What is Copy Trading?

eToro's CopyTrader links your account to mine. When I buy, your account buys the same instrument at the same moment, sized to your allocation: if Brookfield is 9% of my portfolio, it becomes 9% of whatever amount you allocate. When I sell, you sell. When I do nothing — which is most of the time — you do nothing, at no cost.

You keep full control. You can stop copying whenever you want, add or withdraw money, or close the copy entirely — the positions either transfer to you or close out at market. You are never locked in, and I never touch your money. eToro executes everything; I can't see who copies me beyond a number, and I couldn't access a copier's account if I wanted to.

Copying itself is free — eToro charges no extra fee for CopyTrader, and I take no fee from copiers. eToro pays me directly through its Popular Investor program, which means my incentive is a track record that people keep copying, not activity in your account.

What you do pay is what any eToro user pays: the spread on each trade, an FX conversion fee if you deposit in a non-USD currency, and a $5 withdrawal fee in most regions. Because the portfolio trades rarely — average holding period over a year — the spread cost of copying me is about as low as copy trading gets.

The minimum to copy is $200. One practical note: with small allocations, eToro skips any mirrored position that would be under $1, so a very small copy amount holds fewer of the small positions than the real portfolio. From roughly $1,000 the copy tracks closely; below that, expect approximation.

A concentrated portfolio of 24 stocks plus cash, picked with one lens: businesses generating real free cash flow, bought when the market prices them as if that cash will stop. Currently that means software the market gave up on too early, energy and commodities the market abandoned too completely, and a handful of odd finds that fit neither box.

Just as important is what it never contains: no leverage, no short selling, no derivatives. Long stocks and cash, nothing else. The risk management is built into what the portfolio doesn't do.

The numbers, updated daily: +202% since August 2020, 20.2% a year compounded, +14.5% this year. Beta below 1 against the S&P 500 — the portfolio has historically moved less than the market while returning more. Every claim in this paragraph is verifiable on the portfolio pages.

The worst drawdown in the portfolio's history is -9.8%. If you copy me, sooner or later you will watch your allocation fall by something like that — possibly in your first month, possibly starting the day you press the button. That is not a flaw in the strategy; it is the price of the strategy. Concentration plus patience produces both the track record and the drawdowns.

What I can tell you is what I did during previous ones: nothing, or bought more. The portfolio finished every calendar year since inception in profit, including 2022, when global markets were deeply negative. What I can't tell you is that this continues. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

The practical rule: copy with money you won't need for five years, in an amount where a −15% month changes nothing about your life. If that amount is zero right now, that's fine — come back when it isn't.

You shouldn't copy this portfolio if you need the money within a few years, if you'd stop the copy after a bad quarter (you'd lock in exactly the wrong moments), if you're looking for crypto-style excitement (average holding period here is measured in years, and the most common monthly update is “nothing happened”), or if this would be your first-ever investment and the $200 minimum is a meaningful share of your savings — start with the Knowledge section instead; it's free.