Bybit has more than one kind of copy trading. The most used is Copy Trading Classic, where you follow a Master Trader on USDT perpetuals. There is also Copy Trading Pro, where a professional trader manages your money under a 180-day lock-up, and TradFi Copy Trading for forex and gold on MT5. The three differ in how profit share is calculated, what fees apply and whether you can close positions yourself, so picking the wrong product is worse than picking the wrong trader. This guide compares them using the Bybit Help Center, then explains Classic's settings, how profit share is pre-deducted and refunded, and the rules for failed copies and auto-unfollow. Figures are as of 2026-09-28; the official pages take precedence. One more thing: bind Bybit with NOVA888 and your trading fee rebate starts at 30% at Lv.1, 1.5 times the 20% common referral codes give; whether copy trading fees count is covered below.
Pick the right product: Classic, Pro or TradFi
| Item | Copy Trading Classic | Copy Trading Pro | TradFi Copy Trading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Markets | USDT perpetuals | Spot, USDT perpetuals, USDC perpetuals | Forex, indices, US stock CFDs, commodities (MT5) |
| How it works | Copies the Master Trader's order signals | You buy strategy shares; the Pro Master fully manages the funds | Copies the Master Trader's order signals |
| Profit share | 0%–15% (by rank) | 0%–30% | 0%–15% |
| How it is charged | Pre-deducted daily, settled weekly, refunded on net loss | High-water mark, calculated every 7 days | High-water mark, settled weekly |
| Your control | Set leverage, margin mode, TP/SL; close manually | None; the Pro Master decides | No manual close; exit only by unfollowing, TP/SL or trailing stop |
| Trading fees | Your own VIP rate | VIP 1 rate for everyone, whatever your level | Per the MT5 fee page |
| Trading hours | 24/7 | — | 24/5, Monday to Friday (server time) |
Sources: Introduction to TradFi Copy Trading (includes the three-way comparison), Introduction to Copy Trading Pro.
In short: if you want to control risk and stop any time, use Classic; only consider Pro if you accept a lock-up and hand over all decisions; use TradFi only for forex or gold. The rest of this guide focuses on Classic.
Getting started with Copy Trading Classic
- Verify your identity: Classic requires Individual KYC Lv. 1 or Business KYC.
- Pick a Master Trader and set an investment: the official getting-started guide gives a 100 USDT minimum (a separate role comparison table says 50 USDT; the order page is the final word), and a Master Trader can require more, shown at the top of their profile. You can follow up to 10 Master Traders, each with separate settings.
- Choose a copy mode: Smart Copy or Advanced Copy (next section). The mode cannot be changed later; to switch you must cancel and start a new copy, and if the slots are full you may not get back in.
- Accept the agreement and copy: funds move into the copy trading account automatically.
Two common misunderstandings: first, only trades opened after you start copying are copied, not the Master Trader's existing positions; second, bonuses and coupons cannot be used in Classic. When you stop copying and all positions are closed, funds return to your Funding Account. Classic supports sub-accounts.
Smart Copy vs Advanced Copy: who decides position size
| Item | Smart Copy | Advanced Copy |
|---|---|---|
| Position size | Fixed ratio based on the Master Trader's order cost and available balance | A fixed margin per trade that you set |
| Leverage | Follows the Master Trader | Follow the Master Trader, fixed, or custom per contract |
| CopyGuard | Optional: skips trades if your entry would be worse than the Master's | Not available |
| Best for | Recommended by Bybit for beginners | Users who want to size each trade |
Bybit's examples: if Smart Copy calculates a 10% ratio and you have 1,000 USDT available at execution, the copied trade costs about 100 USDT; with Advanced Copy at a 100 USDT fixed margin, every trade uses 100 USDT. The maximum fixed margin per trade depends on the Master Trader's rank: Cadet 1,000, Bronze 2,000, Silver 10,000 USDT, and customized for Gold. The maximum cumulative order value per trading pair is 300,000 USDT.
Both modes offer these protective settings (source: Copy Mode and Parameter Settings):
- Max slippage per order: a copy is skipped if the entry price deviates from the Master's fill beyond the limit; the default is 0.5%–1.5% depending on the pair. A lower setting protects your entry but raises the chance of failed copies.
- Perp Copy Stop Loss (PCSL): when your accumulated loss with a Master Trader reaches a set amount or percentage, you automatically unfollow, and remaining positions either close at market or exit when the Master closes. PCSL only counts realized plus unrealized P&L and excludes equity changes from profit sharing, so you may recover less than the estimate shown.
- Trailing stop: an exit line set as a retracement from your highest equity. Bybit's example: with 20% retracement, equity rising from 500 to 1,000 lifts the exit from 400 to 800; when equity falls back to 800, everything closes at market and the copy ends.
- Take-profit and stop-loss ratio per order: each order exits when its loss or profit reaches the ratio; if the Master closes first, your TP/SL is cancelled.
- Max position margin per contract, max daily position limit: new copies stop once the cap is reached. Bybit warns that in extreme cases several fills at once can exceed the cap, and the excess is not trimmed.
If the Master Trader enables SyncMaster's Forced Sync, you cannot change these parameters and must copy with their settings.
How profit share is taken: pre-deducted daily, settled weekly, refunded on loss
Classic profit share depends on the Master Trader's rank:
| Master Trader rank | Cadet | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Whitelist copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit share | 10% | 10% | Up to 12% | Up to 15% | Customizable, up to 99% |
Watch the last column. When a Master Trader enables the Follower Whitelist, only whitelisted UIDs can copy, and profit share for these copies can be set as high as 99%. If someone invites you privately into a "signal group", check the profit share on the profile before you copy.
The way profit share is charged surprises many users (source: Copy Trading: Profit Sharing Explained):
- Daily pre-deduction: the system calculates your net P&L each day and holds back the profit share on that day's gains in advance.
- Weekly settlement: the cycle runs from Saturday 00:00 to Friday 23:59:59 UTC, and settlement is every Monday at 03:00 UTC.
- Refund on net loss: if closed positions in the cycle show a net loss, the pre-deducted share is refunded to your Funding Account on settlement day; if the actual share is less than what was held, the excess is refunded.
- Same-day positions must be fully closed: a day's profit share is paid to the Master only after all perpetual positions opened that day are closed; otherwise it waits for a later cycle.
- Net profit is after fees: Net Profit = Position P&L − Fee to Open − Fee to Close.
Bybit's example (10% share): a day closes a BTC long for +1,000 USDT and an ETH short for −200 USDT, with 100 USDT pre-deducted; on settlement day the actual share is 1,000 × 10% − 200 × 10% = 80 USDT, and 20 USDT comes back to you. In Classic, gains and losses offset within each settlement cycle; the help article does not mention a high-water mark across cycles. Copy Trading Pro and TradFi Copy Trading, by contrast, explicitly use a high-water mark and share profit only above the previous peak.
Copy Trading Pro: 180-day lock-up and a flat VIP 1 rate
Copy Trading Pro works like a closed-end strategy. You buy shares during the seed round or an open window, the Pro Master trades the pooled funds, and there is a 180-day lock-up with entry and exit only in set subscription and redemption windows. The Pro Master sets profit share up to 30%, calculated every 7 days on the latest NAV and only when NAV is above the high-water mark. Rate changes are blocked within 48 hours of a settlement date and take effect from the second upcoming settlement. Strategies are Stable (up to 5x) or Aggressive (up to 10x), and the system takes over and closes positions if NAV falls below 0.3. Every trade in Copy Trading Pro uses the VIP 1 fee rate, regardless of your own VIP level, and you cannot intervene in any trade.
Failed copies, liquidation and auto-unfollow
Bybit's FAQ answers "my Master wasn't liquidated but I was" directly: if you use higher leverage than the Master, your liquidation price is closer to entry; or slippage and missed copies left you with a different average entry price. Bybit lists these reasons a trade is not copied:
- Not enough funds in the copy trading account;
- The Master Trader's copy trade quota is full;
- The entry price exceeded your max slippage;
- You hit your max position margin per contract or daily limit;
- CopyGuard is on and the entry is worse than the Master's (this does not count as a failed copy).
If copies fail because of insufficient order cost 20 times in a row, or 100 times within 24 hours, and you hold no open positions, the system unfollows that Master Trader for you. A Master can also remove you through the whitelist. If you lack margin when the Master changes leverage, you may miss the leverage change and need to re-apply settings manually to align.
When you cancel a copy you get two options: close remaining positions at market, or keep copying until the Master closes them. With the second, only the Master's closing signals are copied; new orders and additions are not. Once everything is closed, funds return to your Funding Account automatically.
Bybit's reminder: a Master Trader's past performance does not guarantee future returns, and slippage and different entry points mean your ROI will not exactly match theirs.
Fields to check when choosing a Master Trader
Tap a Master Trader's card and Bybit shows a full page of performance data (source: How to Understand a Master Trader's Performance). Several fields are defined differently from what you might assume:
| Field | Official definition | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Trading days | Days on which the Master holds open positions | Not account age |
| Stability Index | Combines wallet balance, 7D ROI and 30D maximum drawdown to rate handling of volatility | Bybit's own composite score |
| AUM | Total invested by all followers over the past 30 days | Only the last 30 days |
| Max drawdown | Largest unrealized loss in the last month | Lower means smaller floating losses |
| Win rate | Profitable closed orders plus open orders in profit, divided by all closed plus open positions | Includes open positions, so traders who hold losers look better |
| Follower's P&L | Realized plus unrealized P&L of past and current followers | Closer to your result than the Master's own P&L |
| Sharpe / Sortino | Return adjusted for volatility or downside risk | Higher is steadier for the same return |
Win rate counts open positions that are in profit, so looking at win rate alone can flatter traders who refuse to cut losers. Read it together with maximum drawdown and follower P&L. Master Trader ranks are also re-evaluated weekly on account balance, 30-day cumulative profit and 7-day maximum drawdown, and 14 days without a trade triggers an automatic downgrade; a lower rank changes the profit share and the Advanced Copy margin cap too.
Copy trading fees and rebates
Classic fees are simple. Bybit's FAQ says the "trading fee and funding fee are the same as the rates incurred when you trade on Bybit's Derivatives platform. No extra fees will be charged," and VIP rates apply. For a regular user (VIP 0), USDT perpetuals are 0.02% maker and 0.055% taker.
As for whether copy trading fees earn a rebate: Bybit's affiliate FAQ only says Bybit shares part of the "trading fee profit generated from any eligible referral activity" with affiliates, calculated as "Trading fees − Market maker rebates − Bonuses/Coupons", and notes that users who receive a rebate, discount or incentive under another program may not contribute commission. The terms do not name copy trading specifically, so copied orders generate futures fees like any other; whether they count toward your rebate follows the settlement record, and support can answer questions. The same applies to Copy Trading Pro and TradFi Copy Trading.
Bind through Quant Nova with NOVA888 and new users get 30% at Lv.1 with no threshold, 35% at SVIP, reached through trading volume, and up to 40% at invitation-only Supernova. Tiers, payout timing and five volume scenarios are in the Bybit fee rebate guide; the code and sign-up link are in Bybit referral code NOVA888. If you already have a Bybit account, a main account registered within 14 days with no referrer can add the code in account info; other cases are covered in the Bybit rebind guide. A binding is nearly impossible to change later.
FAQ
What is the minimum for Bybit copy trading?
Bybit's Classic guide gives a 100 USDT minimum (another comparison table says 50 USDT; the order page is the final word), and Master Traders can require more. The Advanced Copy fixed margin cap depends on the Master's rank.
How much is Bybit's profit share?
Classic depends on rank: 10% for Cadet and Bronze, up to 12% for Silver, up to 15% for Gold, and up to 99% for whitelist copies. Copy Trading Pro goes up to 30%, TradFi 0%–15%.
Do I pay profit share if I lose money?
Classic pre-deducts profit share daily, but if the cycle ends in a net loss, the held amount is refunded on the Monday 03:00 UTC settlement. Amounts already settled to the Master are not refunded.
Are copy trading fees higher than trading myself?
Classic uses the same rates as the Derivatives platform, VIP rates included, with no extra charge. Copy Trading Pro uses the VIP 1 rate for everyone.
Do copy trading fees earn a rebate?
Bybit's affiliate terms do not name copy trading specifically. Copied orders still generate futures fees; whether they count toward your rebate follows the settlement record, and support can help with questions.
What happens to positions when I stop copying?
You choose between closing at market now or continuing until the Master closes; the second copies closing signals only. After everything closes, funds return to your Funding Account.
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