A prop firm challenge looks like a normal trading account with a few extra rules: a daily loss limit, a maximum drawdown, a profit target. The rules that catch signal traders out are a different set, the ones about where your trades come from. They sit on pages called prohibited practices or forbidden strategies, and they decide whether following a signal service, or running a copier, is allowed at all.
Why prop firms care where your trades come from
A funded account trades the firm's risk, not yours. When many traders follow the same signal service or run the same expert advisor, the firm ends up holding the same trade many times over. One failed signal hits many of its accounts on the same day, and one good signal pays out to all of them at once. Firms also look for people running several accounts in coordination, or groups that sell challenge passes. Matching trades are how they spot all of it. FundedNext's help centre lists what it compares between accounts: the entry price, exit price, lot size, symbol and trade time.
So the question a firm asks is not whether your signals are any good. It is whether your trades are your own decisions or copies of someone else's.
What three firms' own pages say
We read the rules of three well-known firms as published on 12 October 2026. Rules change, so open the current page before you trade.
| Firm | Copying between your own accounts | Signal services and outside copiers |
|---|---|---|
| FTMO | Not covered on the pages below | Not named. A third-party EA shared with other traders can lead to the account being denied under the maximum capital allocation rule; no third party may trade your account for you |
| FundedNext | Allowed between your own Challenge accounts, up to $300,000 in total; prohibited between funded accounts, your own included | Signal services and copy trading services named as prohibited; outside cloud-based copy services not allowed |
| The5ers | Not addressed separately on the page below | Copy trading with other traders prohibited, including a third-party EA where other traders hold the same trades |
FTMO. Its forbidden trading practices do not mention signal services by name. They do forbid letting any third party access your account or trade it for you. Its FAQ on strategies says it has no reason to restrict your strategy, then warns that a third-party EA may already be running for other traders, which means exactly the same strategy on many accounts, and that this can lead to the FTMO Account being denied if the maximum capital allocation rule is exceeded. A popular signal service puts identical trades on many accounts in the same way, so the same logic is worth assuming.
FundedNext. Its copy trading rule allows copying between Challenge accounts owned by the same person, with a combined limit of $300,000. It forbids copying between funded accounts, even when they belong to the same person, and between accounts owned by different people, friends and family included. It also says outside cloud-based copy trading services are not allowed. Its list of restricted strategies names signal services, copy trading services and "pass your challenge" schemes as prohibited during the Challenge and on a funded account, with denial of the account and a permanent ban as the consequence.
The5ers. Its prohibited trading practices, last updated 28 July 2026, list copy trading and trade coordination with other traders, described as traders sharing signals and strategies and so copying each other's trades. They also list using a third party's EA where other traders hold the same trades. The stated consequences include losing the account, any refund or profit, and a permanent ban.
Where the Forexero Cloud Copier stands
Our copier is not for prop firm accounts at all. Its terms say it "is not designed for, and must not be used with, funded/proprietary-firm challenge accounts or any account subject to third-party trading rules (daily loss limits, copy-trading bans, consistency rules and similar)". The reason is practical as well as legal: a copier follows the rules you set on your own account, and it cannot see a firm's daily loss limit, consistency rule or copy-trading ban. On a challenge account, a rule it cannot see can end the account on a day when every trade was placed exactly as configured.
The copier is built for your own broker account, where the only rules are yours.
Trading signals by hand on a funded account
Placing a signal yourself does not make it a different trade. Everyone following the same signal enters the same market at nearly the same price, and that is exactly the pattern the firms above look for. Whether it is allowed is the firm's decision, and the answer differs: FundedNext names signal services as prohibited, The5ers prohibits traders copying each other's signals, and FTMO's pages do not address signal services directly.
If you want to trade signals on a funded account:
- Read the firm's prohibited practices page and FAQ yourself, not a review site's summary of them.
- Ask support in writing what you plan to do, in plain words: "I follow a paid signal service and place the trades myself; is that allowed on this account?" Keep the reply.
- Save a copy of the rules on the day you start. Firms change them, and the copy is your record of what you agreed to.
- Size to the daily loss limit, not the profit target. The funded account guide works out a per-trade risk from a 5% daily limit.
If the firm says no, the answer is no. A challenge fee is small next to a funded account lost to a rule you knew about.
The short version
- Copying between your own accounts: allowed at some firms within limits; FundedNext allows it between your own Challenge accounts up to $300,000 combined, and not between funded accounts.
- Outside cloud copiers: FundedNext does not allow them, and our own copier's terms exclude prop firm accounts.
- Signal services: FundedNext prohibits them, The5ers prohibits copying signals between traders, and FTMO treats strategies shared by many traders as a risk to the account. Ask your firm in writing before the first trade.
Every closed signal is on the record
The results page lists each closed VIP signal with its entry, stop, targets and outcome, stops included.
Ready to join? Compare the VIP plans: £89 a month, or £540 paid once a year.