If you trade several prop firm accounts, the first decision about a copier is where it runs. A local copier runs on your own computer or on a VPS you rent. A cloud trade copier runs on the provider's servers and connects to your broker accounts from there. Both copy trades from one Master account to your followers. The difference is what has to stay switched on, what you maintain, and what happens when your computer or connection has a bad day.
How a local copier works
A local copier is usually an add-on inside your trading platform (a NinjaTrader 8 add-on is the common case) or a desktop app. It watches the account you trade and places matching orders on the other accounts that platform is connected to.
Because it runs where the platform runs, a few things have to be true for copies to go out:
- the platform is open and connected to every account,
- the computer it runs on is on and awake,
- that computer has a working internet connection.
If that machine or the platform stops, copying stops until it is back. That is why many traders who use a local copier rent a VPS: a remote Windows machine that stays on around the clock so the platform and the copier can keep running when the home PC is off.
None of this makes a local copier a bad choice. It means the uptime of your copier is the uptime of the machine it lives on.
How a cloud copier works
A cloud copier does not live in your trading platform. You connect your broker accounts to the service once. It connects to your broker's API and runs on the provider's servers, watching your Master and placing follower orders from there.
TradeCloner works this way. It runs in the cloud, so your PC does not need to stay on for copies to go out, and there is no add-on to install in NinjaTrader. It connects Tradovate, NinjaTrader (through the Tradovate login), ProjectX and Rithmic accounts.
Side by side
| Local copier (add-on or desktop app) | Cloud copier (TradeCloner) | |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps running when your PC is off | Only if it runs on a VPS or another machine that stays on | Yes. It runs on TradeCloner's servers |
| What you maintain | The platform, the add-on, operating system updates, and the VPS if you use one | Your broker connections. Nothing to install |
| Where the copier sees fills | Through the trading platform's own connection, on that machine | From the broker accounts it is connected to, on TradeCloner's servers |
| When the Master goes flat | Depends on the copier | Follower Protection closes any follower still holding the copied position |
| On a disconnect | Depends on the copier and the platform's own alerts | Spoken audio alerts tell you when a connection drops |
When local still makes sense
A fair comparison has to say this. A local copier can be the better fit when:
- Your platform or broker is not reachable from the cloud. If a cloud copier cannot connect to the platform your accounts live on, a local add-on may be the only option.
- You prefer desktop software. Some traders want everything on a machine they control, and are happy to keep it running.
- You already run a VPS for other tools and maintaining it is routine for you.
If none of those apply, a cloud copier removes the machine you would otherwise have to keep alive.
The VPS question
A VPS solves one problem: it gives a local copier a computer that stays on. In exchange you take on another machine to look after. You choose and pay for a provider, install and update the platform and the copier on it, keep the platform logged in to every account, and check on it when something looks wrong. For some traders that is a small job. For others it is exactly the job they wanted a copier to take off their plate.
With a cloud copier the question goes away: there is no machine of yours in the copy path, so there is nothing to rent for it.
What about speed?
Wherever a copier runs, every follower order still goes to the broker, and the broker's order handling is part of every copy. TradeCloner's own processing adds well under 100 ms. The rest is the broker's order handling.
Your firm's rules come first. Prop firms set their own copy trading rules and change them often. Check your firm's current rules before you connect a copier, whichever kind you use.