If a follower account is holding an open position from a previous session when you restart Tradecopia, that position is not automatically cleared on startup — what happens next depends on the direction of the leader's first trade in the new session.

You might be experiencing this if:

This article covers the session restart scenario only — where a follower was holding an open position from the previous session when the app was closed. If the orphan position was created during the current session while the app was running (for example, the Position Reconciler was disabled, or a manual trade was placed on the follower), see Why is my follower account holding a position that the leader didn't open? instead.

If you are on Pro+ Lite or Pro+: This article does not apply to you. The Position Reconciler runs on Tradecopia's infrastructure and remains active between sessions — there is no session restart scenario on cloud plans.

An orphan position is an open position on a follower account that does not match the leader's current state. In the session restart scenario, the orphan is a position that was open on the follower when you closed Tradecopia and was never closed before the app shut down.

The Position Reconciler — Tradecopia's built-in safeguard that monitors follower accounts and exits positions that do not match the leader — does not retain any memory of the previous session when the app is closed and reopened. When the desktop app restarts, the reconciler starts fresh. It does not scan follower accounts for leftover positions from the previous session at startup.

This is intentional design: scanning for and acting on previous-session positions before broker connections are fully re-established would risk Tradecopia acting on stale data — closing positions based on an incomplete picture of what the market and broker currently hold.

The consequence is that the orphan sits on the follower account undetected until the leader places a new trade in the new session. What happens at that point depends on the direction of the new trade.

For full detail on the reconciler's session design, see What does the Position Reconciler do and when does it activate?.

This occurs when the leader opens a new trade in the same direction as the orphan position.

What causes this

When the leader places a new trade, Tradecopia copies it to all follower accounts as a fresh order. That order fills on the follower on top of the existing orphan — because the follower is already holding a position in the same direction from the previous session. The broker stacks the two positions, and the follower ends up holding double the size of the leader.

The Position Reconciler does not catch this automatically. It checks for direction and symbol mismatches between the follower and leader — not quantity mismatches. Because the follower's direction matches the leader's direction, the reconciler sees no breach and does not act.

If you are on a prop firm funded account: Holding double the intended position size may register against your account's maximum position limits. Address this before placing any further trades on the affected account.

How to fix it

Note: Do not use Group Flatten to resolve this. Group Flatten closes all positions across the entire copy group — it would close the leader's active position as well as the follower's.

If the positions still do not match after following these steps, contact the Tradecopia support team with the affected account details and the current position state on both leader and follower.

This occurs when the leader opens a new trade in the opposite direction and the same size as the orphan position.

What causes this

In futures trading, an opposing order nets against the existing position rather than closing it and opening a new one as two separate actions. When the leader places a 1-contract long and the follower is holding a 1-contract short orphan, the copied long order arrives at the follower and nets the short to zero — the follower ends up flat. The leader, however, now holds a 1-contract long position.

The result is a new mismatch: the leader has a position, the follower does not. The Position Reconciler detects this mismatch at the fill event, but it can only act by closing positions — it cannot open new positions on follower accounts. With the follower already flat, there is nothing for the reconciler to close. The mismatch remains.

How to fix it

The simplest resolution is to close the leader's position and start fresh with both accounts flat:

If you want to stay in the leader's current trade and bring the follower back in line without closing:

If neither option resolves the mismatch, contact the Tradecopia support team with the affected account details, your broker, and the current position state on both leader and follower.

This scenario is an extension of Scenario A. It occurs when the leader opens a new trade in the opposite direction but a larger size than the orphan position.

What causes this

When the leader's order is larger than the orphan on the follower, the netting at the broker does not reduce the follower to flat — it reverses the follower's direction with the remainder. For example: a follower is holding a 1-contract short orphan. The leader places a 2-contract long. The copied 2-contract long arrives at the follower — the first 1 contract nets out the short, and the remaining 1 contract opens a new long position. The follower ends up long 1 while the leader is long 2.

This has been confirmed in testing. The reconciler checks the resulting state and sees that both accounts are long on the same symbol — directions match — so it does not act. The size mismatch persists silently, the same way it does in Scenario A.

How to fix it

The resolution follows the same path as Scenario A:

If you are on a prop firm funded account: Verify the adjusted position size does not exceed your account's maximum position limits before re-enabling replication.

If the positions still do not match after following these steps, contact the Tradecopia support team with the affected account details and the current position state on both accounts.

A note on session safety: Both Scenario A and Scenario C result in size mismatches the reconciler cannot automatically resolve. These situations arise specifically when follower accounts are carrying orphan positions from a previous session into a new session. While the software handles the mechanics of each scenario, the outcomes can leave your copy group in states that require manual correction — which carries risk during live trading. Monitoring your follower positions at the start of each session and flattening before closing are the safeguards that prevent these situations from arising.

The session restart scenario can be avoided entirely with one habit: flatten all positions before closing the app.

Before ending any trading session:

Starting the next session from a clean state means no orphan positions are carried forward silently. The reconciler begins fresh with nothing to discover.

See How to prevent recurring replication issues and keep your accounts in sync for the full set of session hygiene practices.