Securing successful strategy from the broker stealing it

[Tradex]

Hey all,
This maybe "too simple" question for the Pros, but I have not found a sensible answer elsewhere.

Is there any way to protect myself from brokerage firms or trading software (TD Ameritrade, Tradestation, Multicharts) "stealing" my strategy, either through the successful back-testing numbers showing up on their end and simply copying it, or them seeing a steady and fast account growth, analyzing and reverse engineering the strategy?

Not sure "legal agreements" would do me any good - I would never know if one of the platform programmers or trade desk folks is exploiting software holes andtrading on the side with the successful customer strategies.

If you are winning consistently with minimal drawdown, your broker will simply start copying your trades.
There is absolutely nothing illegal about that.

 

[henry76]

I'm no expert on law , but I bet it comes pretty close to illegal , certainly in the uk . where I think there are supposed to be firewalls between employees who trade and those who do "other stuff" etc That's not to say it doesn't happen , I bet it does , but I also bet not officially and not in the full open glare of the law , which should tell you something.