Can I enable followers while the leader trade is open?

This article explains whether you can enable follower accounts in Replikanto while the leader account already has an open trade in progress, and why it is better to wait.

Short answer

It is technically possible to turn on follower accounts while a leader account trade is already open and in progress, but it is not recommended. For the best performance and to avoid potential issues, wait until the trade has closed before reconfiguring which followers are participating in the leader copy.

Why waiting is recommended

Replikanto copies trading actions as they happen. A follower account that is turned on in the middle of an open trade did not receive the leader's original entry, so only the actions that come afterwards are copied to it. That can leave the leader and the follower in different states, which shows up as the usual out-of-sync symptoms:

• Position mismatch: the leader holds an open position but the follower does not.
• Quantity mismatch: the follower ends up with fewer or more contracts than the leader.
• Entry/exit desync: the leader exits the trade and the follower has nothing to exit, or is left holding a position of its own.

See Replikanto followers out of sync with the leader for the full list of causes and how to recover.

Other follower settings are locked during a trade

Starting with Replikanto 1.7.0.0, turning a follower on or off in the On column is still allowed at any time, and so are the row's Flatten (×) button, Flatten All, Disarm Followers and Rearm. Most other settings are locked while a trade is open:

• While a follower has an open position or a working order, its Ratio, Pre Allocation, % (Pct. Change), ATM Copy, Market Only and Cross Order cannot be changed. The cells are dimmed and show a tooltip.
• While any follower on the tab is in a trade, or the leader account holds a position, the tab's leader account, instrument and copy Method cannot be changed either.

Wait for the trade to close, or flatten the follower, and the settings unlock within about a second. The lock is controlled by the property Lock follower settings while in a trade (General group, on by default). See Why can't I change follower settings during a trade? for details.

Recommended workflow

1. Wait until the leader account's current trade has closed and there is no open position.
2. Check or uncheck the follower accounts you want participating in the leader copy.
3. Confirm the new configuration before the next trade is placed.

If you already turned a follower on mid-trade

Compare the leader and follower positions before the next trade. If they do not match, bring the follower back in line with the leader — or flatten it — so the next copied trade starts from a matching state. The recovery steps are covered in Replikanto followers out of sync with the leader.