Trading dozens of MT4 accounts on different computers from your laptop and smartphone

Imagine this simple scenario. Let say you are trading Forex, Indices, or CFD in your MetaTrader 4 account (let’s call it Master account (A). Then you also have other 10x MT4 accounts of your family members and your clients (let’s call them Client accounts B1, B2, B3, etc). All of them are running on your computer at home.

Do you know you can link all of these MetaTrader accounts together and open positions in each of them at the same time?

Even more, you can log into the same Master account (A) from ANOTHER computer (2) to execute trades there and have them replicated into each and every Client account running on the first computer (1).

If you did not know that, then it’s your lucky day because in this article I will explain how you can initiate trades in all these accounts by opening a position only once in your Master account (A).

And not just that, you will also learn how to trade multiple MT4 accounts from a different computer, which means you will be able to trade many accounts from your laptop while traveling.

The magic of multiple MT4 instances

Many people think that it is not possible to do this, to trade MT4 accounts from different computer or device, but the truth is, it was always possible (at least for the last several years), but somehow not many traders talk about it.

So here it is, here’s the secret (which is actually no secret) how to trade MT4 accounts from a different computer.

The thing is that MT4 allows running multiple instances of the same trading account on several devices and computers anywhere in the world. This means you can have your MT4 account #123 running on your computer at home in the United States and at the same time have the same MT4 account running on your computer in the office.

Additionally, you can give the same MT4 login details to your account manager in Singapore and also give read-only account access to a friend from Australia.

Now your account manager can initiate trades in your MT4 account in Singapore while you can see them in the very same MT4 account of yours on your home and office computers in the United States. Also, your friend in Australia will be able to see your trades too.

It’s really as simple as that. All that needs to be done is the MT4 platform installed and the same MT4 account login information entered in all of these MT4 instances.

Now the real magic begins when you can actually repeat the same trades you see in your MT4 account on your computer, too many other MT4 accounts of your family or friends.

Why would anyone want to do that you might ask? Well, for the sake of this example let’s say your account manager in Singapore generates 20% profit every single month on average, but he also takes half of your profits in exchange for the service. This is normal and it is called profit sharing. So you get to keep only 10% of the profit.

Now let’s say you have other 10 people who are ready to invest in Forex and get their account managed by the same trader in Singapore. They would all have to pay 50% of profits every single month, but not if you will be the person who’s managing those 10 accounts. In that case, you are the one who can take half of the profits from each of those 10 client accounts. All you need to do is to copy all trading actions from your MT4 account managed by the Singapore trader to those 10x MT4 accounts of your family and friends.

Sounds simple, right? Well, the truth is that it is simple. Really.

Here’s what you need to copy trades between multiple MT4 accounts even if the main MT4 account is managed in another country on another computer.

1. First, you need to install multiple MT4 platforms on your computer. It can be a laptop, your desktop computer at home, or your office. It does not matter. But if you are really serious about the process then you will need a computer that can be online 24 hours a day every day. This is called a VPS server, which in other words is your private virtual computer on the internet.
2. Then you need to have a special add-on software for the MetaTrader 4 platform which is usually called trade copier or account copier.
3. The last thing you need is to set up everything on a computer that can be online 24 hours a day.

Basically, that’s all you need to do. When you have such a setup you can even manage trades in your MT4 account (A) from any other computer you want. It could be a computer in your office or your laptop or it could be your smartphone. Yes, that’s correct, you can open a trade on your MT4 Mobile app on your iPhone or Android and have the same trade appear on all the client accounts you’ve setup.

Let me explain the process in detail, but before I begin, you should already know that you can install multiple MT4 platforms on the same computer. If you do not know how to do this then let me give you a short explanation.

Setting up several MT4 platforms on the same computer

Installing several MT4 platforms on the same computer is easy and the best part about this is that you can have multiple platforms even if they are from the same broker.

The trick is simple. All you need to do is to repeat MT4 platform installation 11 times on the same computer (following our example above to install one master account (A) and 10 client accounts B1, B2, B3, etc).

Simply initiate MT4 setup and set different and unique installation location for each of those platforms. This is done at the very first window of the MT4 installation wizard as illustrated in the picture below.

Not sure why, but I’ve seen many people miss the SETTINGS button for some reason and click the NEXT button instead. In that case, you would not get an option to choose a folder for your MT4 installation.

You need to click the SETTINGS button and once you do, you will get to the next window which looks like the one below.

Usually, I always add numbers at the end of the installation folder name and program group name. This allows you easily to identify each MT4 platform later.

When you finish all 11 installations you would have folder names that will look similar to this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-1
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-2
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-3
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-4
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-5
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-6
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-7
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-8
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-9
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-10
C:\Program Files (x86)\MetaTrader 4-11

Now when you’ve installed several MT4 platforms on your computer and logged into MT4 accounts on each of them, you will need to install a software called Local Trade Copier.

Installing Local Trade Copier on all MT4 accounts at once

Local Trade Copier is a special add-on for the MT4 platform created by Rimantas Petrauskas, which allows you to replicate the very same trading actions on many MetaTrader 4 accounts simultaneously.

LTC comes with a special auto-installer so it is very easy to install it on any computer. This means installation can be done instantly on all MT4 accounts at once.

LTC installation is done in two steps. First, you install LTC Server EA, which will be reporting of any trading actions happening on the master account (A). The second step is to install LTC Client EA, which will be listening to any notifications from the Server EA and repeat the same trading actions on all MT4 client accounts (B1, B2, B3, etc) as they happen on the master account (A).

The installation process is the same for LTC Server EA and LTC Client EA, the only difference is that you execute different auto-installers included in the LTC package.

Below I will illustrate how LTC Client EA installation looks like.

Once you execute the LTC Client EA auto-installer you will see a window like the one below and your computer will be scanned to find all MetaTrader 4 instances.

The next step is to choose all the MT4 instances where you want LTC Client EA to be installed into. In other words, you want to choose all the MT4 client platforms on the list (B1, B2, B3, etc) where you will want trades to be copied from the master account (A).

Once the NEXT button is clicked auto-installer will install Client EA into each of the MT4 platforms selected. This is very handy because you do not need to copy any files to all 10 of the client platforms manually.

Obviously, you also need to install LTC Server EA, but because the installation process is the same I would not go into details here. The only difference is that you would execute auto-installer of LTC Server EA and choose only MT4 master account (A), or any other MT4 platforms you want to act as master accounts.

Now that we have installer MT4 instances and Local Trade Copier, we can already start the process known as “trade copying”.

Running MT4 trade copier to trade on many accounts simultaneously

In order to start the copy trading process, you will have to start the Local Trade Copier.

First, open the EURUSD chart window of any timeframe and then double-click on the LTC Server EA which will appear in the Navigator window of the MT4 master account (A).

What you need to do is to attach the Server EA to the EURUSD chart window. Important to mention that even though Server EA will be attached to the EURUSD chart window, it will still monitor all the trades on the MT4 account from any other instrument including CFD, Indices, or any other symbol available in the “Market Watch” window.

Second, repeat the same procedure for each of your MT4 client accounts (B1, B2, B3, etc), but with the LTC Client EA. Simply switch to each client account one by one, open the EURUSD chart window of any timeframe, and double-click LTC Client EA which will also appear in the Navigator window of each of the MT4 client accounts you’ve installed a moment ago.

So now you have a Server EA running on the master account (A) and 10x Client EA instances running on 10x MT4 client accounts (B1, B2, B3, etc). The next step is to open a position on the master account and see how it is replicated to each of the client accounts at the same time in less than a second.

If something goes not as expected you can always read MT4 messages in the Experts tab which might help you identify the problem or the reason immediately.

Copying positions to many MT4 client accounts at once

Simply open a BUY or SELL position on the master account (A) and the Local Trade Copier will copy it immediately all MT4 accounts running LTC Client EA. Obviously, if the trade is modified or closed, the LTC will repeat the same steps on all client accounts as well.

LTC replicates each action exactly as it happened on the master account. Even if you close only a portion of a position or close all open trades running on the master account, the same will happen on all client MT4 accounts.

If for testing purposes you do not want to open real positions you can always test the trade copying process with pending orders. It’s very useful.

Simply place a pending order far away from the current market price so it won’t get triggered (assuming you do not want real transactions on your master account) and the very same pending order will get placed on all MT4 platforms that have LTC Client EA attached.

In the example picture below you can see the trade list from two MT4 accounts. The trade list at the top is from the master account and the trade list at the bottom is from the client account. A BUY trade was copied in less than one second to a client account at the very same price of 1.10097 on the EURUSD instrument. Both trades also have the same stop loss of 1.09102 and take profit of 1.11102.

Once your account’s activity is ready to be copied to other MT4 accounts you can ask your account manager to begin trading. If you do not have anyone to manage your account I will mention that this will work if you generate trades on the master account (A) in any way you like. I mean you can use some Expert Advisor to generate trades, or you can trade manually, maybe using one of my semi-automated trading tools like Trendline Trader EA. You can even set up your account to follow trading signals on MQL4 Market and copy them to other accounts.

This is just one simple example of trade duplication. Local Trade Copier is the most configurable trade copier in the industry so you will be able to set up an advanced trade copying schema once you get to know the process well. If you spend extra 30 minutes reading the Local Trade Copier instruction manual you will get to learn all of its settings and copy trades using advanced options like trade filtering, stop loss and take profit manipulations or reverse trade copying method.

For those who have more interest in trade copying on the MT4 platform, I recommend reading this Definitive Guide to Forex Trade Copying.

Conclusion

Your Forex or MT4 skills do not matter much, because the trade copying process is much easier than you might think. Even novice traders can begin copying trade in minutes, especially after reading this article or instructions included with the Local Trade Copier software. I am proud to say that the trade copying process today is available not only to people managing multi-million dollar accounts but also to beginner traders working with small MT4 accounts or even just starting with a practice account.