Trade copier troubleshooting: missed fills, ghost orders and out-of-sync followers

When a trade copier and a follower account disagree, check the broker first. The broker's own platform or web portal is the truth about what each account holds. Then work out which of four problems you have: a missed entry (follower flat, leader in a trade), an orphaned position (leader flat, follower still open), a wrong size, or an opposite position. Close anything unmanaged first and investigate after.

What you see	Most likely cause	Do this now
Follower flat, leader in a trade	Order rejected, connection down, or follower not enabled	Leave it flat unless price is still near entry
Leader flat, follower still open	Close did not reach the follower	Flatten the follower at the broker immediately
Follower opposite to the leader	Manual trade on the follower or a stale position	Flatten the follower, pause copying
Follower at the wrong size	Rejected part of the order, partial fill, rounding	Match it to the intended size or flatten
Platform shows a position the broker does not	Ghost order after a disconnect	Trust the broker; reconnect to refresh

What is a ghost order?

A ghost order is a position or order your trading platform shows but the broker does not have, or the other way round. It usually happens when a connection drops while an order is being confirmed: the platform never hears back and keeps showing an old state.

How to fix it:

1. Log in to the broker's web portal (Tradovate web or your Rithmic front end) and check the real position.
2. If the broker shows no position, the one in your platform is a ghost.
3. Disconnect and reconnect that account so the platform reloads positions from the broker.
4. Do not place "fixing" orders through the platform until it matches the broker.

Why did my copier enter on the leader but not the follower?

Work through it in order:

1. Did the copier send the follower order? Check the copier's activity log.
2. If it was sent, what did the broker do? Check the account's order history at the broker.
3. Filled: the position exists; your platform display is stale. Reconnect to refresh.
4. Rejected: read the reason. The usual ones on prop accounts are a contract limit (the follower's size is too big for its plan), insufficient margin from another open position, a trading-hours or news restriction, or the account is restricted by the firm.
5. Never arrived: the connection dropped at that moment. Check for disconnects around the time.
6. If it was never sent: the follower was not enabled in the profile, a risk rule had already stopped the account for the day, the instrument was not mapped for that follower, or the account disconnected just before.

While the trade is live: if price is still near the leader's entry, you can enter the follower by hand with a matching stop. If the trade has already moved, leave the follower flat for this one. A missed trade costs less than a mismatched position the copier then handles badly on the exit.

What to do when a follower will not close

This is the urgent one: the follower is holding a position nobody is managing.

1. Flatten it now at the broker or in the platform. Diagnose afterwards.
2. Check the log: was the close sent and rejected, or never sent because of a disconnect?
3. If it keeps happening on one account, look at that account's connection and size limits.

What to do when a follower is opposite the leader

Leader long, follower short is a hedge across accounts, which most prop firms prohibit.

1. Flatten the follower's wrong position immediately.
2. Pause copying until you know why it happened. The usual causes are a manual trade on the follower while copying was on, or a leftover position from a previous session.
3. Note the time and details in case the firm asks.

NinjaTrader crashed or disconnected during a live session

1. Check every account at the broker first, in the web portal. That is your real exposure.
2. If positions are moving against you and you cannot restart quickly, flatten them at the broker.
3. Otherwise, close NinjaTrader fully (Task Manager if frozen), wait a few seconds, and restart.
4. Let every connection come back, then confirm positions match the broker on each account.
5. Check the copier still shows every follower enabled, and that any account that should have hit its daily loss limit during the outage is stopped for the day.

Common causes of crashes: running out of memory (too many charts and accounts for the machine), an unstable NinjaTrader update, slow disk storage, and a misbehaving third-party add-on. A properly sized VPS with fewer charts fixes most of them.

Copied trades missed while the copier was down are not replayed later. Always reconcile before the leader trades again.

Prevent it: follower protection

Follower protection watches each follower against the leader and acts when they disagree for longer than a short delay:

• Open while the leader is flat: flatten the follower.
• Wrong size: flatten and, if you choose, take the follower out of copying.
• Opposite direction: flatten before it becomes a hedging problem.

Set a small delay so normal order timing between leader and followers does not trigger it. Protection pauses when the position state is not safe to compare, such as during a reconnect.

Prevent it: a two-minute check before and after each session

Before the open:

• Every account flat, unless you meant to hold overnight.
• Every connection live, with current prices.
• Every follower enabled in the copier, with the right size.

After the close:

• Every follower flat at the broker, not just in the platform.
• Any rejects or disconnects in the log, fixed before tomorrow.

FAQ

What is follower divergence?
A follower that no longer matches the leader: a different position, size or direction. It usually comes from a rejected order, a disconnect or a manual trade on the follower.

What tools recover NinjaTrader after a crash during a live session?
Start with the broker's web portal to see real positions and flatten if needed. Then restart NinjaTrader, let it reload positions from the broker, and use your copier's follower protection and logs to confirm every account is back in line.

How do I protect a copy trading setup from disconnects and crashes?
Use a copier that pauses when an account disconnects, turn on follower protection, run on a stable machine or VPS, and reconcile at the broker after every reconnect. See the multi-account risk guide.

Why does my copier send a different size to one follower?
Ratio sizing rounds down to whole contracts, and a follower's plan may cap its contract count. Check the ratio and the account's limit.

Copilink Standalone pauses copying when a leader or enabled follower becomes unavailable, logs incidents per account, and includes follower protection. See the Tradovate trade copier and Rithmic trade copier, or Copilink for NinjaTrader 8.