Once you decide to go into trading nowadays there are three easy ways for you to make your moves. You can choose social trading and the platforms that go along with that tactic, you can copy trade or you can mirror trade. However, it is very important to understand that there is no good or bad choice that fits everyone as the best choice differs on the type of trader you choose to be. 

Let us begin with social trading which enables anyone to copy a trade or an idea from anyone else in the social network.


Social Trading

Social trading is more suitable to the novice trader, someone who is looking to learn how to trade and is looking for good trading ideas. The main benefit of social trading is that it significantly cuts the amount of time it takes a novice trader to analyze the market as he or she is offered a collection of ideas of other traders that have already analyzed the market and are already in the market. Social trading is a more effective way of trading for someone who is just learning the market could use some social support.  You can go into social trading in several ways:

  • Twitter - Popular traders and investors focused on a variety of asset classes have considerably large followings on Twitter. These individuals frequently tweet their thoughts, market analysis, charts, relevant news, and more to interested followers.
  • eToro - Replicate the portfolios of top ranked traders and socialize the research efforts involved in stock investing. Discuss trades, open discussions with other members, post to your social news feed, and much more.
  • ZuluTrade- Comment, rate, participate take advantage of the social features-rich platform and tame the market using the wisdom of the crowds.
  • Twitch.tv - Hundreds of experienced traders live stream their thoughts, charting analysis, and more while engaging with their live chat community.

The easiest and safest way in our opinion is using the Zulutrade platform. Learn more about how it works in our Zulutrade Review

Pros:

Investment Autonomy: Social trading enables traders to have more autonomy to make decisions on individual trades. This can sometimes help traders avoid the risks involved with automated trading.

Community Analysis: Social trading networks and social media platforms enable traders to build or engage in a community that can provide multiple opinions on a specific investment decision or overall strategies.

Access To More Information: Social trading often makes use of news feeds with relevant information about specific assets that can help traders make investment decisions based on quantitative data, human sentiment, and industry news.

Cons:

Greater Time Commitment: Constantly monitoring the flow of market information and making decisions on individual trades tends to be time-consuming.

Missed Opportunities: Because social trading is based on manual decisions rather than automated ones, traders are likely to miss some opportunities. This can occur when a trader neglects the markets for a short period of time.

Impulsive Trading: Social trading can center around overly-hyped news or sentiments that oftentimes end up creating false market signals that are irrelevant to price action.

Transparency: Using social media platforms to make trading decisions has potential transparency issues. Individuals who say they have made specific trades or invested certain amounts of funds could be misleading other traders. This does not apply to sites such as eToro that transparently track the trades and portfolios of top traders.

Copy Trading: 

Copy trading is the ability to copy a complete strategy from a trader or a group of traders and that strategy can be pre-vetted or can be self selected by a community of traders but the act of copying is done to the complete strategy as opposed to individual traders or idea.

It is suitable for individuals that like the market but do not have the time to learn to trade it or do not feel they can be successful in trading it in the end. You can think about copy trading, as a simpler form of investing as opposed to trading and it is important to approach it with the mindset of an investor and not the mindset of a trader.  There are some important aspects that one should consider before copying someone else’s strategy and amongst them has to be a good understanding of the strategy and the risk parameters of the strategy being copied but cost, compensation scheme, accuracy in reporting performance, due diligence process over the providers, etc. also have to be taken into account. Copy trading offers a level of transparency and control that is unparalleled in the financial industry and this is the reason it’s gaining so much traction these days.

In order to copy trade you (Person A) have to allocate a specified amount of funds to copy the trades of a specified trader, (Person B). If Person B allocates 5% of their funds to buy or sell an asset, the account of Person A automatically allocates 5% of their own funds to make the same trade(s). If Person B allocates 10% of their funds to make another trade, Person A also allocates 10%, and so on.

The easiest and safest way in our opinion is using the eToro platform. Learn more about how it works in our eToro review

Copy Trading Pros & Cons

Pros:

Finding Winning Traders: Most social trading networks make it simple to track which traders have the highest ROI, which takes the guesswork out of deciding who to copy.

Lower Time Commitment: Copy trading covers all trades. Therefore, the person copying does not have to make any decisions on individual trades.

Reduced Emotions: Traders who participate in mirror trading don’t have to worry about FOMO or analysis paralysis, which are common problems in social trading. It is the copied trader’s job to account for these factors.

Cons:

High Risk: Making the same trades as the top trader on a social trading network does not guarantee success. If that person makes a bad trade, everyone copying them is also affected.

Mirror Trading

Mirror trading is a form of investing that involves the automated trading of assets based on algorithmic strategies rather than individual trades. As with copy trading, mirror trading was first introduced by Tradency’s publicly available automated trading service in 2005.

Platforms that offer mirror trading will typically ask users to choose from a list of trading criteria. Example criteria factors include investment goals, risk tolerance, and preferred asset classes. Mirror trading applies more general strategies from a number of top traders instead of outright duplicating trades from a single trader.

Pros:

Time Commitment: Mirror trading is automated. A trader only has to be concerned with setting up the initial trading criteria. Algorithms handle the important trade decisions.

Diversified Risk: Because algorithms factor in trading decisions from multiple traders, there is theoretically less risk in each trade when compared to copy trading the trades of a single individual.

Consistent Results Required: Legitimate platforms require mirror trading strategies to display a proven track record of profitability over the span of 12+ months prior to listing them as options for other traders to follow.

Reduced Emotions: Traders who participate in mirror trading will not have to worry about FOMO or analysis paralysis, which are common problems in social trading. It is the developer of the mirror trading algorithm’s job to account for these factors.

Cons:

Unknown Logic: Mirror trading platforms do not typically publish information on why algorithms make specific trading decisions. This makes it more difficult to understand the strategies necessary to reach a high ROI.

Technical Knowledge Required: Trading that involves algorithms is typically not beginner friendly. It may be simple for an end user to select trading criteria on a mirror trading platform, but truly understanding how algorithms work can be difficult even for experienced traders.

Testing Algorithm Results: Some mirror trading algorithms are less proven than others are. For example, a newer algorithm that has only operated during a bear market might not perform as well as other algorithms during a bull market - and vice versa.