Copytrading
What is the difference between copy trading and a trading bot?
A copy bot has no opinion: it waits for a human you chose to act, then mirrors the action. A strategy bot has an opinion encoded as a rule - buy when volume triples, sell at plus 40 percent - and acts on its own. Copy bots inherit a person's judgement and their bad days; strategy bots inherit the market regime the rule was written in and break when it changes.
Side by side
- Source of the decision. Copy bot: a specific wallet. Strategy bot: a condition you wrote.
- Failure mode. Copy bot: the trader changes style, stops trading, or blows up. Strategy bot: the condition keeps firing after it stopped meaning anything.
- What you must monitor. Copy bot: whether the trader is still the trader you chose. Strategy bot: whether the rule is still describing the market.
- Transparency. Copy bot: you can see every trade the source makes. Strategy bot: you can read the rule but not the future it assumes.
They share the same three risks
- Execution risk. Failed transactions, bad routes, and slippage that shows up exactly when it hurts.
- Size risk. Automation multiplies whatever sizing mistake you configured, at machine speed.
- Silence risk. A bot that stops working rarely announces it. Check fills, not intentions.
Last reviewed