Nick Bang : an on-line Forex Brokerage story
Du trading à la banque
Leader mondial du courtage de devises et de métaux précieux en ligne, ACM Advanced Currency Markets envisage de prendre le statut de banque. Nicholas Bang, co-fondateur et Managing Director d'ACM, nous en dit plus. 1. Est-ce que votre augmentation de capital et votre...
ACM set to target banks
GENEVA – Advanced Currency Markets (ACM) is to target the institutional market with a new version of its FX trading platform. The technology company, majority owned by Refco, has launched its platform using a Java system, as it will be more suited to bank operations,...
A Genève, un gagnant de la crise mondiale cartonne
L'entreprise genevoise ACM, leader mondial du courtage en ligne de devises, profite de l'effondrement des marchés financiers. Son directeur, Nicolas Bang, nous explique pourquoi et comment. Lors des crises financières, puis économiques, les gagnants sont toujours les...
ACM, The World’s Leading On-line Forex Brokerage Opens Representation Offices in Dubai
Swiss-based company, ACM (Advance Currency Markets), labeled by Swiss newspapers as “The Kings of Forex” due to the astounding success of their on-line Forex trading website, officially opened representation offices in Dubai on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006. ACM was found in 2002 by three Swiss business partners and friends — Alexandre Axarlis, Nick Bang and Lloyd la Marca.
A start-up company based on a simple yet ingenious formula: an on-line Forex platform offering clients transparency, low margins and simplicity of use. With a site that has worldwide reach and is translated into 13 different languages, this online Forex brokerage has managed to rapidly differentiate itself from competition. ACM now boasts transaction volumes that average at USD 60 billion per month and the site receives between 30-40.000 visitors per day.
The fundamental concepts of ACM are:
- User friendly: ACM Offers the world’s largest on-line Forex brokerage, now in Dubai, in the most competitive, transparent and user-friendly methods.
- Transparency: Transparency is paramount in all ACM dealings- from the initial presentation of the company to the method of trade execution.
- Minimal Profit Margins: Profit margins are kept to a minimum so that execution is superior to that of any other brokers and clients are entirely satisfied. The aim being to gain the largest market share, possible due to the outstanding trading conditions offered.
Today ACM is the World’s Largest on line Forex broker, has the world’s second most visited on-line Forex site and is the First online broker to implant in the Middle East, “A large part of the success behind ACM comes mainly from our unfaltering commitment towards client satisfaction. This client satisfaction is directly translated by the fact that we have opened over 10,000 accounts to date,’ said Nick Bang, Managing Director, ACM.
The Dubai team will function as a representative office for Middle East in markets and will cater to both institutional and private customers.
NEW CURRENCY PAIRS
ACM ADVANCED CURRENCY Markets part of the Refco group of companies will be adding several new currency pairs and precious metals to it’s online dealing platform.
Nick Bang executive director & partner of ACM says, “Our client base has grown exponentially over the last year since Refco acquired majority ownership of ACM.
As a result we have seen increased demand for new currency pairs and precious metals.
In the following days we will be adding Spot Gold and Silver in addition to USDMEX, EURNOK, CHFNOK and GBPNOK in the first instance and soon to be followed by 20 to 30 or so other currency crosses.”
The new release will bring the amount of available currency pairs to 23. ACM confirms that all new currencies will be executable with the exact same methodology the company has supplied up to now, namely with the tightest spreads possible, without any request for quote or any slippage.
“Since our business model is based upon supplying the most attractive and fully transparent dealing we feel that it is essential to our identity that we maintain the same level of execution,” said Nicolaos Bang.
Banking crisis strengthened ACM online trading business says Nick Bang…
…Managing Director of the Swiss online broker ACM (Advanced Currency Markets). When asked how the current financial crisis impacted ACM’s Business, Managing Director, Nick Bang said: “The current turmoil in the financial, and mostly banking sector, generated huge volatility in the market. Most of our customers consider these moves as more profit opportunities. As a matter of fact ACM traded volume soared consistently in the recent weeks.”
ACM is the leader in Online Currency Trading and as such is not exposed to any of the risky products are the focus point of the crisis at the moment.” Our clients are able to take advantage of the most effective tools and services to successfully handle the foreign exchange market, the volatile conditions give them more opportunities of trading” says Bang.
With a recent rise of its share capital to 20 millions Swiss Francs, ACM is the largest capitalised Swiss online currency broker. “For some banking actors the interdependency of capitals turned to domino’s theory disaster.” says Nicholas Bang. “ACM’s financing strategy is based on independent capital. We are simply not concerned with this crisis”. “Moreover, we are working with a wide panel of providers granting us almost endless liquidity” he added.
Since its creation ACM has kept on growing. After Geneva, Dubai and Montevideo, the online broker has just strengthened its leadership with the opening of ACM USA, the U.S. based licencee of the ACM Group. The ACM Group is novd present on four continents and offers all of its clients fast, efficient and secure access to four different online platforms.
The Forex Market is Highly Competitive
ACM, which stands for Advanced Currency Markets, is a globally positioned brokerage house for the Forex market whose origins are in Switzerland. After opening its Geneva office in 2002, ACM by now maintains offices in Dubai and Montevideo and will shortly add New York to its list of locations. Having already received several awards for its in-house trading platform, ACM is considered to be particularly innovative and service-oriented. TRADERS’ talked to Nicolas Bang, managing director and founder of ACM.
TRADERS’: In the years 2000 to 2003 the Forex market gained speed dramatically. Do you think that this was just a function of the falling stock markets or are there other reasons that make it seem logical that the FX became such a boomer?
Nick Bang: In 1995, if you recall, the Internet revolution began, in subsequent years the Internet gained enormous ground to become what it is today, the popularisation of this new medium of communication opened up sectors such as financial trading & execution to a much wider public. In my estimation this is the foremost reason why a product such as FX has grown to such an extent. Moreover, the inception of the Euro, the burst of the first Internet bubble, and the awful 9/11 events have dramatically increased market volatility.
As a result, the foreign exchange market appeared to offer promising potential in such a tense financial environment. People realised that there is always potential profit to be taken whatever the general market conditions are. Whilst in the 90s currency trading was essentially restricted to a purely institutional clientele, today foreign exchange has become extremely accessible and transparent and therefore deliverable to the whole gamut of individuals. The launch of new online trading platforms such as those ACM proposes made this former very “professional” market available to retail investors. Take all of the above and you may have a pretty good idea of why FX became more and more popular in the early years of this decade.
TRADERS’: What separates the Forex market from other markets such as stocks or commodities?
Nicolas Bang: When you trade in Forex you always buy or sell one currency against another. The result is that when one currency drops, the other one soars, there is always a potential winning position whatever the market direction. As you can take long or short positions, profit making is a question of flair, strategy, market knowledge and timing. The second main difference is that unlike any other financial market there are usually neither commission nor fee to pay when a transaction is made. Third, what set FX apart from any other market in existence is the amazing amount of liquidity inherent in the forex market. For financial traders this is truly a huge advantage because it gives them the chance of entering and exiting the markets instantaneously and effortlessly at the exact price requested. It’s very hard to say the same for other markets. Finally, Forex is an OTC market, very flexible and open 24 hours a day.
TRADERS’: How strong is the competition between the Forex brokers and what are the tools and offers that make one more successful than others?
Nick Bang: The Forex market is a highly competitive market and this atmosphere of emulation benefits the customers; when they choose to invest their money in Forex they have a full range of opportunities. ACM is an important player within this market for three reasons: first of all, we offer unbeatable execution conditions to our clients, notably with spread as low as one pip. Especially ACM guarantees execution in all market conditions for all types of order. This point in particular is something extremely rare because ACM is the only broker to offer it and it can mean huge monetary differences for our clients, especially those who trade in fast volatile markets, when, let’s face it, many traders want to trade. Our clients partner with us for that. Secondly, we are dedicated to permanent innovation, and we aim to constantly upgrade our platforms & services to give more trading facilities to our clients. Thirdly, security is more than an important aspect for us: As a Swiss broker we are regulated by the highest standard of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Finance, and we are the first broker to be ISO certified in the field of security of information.
TRADERS’: You see yourself as an innovative leader in the field of trading technology and you employ a lot of programmers in order to keep this position. Please tell us a little bit about the tools that are solely available through you.
Nicolas Bang: ACM is a pioneer in the field of online trading and since the beginning we have been committed to permanent technological improvements. At our Geneva headquarters we have a dedicated team of developers who work on the implementation of new technologies. We are an innovative company. We are the owner of all of our trading software, which is not the case for most of our competitors who outsource the access to the technology. We can therefore propose the best conditions to our clients. Moreover, ACM is the only broker who proposes four different platforms with a single account, so our clients can switch from one platform to another and experience flexibility. Every platform offers different functions and allows our clients to trade in accordance with their changing needs, wherever they are and whenever they want. They can even trade from their mobile phone and get easy access to their account without downloading from any computer.
TRADERS’: That is the status quo. How do you see the future (in terms of technical development) in general and what are – more specifically – the tools you are developing right now for your clients?
Nicholas Bang:The future will bring even more enhanced ease of use to traders and increase the level of customisability of the interfaces. We are developing technological tools going in this direction. Notably we are working on new mobile trading features in order to get improved charts and technical indicators on a mobile phone. We are also heading towards upgraded charting tool interactivity. The objective is still the same, making trading conditions with ACM as easy and as attractive as possible.
TRADERS’: You are just about opening your branch in the US. Does a broker have to be global in this world? What are the advantages?
Nicolaos Bang: Correct. ACM is a global company and one of the largest online brokers and is present on four continents. One of the main assets of any Internet-based business is that you can reach a worldwide audience from anywhere in the world provided that you propose a product or a service likely to meet expectations of the customers of a specific market. ACM has always been global in its approach, offering trading service in 14 languages, and aiming at proposing its platforms to a wide range of customers. From the beginning the US market has been at the top of our list of priorities. However, to strengthen the relationship with our clients nothing replaces geographical proximity. That is the reason why we have developed our network of offices in Geneva, Dubai, Montevideo and now New York.
TRADERS’: Besides currencies, one can also trade precious metals though. What are the main differences in trading between these two asset classes?
Nicholas Bang: Technically, gold and silver against USD are handled in the same way as currencies. They can be traded as easily as any other currency pair but there are slight differences. You can usually trade only lots of hundreds of ounces. Besides that, orders are placed just as with any other currency pair. Besides the precious metals, ACM will be ready very soon to propose other asset classes, stocks, CFD’s and Futures.