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Prop firm rules · Copy trading and hedging

Copy trading and hedging at prop firms: where the line is

The line is not drawn by the technique, it is drawn by the number of accounts. Inside a single account, opening opposite positions is the one exception FTMO's rulebook spells out. Across accounts, it is the first manipulative practice on its list.

Copy trading works out much the same way by a different route: FTMO never uses the term, but it catches the practice twice — through the personal-use clauses and through the capital cap, which is counted per strategy as well as per person. That second route catches people who have copied nobody and simply bought the same bot as several hundred others.

Checked on 31 August 2026 against each firm's own documentation

Every firm sets its own conditions and can change them

What FTMO allows, what it bans, and with which numbers

Opposite positions
allowed
on one account
Across accounts
forbidden
connected ones too
Capital per strategy
$400,000
per trader
or strategy
Trading for someone else
forbidden
both ways round
Best Day Rule
max. 50%
on your best day
1-Step only

Checked on 31 August 2026 · FTMO figures only, each with its source linked below

Hedging: the line is the number of accounts

It is one of the few rules in this industry that fits in a sentence, and FTMO's rulebook writes the whole of it into a single clause.

The first forbidden practice at FTMO is trading, alone or in concert with other persons, for manipulative purposes, and it gives one example: simultaneously entering into opposite positions. That example ends with the most quotable bracket on the page, with the exception of entering into such positions on a single simulated account.

What makes the rule unusually clear is how far the forbidden half reaches. It does not talk about other people's accounts: it names connected accounts, accounts held with various operators or providers, and accounts held with other members of the Program Group. Both accounts being yours, or sitting at two different firms, does not take them out of the clause.

There is a second limit on hedging that happens inside one account, so the exception above does not cover it: it must not be used to spread profit across several days without spreading the risk with it. The rulebook calls that what it is, a way of circumventing the Best Day Rule, which on the 1-Step account requires your best day not to exceed 50% of your positive days' profit.

SituationStatus at FTMO
Opposite positions on one accountAllowed
In the challenge
Allowed
In the funded account
Allowed
How it is written
Express exception in the clause
Proviso
Not to sidestep the Best Day Rule
Opposite positions across accountsForbidden
Connected accounts
Forbidden
Accounts at other firms
Forbidden
With other people
Forbidden
How it is classed
Manipulative purposes

Copy trading: FTMO never uses the words

The term is not in its public rulebook. What is there are two personal-use clauses that leave no gap.

Searching for copy trading on FTMO's forbidden practices page returns nothing, which throws a lot of people. What sits there instead is a whole section on personal use of the service, written in both directions, plus the capital cap covered in the next block. Between them they cover the ground without needing the term.

  1. Someone else trading your account

    You must not let a third party access or otherwise use your account, and you must not cooperate with anyone so that they trade for you or in coordination with you. That rules out both a favour from someone you know and the service of anyone offering to pass your challenge.

  2. You trading someone else's

    The same ban the other way round, with a tail that closes the professional door: you must not trade another person's account either, whether performed as a professional or otherwise. Companies get one carve-out, sharing access with top management.

  3. Several accounts under different registrations

    Not permitted. It is the usual way of trying to spread one strategy without it showing, and it is closed off on the very page where FTMO explains how many accounts you may hold.

The cap counted per strategy, not per person

This is the route that catches people who copied nobody: running the same strategy as many others is enough.

FTMO does not limit how many accounts you may have, it limits how much capital sits behind them: $400,000 in total across all of them, counted per trader or strategy. That last word is what turns this into a rule about copy trading without anyone calling it one.

The firm writes the outcome down itself: if it detects identically traded strategies across several accounts and the total capital exceeds the cap, it reserves the right to suspend the accounts involved. And it warns anyone buying a third-party EA in advance, telling them there might be other traders already using the same EA and therefore exactly the same strategy.

The awkward part is that it does not depend on you doing anything wrong, and you cannot check it: you do not know how many licences the seller has placed. It is a question to ask before paying, not after. The full breakdown of that limit, with its figures and its sources, is on the page about FTMO and expert advisors.

The difference is in the distribution rather than the technology: a mass-market EA hands the same strategy to strangers, and a system installed and configured for one specific account is not part of that spread. That exempts nobody from any of the clauses above, and it says nothing about how the trading will go.

How other firms in the industry write it

Two rulebooks that do use both terms, and that on one point are stricter than FTMO's.

Neither FundedNext nor Hantec Trader is a firm Fondeobot works with. They are here because they publish their rulebooks and because, by naming both techniques, they spell out what at FTMO has to be pieced together from three separate clauses.

On hedging all three agree, word for word in the case of the two that name it: inside one account yes, across accounts no. On copy trading they do not agree. FundedNext allows it between accounts owned by the same individual and bans it between accounts that are not, relatives and friends included. Hantec Trader goes considerably further and catches any trading that replicates, mirrors, synchronises with, or substantially aligns in timing, pricing, direction, or strategy with another account, whether directly or indirectly, through any manual, automated, or third-party means. A mass-market EA fits that description without any of its buyers having copied anyone.

FirmCopy trading and hedging
FundedNextNames it
Hedging on one account
Allowed
Hedging across accounts
Prohibited
Copying between your own accounts
Allowed, with conditions
Copying from another person
Prohibited, family included

It is the only one of the three rulebooks that gives worked examples of allowed and prohibited hedging, with the same lot on the same pair held on one account and then on two.

Hantec TraderNames it
Hedging on one account
Allowed
Hedging across accounts
Prohibited
Trading that replicates another
Prohibited, manual or automated
Same strategy on several accounts
Aggregate capital cap

It also bans the use of third party or marketed strategies to pass the Challenge, a rule FTMO does not have and one worth reading before buying a ready-made EA.

The only thing anyone can state about a particular firm is what its documentation says on the day it is read, and any of them can change it. If you are going to run more than one account at a time, that is the check you cannot delegate to a page like this one.

Sources · read on 31 August 2026

Frequently asked questions

Can I open an opposite position against another one inside my funded account?
At FTMO you can, and it is the one exception its rulebook spells out. The clause forbidding traders from simultaneously entering into opposite positions ends with a bracket that reads, literally, with the exception of entering into such positions on a single simulated account. There is a further limit: hedging must not be used to spread profit across several days without spreading the risk with it, because that would sidestep the Best Day Rule, which on the 1-Step requires your best day not to exceed 50% of your positive days' profit.
Can I open two accounts and trade one against the other?
No. That is precisely what the first of FTMO's forbidden practices describes as manipulation: trading alone or in concert with other persons, including between connected accounts, accounts held with various operators or providers, or accounts held with other members of the Program Group, by entering opposite positions at the same time. Both accounts being yours changes nothing, because the clause names connected accounts explicitly. FundedNext and Hantec Trader ban it too, and both call it by its name, hedging across accounts.
If two people buy the same bot, does that count as copy trading?
It depends who you ask, and that is the uncomfortable answer. FTMO does not use the term copy trading in its public rulebook, but it does count capital per strategy: if it detects identically traded strategies across several accounts and the total exceeds its cap, it reserves the right to suspend the accounts involved. Hantec Trader's terms are broader and catch any trading that replicates, mirrors, synchronises with, or substantially aligns in timing, pricing, direction, or strategy with another account, whether manual, automated or through a third party. A mass-market EA fits that description without any of its buyers having copied anyone.
Can I copy my own trades between two accounts of mine?
There is no common answer and each firm's rulebook has to be read. FundedNext allows it between its own challenge accounts and bans copying between accounts not owned by the same individual, relatives and friends included. Hantec Trader caps the aggregate capital running the same strategy across several accounts. FTMO does not talk about copying at all but about capital per strategy, which has the same practical effect, and adds that holding multiple accounts through different registrations is not permitted. What none of the three changes is that the limit is counted across the set, not on each account separately.
What is group hedging, and why does it appear in so many rulebooks?
It means opening several accounts and placing opposite positions on the same asset across them, so that whatever the market does, one of the accounts clears its objective. It appears in rulebooks because it is not a market strategy: it turns the evaluation fee into a bet with both sides covered, and the firm pays out on the winning account while the losing one costs no more than its challenge fee. FundedNext bans it under that name, and Hantec Trader lists it as reverse trading and group hedging.
What does the rulebook say about letting somebody else trade my account?
At FTMO it is one of the few things forbidden in both directions and without qualification. You must not let a third party access your account or cooperate with one so that they trade for you or in coordination with you, and you must not trade somebody else's account either, whether performed as a professional or otherwise. Companies get one carve-out, sharing access with top management. That rules out both the favour from a friend while you are travelling and the service offered by anyone who will pass your challenge for a fee.

Before you automate, compatibility

The cap counts per strategy, so what matters about a system is not how many accounts it runs but how many different strategies it trades, and where. That is written down, and compatibility is confirmed before anything is charged.

See the trading system

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