Two routes, different accounts
Copy trading at Deriv
Deriv offers copy trading in two places, and they do not overlap: strategy subscriptions on Deriv cTrader, and the Deriv Nakala app, which links to a real MT5 Standard account. The fees, the setup and the credentials differ between them.
Checked against Deriv's own pages
Which one you are looking at
On cTrader, copy trading is a subscription: you choose a strategy provider, apply their strategy to your account, and stop or unsubscribe whenever you want. The account uses your main Deriv credentials rather than a separate trading password, which is the opposite of how MT5 works.
Nakala is an app. It requires a registered Deriv account and a real MT5 Standard account, which you link inside the app by entering the MT5 account details — the trading password, explicitly not the investor password — and selecting the correct server. You then choose whether to act as a copier or a signal provider.
The difference in credentials is worth pausing on. Linking Nakala means handing an app the master password to your MT5 account, and that is safe only because it is Deriv's own app. The same request from anyone else is the thing our scam catalogue tells you to refuse.
The two routes compared
| Deriv cTrader | Deriv Nakala | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Inside the cTrader platform, web and mobile | A separate mobile app on iOS and Android |
| Account needed | A Deriv cTrader account | A real Deriv MT5 Standard account |
| Login | Your main Deriv email and password | Your Deriv email, then the MT5 trading password to link the account |
| Who you copy | Strategy providers publishing on cTrader | Signal providers with a profile in the app |
| Fees | Set by the provider: performance, management or volume-based; Deriv adds none | Set by the provider |
| Becoming a provider | Publish a strategy and set your own commission | Set a signal name in your profile and link as a provider |
Source: Deriv's cTrader page and its academy's Nakala setup guide, checked 24 August 2026.
What copying costs
On cTrader, the provider sets the fees and can charge in three ways: performance, management, or volume-based. Deriv states it adds no charges of its own on top, so the cost of copying is entirely the provider's decision — and it varies between them.
Those fee types behave differently. A performance fee costs you only when the strategy makes money; a management fee is charged whatever happens; a volume-based fee rewards the provider for trading more often, which is worth noticing before subscribing to a high-frequency strategy.
The trading costs still apply underneath. Every copied trade pays the same spread as a manual one, so an active strategy generates spread costs on your account at the provider's pace, not yours.
Checking a provider before copying
Length of record first. A strategy with a few profitable months proves less than most people assume, and the failure mode of the strategies that look best over a short window — recovering every loss by increasing the stake — is the same one described on our page about Deriv bots.
Then the worst period rather than the total return: the largest drawdown, how long it lasted, and whether you would have stayed subscribed through it. Copying is only useful if you keep doing it during the part that hurts.
And the instruments. A provider trading derived indices around the clock produces a different experience from one trading currency pairs during sessions, and the account being copied may be far larger than yours — proportional copying scales the position, not the psychology.
What copying does not transfer
The risk. The positions are opened in your account with your money, and a copied loss is your loss — the provider's fee structure does not change that, and neither does the platform's.
Nor the regulatory relationship: you remain a client of whichever Deriv entity holds your account, and the strategy provider is not your adviser. Our wider comparison of copy trading platforms sets out how this works across brokers.
Questions people ask
Does Deriv offer copy trading?
Yes, in two places: strategy subscriptions on Deriv cTrader, and the Deriv Nakala app, which links to a real MT5 Standard account. They are separate systems with separate accounts.
What does Deriv copy trading cost?
On cTrader the strategy provider sets the fee — performance, management or volume-based — and Deriv states it adds no charges of its own. Ordinary spreads still apply to every copied trade.
What do I need to use Deriv Nakala?
A registered Deriv account and a real Deriv MT5 Standard account, plus the app from the App Store or Google Play. The account is linked inside the app using the MT5 trading password and the correct server.
Can I become a strategy provider?
Yes on both. On cTrader you publish a strategy and set your own commission; in Nakala you set a signal name in your profile and link your account as a provider rather than a copier.
Is copy trading safer than trading yourself?
No. The positions are opened in your account with your money, and the losses are yours. It changes who makes the decisions, not who carries the risk.
The broker itself is reviewed on our Deriv page, its instruments on synthetic indices, and the entity question across all nine brokers on regulated forex brokers.