for the top broker for copy and social trading? Based on our hands-on analysis, we’ve identified 10 best options tailored to various trading needs. Practical tips from our experts are included.
Our team of experts has identified each broker’s strengths and weaknesses using FXEmpire’s comprehensive methodology. You can read more about it and how we conduct our tests here.
Now let’s take a dive into the selected brokers.
FP Markets is one of those rare brokers that manage to deliver both quality and quantity, balancing a wide selection of tools and features that cater to the needs of all kinds of traders. The broker was founded in 2005 and is licensed by several top-tier regulators, including CySEC in Cyprus and ASIC in Australia.
FP Markets incorporates MyFXbook Autotrade and Signal Start, two advanced tools that accommodate and enhance copy trading and social trading techniques. The broker also has an impressive selection of over 10,000 instruments, accommodates fast order execution supported by a complimentary Virtual Private Server (VPS), and provides diverse account types and pricing models (ECN and DMA).
FP Markets’ Standard account type affords commission-free trading and floating spreads from 1.0 pips, which we assessed to be below the industry average. The broker also incorporates the renowned MetaTrader 4&5 platforms supporting copy trading. The two platforms have easy-to-navigate interfaces, simplifying order execution.
SquaredFinancial was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Seychelles. The broker has diverse account types, which I found suitable for both inexperienced newbies and seasoned professionals. SquaredFinancial also offers over 2000 instruments from 7 asset classes. This is ideal for traders seeking to exploit various trading opportunities.
I opened a SquaredPro account, which affords commission-free trading and floating spreads starting from 1.2 pips. I then executed a full-sized (100,000 units) EURUSD position and measured its cost of trade. With a spread of 1.3 pips and $0 commission, I calculated the value of trade at $13 per traded lot (spread x pip value + commission). This meets the industry average.
Both experienced and inexperienced traders can implement high-frequency trading strategies, such as intraday trading, on the widely popular MetaTrader 5. The platform has a very easy learning curve and affords simple and fast order execution. It comprises over 50 technical indicators and drawing tools.
IC Markets was founded in 2007 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It is authorized in Australia by ASIC and in Cyprus by CySEC – both top-tier financial regulators. In addition to its access to deep liquidity and superior trading tools accommodating social and copy trading, we also found IC Markets’ fees to be some of the lowest in the industry.
The broker’s Raw cTrader account type offers a remarkable combination of raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips and a commission of $3.0 a side, which is below the industry average. Even the floating spreads starting from 0.6 pips on a Standard account are quite low. IC Markets’ costs are suitable for both high-frequency and high-volume trading.
The cTrader Copy Trading platform breaches the gap between signal providers and signal followers, allowing for a superior trading experience. It is a feature-rich platform making the most out of IC Markets’ low spreads and deep liquidity by supporting fast order execution. The broker also supports the IC Social tool, powered by Pelican Trading, allowing newbies to learn from proven trading experts.
JustMarkets is a Cyprus-based CFDs & forex broker that was founded in 2012. It offers access to over 250 tradable instruments from multiple asset classes. I selected JustMarkets as my pick for this category because of its extremely versatile offering of account types, which I found quite accessible and with very low fees. There is essentially no minimum deposit requirement, and copy and social traders can implement various kinds of trading strategies, including scalping, hedging, netting, and more.
I opened a Pro account with the broker, which affords commission-free trading and floating spreads starting from 0.3 pips. I measured the EURUSD spread at 0.9 pips. Overall, I assessed JustMarkets’ pricing mechanism to afford trading costs that are below the industry average.
The broker incorporates the industry-popular MetaTrader 4&5 platforms, which are also quite flexible. They allow automated trading via their Expert Advisors (EAs) features and can be used for building sophisticated trading strategies. The two platforms are feature-rich and consist of more than 50 analytical tools, like technical instruments and drawing tools, that can be used to study price action behavior from multiple angles and determine viable entries and exits in and out of trades.
Vantage, founded in 2009 in Sydney, Australia, serves over 50,000 active accounts and offers instruments across multiple asset classes. The broker is regulated by ASIC (Australia) and CIMA (Cayman Islands).
We reviewed the conditions of Vantage’s ‘Social Trading’ feature and found them particularly beneficial for experienced signal providers. While the ability to earn income from subscribers to your strategy isn’t unique to Vantage, the broker’s attractive commission rates stand out. This could attract top-performing traders, which is great news for newcomers looking to follow effective strategies.
The broker also offers low trading fees, which are below the industry average. The Raw ECN account provides raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips and a fixed commission of $3 per traded lot per side.
Vantage supports both MetaTrader 4 and 5, offering basic technical analysis tools. For those seeking an enhanced trading experience, the Vantage ProTrader platform, powered by TradingView, features over 50 trading indicators and drawing tools. This platform is especially suited for copy and social trading, as TradingView hosts the largest social trading community in the world.
Zero Markets was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Australia. The broker holds one Tier-1 license by ASIC (Australia) and a Tier-3 one by the FSC (Mauritius). It offers access to over 900 instruments across FX pairs, commodities, share CFDs, indices, and cryptocurrencies.
The greatest advantage of Zero Markets is its wide range of supporting tools and third-party content, which afford the trader a nuanced picture of current market developments. Zero Markets incorporates Autochartist – one of the industry-leading market analysis and trading signals providers. Additionally, the broker incorporates the MetaTrader toolkit for enhanced trading experience. Finally, Zero Markets offers free VPS hosting.
In terms of platforms, the broker incorporates the renowned MetaTrader 4 and 5, which offer easy order execution. Zero Markets has also integrated the Signal Start platform for social and copy trading. It connects thousands of traders worldwide and helps signal followers and signal providers find each other.
I assessed the competitiveness of Zero Markets’ prices by opening a Super Zero account. It features raw spreads from 0.0 pips and a $5 round-turn commission per traded lot (100,000 units). This combination presents that the broker’s fees are lower than the industry average.
RoboForex is a well-balanced OTC derivatives broker founded in 2009 in Belize. It is regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) there and serves traders globally. In addition to its competitive trading fees, choice of platforms, and rich and diverse offering of more than 12,000 instruments, RoboForex stands out for its versatile proprietary mobile app.
I found the R MobileTrader app very practical since it affords easy access to markets on the go. It has a very intuitive design allowing traders easy and fast access to their accounts. They can make use of the app by adjusting their open positions and overall market exposure and, of course, gain access to RoboForex’s CopyFX option – an advanced tool for copy and social trading.
I tested the performance of a RoboForex Prime account featuring a $2 round-turn commission per traded lot (100,000 units) and raw spreads from 0.0 pips. This combination falls well below the industry average and offers clients of RoboForex some of the best conditions in the industry.
I also evaluated the performance of RoboForex’s MetaTrader 5 platform, which is feature-rich and has a relatively easy learning curve. In addition to RoboForex’s social and copy trading options, MTT5 also accommodates automated trading via its Expert Advisors (EAs) feature.
Founded in 2020 in London, EBC Financial Group is a global CFD broker that offers access to CFDs on forex, indices, commodities, and shares via the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms. EBC operates in multiple jurisdictions, with regional entities regulated by FCA (UK),
ASIC (Australia), and CIMA (Cayman Islands).
The broker excels with order execution of under 20 ms thanks to ultra-fast servers in over 50 locations, including London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Clients can also access VPS hosting for low-latency trading on high-performance servers, ensuring an uninterrupted trading experience.
I rated EBC’s copy trading as well designed, allowing you to seamlessly connect your trading account with signal providers and easily copy trades of other successful traders without an EA. The platform features AI-driven, one-click signal screening making it easy to discover top strategies. When evaluating a signal provider, you can track key metrics like profit factor, rate of return, maximum drawdown rate, and Sharpe ratio.
My tests showed that spreads on forex and commodities were close to the industry average, while certain instruments, such as the Dow Jones 30 index, offered spreads that were better than the norm. More competitive spreads are available on the Professional account, which offers raw spreads with a $6 commission per lot, round trip.
AvaTrade was founded in 2006 in Dublin, Ireland, and offers more than 840 tradable instruments that can be traded as CFDs and vanilla options. This diversity affords traders greater flexibility.
AvaTrade offers several proprietary platforms (Ava Web Trader, AvaOptions, and AvaSocial), and it also incorporates MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 (enhanced with the Guarding Angel suit) and DupliTrade. The platforms are versatile and cater to the needs of different traders.
Ava Web is suitable for carrying out advanced technical analysis because of its fluid charting capabilities. Meanwhile, MT4 and MT5 allow basic technical analysis and easy order execution. AvaSocial and DupliTrade connect signal providers and signal followers and facilitate social trading.
I also determined that AvaTrade’s prices fall marginally below the industry average. The combination of zero commissions and floating spreads from 0.9 pips is suitable for day trading. I also measured the broker’s swaps and determined that they are suitable for longer-term trading. Indeed, AvaTrade’s overnight charges are quite favorable for swing trading and position trading.
Over the years, eToro has established itself as one of the most easily recognizable brands in the online trading industry. A leader and innovator in copy trading, the brokerage firm’s global operations serve clients from every corner of the world. eToro was founded in 2007 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and has since grown into a multi-regulated broker. In the U.S., it is authorized by FINRA – a top-tier financial regulator.
eToro has competitive pricing models, including 0% commission stocks for investing, accommodating diverse account types, and excellent supporting tools.
Clients of eToro’s U.S. entity can only subscribe to the strategies of other U.S.-based traders. The broker provides the best conditions for copy trading in the region, and clients from the world’s most active financial hub can certainly benefit from its services.
Traders can use eToro’s proprietary platform, which offers standard features, such as one-click trading and an alerts-setting option. It is also highly intuitive with a user-friendly design. The platform also consists of the impressive 66 trading indicators and 13 drawing tools, as well as some rare chart types like hollow candles.
This section highlights all the relevant considerations you have to make before using copy or social trading platforms.
If there is one thing separating all the trustworthy brokers from the ones of less reputable disposition, it’s their authorizations and licenses issued by trusted regulatory bodies. You can usually find all relevant information about a broker’s licenses and regulations in its Client Agreement, which should be displayed in the Legal Docs section of the website.
You should always look for all the significant hallmarks of a reliable broker in its Client Agreement – segregated funds, negative balance protection, a compensation scheme, and if it caps the maximum leverage allowed.
But what about copy trading and social trading in particular? Well, the most important thing to remember is that you must make sure you know who you trust to trade on your behalf, whether directly or indirectly. If you subscribe to somebody else’s strategy and copy their trades, it is not enough to only check their success ratio of winning trades against losing ones.
Make sure you know the person you are dealing with. Talk to them, inquire about their approach to trading, find out what is their usual market exposure per trade, and so on. Subscribing to a winning strategy is one thing, but you have to ensure that the goals of the person running it match the needs and means of your account. In short, do your due diligence and look for the strategy that best fits your circumstances instead of the one promising the biggest returns, especially if the underlying risk exceeds the risk you can tolerate.
Read more about Best regulated forex brokers.
High trading costs can curb the success of even the best-performing strategies. That is why before you start looking for the highest-earning traders to subscribe to, you have to evaluate whether your broker’s fees are competitive when measured against the industry average.
Check out our list of Best lowest spread forex brokers.
Things like spread rates, swap rates, and commissions are important determinants of success in the long run. For instance, a strategy with fewer successful trades could generate higher net returns than a strategy with a higher ratio of successful trades, which is nevertheless executed with a broker with higher trading fees.
That is why your first concern should be to consider what strategies are best suited for your account type. For instance, your account is tailored for high-frequency trading if you have a standard STP (Straight-Through-Processing) account with no commissions and floating spreads (usually starting from 1.0 pips). Commission-free accounts accommodate high-volatility strategies, like intraday trading and scalping, which require frequent getting in and out of trades intended to capture small price changes.
Accordingly, if you have an ECN account with a fixed round turn commission per traded lot and raw spreads (usually from 0.0 pips), your account is better suited to accommodate high-volume trading strategies. Day trading and position trading strategies are prime examples of this type. Those entail the execution of comparatively larger positions less frequently. The central idea is to avoid paying a lot of commissions, take advantage of the much smaller spreads, and ride much larger price trends.
Explore Best ECN forex brokers and Best STP forex brokers.
Now that you’ve thought about regulations and fees, it’s time to turn your attention to precision and speed of execution. Like with a broker’s trading fees, its liquidity supply (or lack thereof) can affect your overall performance.
To understand why this is important, consider the following example. You’ve discovered the highest-earning strategy on your broker’s social trading platform and have happily subscribed to it. The trader running it spots an excellent opportunity at 10:00:01. He reacts and places a market order at 10:00:04. Suppose also that the broker’s access to liquidity from its providers is poor so that the order gets filled at 10:00:06. Once filled, an identical order is placed automatically on your end. It takes another second or two to finalize.
In these critical 6 or 7 seconds in this imaginary scenario, the price of the underlying could have already changed significantly to the point where the opportunity is no longer viable. And yet, you are locked into a position that was opened without a competitive edge. In the long run, such poor execution can only lead to one certain outcome, and it does not involve you accumulating a lot of profits.
And even if there is no delay between the time the original position is opened and an identical trade is placed on your account, the precious few seconds wasted before the order is filled could still be too much. When this difference is to the disadvantage of the trader, it is called negative slippage and is caused by poor liquidity supply.
To mitigate the risk of negative slippage, make sure you choose a broker that:
When choosing a broker, it’s crucial to consider the variety and number of tradable instruments they offer for market flexibility. Imagine a scenario where a trader with an effective strategy is limited by a broker offering a narrow selection of instruments. This restriction hinders the ability to capitalize on diverse market opportunities, such as a tech stock rally or fluctuations in the Forex market.
Limited market access can adversely affect both the trader’s and your investment outcomes. Therefore, opting for a broker with a broad range of instruments, including complex options like vanilla options, is essential. This enables the exploitation of trading opportunities from multiple perspectives.
If your plan is simply to duplicate the success of others, then even the most basic platform like MetaTrader 4 (MT4) can do the job, provided you find a signal provider whose system matches your needs. But if you want to grow as a trader and hone your skills over time, then perhaps you need a more sophisticated platform.
Read more about best MT4 brokers and best MT5 brokers.
Avoid platforms that are not user-friendly or do not accommodate easy interaction between its members. You want to be able to communicate freely with more experienced traders so that you can gain different perspectives on trading.
Also, avoid platforms that do not have sufficient indicators and drawing tools, do not have a best execution policy, or do not incorporate a wide range of instruments from multiple asset classes.
Scam brokers rely, above all else, on the gullibility of traders. A common tactic scammers employ to lure in new victims is to promise quick and easy profits at no risk to the trader. Even more noteworthy, they promise to trade on behalf of their “clients,” requiring almost no effort from them.
Unfortunately, the allure of easy profits without any real effort is quite similar to the idea of copy trading, where you subscribe to another trader’s strategy and hope to replicate their results. However, there is one substantial difference. Real copy trading involves a symbiotic relationship between a broker, a signal provider, and a signal follower, which benefits all parties. And copy trading still requires due diligence.
So, the question is how to recognize and protect yourself from scammers wanting to exploit your trust and steal your money. Well, first and foremost, look for licenses and regulations! The best way to protect yourself is to make sure you work with a trustworthy and transparent broker. You can find a comprehensive list of reliable brokers in different jurisdictions here.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you need to be careful where you leave your information online. Registering your details on suspicious pop-ups or even more innocuous-looking landing pages promising you enormous profits could result in your contact details ending up in a scammer’s calling list. Remember, no licensed broker would make unsolicited, cold calls.
The next time you get called out of the blue with promises of becoming the next Warren Buffet with zero effort, you are most likely speaking to a scammer. Nowhere is the “if something sounds too good to be true…” saying more accurate than in the world of trading. That is why, if you want to be safe, always check the licenses and authorizations of the brokers you plan to do business with.
FXEmpire has pioneered a unique and comprehensive methodology for evaluating the services and conditions of brokers that provide leveraged trading to clients worldwide. Our goal with each review is to underscore even the most minute pros and cons in the service of each broker so that our readers can gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of what the company can do for them.
After completing hundreds of reviews over a decade, we remain just as committed to continuing to update and improve our methodology in light of the ever-changing market environment. We test the functioning of each broker by systematically employing over 250 variables across nine different categories:
We review the licenses of each subsidiary operating under a brand name and check the fine print in the Client Agreements in order to discern the exact protections entailed to clients of the broker. We put a lot of effort into evaluating a broker’s transparency and trustworthiness based on the scope and availability of information on its website.
Other essential information is gathered by opening a live account with the entity under review and testing its services in real-time. We measure the spread rates, swaps, and commissions on its most popular account type and compare our findings to the industry average.
We test the functionality of the platforms, the number and types of available instruments, the reliability of customer support, and the quality of the research and educational materials. Moreover, we check the reliability and security of secondary services, such as automated and social trading, so that we can determine how safe they are for the average retail trader.
We abide by our strict guidelines for editorial integrity based on the objective standards we have set for our reviews. You can read more about our review process here.
The team of forex and CFD analysts and editors at FXEmpire is composed of trading industry professionals and seasoned financial journalists. Our experts have been published on leading financial websites such as Investopedia and Forbes. In addition, they all have extensive trading experience.
Dan Blystone began his career in the trading industry in 1998 on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Later Dan gained insight into the forex industry during his time as a Series 3 licenced futures and forex broker. He also traded at a couple of different prop trading firms in Chicago. Dan is well-equipped to recommend the best forex brokers due to his extensive experience and understanding of the brokerage industry.
Jitan Solanki is a professional trader, market analyst, and educator. He day trades major currency and index markets and focuses on swing trading US equities and commodities. A qualified Market Technician, Jitan also works with trader education and brokerage companies on various projects. These include market analysis, live trading events, and broker reviews. As an experienced trader and educator, Jitan brings all his qualities in action when reviewing and recommending brokers.
Having been a retail trader since 2013, Plamen has gained an in-depth understanding of the challenges that novice traders face today. His expertise is swing trading and day trading with a heavy emphasis on psychological and fundamental analysis. Plamen’s favourite trading instruments include FX majors and gold. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations. Plamen's broad experience has equipped him with the expertise to recommend the best forex brokers.
In more than 15 years of trading in the financial markets, Vladimir dealt with a wide range of brokers and financial instruments. His career as a day-trader at a proprietary trading firm goes back to 2007. Later, Vladimir turned to longer time frames and became an independent trader and analyst managing his own portfolio. Using his experience, he helps traders find the best broker in his reviews.
Having been a retail trader since 2013, Plamen has gained an in-depth understanding of the challenges that novice traders face today. His expertise is swing trading and day trading with a heavy emphasis on psychological and fundamental analysis. Plamen’s favourite trading instruments include FX majors and gold. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations. Plamen's broad experience has equipped him with the expertise to recommend the best forex brokers.
At FXEmpire, we strive to provide unbiased, thorough and accurate broker reviews by industry experts to help our users make smarter financial decisions.