Is Charles Schwab Good for Copy Trading?

Charles Schwab is one of the largest brokerages in the United States, so it is one of the most common accounts people want to copy into. The honest answer today is that Schwab works for tracking and does not work for automated copy execution, and it is worth understanding why, because the reason is different from the usual read-only story.

Why copied trades cannot reach a Schwab account

Most unsupported brokers are unsupported because the connection is read-only: positions and balances can be read, orders cannot be sent. Schwab is a different case. Schwab requires every application that places trades over its API to hold its own approved Schwab application keys, issued after a commercial review of the application itself. No connection layer can supply those on an app’s behalf. Until Schwab approves those keys for RelayTrades, orders cannot be routed into a Schwab account, no matter how the connection is made.

That review is not a formality and it has no published timeline. We are not going to quote a date for something a third party controls, and you should be sceptical of any copy-trading platform that does.

What you can do with a Schwab account today

• Connect it and see your Schwab positions, balances, and performance alongside everything else.
• Follow the traders you are interested in and receive their signals in real time.
• Place the trades yourself in Schwab if you want to act on a signal.

Schwab connects for tracking. Copied orders cannot be placed in a Schwab account yet, because Schwab requires its own approved API keys for any application that trades. We will say so here the day that changes.

What to use instead for hands-off copying

If you want copies to route into your own account automatically within limits you set, connect one of the execution-enabled brokers: E*TRADE, Webull, tastytrade, Public, Moomoo, or Wealthsimple. On these, matching orders route into your own account, your funds never leave your broker, and you keep the sizing, the risk controls, and a one-tap kill switch. E*TRADE is the natural swap for a Schwab user: a large, established, full-service brokerage that supports stocks, ETFs, and options, with no application to wait on.

Copy trading does not remove risk in any account. The trader you copy can lose money and so can you, even with risk limits in place. RelayTrades is automation software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Charles Schwab. Past performance is not indicative of future results.