What you will accomplish
- Treat every follower order as a separate trade
- Define proportional, fixed, or capped sizing
- Protect followers against stale or unsuitable copies
- Handle followers who receive different fills
Before you begin
- A clear opt-in and disclosure for each follower
- Per-follower Quote.Trade authorization
- Leader and follower account/risk state
- A copy-sizing service
- Clear slippage, rejection, and disconnect rules
Choose which leader event triggers a copy
Decide whether followers copy the leader’s submitted order, accepted order, fill, position change, or target allocation. Copying a fill is easier to explain, but the follower receives a later price.
Store each follower’s consent and limits
For each follower, store allowed leaders, symbols, side permissions, fixed or proportional sizing, maximum order and daily notional, leverage permission, maximum price deviation, settlement currency, and emergency stop. Missing or expired consent must deny execution.
Calculate each follower order separately
Calculate the order from the follower’s own balance, limits, and current position. Round to the current symbol precision, check minimums, and prevent the order from accidentally reversing the position.
Get a fresh Quote.Trade price before sending
Request current price or depth, or a current executable quote, for each follower batch. Apply a strict age and deviation limit from the leader reference. Use only the all-or-none workflow supported by the current interface; otherwise reject a batch rather than silently accepting an unintended partial allocation.
Submit each follower order separately
Use unique follower/client order identifiers and per-account credentials. A failure for one follower must not block or duplicate the entire batch. Throttle bursts to current API and account limits.
Show each follower’s actual result
Record follower accepted, rejected, expired, filled, not-filled, and position outcomes. Notify the user when a follower diverges from the leader due to limits, collateral, market movement, API state, or disconnection. Do not imply identical performance.
Handle missed entries, exits, and emergency stops
Specify whether close events are copied, how partial follower positions are closed, and what happens when a user revokes access. Stop new copies on stale state, emergency mode, unresolved orders, or loss-limit breaches.
Common problems and fixes
A copied exit arrives for a position the follower never opened
Do not let the exit create a reverse position. Compare it with the follower’s actual position and close only the amount that exists, unless the follower explicitly allowed reversals.
A leader trades a symbol the follower cannot use
Skip the follower and disclose the reason; do not substitute another market.
The batch exceeds rate limits
Queue within a strict quote-age limit or reject; do not silently execute stale copies.
Follower P&L is compared with leader P&L
Use follower fills, fees/all-in price, position size, timing, and collateral. Never calculate from leader results alone.