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.