Margin, leverage, stops and minimums

Four things set a floor under a copy: the margin the account must hold, the leverage that sets how much margin that is, the equity stop loss that ends the copy at a level, and the minimum investment that locks a part of the money. This page takes each from the help pages and the cTrader lists, read on 6 November 2026, and gives the counts of the 24 brokers and 20 cards.

Margin, in plain words

Margin is the part of the account that the broker holds back to keep leveraged positions open. Free margin is what is left. When the margin no longer covers the open positions the broker closes them, which is the stop out. Those are definitions. The help pages apply them in two places. Under the exceptions on the overview page: "in case of insufficient margin on your account, the position will not be copied". And on the investing page, in the warning about lower leverage quoted on the path page, where the copy may reach the stop out earlier than the provider.

Maximum leverage printed by the copy brokers

The count is of the 24 brokers that carry the copy flag on ctrader.com/copy/brokers, read on 6 November 2026; the figure is the maximum the list prints, not what an account gets. FxPro prints 1:30.

What the leverage figures do and do not say

3 brokers print 1:30; 18 print 1:500 or more. The list does not say why they differ, and this site does not state a reason. What follows from the help page is only the direction: a lower leverage on the follower's account than on the provider's account means the same copied positions take more margin, so the stop out can come earlier for the follower. Leverage is a property of the account the broker opens, and the reader can ask which leverage the account would have.

The equity stop loss

While copying, the investor can set a level of equity. "Once the equity drops below the specified level, the copying is stopped and all the opened positions copied from the strategy are closed automatically", and the funds go back to the parent account. The page's warning: "Equity stop loss is not a guaranteed stop-out price. Once triggered, copied positions are closed, but your final equity may be lower than the set level due to market volatility, price gaps, liquidity or other technical factors." If funds are withdrawn so that the balance falls below the level, the stop loss is removed automatically.

What a minimum investment locks

Every strategy has a minimum investment. The allocation has to reach it to start, and "the funds cannot be withdrawn from the copy-trading account if it results in equity falling below the minimum investment" while the strategy is being copied. To take out everything the investor stops copying and removes the funds, and the fees are charged. If the balance of a stopped copy-trading account is lower than the minimum, the copy cannot be restarted until funds are added.

Minimum investment on the cards

Counts of the 20 strategy cards on ctrader.com/copy/symbols, read on 6 November 2026. The cards print the minimum in US dollars; the smallest is USD 100 and the largest USD 50,000. No card is named on this site.

Minimum deposit on the broker list

The list prints a minimum deposit for 24 of the 24 brokers; FxPro prints USD 100. Source: ctrader.com/copy/brokers, read on 6 November 2026.

A short window of the cards' curves

Each card draws a small curve of 29 daily points, from 8 October 2026 to 5 November 2026. Taking each curve's largest fall, the drop from a high point to a later low in the curve's own units, the counts are in the table. The deepest of the 20 is 36.79 points. A window of 29 days is not a forecast of any later fall, and the card does not say what the points are a share of.

Largest fall inside the 29-day curve

Counts of the 20 cards, computed from the curve points the cards carry, read on 6 November 2026. A fall of zero means the curve never dropped below an earlier high within the window.