Managing Multiple Accounts
How to trade across prop firm evaluations, funded accounts, and personal accounts with CrossTrade.
If you're running one strategy across multiple prop firm accounts, or copying trades from a master account to followers, this guide covers the full setup. It assumes you already have a working alert (if not, start with Guide 1).
Two Approaches to Multi-Account Trading
CrossTrade gives you two paths for trading multiple accounts from a single signal. They solve different problems, and both are built with prop firm guardrails baked in.
Copier Groups create a leader-follower network where one account drives the others. The leader trades (via webhook, manual entry, or a local NT8 strategy), and every follower in the group mirrors the activity automatically. You configure the group once — copy mode, position sizing ratios, instrument replacements, stealth mode, auto-sync — and manage all followers from a single panel. Copier Groups are the primary tool for running a prop firm operation across multiple accounts.
Multi-Account Placement sends the same webhook alert to multiple accounts in a single payload. Each account gets the same order independently. It's simpler to set up (just list the accounts in the alert), doesn't require a copier configuration, and works with every command type. Use this when you want identical trades on every account with the same timing and parameters, and you don't need per-account sizing or instrument mapping.
You can also combine them: send a webhook to one leader account via multi-account placement across multiple leaders, and let copier groups distribute from each leader to their followers. Between single copiers and copier groups, the topology is yours to design. CrossTrade doesn't lock you into a single leader-follower hierarchy the way most copiers do.
When to Use Which
Use Copier Groups when you need different position sizing per follower (ratio-based), different instruments per follower (ES on leader, MES on followers), auto-sync to catch missed fills, tandem mode for coordinated account management, or when your signal source isn't a webhook. The copier works regardless of how the leader trades.
Use Multi-Account Placement when every account should receive the exact same order with the same quantity and instrument, you don't need per-account sizing differences, and you want the simplest possible setup. Multi-account placement also pairs with account cycling in the Account Manager for round-robin distribution across accounts.
Copier Groups
Copier Groups are the core of CrossTrade's multi-account infrastructure. Instead of setting up individual copier configurations for each follower, you create a single group that defines the rules for all followers at once.
Setting Up a Group
In the Trade Copier section of the CrossTrade dashboard, click Add Copier and select your Leader account. Then add more than one Follower account. We use the same configuration screen for both Group and Single copiers so you will see an input appear to provide your Group with a custom name. All configuration — copy mode, ratio, stealth, auto-sync, tandem — is set at the group level and applies to every follower.
This is the key advantage over individual copiers: when you need to change a setting, you change it once and it applies everywhere. No more updating 8 separate copier configurations because you switched from Execution mode to Order mode.
Copy Modes
Execution (Fills Only) Mode copies when the leader's order actually fills. Followers only enter when the leader has a confirmed fill. For prop firm accounts, this is generally the safer choice — you don't want followers entering positions based on unfilled limit orders.
Order Mode copies when an order is placed on the leader. This is faster because followers enter as soon as the leader's order is submitted, without waiting for a fill confirmation. The tradeoff: if the leader's order doesn't fill (a limit order that never hits), the follower may have already entered. Within Order mode, you can enable Fills Only to restrict copying to market orders only, giving you the speed benefit without the risk of copying unfilled limits.
Position Sizing
Set a ratio between leader and follower. If the leader trades 4 contracts at a 0.5x ratio, followers trade 2 contracts. NinjaTrader requires whole-number quantities, so plan your ratios around whole numbers — a 3-contract leader at 0.5x produces 1.5, and the order won't execute.
You can also set a max position limit on each follower to cap exposure regardless of the ratio.
Instrument Replacement
If your leader trades ES but you want followers to trade MES (micro), set up a symbol replacement rule. The copier automatically substitutes the instrument on follower orders. This pairs naturally with a sizing ratio — trade ES on the leader at 1x, MES on the followers at the equivalent ratio.
Tandem Mode
Tandem mode ties the copier to the Account Manager. When enabled, the copier will only place trades on followers that have an active, non-stopped Account Manager monitor. If NAM flattens a follower and stops it for the session (because it hit a daily loss limit, for example), tandem mode prevents the copier from sending new trades to that account.
Without tandem mode, the copier would keep copying trades to a follower that NAM just flattened, immediately re-entering a position that was supposed to be closed. Tandem mode prevents this conflict. For prop firm accounts, it should almost always be on.
Auto-Sync
The copier's auto-sync engine checks follower positions against the leader at a configurable interval. If a follower drifts out of alignment — missed a fill, connection blip, manual interference — auto-sync detects the mismatch and submits a corrective order to realign.
If a follower misses an entry, auto-sync enters the position. If a follower misses an exit, auto-sync flattens to match. This runs continuously per group.
Auto-sync includes built-in rate limiting on correction attempts. If a correction is attempted and the position doesn't change, auto-sync won't hammer the same order repeatedly. It also respects a configurable reconnection cooldown — if a follower's data connection just came back online, auto-sync waits for the connection to stabilize before evaluating, preventing false corrections based on stale data.
Important: auto-sync will modify follower positions to match the leader. If you manually close a follower's position while auto-sync is active, it will re-enter. Disable auto-sync or pause the copier before manually intervening.
Stealth Mode
All CrossTrade orders go through the NinjaTrader SDK, which means they appear identical to manually placed orders in NT8. The copier has an explicit Stealth Mode that further hides automation signatures. This is enabled by default.
Collective Logging and Management
One of the practical advantages of groups over individual copiers: the dashboard shows you collective logging for the entire group. You see all follower activity, P/L, and status in one view. Settings changes apply to the whole group in a single save. When you're managing 6+ prop accounts, this eliminates the tedious cycle of opening each copier individually to check status or tweak a setting.
Multi-Account Placement
Add multiple account names to the account field, separated by commas:
Every listed account receives the same order. If one account can't execute (disconnected, already in a position with require_market_position=flat;, etc.), the others still proceed independently.
All advanced options — flatten_first, require_market_position, trading_window, brackets, ATMs, Strategy Sync — apply to every account in the list. See the Multi-Account Placement docs for the full specification.
Multi-account placement works with account cycling in the Account Manager, which distributes signals round-robin across accounts rather than sending to all of them simultaneously. This is useful when you want to stagger entries or limit exposure per account.
Protecting Your Prop Firm Accounts
Prop firms make money when you fail your eval. The rules are designed to be tight, and the margins for error are razor-thin. One bad trade, one disconnection at the wrong time, one accidental hedge on a correlated product, and the account is gone.
CrossTrade was built around this problem. Every feature in this section exists because a prop firm trader lost an account to something that should have been preventable. The goal isn't just automation — it's giving you tools that enforce the rules your prop firm sets, automatically, before a mistake can cost you.
Daily Loss Limits (NAM)
The NT Account Manager monitors each account's session P/L in real time and can automatically flatten the account when a threshold is breached. This is your primary defense against blowing through a daily loss limit.
Set a negative dollar value for the loss threshold (e.g., -$1,500 for a $50k Apex eval). When the account's session P/L drops below that level, NAM flattens everything and can disable inbound alerts to prevent further trading that session.
NAM checks every 2.5 seconds. In fast-moving markets, slippage between the threshold and the actual flatten price is possible. Set your threshold with a buffer below the firm's actual limit — if the firm's daily max loss is -$2,500, consider setting NAM to -$2,200 to give yourself margin.
NAM requires the account to be flat at session start (6 PM ET) for a clean baseline. See the Account Manager overview for configuration details.
Trailing Drawdown
Most prop firms use a trailing drawdown that follows your high-water mark. NAM has a dedicated Trailing Drawdown monitor that mirrors this behavior. It tracks your session's peak P/L (or peak Net Liq, depending on your firm's rules) and flattens the account if the drawdown from that peak exceeds your threshold.
You choose whether the trail is based on session P/L or Net Liquidation, which matters because different firms calculate it differently. You can also set a minimum profit trigger so the trail doesn't activate until the account has reached a certain profit level first — useful for firms where the trailing drawdown only kicks in after a threshold.
Minimum Profit Drawdown
Some prop firms have a separate rule: once you've hit a certain profit in a session, you can't give back more than a percentage of it. NAM's Minimum Profit monitor handles this. You set the profit trigger (e.g., $500) and the drawdown threshold (e.g., $200). Once the account's session P/L reaches $500, NAM will flatten if it drops back below $300.
This is different from the trailing drawdown — it's a floor that locks in a minimum once a profit level is achieved, rather than a continuously trailing high-water mark.
Outlier Protection
NinjaTrader occasionally reports P/L values that are wildly wrong — stale quotes, data feed glitches, or delayed tick processing can make an account look like it's down $10,000 when it's actually flat. If NAM acts on bad data, it flattens a perfectly healthy account for no reason.
Outlier Protection validates the reported P/L before NAM takes any action. It cross-references the unrealized P/L against live quote data, checks for stale prices, compares against recent historical baselines, and flags statistical anomalies. If the data looks suspect, NAM holds off and re-evaluates on the next cycle instead of shooting first.
This is the kind of thing you don't appreciate until it saves you. One bad tick at 3 AM on a VPS would have flattened your account and locked you out for the session. Outlier Protection catches it and waits for clean data.
Opposing Position Protection (OPP)
If you're running multiple strategies or alert sources, there's a risk of accidentally opening opposing positions on correlated products — long ES on one alert while another goes short MES, for example. Most prop firms treat this as hedging, and it's an instant rule violation.
Opposing Position Protection prevents this. You define groups of accounts and related products (ES/MES, NQ/MNQ, etc.), and CrossTrade blocks any order that would create a conflicting position across those groups. The check runs before every order is placed — if Strategy A is long ES and Strategy B tries to short MES, the order is rejected before it reaches NinjaTrader.
OPP works across accounts within a group, so it catches cross-account hedging too. Configure it in your My Account settings.
Auto-Reconnect
Connection drops happen. Your broker's server restarts, your VPS has a network hiccup, NinjaTrader decides it's had enough. If the data feed goes down while you have an open position, your NAM monitors can't evaluate P/L, your alerts can't execute, and you're flying blind.
Auto-Reconnect monitors your NinjaTrader connections and automatically re-establishes them when they drop. It handles both clean disconnects and involuntary connection losses (NinjaTrader errors, panic disconnects). You configure which connections to monitor and how many retry attempts to allow before stopping.
Everyone who has traded prop accounts knows the data feeds drop out. It's a problem that benefits the props — your loss limits can't protect you if the data feed is dead. Auto-Reconnect exists specifically to fight this. It keeps your connections alive so your safeguards can keep running.
Data Watchdog
Auto-Reconnect handles connection drops, but there's a subtler failure mode: the connection shows "Connected" in NinjaTrader, but the data feed has gone stale. No ticks are coming through, quotes aren't updating, but NinjaTrader doesn't report an error because technically the connection is still alive.
Data Watchdog monitors the actual tick flow for a specified instrument on each connection. If no new ticks arrive within your configured timeout while the market is open, Watchdog triggers a disconnect/reconnect cycle to force a fresh connection. If Auto-Reconnect is configured for that connection, Watchdog delegates the recovery to it for coordinated retry behavior with attempt budgets and backoff.
Both Auto-Reconnect and Data Watchdog are configured in your My Account settings and run entirely within the XT Add-On on your machine.
Trading Windows
Restrict trading to the hours allowed by your prop firm. Set windows at the alert level in the payload:
Or set them at the account level in the Account Manager's Trading Windows settings. Account-level windows apply to all webhook activity on that account, regardless of what the alert payload says. Alerts outside the window are silently dropped.
Putting It All Together
A typical prop firm operation uses several of these tools in combination. You set up a Copier Group with your leader and follower accounts. Each follower gets a NAM monitor with a daily loss limit set below the firm's threshold, a trailing drawdown matching the firm's trailing max drawdown rule, and tandem mode enabled so the copier stops sending to any account that NAM has flattened. You configure Opposing Position Protection if you're running correlated products across accounts. Trading windows match the firm's allowed hours. Auto-Reconnect and Data Watchdog keep the data feed alive so everything else can do its job.
None of these protection tools require webhooks. They run on the XT Add-On and protect your account regardless of whether trades come from TradingView alerts, manual entries in NinjaTrader, or the Trade Copier.
Common Multi-Account Pitfalls
Duplicate connections on the same account. If the same account is connected in multiple NT8 instances (two VPS boxes, or one local and one VPS), NinjaTrader fires OrderUpdate events from each connection. This causes duplicate orders. Each account should only be connected to one NT8 instance at a time.
Account name mismatches. The account name in your alert must exactly match what NinjaTrader shows. APEX_12345 is not apex_12345. Check the Accounts tab in NT8 for exact names.
Auto-sync fighting manual trades. If you manually close a follower position while auto-sync is running, the sync engine will detect the mismatch and re-enter. Disable auto-sync before manually intervening, or pause the copier.
Tandem mode deadlocks. If NAM flattens a follower but a strategy-tagged position survives the flatten (because the tag mode is set to protect), tandem mode can block new trades while the surviving position prevents the account from going fully flat. The dashboard will surface this with actionable detail. Resolution: clear the blocking tag or switch the tag mode to override.
Prop firm data feed drops. This isn't a CrossTrade issue — it's an industry-wide problem with prop firm connections. But it directly impacts your ability to trade and your NAM monitors' ability to protect you. Auto-Reconnect and Data Watchdog exist specifically for this. Configure them, test them, trust them.
Contract rollover. If you're using hardcoded contract months in your alerts (e.g., instrument=ES 06-25;), you need to update every alert across every account when the contract rolls. Use TradingView continuous contract symbols instead (instrument=ES1!; or instrument=MNQ1!;). CrossTrade auto-converts these to the correct format for each NinjaTrader account.
Related Guides
Guide 1: Your First Automated Trade — start here if you haven't set up CrossTrade yet Guide 5: Exit Management — ATMs, brackets, and managing how trades close Guide 6: Running Multiple Strategies — if you have multiple strategies targeting the same accounts
Reference Docs
Multi-Account Placement Trade Copier Overview Account Manager Overview
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