Tradecopia's replication mode setting controls when follower accounts mirror leader orders. You can choose to replicate orders the moment they are placed, replicate only after the leader's order fills, or turn off replication entirely.
You might need this article if:
You want to change whether followers copy orders the moment the leader places them or only after a fill
You're running many Tradovate followers and want to reduce API request volume
Followers are getting into trades before the leader fills and you want to adjust that behaviour
The three replication modes
Mode | What happens |
Off | The follower receives nothing — no orders are replicated |
On Submit | The follower mirrors the leader's order at the moment it is placed. This is the default mode. |
On Fill | All orders replicate at the leader's fill as a market order. No working orders sit on the follower side at any point. |
On Submit — the default
In On Submit mode, follower orders are placed at the same time as the leader's order. If the leader places a limit order, the same limit order appears as a pending order on the follower immediately. Bracket orders (TP and SL) are replicated to all followers as working orders when the leader places them.
With On Submit, each broker fills its own orders independently based on its own execution. This means there can be small differences in fill prices across accounts — a follower's bracket might fill a fraction of a second earlier or later than the leader's, depending on the broker. This is normal broker-level fill timing behaviour and is not a Tradecopia issue.
On Fill — replicate after the leader fills
In On Fill mode, Tradecopia waits for the leader's order to fill before placing anything on the follower. Once the leader fills, the follower receives a market order at that point. No working orders sit on the follower side at any time.
Entry and exit synchronisation: With On Fill, all accounts enter when the leader enters and exit when the leader exits. Positions and P&L stay fully synchronised across all followers because every account is driven by the same fill events on the leader.
Rate limit management for high-volume Tradovate setups: Tradovate has the most restrictive API rate limits of all supported brokers. On Fill mode significantly reduces the request volume for traders managing multiple Tradovate follower accounts:
On Submit: When a leader places a bracket order, the SL and TP are replicated to every follower as working orders immediately — two additional API requests per follower per trade, multiplied across all accounts.
On Fill: The leader holds the bracket. Follower requests are only triggered when the leader's bracket is actually hit, not at order placement. Order modifications work the same way — modifying a TP on the leader generates one API request rather than one per follower.
For traders with many Tradovate followers, On Fill mode helps maintain replication stability by keeping request volume well within Tradovate's rate limits. For more on Tradovate rate limits and how they affect replication, see Broker API rate limits and how they affect replication.
On Fill and TopStepX followers: For TopStepX followers, On Fill mode controls standalone orders only. Bracket orders on TopStepX always replicate on fill regardless of the mode selected — this is determined by how TopStepX handles orders, not by the Tradecopia setting. See How does bracket and TP/SL replication work across different broker combinations? for the full TopStepX bracket behaviour.
How to set the replication mode
The replication mode can be set in two places:
From the Dashboard:
Log in to Tradecopia and go to the Dashboard
The accounts table shows a Replication Mode column as the first column
Use the dropdown for each account to select Off, On Submit, or On Fill
From a Copy Group:
Open the copy group you want to configure
The accounts table in the group shows the same Replication Mode column
Use the dropdown for each account to select the mode
Changes take effect for new orders from that point — orders already in progress are not affected.
Related articles
How does bracket and TP/SL replication work across different broker combinations? — how broker architecture interacts with replication mode
What does Tradecopia need to copy trades? — the four conditions for replication