Can You Copy Trade Options? Yes. Here's How.

If you have ever searched "can you copy trade options," you have probably found the same answer everywhere: not really. eToro, ZuluTrade, and most social trading platforms support stocks, ETFs, and crypto — but options? They either do not offer them or handle them so poorly that the feature might as well not exist.

Here is the truth: copy trading options is absolutely possible. It is just significantly harder than copying stocks, which is why almost no platform has built it properly. Until now.

Why Most Platforms Do Not Support Options Copy Trading

There are three technical reasons why options copy trading is rare:

1. Contract Sizing Is Complex

When you copy a stock trade, the math is simple. If the leader buys 100 shares of AAPL and you allocate 10% of their capital, you buy 10 shares. But options trade in contracts of 100 shares each. If a leader buys 5 contracts and you allocate 10%, do you buy 0.5 contracts? You cannot. The platform has to intelligently round, adjust for buying power, and handle partial fills — none of which stock copy trading requires.

2. Greeks and Time Decay Change Everything

Options have delta, theta, gamma, and vega. Two traders can enter the same option contract at the same strike and expiration, but if one enters at 9:31 AM and the other at 10:15 AM, the Greeks have shifted. The platform must account for this or followers get materially different risk profiles than the leader.

3. Expiration and Assignment Are Operational Nightmares

What happens when a leader's option expires in-the-money? Do followers get assigned? What if the leader rolls a position — closes the old contract and opens a new one? Stock copy trading does not have these problems. Options copy trading requires handling them automatically or followers get left behind.

How Options Copy Trading Actually Works

Despite the complexity, the concept is straightforward:

1. You connect your brokerage account (TastyTrade or Alpaca) to the copy trading platform.
2. You browse verified traders who specialize in options. You see their win rate, average return, max drawdown, and full trade history.
3. You subscribe to a leader for a monthly fee. This gives you access to auto-mirroring.
4. Every trade the leader makes — buying calls, selling puts, spreads, whatever — is automatically copied to your account with proportional sizing.
5. You keep full control. You can pause copying, adjust your allocation, or cancel anytime.

What Gets Copied?

A proper options copy trading platform handles the full lifecycle:

• Single-leg options (buying calls, buying puts)
• Multi-leg strategies (spreads, iron condors, butterflies)
• Rolling positions (closing near-expiration and opening new strikes)
• Position adjustments (adding to winners, cutting losers)
• Stock trades when the leader trades equities

How Position Sizing Works

This is the part most people worry about. If a leader with a $100,000 account buys 10 contracts, and you only have $10,000, how many contracts do you buy?

A proper platform calculates this automatically based on your chosen allocation percentage. It factors in:

• Your account buying power
• The leader's position size relative to their account
• Contract multiplier (100 shares per contract)
• Available cash after margin requirements

The result: you get a position sized appropriately for your account, not a 1:1 copy that would blow up your risk management.

Is It Safe?

Safer than trying to manually execute alerts from a Discord channel at 9:31 AM.

With auto-mirroring, you eliminate the biggest risk in copy trading: human execution error. No more missing the entry because you were in a meeting. No more fat-fingering the wrong strike price. No more chasing a move that already happened.

You also get full transparency. Before subscribing, you see the leader's verified track record — not cherry-picked screenshots, but every trade, win or loss, pulled directly from their broker.

How to Get Started

OptionsHood is the first platform built exclusively for copy trading stocks and options. Here's how to start in under 5 minutes:

1. Create a free account
2. Connect your TastyTrade or Alpaca brokerage account
3. Browse verified options traders and review their track records
4. Subscribe to a leader whose strategy matches your goals
5. Set your allocation and let auto-mirroring handle the rest