Over the last years the foreign exchange
market has become a very different landscape. Before
that, trading in foreign exchange was a non-accessible
activity for most members of the general public. Minimum
account sizes, high margin rates and large spreads
meant that only large institutions and wealthy private
customers could undertake the enormous risks implied
under those trading conditions.
With the increasing popularity of online trading and
the strengthening competition in the retail market,
conditions for the small investor have drastically
improved.
ACM's complete business model would be too long
and ultimately is not pertinent to the foreign exchange
trader. We are keen however on offering the potential
customer an insight into who we are and how we work,
we will therefore discuss the main features of our
business model.
1. Competitiveness
ACM's 3 pip policy (on all major currencies) will
undoubtedly frustrate more than a few of our competitors
who still insist on doing less than they can to
offer the best market spread possible. We constantly
strive to offer the most competitive rates in the
market. Obviously our aim behind this is to maintain
the largest customer base possible, this in turn
insures that each customer individually has a consistent
pool of liquidity at his disposal.
2. Transparency
Transparency in this day and age is as important
as profitability in any business. The modern day
online customer has at his disposal a large amount
of competitors to choose from at the touch of a
button. Being transparent means that everything
about a firm must be detailed on it's website, must
be easy to find and must be complete. The modus
operandi of a foreign exchange must be clearly explained
and nothing about procedures, costs, technologies
and services must remain hidden in order to satisfy
the increasingly aware customer of today.
It is clear to any business at this day and age
to what extent the internet customer is unforgiving
in his judgment of what appears before his eyes.
We at ACM have determined from an early stage that
total transparency about how we do our business
is a major component in retaining existing customers
and attracting new ones.
3. User friendliness
Saving time and effort for our customers is the
cornerstone of our web design. Many of our customers
are professionals in some field or another. Obviously
their time is precious and everything about our
website strives to cut down on paperwork, hassle
and aggravation so that the trader may concentrate
on trading the market and not on time consuming
procedures.
4. Quality and speed of information
ACM focuses on bringing the customer timely and
pertinent market information. We offer the kind
of dealing quotations that only institutional traders
have enjoyed up to now. The trader has at his disposal
an 'un-tampered' price feed updated on a tick by
tick basis that reflects the day's price action
without the 'price filtering' so often used by online
brokers. On an average trading day anywhere from
5'000 to 15'000 offered prices/main currency pair
occur on the ACM live price feed. We believe that
this choice offers a much more precise view of the
real market price action and market liquidity.
5. Service Orientation
Obviously for an online business it is clear that
automating all trading through an efficient internet
dealing platform substantially reduces overheads.
This in turn permits us to offer conditions like
3 pips and no commissions. Many online firms however
become lured by the automated nature of online dealing
and forget that customers are real people. At ACM
we know that at some point humans need to communicate
orally and may need assistance and guidance. In
accordance with this precept ACM's representatives
in departments as varied as customer service, compliance,
IT and dealing desk stand ready to take up the challenge
of servicing an ever growing customer base.
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