PMS copy vs master-child copy trading

TL;DR — Both methods copy one order into many accounts. PMS copy is the full trading platform: you place the order in our terminal, pick the accounts or groups, and see every result instantly. It is the fastest, with almost no lag, and is best for manual traders. Master-child lets you trade in just one account — in our terminal or directly on your broker’s terminal — and copies the order to the child accounts in the background. It is best when an algo trades one account, or you prefer your broker’s own terminal. Both are included in your plan.

Many people are not sure whether to choose PMS-based copy trading or master-child copy trading. This page explains how each one works and points out the differences, so you can pick the right one for you.

The difference in short

Master-child is easy. You only trade in one account, and you can trade straight from your broker’s terminal. But you must keep an eye on all accounts in our system, in case there is a failure of any kind.

PMS copy, on the other hand, has zero lag in copying. But it needs you to place orders from our terminal.

Purely by design, PMS has fewer chances of errors than master-child.

Read the points below for the full difference between the two.

Availability

All of our features are available under a single plan. So both methods of copy trading are available to you under your current plan.

What each one is

PMS is a complete, end-to-end trading platform for handling many brokers and many accounts. It covers monitoring, order copying, modification, cancellation, square-off and more. You place the order from our software and select the multiple accounts or groups you want it copied to.

Master-child is a copy-trading mode where you trade in a single master account and the order is copied to the assigned child accounts in the background. You place the order in the master account only, either from our software or your broker’s terminal.

When to use which

PMS copy is the best option for manual traders.

Master-child can be used in these cases:

You have an algo running in a master account and you want to copy its orders into child accounts.
You are a manual trader who prefers to place orders directly on your broker’s terminal. Master-child copies those orders to your child accounts in the background.
An expert trader is handling your account, and you want to copy those orders into your other broker accounts.

Order copying (the major difference)

In PMS, you enter an order only once to copy it into many accounts. This order is entered into our trading platform. When you place the order, you choose the accounts or groups you want the order copied to.

In master-child, you also enter an order only once to copy it into many accounts. The order is placed in the master account only, by you or your algo, and our system then copies it to the child accounts in the background. This order can be entered in our system or on your broker’s system. You create a master account and assign child accounts to it just once, and after that you only trade in the master account.

You do not even need to stay logged in to our system for master-child to work. The setup is one-time, and our system keeps monitoring in the background every day.

Speed and slippage

PMS has the fastest execution, with almost no lag. So if you trade in volatile option contracts, PMS will give you very little slippage.

Master-child can have a lag, because our system has to wait for the new-order notification coming from your master account stock broker.

Chance of issues

The chance of issues in PMS is lower, because you are shown all the results and you enter all the order details in our system.

Master-child has a slightly higher chance of issues, for the reason below.

Order-book issues. Master-child copying depends completely on the order-book data your master account’s broker reports. We read the master account’s order book to detect and copy new orders, so if that broker ever sends incorrect or inconsistent order-book data, it can lead to copy errors or wrong orders being copied into the child accounts. Such cases are extremely rare, and they are not specific to us — they can affect any copy-trading system built on the master-child design, because every such system relies on the same broker order-book data.

Bracket, cover and after-market orders

PMS supports copying of bracket and cover orders, and supports after-market orders (AMO).

Master-child does not fully support bracket and cover orders, because it treats the multiple legs (entry, target and stop-loss) as separate orders with no link to each other, so they are cancelled separately. After-market orders are also not supported in master-child. So we do not recommend bracket, cover or after-market orders with master-child copy.

How each one runs

PMS runs in the foreground. Any errors are reported to you straight away, so you can take corrective action.

Master-child runs in the background. You need to watch the notifications in our system carefully for any errors. A manual trader who is usually trading the master account on the broker terminal can completely forget to watch the child accounts and the error notifications in our system, which can lead to losses. Watching two systems at the same time is hard, so we do not recommend master-child for manual traders.

Monitoring

PMS lets you monitor all trading accounts from a single dashboard.

Master-child users can also use PMS for monitoring.

Stability

Both methods use the same execution platform, so they are equally stable.

The verdict

PMS copy is generally recommended for manual traders, because you can act quickly if there is any error.
Master-child means much less work, because you or your algo trade only one account, and you can do it directly on your broker’s platform. But you do risk missing errors if you do not watch the error notifications.

A note on using both

You can use both modes together for monitoring.

But do not use both modes together for order copying. That would copy orders twice into your child accounts.

Both methods copy orders that you, or your algo, place — the system copies what you set up and trigger, and never decides trades on its own.