How to copy trade on Tradovate: Group Trade, a copier, or NinjaTrader

"Copy trading on Tradovate" almost always means one thing for a futures prop trader: you hold several accounts, usually at one or more prop firms, and you want one decision to land on all of them. Tradovate has a built-in feature for the simplest version of that. Everything past it needs a tool that connects to the accounts and does the copying for you.

This guide walks through the three ways to do it, in order of how much they can handle, and ends with the setup steps for a copier and the rules you need to check before any of it touches a funded account.

First, what you are actually allowed to copy

Every option below copies between accounts you own and are permitted to trade. Copying another trader's fills into your accounts, or selling your fills to other people, is a different activity that most prop firms prohibit. Each firm also publishes its own view on copiers, how many accounts you can hold, and whether they may be traded together. Those rules change without notice, so read the current version in your firm's help center before you connect anything. Nothing here overrides them.

Option 1: Tradovate Group Trade

Group Trade is built into Tradovate. You define a group, add accounts that sit under the same Tradovate login, assign a quantity to each account, and orders you place for the group go to every account in it. It costs nothing and there is nothing to install.

Where it stops, based on Tradovate's own description and what traders report in its community at the time of writing:

• The accounts have to be under one Tradovate login. Accounts at a second broker, or Rithmic accounts, cannot be in the group.
• It places the same order on each account. It does not watch a follower afterwards, so an account that rejected the order or was flattened manually simply drifts.
• It has no idea about prop firm rules. A daily loss limit or a consistency rule on one account is yours to police.
• Traders report it is not available in the mobile app and does not carry across to TradingView order entry. Check Tradovate's current documentation, because that can change.

If all your accounts are under one login, you want identical orders, and you are watching the screen, Group Trade is probably all you need. The Group Trade vs a trade copier article goes deeper on the trade-offs.

Option 2: a desktop copier connected to Tradovate's API

This is what most multi-account prop traders end up with. A copier program connects to Tradovate through its authorized API, watches one account you designate as the leader, and places the corresponding orders on the followers you choose. Copilink Standalone is this kind of tool: it runs on your own Windows or macOS computer, connects to Tradovate and Rithmic directly, and needs no NinjaTrader.

What it adds over Group Trade:

• Followers can be on different Tradovate logins and on Rithmic, in the same profile.
• Each follower gets its own sizing: the leader's exact quantity, or a ratio rounded down to whole contracts. Supported mini and micro pairs can cross-map.
• Follower protection watches each account after the copy. One that is the wrong size, open while the leader is flat, or on the opposite side beyond your delay gets a flatten request and can be disengaged.
• Per-account rules for daily loss, daily profit, and evaluation goals can request a flatten when breached. A breached leader stops the profile.
• A structured activity log shows what happened on every account, and a local trade log keeps the history.

The Tradovate trade copier page has the full feature list and a measured event-processing figure with the methodology behind it.

Option 3: copy inside NinjaTrader 8

If your Tradovate accounts are already connected inside NinjaTrader 8 and that is where you trade, a NinjaTrader add-on copies between the accounts in that session. Copilink for NinjaTrader 8 is the add-on version, with a separate license from Standalone. It is the right choice when NinjaTrader is your platform; it is the wrong choice if the only reason you would run NinjaTrader is the copier.

Setting up a copier on Tradovate, step by step

These steps are for Copilink Standalone. Other copiers differ in detail but the order of operations is the same, and the safety steps are not optional.

1. Start with Demo. Tradovate keeps Demo and Live as separate environments with separate authorizations. Connect Demo first so your first copied trade cannot touch real money.
2. Authorize in the browser. In Copilink, open Connections, add a Tradovate connection, and choose Demo or Live. Your browser opens Tradovate's authorization page; sign in, approve, and return to the app. The authorization is stored in your operating system's secure credential storage on that computer, not on a Copilink server.
3. Confirm the accounts. After approval Copilink discovers the accounts that login can trade. Check that the ones you expect are there and that market data is flowing for the contracts you trade. A Demo authorization will never show Live accounts.
4. Build one profile. Pick the leader, enable the followers, and set each follower's sizing. Leave everything flat.
5. Set protection and rules before the first trade. Follower protection delay, and any per-account daily loss or profit limit you want enforced. Decide whether a breached follower should be disengaged until you re-enable it.
6. Place one small test trade on the leader. Watch each follower fill, then flatten and confirm every account is flat at the broker, not just in the copier.
7. Only then connect Live. Repeat the same test with the smallest size you can.

The Getting Started guide covers each screen in detail.

Questions people ask before they start

How many Tradovate accounts can you copy trade to?

Group Trade is limited to accounts under one login. Copilink Standalone has no plan limit on accounts, followers, or profiles; the practical ceiling is your broker entitlements, connection quality, API limits, and the computer running it. Your prop firm may cap how many of its accounts you can hold or copy between, and that number is theirs, not the copier's.

Can I copy trades from TradingView to Tradovate?

Not with Copilink. It is not a webhook receiver or a signal service; the leader is an account connected to Copilink. If you place the leader trade in Tradovate, by hand or through any route that ends in a Tradovate order, the followers receive it.

What happens when a follower rejects an order?

Every follower order is accepted, rejected, queued, or filled by the broker on its own, so accounts can end up different from the leader. A copier cannot promise identical fills. What it can do is show you the rejection immediately, and, with follower protection on, flatten and disengage an account that has drifted.

Will my prop firm flag a copier?

Copying between your own accounts is allowed at most futures prop firms, with conditions. The prop firms that allow trade copying article summarizes what each publishes, and links to the source so you can read the current wording.

Before you rely on it

A copier does not remove broker, market, or connection risk. Positions already open when a profile starts are not copied, missed leader activity is not replayed later, and a flatten is a request to the broker, not proof that an account is flat. Confirm positions in Tradovate before you resume. The safety and operating limitations page lists every case like this.