Coordinated accounts are found by time, not by identity. A name, a device and a payment channel are choices a person controls. The moment a trade must be placed is not. Look for pairs of accounts that trade the same symbols, in the same direction, within seconds, again and again. Then join the pairs into groups, and count each group as one position.
Why identity checks miss it
Identity checks catch the careless: the same IP, the same device, the same card.
The accounts that cost money are not careless. They use different devices, clean documents and different payment channels. By the time their flow is worth hiding, their details are clean.
What they cannot change is time. If several accounts want the same move, they must act while the move is still there.
What coordination looks like
It is not identical timestamps. It is repetition.
Two accounts opening the same symbol 11 seconds apart is nothing: thousands of people do that every hour. The same two accounts doing it on the same symbols, in the same direction, 40 times in a month, is not a coincidence.
You do not find a group directly. You find pairs, and the pairs join up. Often one account moves first and the others follow seconds later. The first account is the one to read.
Three shapes
Copy trading: several accounts open the same trades at the same time.
Mirror pairs: two accounts trade against each other. One wins, one loses: money moves between them, or a bonus is locked in.
Synchronized groups: several accounts trade as one team, not always in the same direction.
Not always fraud
A hundred people following one signal channel look the same as one person running a hundred accounts. A copy-trading service looks like this by design.
For the book, it does not matter. The exposure arrives in the same seconds and in the same direction.
Intent is a compliance question. Concentration is a risk question, and it does not wait for the compliance answer.
Why it matters for the book
Most exposure limits are written per account. Risk does not arrive per account.
Twelve accounts, each at one fifth of your limit, are one position at more than twice the limit. Every row on the screen is inside the rules.
The A-book decision has the same hole. Alone, each trader looks small enough to keep. Together, they are a position you would never accept in one line.
Five checks you can run on your own book
- 01Put all trades on one clock. Sort the opens of all accounts by symbol and time.
- 02Count repeats, not single matches. One overlap is noise. The same pair, on the same symbols, again and again, is a signal.
- 03Join the pairs into groups, and find who moves first.
- 04Add up each group. Count its open positions as one position against your limits.
- 05Compare trading style. The hour, the instruments, the size after a loss. Habits leak, but two disciplined traders with the same playbook can look alike.
How we do it
Our risk system checks every account for copy trading, mirror pairs and synchronized groups. The pairs are measured again every hour.
Shared devices are matched by person, not by account, so one person with five accounts counts as one.
It also compares trading style: the active hours, the instruments, how the size changes after a loss. Style gives a probability, not proof. It shows the dealer where to look.
Every group comes with its evidence: the accounts, the symbols and the times. The thresholds stay private.
Abuse flow gets its own execution rules, applied automatically by our desk.