Reverse copy trading: what it does and when to use it
A reverse copier opens the opposite trade to the source. Here is what happens to the stop and target, why flipping a losing room does not make it a winner, and how to test it.
Reverse copy trading means a copier opens the opposite trade to the one it was given: a buy in the source becomes a sell on your account, and a sell becomes a buy. CopySignals is a cloud Telegram signal copier for MT4, MT5 and eTrader: it reads the rooms you already follow through your own Telegram account and places the trades on your own broker account. Reverse copy is one of its controls, and this article covers what the setting does, what it does to your stop and target, and why it is a harder bet than it looks.
What is reverse copy trading?
It is a switch on the copier that flips the direction of every trade it places. The source can be a Telegram room or, with account to account copying, another of your own accounts. MetaCopier's documentation describes it in one sentence: "When enabled, a buy (BUY) order from the source account will be converted into a sell (SELL) order on the destination account, and vice versa." Duplikium lists the same thing on its home page under the name Reverse Trading. In CopySignals it is called reverse copy and it is included in every plan, like the rest of the product.
The switch changes the side and nothing about who is in charge. The room still decides when a trade opens and when it closes. You are betting against the room's calls while using its timing.
Why would anybody copy a signal room in reverse?
One is testing. If you suspect a room's entries are consistently late, a demo account running the reverse of that room next to a normal one shows you the difference in a week or two, without risking anything. The other is hedging: a trader who takes a room's signals on a live account can run the reverse on a second account to dampen the combined swings.
The reason people reach for it most often is a weaker one: "the room loses, so I will flip it". The sections below say why that does not work as hoped.
What happens to the stop loss and take profit when you reverse a trade?
The levels have to change roles, because a stop loss that sat below a buy would sit under the price of a sell and mean nothing. MetaCopier spells out its handling: "the TP on the master will become the SL on the slave, and the SL on the master will become the TP on the slave." The same page adds that "the risk-to-reward ratio (RRR) will also be reversed", so a 1:2 on the master becomes 2:1 on the follower, and that "This feature does not support pending orders."
That last line is a good example of why you read the small print of any reverse setting before using it. Every copier handles the edge cases its own way: pending orders, rooms with four targets, entries given as a zone. Test the exact kind of signal you intend to copy on a demo account at the same broker, and read what the event log says it did. We describe the log in our guide to auto trading Telegram signals.
The risk-to-reward point is the one that matters most, and it is plain arithmetic. Take a room whose signals risk 20 pips for a 40 pip target. Reversed, you risk 40 pips for a 20 pip target. Ignoring costs, a 1:2 trade breaks even when it wins one time in three. The reversed trade breaks even only when it wins two times in three. A room that is wrong most of the time is not necessarily wrong two times in three, and the trades in between, the ones that never reach either level and are closed on the room's word, belong to neither side.
Does reversing a losing signal room make it win?
No, and the reason is the spread. Every trade pays it once to open and the cost is there whichever direction you trade. Suppose a room's signals lose exactly what the spread costs, which is as good as flat before costs. Copied normally, you lose the spread. Copied in reverse, you also lose the spread. The flip does not hand the cost back, it pays it again.
For reversing to pay, the room must be losing by more than the costs on every trade, and consistently so, and that pattern must continue after you start trading against it. Rooms change. A room that was on the wrong side of a trending month can be on the right side of the next one. If you are weighing it up, our piece on the maximum spread setting explains how a stretched quote adds to the cost, and it applies in reverse just as much.
We say nothing about which rooms are good or bad, and we have no view on whether any room's signals are worth reversing. Trading carries risk, and a reversed copy carries the same risk as any other.
How do you set up reverse copy trading in CopySignals?
Reverse copy sits among the other controls on the copier, next to symbol renames, word filters, an instrument list, a delay before placing, a maximum spread and a cap on open positions. The practical order is this:
- Connect your Telegram account and the trading account that will receive the reversed trades. Use a demo account first.
- Set the sizing for that account. A fixed lot or a percentage of the account measured against the stop both work, and the maximum lot caps either one. See how lot size from risk percent is worked out before choosing, because with the stop and target swapped the distance to the stop changes.
- Turn on reverse copy.
- Wait for a handful of real signals and compare what the room posted with what the event log says was placed. Check the side, the stop and the targets on the broker's own terminal.
- Only then think about a live account, at a small size.
If you want both a normal and a reversed copy of the same room, they have to be different accounts. A single account copied both ways would hold a buy and a sell on the same instrument at once, which leaves you paying the spread twice for no exposure. The sections on one signal to many accounts cover running one room into several accounts with their own settings.
Reverse copy between your own accounts
Account to account copying works the same way. One connected account is the master, its positions are mirrored to the others, and reverse copy turns the mirror into an opposite. The use here is narrower: a follower that sits against your master as a hedge, on an account where the margin is available for it. Check your prop firm's terms before doing this on a funded account. We go through the questions to ask in prop firm rules and trade copiers.
Which copiers have a reverse setting?
Several do. MetaCopier documents it with the stop and target behaviour quoted above, Duplikium lists it as a feature, and CopySignals includes it. Social Trader Tools' FAQ does not mention it at all, which means only that its FAQ is silent, so look at the product itself if you need it. If reverse trading is the one feature you are buying for, read the vendor's own documentation on pending orders and on how it handles several targets before you pay, since those are where copiers differ.
CopySignals supports MT4, MT5 and eTrader only. If your account is on any other platform, it cannot connect it.
Our recommendation
Treat reverse copy as a testing and hedging tool, not as a repair for a room you have lost money with. Run it on a demo account first, read what the event log placed, and keep the size small until the stop and target on your broker's terminal are what you expected. If you want the setting together with Telegram copying, break even, partial closes and every plan including the whole product, see the pricing page or the MT4 and MT5 trade copier page.
Sources
- Copiers, reverse copying behavior, MetaCopier documentation, checked 2 October 2026
- Duplikium home page, Key Features, Duplikium, checked 2 October 2026
- Social Trader Tools FAQ, Social Trader Tools, checked 2 October 2026