My Bybit Copy Trading Experience: A Hard Lesson About Leverage

I've been chasing passive income for a while now. The goal? Earn money without trading time for it—ideally around $100 per day. I know it sounds ambitious, but I've been testing different strategies, and one platform that caught my attention was Bybit's copy trading feature.

For those unfamiliar, copy trading lets you automatically mirror the trades of experienced traders. You set your parameters, choose a master trader to follow, and theoretically, their profits become your profits. It sounded perfect for someone like me who wanted results without constantly monitoring charts.

Starting Out: September 2022

I started my copy trading journey on September 7th with $1,166.25 USDT. The first few weeks felt incredible. Watching the balance grow daily was addictive—I'd check my account multiple times, seeing steady gains accumulate. The strategy seemed to be working exactly as promised.

If you're interested in exploring automated trading strategies on a platform with full Japanese language support, 👉 Bybit's copy trading feature offers a hands-off approach to crypto trading that attracts both beginners and experienced traders.

The Mistake That Cost Me $1,740

Here's where things went wrong. After seeing consistent gains for months, I got greedy. I thought, "If I'm making this much at my current leverage, imagine what I could make if I increased it." So I bumped my leverage from a conservative setting to 9x.

At first, it seemed like a genius move. My account balance shot up to $1,761.25—a gain of over $500 in a relatively short period. I was euphoric. I felt like I'd cracked the code.

Then reality hit hard.

The market turned, and my positions started showing losses. With 9x leverage, those losses multiplied quickly. Before I could react, my total position losses exceeded my follow cost (the amount allocated to copy trades), triggering a forced liquidation. Every position was automatically closed.

My account balance crashed from $1,761.25 down to around $500. In one brutal moment, I lost approximately 174,000 yen (roughly $1,260).

What I Learned the Hard Way

The tears were real that day. But the experience taught me several critical lessons about copy trading and leverage:

Leverage amplifies everything—not just profits, but losses too. That 9x multiplier works both ways, and the market doesn't care about your confidence or recent winning streak.

Forced liquidation is unforgiving. When your margin gets depleted, the exchange automatically closes your positions at the worst possible time. There's no opportunity to wait for recovery.

Greed is the enemy of consistency. I had a working strategy with reasonable leverage, but I let excitement override discipline. The modest gains I was making weren't flashy, but they were sustainable—until I wasn't.

After this painful lesson, I made a firm decision: stick to 5x leverage maximum and focus on increasing my follow cost (the amount I allocate to copy trading) rather than multiplying risk through higher leverage.

Moving Forward

Despite the setback, I haven't given up on copy trading. The strategy itself works—I just needed better risk management. For anyone considering this approach, platforms like 👉 Bybit provide the infrastructure for copy trading with detailed trader statistics, but the discipline must come from you.

The key is treating it like a marathon, not a sprint. Consistent 3-5% monthly returns compound beautifully over time. Chasing 50% monthly gains with excessive leverage? That's a recipe for exactly what happened to me.

October would be a fresh start. Same strategy, better risk management, and a hard-learned appreciation for the importance of protecting capital. Sometimes the most valuable education comes from expensive mistakes—this one cost me $1,260, but the lesson about leverage and discipline is worth carrying forward.

If you're exploring copy trading, start small, keep leverage reasonable, and remember: the goal is sustainable passive income, not gambling with multipliers that can wipe you out in a single bad day.