T-Bank Copy Trading (Автоследование): How It Works and What to Know Before Joining

A plain-language look at T-Bank's copy-trading service — how it works, typical costs, the real risks, and who it's actually for.

Copy trading — sold under the Russian name «автоследование» — is one of the most talked-about features on Russian brokerage platforms: automatically mirroring an experienced trader's positions without you touching a trading terminal yourself. Here's a plain-language look at the mechanics, typical costs, and the risks worth understanding before signing up.

What copy trading actually is

Copy trading is a service where a chosen strategy author's trades are automatically and proportionally mirrored in your own brokerage account. Your assets stay in your own account the whole time — you're not handing money to someone else to manage, you're just authorizing the system to replicate specific trades at a size you choose.

How it works, mechanically

You pick a strategy from a catalog — each one comes with public track-record statistics: past returns, drawdowns, and a risk profile. You then allocate an amount you're comfortable committing, and the platform scales the strategy author's trades to match your allocation and executes them in your account. You can pause, resize, or disconnect at any time — it isn't a long-term commitment.

An illustrative example (not a real person, no promised outcome)

To make the mechanics concrete — this is a made-up illustration, not a real case or a promised result. Imagine a reader who allocates 50,000 rubles to a chosen strategy. In month one the strategy is up 4%, bringing the balance to 52,000 rubles before fees. In month two the market turns and the strategy draws down 6%, taking the balance to 48,880 rubles. That back-and-forth is normal for any trading strategy — one good week says nothing about the years ahead.

Fees and minimums

Platforms typically charge either a performance/success fee on profitable periods, a flat subscription fee per strategy, or both. Minimums vary by strategy and change over time, so check the current terms for a specific strategy directly in the T-Bank app before committing — not from numbers in an article.

Pros and cons

Pro: you don't have to analyze the market or manage positions yourself — the chosen strategy does that.

Pro: assets stay in your own account rather than being handed to someone else to manage, and you can disconnect any time.

Con: past performance guarantees nothing — the market can turn the day after you join.

Con: scaling trades to a small allocation can cause minor deviations from the strategy author's exact results, due to lot sizes and liquidity.

Who it's for — and who it isn't

Copy trading can make sense for people who don't have time to watch the market themselves but accept investment risk and don't expect guaranteed returns. It's not a fit for money you'll need soon, or for anyone who can't tolerate a losing stretch — which happens to virtually every strategy at some point.

The risk disclosure that matters most

Copy trading is an investment service, not individualized investment advice, and not a guarantee of profit. A strategy's past results don't determine its future ones. Asset values can rise or fall, including the possibility of losing part of the amount invested. Review a strategy's full statistics, fees, and drawdown history in the T-Bank app before connecting to it.

How to get started

Copy trading is available in the T-Bank app to anyone with a brokerage account open: browse the strategy catalog, review the statistics, and allocate part of your portfolio to follow one.