Technological advancement has revolutionized how we do things – making the traditional processes more efficient and convenient.
In the financial markets, technological disruptions can be seen in the way we trade.
Aside from making the financial markets virtually accessible through brokerage services, technology has made it easy for everyone, irrespective of their experience, to potentially profit from the market.
That’s evident in the advent of copy trading platforms.
In this TRU Insights, we’ll explore the nitty-gritty of copy trading platforms. From how they work to their benefits, we’ll explore everything you need to know to find the best copy trading platforms in South Africa.
What Is Copy Trading?
At their core, copy trading platforms have a sole purpose – democratizing the financial markets.
Copy trading allows new traders to copy a trade of a more successful trader. From entry/exit points and assets to trade to other trading parameters like stop levels, beginner traders stand to gain from the market movement if copy trading is done right.
This is not a one-way road; the trade provider also benefits from copy trading. As they share their trade details with traders, they ultimately receive commissions or fees.
Related: Top 5 Reasons to Start Copy Trading in South Africa [2025 Update]: 5 Best Copy Trading Platforms in South AfricaClearing the Confusion: Copy Trading, Social Trading, and Online Trading Communities
First, let’s address the elephant in the room – these three are not the same.
In its most basic form, social trading allows traders to connect with other traders, interact and learn with one another, grow their trading network, and ultimately explore new opportunities to profit from the market.
Thus, an online trading community hosts social trading.
On the flip side, copy trading is a subset of social trading. It ultimately touches on “providing traders with other opportunities to profit from the market.”
Copy trading allows traders to replicate the trades of experienced and successful traders in real time. When a professional trader opens or closes a position, the same action is automatically executed in the copier’s account.
While copy trading simplifies the trading process for beginners or time-strapped investors, it also carries risks, as the copier’s performance is directly tied to the trader they follow.
Read more: Find Credible Forex Signals for Safer Trading in 2025: 5 Best Copy Trading Platforms in South AfricaOnline trading communities and social trading platforms focus on fostering collaboration and education rather than just replication.
These communities provide access to trading discussions, market analysis, and peer support, empowering traders to develop their skills and strategies.
How Does Copy Trading Work?
Before we dive into the actual operation of copy trading, let’s first put labels on the two important entities:
- The one copying the trade is called the copier trader, copying trader, follower, or subscriber. These traders have yet to master market analysis or are under time constraints to monitor market movement.
- The one providing the trade is called the copied trader, signal/strategy provider, or master trader. Ideally, these are expert, if not professional, traders with a proven track record of success.
Remember, confusion often stems from this basic differentiation. Always remember which is you and which is not.
Now, let’s move on to the actual operation of copy trading.
By default, copy trading allows traders to replicate one’s trading setup. This ultimately allows beginner or busy traders to trade without constant market monitoring and analysis.
You can utilize an automated approach in which the copy trading platform automatically copies your strategy provider’s setup into your trading account.
A hybrid approach allows you to adjust the provided setup according to your risk appetite and trading objectives. Your capital allocation, stop level, and position size are at your discretion.
A manual approach mirrors the traditional signal trading, wherein you receive a signal from a provider, and it’s up to you whether to trade it. This way, you can supplement the setup provided with your own analysis to ensure the validity of the trade.
Approaching copy trading manually allows you greater control over your position while still leveraging its benefit of doing all the intensive leg work (monitoring) for you.
Top 5 Copy Trading Platforms in South Africa
The appeal of copy trading is undeniable in South Africa, especially since it presents opportunities for traders – irrespective of their experience – to profit from the financial markets.
Copy trading allows beginner traders to bypass the stretched and extended learning curve. A more experienced trader, on the other hand, is presented with an opportunity to explore a new way to profit from the market without painstaking market analysis.
Do you want to experience the benefits of copy trading in South Africa yourself? Here are the 5 top copy trading platforms you might want to consider.
CopyTrader – eToro
| UK FCA-Regulated | eToro UK Ltd (FRN 583263) |
Time and again, eToro wasn’t just a buzzword in the online trading scene. Its brokerage service is among the first to ever help online traders democratize financial markets.
One eToro feature that improved the trading scene is its CopyTrader platform. With a minimum USD 500 investment, you can replicate or personalize the trades of professional investors (trade provider).
Over time, eToro’s copy trading platform improved exponentially in terms of the portfolio of professional investors.
As eToro emphasizes credibility, all necessary data of professional investors are readily available for copying traders’ reference. This includes the following:
- Monthly ROI
- Number of Copiers
- Running profits since joining eToro
- Trade duration
- Preferred/mastered assets
- Risk level
But what’s so great about eToro’s Copy Trader is its seamless process of personalizing the position to fit your preferences.
You can ultimately remove a position that you deem unprofitable or unsustainable. Moreover, you can also easily include positions you wish to invest in.
Zulutrade – AvaTrade
| FSCA Regulated | Ava Capital Markets Pty Ltd (FSP 45984) |
AvaTrade is among the top-rated brokerage platforms in South Africa.
With its minimum deposit of USD 100, strong regulations, and different trading platforms to cater to different trading needs, there’s no denying the public preference with AvaTrade.
By offering Zulutrade, Avatrade allows its clients to replicate the trades of thousands of expert traders with proven trading expertise. Avatrade traders have the option to filter trade providers based on different parameters to help you find one that suits your needs, including the following:
- 30-day positive momentum and trading history
- ATH-aligned momentums (trades moving near or at All-Time Highs)
What makes ZuluTrade a crowd-favorite is its intuitive and beginner-friendly platform. This makes its benefits true for beginner traders as they wouldn’t have to spend hours navigating the platforms’ interface.
Additionally, ZuluTrade has a vibrant social trading scene with over 2.4 million members from more than hundreds of brokers. With ZuluTrade, traders can interact and share their insights with the world through its smooth and transparent social trading platform.
Duplitrade – Pepperstone
| UK-FCA Regulated | Pepperstone Ltd (684312) |
Pepperstone is another leading brokerage platform in South Africa. Its popularity isn’t only concentrated in South Africa – its user base spans the globe.
Aimed to make trading opportunities accessible to anyone, Pepperstone allows its clients to leverage the benefits of copy trading.
The broker is focused on this commitment, and it offers different copy trading platforms to ensure their suitability to their clients. This includes platforms like Pelican Trading, Myfxbook, MetaTrader Signals, and DupliTrade.
For this review, we’ll zero in on the benefits of DupliTrade as it’s considered reliable and credible by South African copy traders.
Despite offering fewer selections of copied traders, DupliTrade is preferred as all signals undergo strict auditing processes for quality control and assurance.
True to its benefits for beginner traders, DupliTrade provides access to demo accounts. This ultimately allows traders to test out the signal in a simulated market environment before executing it on the live market.
HFcopy – HFM
| CySEC-Regulated | HF Markets (Europe) Ltd (183/12) |
HFcopy is a proprietary copy trading platform of HFM (formerly named “HotForex). Through HFcopy, the brokerage company provides its clients with access to thousands of signals through its copy trading platform.
Introduced in 2018, HFCopy is relatively new to the market, making it less extensive and sophisticated than the other competitors.
However, all the benefits that come with a USD 100 minimum deposit are sufficient to do its job for the followers (copiers).
An HFcopy follower doesn’t simply trade passively. Instead, the platform is designed to allow followers to study the strategies, signals, and trade setups of the strategy providers.
The platform boasts transparency by allowing followers to monitor the performance (win-loss ratio and overall success rate) of the strategy provider.
Moreover, while automated, the follower doesn’t lose all their control over their position.
In fact, the HF Copy platform allows traders to personalize different trading parameters to align with their risk management techniques, including the following:
- Risk allocation
- Stop losses
- Capital per trade
HFcopy copiers can also opt to stop copying someone’s trade anytime they deem it best.
Social Trading – Exness
| FSCA-Regulated | Exness ZA (Pty) Ltd (FSP 51024) |
Regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), Exness is a popular name in South African financial markets.
One notable service it provides to South African traders is its Social Trading platform. For a minimum deposit of USD 500, traders can access Exness’ basic copy trading features.
Exness also provides a more sophisticated copy trading system through its Social Pro accounts. For a minimum deposit of USD 2000, a copier has access to more experienced providers with higher investment opportunities.
Known for advocating transparency in the financial markets, Exness’s social trading platform integrates a leadership board for trading strategy providers. By ranking providers according to their track record, copiers have a comprehensive reference when choosing providers to follow.
Other essential pieces of information are also available for clients’ reference, including:
- Risk levels
- Win/Loss ratios
- Periodic Profitability
Key Considerations When Choosing a Copy Trading Platform
Despite all its benefits, copy trading is only profitable when done right. Blindly following one’s trade can cause more harm than good to your trading account.
So, how can you ensure that you’re approaching copy trading properly? You must find the right copy trading platform for you.
Here are the four considerations you must always keep in mind when looking for a copy trading platform in South Africa.
- Credibility and Reputation – You should never open a copy trading account on a platform that doesn’t show the information of copied traders. You must always be familiar with the credentials of the providers to ensure you’re putting your hard-earned money into the market based on a credible signal.
- Regulation and Security – Compliance with a reputable regulator ensures fair investment practices between you, the provider, and the broker. In South Africa, the FSCA regulates and oversees the operations of all financial service providers.
- User-Friendly Interface – You copy trade to bypass the learning curve and underlying time constraints in trading. Thus, you should consider a copy trading platform that boasts intuitiveness so as not to catch the hassle of complex navigation.
- Fees and Costs – Copy trading can be costly as you typically pay your provider a commission on every winning trade. Aside from this, you must pay additional account fees to access a social trading account.
Should you consider more than the factors mentioned? Absolutely!
Copy trading should never be approached absentmindedly. Despite its beginner-friendly benefits, relying solely on copy trading is detrimental to your trading account as you essentially put your hard-earned money over something uncertain.
Are Copy Trading Platforms in South Africa the Best Way to Go?
There’s no denying the appeal of copy trading to online traders.
Irrespective of your experience, copy trading allows you to explore different, more convenient ways to potentially profit from the financial market.
Beginner traders see copy trading platforms as a perfect avenue to shortcut their way to profitability. At the same time, experienced traders are presented with an opportunity to participate in the market without all the legwork of intensive monitoring and analysis.
However, is this really the way to go? Or is this convenience simply a front for future disaster?
It could be the way to go – only if done right.
Approach copy trading proactively to ensure you’re risking your money over something viable for profit. Join an online trading community to surround yourself with diverse trading insights to validate the signals you’ve gotten.
Remember, there’s no better way to succeed than knowing what you’re doing.
