Copy trading terms, explained simply
Lot, margin, stop loss, drawdown… This glossary explains the terms you will come across on this site and in the Vantage app, without jargon. To see how they affect your risk, also read the Risks page.
Copy trading
6 terms
- Copy trading
- Automatically copying the positions of another account. Every position opened by the strategy is reproduced on your account, at a size proportional to your capital. Your money stays in your own account, in your name, with the broker.
- Strategy
- The account whose positions are copied. At Vantage, the PlanetFinance strategy has the ID A10021186. It is adapted to market conditions.
- Copier
- A person who copies the strategy from their own account. They can stop copying and withdraw their money at any time.
- Broker
- The company that executes orders and holds the funds. To copy PlanetFinance, that is Vantage. PlanetFinance never holds your money.
- Equity Ratio
- The copy mode required in the setup guide: the size of your positions follows your capital. With a multiplier of 1, your positions are, in proportion, the same size as the strategy's.
- Profit share
- The share of profits paid to the strategy: 20%, taken from copier accounts. Your result is therefore slightly lower than the strategy's.
The market
7 terms
- Forex
- The currency market: you buy one currency by selling another. It is open day and night from Monday to Friday, and is usually traded with leverage.
- Currency pair
- Two currencies quoted against each other. AUDCAD is the price of the Australian dollar in Canadian dollars, NZDCAD that of the New Zealand dollar. They are the only two pairs the strategy trades.
- Pip
- The usual unit for measuring a price move: 0.0001 on AUDCAD and NZDCAD. A 50-pip move on AUDCAD is, for example, a move from 0.9000 to 0.9050.
- Lot
- The unit of position size. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the pair's first currency, and 0.01 lot (a micro lot) is 1,000. At Vantage, a position cannot be smaller than 0.01 lot: that is why a deposit of at least €1,000 is required.
- Spread
- The gap between the buy price and the sell price of a pair. It is a cost paid every time a position is opened.
- Leverage
- It lets you open a position larger than the amount deposited. Gains and losses are both amplified: a small price change has a large effect on the account.
- Margin
- The part of the capital the broker sets aside to keep positions open. If the available margin runs out, the broker can close positions itself, at the worst moment.
Positions and the strategy
7 terms
- Position (trade)
- A buy or sell in progress on a pair. A position is “open” until it is closed; its gain or loss only becomes final when it is closed.
- Grid
- When the price moves against the position, the strategy opens new positions at regular intervals instead of accepting the loss straight away.
- Martingale
- Opening positions larger than the previous ones in the grid. The average entry price gets closer to the market price, but exposure grows: this is the main source of risk in the strategy.
- Basket
- All the positions of the same grid. It is closed as a whole, usually in profit when the price partly comes back, sometimes at a loss.
- Stop loss (SL)
- An order that closes a position, or a group of positions, when the loss reaches a set level. The strategy's stop losses are adapted to market conditions.
- Global stop loss
- The stop loss on your whole copy at Vantage. The guide asks for 95% instead of the default 50%: it is a last-resort safety net that only triggers after a loss of 95% of the amount invested. It does not protect your capital.
- Take profit (TP)
- An order that closes a position when the gain reaches a set level. In the copy it stays disabled: the strategy closes positions in baskets.
Measuring results
7 terms
- Balance
- The money in the account, counting only closed positions.
- Equity
- The balance plus or minus the result of positions still open. It is what the account would be worth if everything were closed now, and it is the figure that really matters.
- Unrealised loss
- The loss on a position that is still open. It is not realised, but it becomes real if the position is closed before the price comes back.
- Drawdown
- The fall of an account from its peak, as a percentage. The worst drawdown is the largest of these falls over a period.
- Displayed and unrealised worst drawdown
- The worst drawdown shown on this site only counts closed trades. Including open positions, the worst unrealised drawdown is estimated at around 75%, in April 2025. It is all explained on the Risks page.
- Month closed in profit
- A month in which the closed trades are profitable overall. Positions can still be open with an unrealised loss at the end of the month.
- Past performance
- The results achieved since the launch on 11 November 2022. They are no guide to future results.
PlanetFinance provides no investment advice, manages no funds and promises no returns. The definitions on this page are for information only. Missing a term? Write to us.