Copy-trading terms
Plain definitions for the vocabulary this comparison runs on. When a term has a test sitting behind it, the entry links out to the page that unpacks it.
The terms, defined
Copy trading
Reproducing another trader's positions, whether you place them yourself from their published calls or let a platform replicate them into your account.
Following a trader
Taking in a trader's calls and choosing for yourself if and how to act on them - unlike auto-copy, where the platform fills for you with no decision on your part.
Track record
Every past call laid out together, wins and losses alike, which only tells you anything once the losing calls have been kept in. See: a record you can re-run.
Independent review
A named third party with no money riding on the verdict going through the underlying statements line by line. See: how to verify a record.
Cryptographic receipt
A call's fingerprint written into a public ledger as it is sent, evidencing that the call read exactly so at that moment and was untouched afterward. See: fixed before the result.
Conviction grade
A letter from A to D placing a call within its own model's measured return spread; the scale stops at D, with no E. See: grades that are measured.
Drawdown
The steepest peak-to-trough drop across a stretch of time - a franker measure of what following a trader risks than the headline return ever is.
Mean reversion
Betting that a price stretched far from its usual level will pull back toward it; the book runs that idea on four separate clocks.
Hit rate
The fraction of calls that closed in profit - meaningful only when the total number of calls is printed alongside it. See: why a hit rate needs a count.
Equity curve
The line tracing an account's value through time - easy on the eye, but proof of nothing by itself absent the underlying calls and an outside review.