EA execution with broker-specific fractals + multi-master trade copying (best practice?)

 

I’m transitioning from manual trading to EA trading and would appreciate some guidance on execution architecture.

I work full time and my strategy needs execution at a specific time of day when I’m often unavailable, which is why I’m moving to automation. Currently, I analyse on TradingView, then place trades manually via MT5 mobile on one prop account and copy to others. This already introduces some execution delay and chart discrepancies.

My strategy is fractal-based. Because fractals depend on broker price feeds, small differences in highs/lows mean a fractal can appear on one broker but not another. For this reason, the EA really needs to run on the same broker feed it’s trading from.

In my case:

  • US500 is traded via [broker-1]

  • Gold is traded via [broker-2]

My current plan is:

  • Run the EA on [broker-1] demo for US500

  • Run the EA on [broker-2] demo for Gold

  • Copy trades from both masters into the same prop account as the slave (symbols do not overlap)

I understand demo vs live execution isn’t perfect, but in practice this still seems cleaner and faster than my current manual workflow, where getting in on time is often the bigger issue.

My questions are:

  1. Is copying from two broker-specific demo masters into a single prop slave a reasonable and accepted setup?

  2. Are there any major pitfalls with fractal-based logic in this kind of demo → live copying?

  3. From experience, is there a materially better alternative that avoids broker-feed mismatch without needing multiple small live signal accounts?

  4. Is there a way to avoid the cost of a third party copier?

The EA itself is coded, stable, and running well on demo — this is purely an execution / infrastructure question.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Reversing: Formalizing the entry point and developing a manual trading algorithm
Reversing: Formalizing the entry point and developing a manual trading algorithm
  • 2019.01.08
  • www.mql5.com
This is the last article within the series devoted to the Reversing trading strategy. Here we will try to solve the problem, which caused the testing results instability in previous articles. We will also develop and test our own algorithm for manual trading in any market using the reversing strategy.
 
Kitty Owen:

I’m transitioning from manual trading to EA trading and would appreciate some guidance on execution architecture.

I work full time and my strategy needs execution at a specific time of day when I’m often unavailable, which is why I’m moving to automation. Currently, I analyse on TradingView, then place trades manually via MT5 mobile on one prop account and copy to others. This already introduces some execution delay and chart discrepancies.

My strategy is fractal-based. Because fractals depend on broker price feeds, small differences in highs/lows mean a fractal can appear on one broker but not another. For this reason, the EA really needs to run on the same broker feed it’s trading from.

In my case:

  • US500 is traded via [broker-1]

  • Gold is traded via [broker-2]

My current plan is:

  • Run the EA on [broker-1] demo for US500

  • Run the EA on [broker-2] demo for Gold

  • Copy trades from both masters into the same prop account as the slave (symbols do not overlap)

I understand demo vs live execution isn’t perfect, but in practice this still seems cleaner and faster than my current manual workflow, where getting in on time is often the bigger issue.

My questions are:

  1. Is copying from two broker-specific demo masters into a single prop slave a reasonable and accepted setup?

  2. Are there any major pitfalls with fractal-based logic in this kind of demo → live copying?

  3. From experience, is there a materially better alternative that avoids broker-feed mismatch without needing multiple small live signal accounts?

  4. Is there a way to avoid the cost of a third party copier?

The EA itself is coded, stable, and running well on demo — this is purely an execution / infrastructure question.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Please avoid broker-specific discussions beyond technical context. Instead can use neutral broker-1 and broker-2.
 
Kitty Owen:

My questions are:

  1. Is copying from two broker-specific demo masters into a single prop slave a reasonable and accepted setup?

  2. Are there any major pitfalls with fractal-based logic in this kind of demo → live copying?

  3. From experience, is there a materially better alternative that avoids broker-feed mismatch without needing multiple small live signal accounts?

  4. Is there a way to avoid the cost of a third party copier?


  1. Copying from a live account (even micro trades) is always preferable over copying from a demo account. In my experience, broker-dealers don't maintain demo service as well as live service in terms of trade server disconnects, spread, commissions, and/or slippage. Of course, be sure to study the terms of your prop firm to make sure that they allow such copying. As a potential caveat thereto, your broker-dealers' demo's are likely more reliable than Metaquotes' demo's--for whatever that's worth.
  2. See #1 above. Additionally, a hard wired (Ethernet) connection is always preferable over a wireless connection. Based on my experience, a Windows 11 pc is preferable to a mobile device. In this way, you can use local copiers running on the same pc instead of remote copiers connected to your phone. Running everything on a hardwired pc can speed up your connection to the tradeservers, your connection to the prop firm, and copying. Your phone can still receive mobile trade notifications, and any custom notifications that you code, from Desktop MT5 if you set it up in MT5 Options.
  3. Based on my experience, there is no better alternative. Live masters are best, broker-dealer demo masters are somewhere in the middle, and Metaquote's masters are worst.
  4. I doubt that there is a way to complete this patchwork for free. There are a couple of free local copiers in the CodeBase, but they don't support TradingView. Personally, I have a paid copier and will likely be purchasing another shortly to expand my operations. I call this a patchwork because each prop firm has different terms and/or platforms which requires its own specific "patches." At the end of the day, we have to deal with what we have instead of what would be ideal--if we want to use a given prop firm.
 
Oleksandr Medviediev #:
Please avoid broker-specific discussions beyond technical context. Instead can use neutral broker-1 and broker-2.
Thanks - new here - hadn't realised :-)
 
Ryan L Johnson #:

  1. Copying from a live account (even micro trades) is always preferable over copying from a demo account. In my experience, broker-dealers don't maintain demo service as well as live service in terms of trade server disconnects, spread, commissions, and/or slippage. Of course, be sure to study the terms of your prop firm to make sure that they allow such copying. As a potential caveat thereto, your broker-dealers' demo's are likely more reliable than Metaquotes' demo's--for whatever that's worth.
  2. See #1 above. Additionally, a hard wired (Ethernet) connection is always preferable over a wireless connection. Based on my experience, a Windows 11 pc is preferable to a mobile device. In this way, you can use local copiers running on the same pc instead of remote copiers connected to your phone. Running everything on a hardwired pc can speed up your connection to the tradeservers, your connection to the prop firm, and copying. Your phone can still receive mobile trade notifications, and any custom notifications that you code, from Desktop MT5 if you set it up in MT5 Options.
  3. Based on my experience, there is no better alternative. Live masters are best, broker-dealer demo masters are somewhere in the middle, and Metaquote's masters are worst.
  4. I doubt that there is a way to complete this patchwork for free. There are a couple of free local copiers in the CodeBase, but they don't support TradingView. Personally, I have a paid copier and will likely be purchasing another shortly to expand my operations. I call this a patchwork because each prop firm has different terms and/or platforms which requires its own specific "patches." At the end of the day, we have to deal with what we have instead of what would be ideal--if we want to use a given prop firm.
Hi @Ryan L Johnson thanks for your answer and time. I use a VPS. so all good that way. I started out wanting to simplify my system because being around in the middle of the day consistently was tricky. Getting the EA developed was the easy bit, but getting it applied feels more convoluted than it needs to be. Multiple EA, two broker accounts, two copiers and multiple prop firms. Surly there has to be an easier way :-)
 
Kitty Owen #:
Hi @Ryan L Johnson thanks for your answer and time. I use a VPS. so all good that way. I started out wanting to simplify my system because being around in the middle of the day consistently was tricky. Getting the EA developed was the easy bit, but getting it applied feels more convoluted than it needs to be. Multiple EA, two broker accounts, two copiers and multiple prop firms. Surly there has to be an easier way :-)

You're welcome. I see. In order to help you further, I think that we need to get a bit deeper into the weeds regarding the instruments that you're trading, e.g., US500 and Gold. Are we talking about CFD symbols here? I say that because U.S. gold futures are GC, MGC, or 1OZ; U.S. S&P 500 futures are ES or MES, and gold CFD, XAUUSD, technically doesn't exist in the U.S. The way to restructure or consolidate your operation depends on the markets supported by each broker-dealer, the symbols supported by each broker-dealer, and the same for each prop firm, and each trade copier.

I suspect that a meaningful discussion about broker-1, broker-2, prop firm-1, prop firm-2, trade copier-1, and trade copier-2 is going to be a bit difficult. 

 
Running two broker‑specific demo masters and copying everything into one prop account is a pretty common setup, and it usually works fine as long as the feeds stay consistent. The main thing to watch with fractal logic is that demo feeds can print slightly different highs/lows, so you just want to make sure the prop feed isn’t wildly different from your masters. Most people avoid the mismatch problem exactly the way you’re planning, unless they’re willing to fund multiple small live accounts. As for skipping copier costs, there’s no perfect free option, so most traders just treat the copier as part of the infrastructure.