A whale can be late too
Large size does not prove edge. A public wallet can be hedged, lucky, overlevered, or already exiting. Read recent fills and exposure changes before treating a visible position as a signal. If the source entered much earlier, copying the current position may inherit downside without inheriting the original entry advantage.
Your wallet is not their wallet
Different account value, margin mode, idle capital, and correlated positions can turn a tolerable source trade into a dangerous destination trade. Normalize copied size to the destination wallet and reserve room for volatility instead of matching the whale’s notional or leverage.
Liquidity decides whether copying is possible
A public fill is historical evidence, not a guaranteed executable price. Check current spread, depth, impact at the intended size, and the distance from the source entry. Thin markets can convert a useful idea into a late and expensive fill.
Agent approval is a second step
Hyperliquid agent wallets can sign trading actions for a master account after approval. That permission should follow a preview showing the agent address, scope, local notional and daily caps, kill-switch behavior, and revoke path. Read-only source analysis does not require approveAgent.
Use explicit stop conditions
Stop copying when the source flips side, reduces exposure materially, breaches its own drawdown pattern, or when destination risk exceeds its cap. A copy system without a stale-signal rule and kill switch is only delayed discretionary trading.