so i guess you can reverse-copy other traders now on bitmex and i don't know what to do with this information
u/Obtusk22 ·
Reddit — r/algotrading
· April 22, 2026 at 16:59
· ⬆ 16 pts
· 💬 20 comments
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AI Summary
Summary
The post discusses the existence of a "reverse-copy" trading feature on BitMEX, which automatically takes the opposite side of a selected "top trader's" positions.
The author's thesis is that since retail traders tend to lose money overall, systematically fading them via this feature could be a source of alpha, but they are uncertain if it's a valid strategy or a gimmick.
Quality assessment: Speculation based on a limited personal experiment and theoretical reasoning, not well-researched DD.
Score16
Comments20
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ok bear with me this is kinda wild and i might be the last person to figure it out.
you know how copy trading works. you pick a "top trader" and mirror there trades. mostly loses people money because the top traders at any given moment are usually just someone who got lucky for 3 months and is about to blow up apparently there's a reverse version. where every time they go long you get shorted automatically. saw it on bitmex when i was messing with their hyperliquid copy stuff and it legitimately made me stop and think.
logically kinda makes sense right?
if retail loses money overall then fading retail should print over time. but i keep flipping back and forth in my head on whether its actually alpha or just a gimmick with a thin veneer of reasoning.
tried it last month on a small account, picked 2 wallets with actively terrible pnl histories, ran reverse-copy got +6% which like is not nothing but also isn't the print the theory would predict. might just be that the wallets i picked werent active enough during the test window.
also feels a bit weird morally but tbh they signed up to be followed and presumably get paid for their "top trader" status so cope i guess. has anyone acutally tried this with meaningful size tho, curious what the real version looks like