AMarkets (known as AForex before 2015) is one of the oldest “classic” MetaTrader brokers. By combining high leverage, low starting minimum, great variety of trading instruments, and multiple electronic deposit/withdraw methods, such brokers were aplenty in late 2000’s. Few have survived to our time though. AMarkets demonstrated the ability to evolve with traders’ changing preferences. Currently, the broker looks to expand its services in previously underserved parts of the world. And it seems to be open to scrutiny as its Head of International Partnerships, Alex Melkumyants, answers my questions about the company and and the state of the retail Forex trading industry.
How did AMarkets start as a company â what was the main idea behind this brokerage? How did the company envision its role in the online foreign exchange industry?
AMarkets was established in 2007 by the group of people, who wanted to provide the best service and earning opportunities to traders around the world.
For over 10 years weâve been doing our best to improve our clientsâ professionalism and performance. At the moment AMarkets is holding leading positions in terms of client success rate — more than 40% of clients make profit with AMarkets.
We achieved such outstanding results for a number of reasons:
- We have developed unique and effective tools for price analysis and forecasting of different financial instruments.
- We provided our clients with excellent trading conditions.
- We offer exclusive analytical materials and high-quality services to make smart trading decisions.
- We provide our clients with professional assistance from our financial specialists.
- The number of professionals at AMarkets is growing steadily .
We are committed to providing honest and professional brokerage services.
Would you rather consider AMarkets as a broker for beginners or a broker for professional traders?
AMarkets financial specialists offer individual approach, based on the possibilities and goals of each client.
Autochartist analytical service will be an excellent solution for both experienced and beginner traders. The service recognizes technical analysis figures and chart patterns and, based on complex analysis, gives trading signals when the price approaches important key levels, thus simplifying decision making in trading.
AMarkets offers unique indicators developed by our experts: Cayman market sentiment indicator and the COT indicator — aggregate positions indicator for all AMarkets clients and institutional investors sentiment indicator.
This is just a tip of an iceberg, so I can safely say that we have a lot to offer traders of absolutely any level of knowledge and experience.
What is your current view of the regulatory frameworks available in the industry? What are your plans regarding regulation? What is your view on the upcoming ESMA Forex/CFD rules? How do you plan to adapt to them when dealing with the European customers?
Protecting our clientsâ interests, making our company even more reliable, maintaining a competitive advantage and attractive trading conditions at the same time is of utmost importance for us.
For this reason we became a member of the Financial Commission, an independent self-regulatory organisation and external dispute resolution body for brokers with a Compensation fund, which provides an insurance up to 20,000 EUR per each case.
Moreover, as an additional token of our reliability, we ensure that the Company is annually audited by Ernst&Young, a reputable global auditing firm. The results of the last audit confirmed that the total cash balances in the companyâs accounts exceed the total liabilities to its clients.
As for the latest changes in regulations, most licenses impose very strict restrictions on trading conditions and services. The European Securities Markets Authority, for instance, has recently adopted new measures on the provision of CFD and cryptocurrency trading services. Leverage for trading these popular instruments will be reduced to 1:30. We consider these changes too harsh and we hope that they will be revised.
Among other things, we treat our business with conscience, but the restrictions that regulators set before us do not fully meet all the needs of our clients.
However, obtaining a licence remains the next significant step for us, thatâs why are currently reconsidering our business model with regard to these new regulatory changes. We consider our company as a trendsetter in the industry.
Regarding the work with European clients. At the moment we are actively developing our product all over the world, including the territory of the European Union. So far, we have not had any special difficulties in working with European clients. I hope that we will continue to develop in our own direction.
How can someone outside of AMarkets make sure that the numbers you provide in your quarterly reports, like client success rates, are not made up?
Our client success rating calculations are based on the stardarts and methods used by the world’s most authoritative and highly regarded self-regulatory organization — the National Futures Association (NFA). Every quarter, our experts make a full analysis of public reports of such giants as: Interactive Brokers, Ameritrade, Oanda, Gain Capital and others. Next, we compare our indicators using the same formula which is presented on the National Futures Association (NFA) website. After that, we compare our reports with the reports of other companies and publish the results in the form of a rating on our website.
As far as you know, our company has existed for more than 10 years and during this time, we have formed a reputation, which we are very proud. In the Internet, anyone can find a huge amount of positive feedback about our company and it’s not just words, it’s a real assessment of our company’s activities. We are dedicated to provide clear and transparent reporting to maintain excellent reputation and build credibility with our clients.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that the doors of our head office in Europe are always open to our clients and partners. In this regard, anyone can visit our office and personally verify the veracity of the information that we provide.
When do you plan to introduce MetaTrader 5 to live trading accounts? Is there demand from traders? Do you plan to discontinue MT4 after the majority of traders embraces MT5, or is such a step out of the question?
Yes, we received a very positive feedback from our clients, who have already tested the MT5 platform on their demo-accounts. We are now at our final stages, and the MetaTrader 5 will be launched on live accounts at the end of June 2018. Soon, the traders will get a chance to test the best trading conditions on this next-generation platform.
As for the second part of your question — we are definitely not going to discontinue providing MT4 services. Meta Trader 4 remains one the worldâs most popular online trading platforms. Moreover, in the near future we also plan to introduce MT4 MultiTerminal — a new component of Metatrader 4.
What are the most popular payment methods among your traders? Do a lot of traders use cryptocurrencies for that purpose?
Despite present popularity and high demand for cryptocurrencies, plastic cards and bank transfers remain the most popular payment methods. Most traders prefer to deposit their funds in regular currency, even if they want to trade cryptocurrency.
You have been offering cryptocurrency pairs for trading for quite a while now. Is their popularity still on the rise? Which share of your business (compared to ânormalâ currency pairs) do you believe they will amount to in a few years?
We believe that cryptocurrencies have a bright future ahead and we keep improving our trading terms and adding new popular instruments. Most traders still prefer trading cryptocurrency at crypto exchanges, as they are not aware of the benefits one can get trading with a brokerage company, such as leverage.
Weâve introduced cryptocurrency trading services just recently, so the share of cryptocurrency accounts compared to other types of trading accounts is at the moment smaller, but itâs steadily growing every day.
What is your opinion on derivative Forex trading instruments â binary or vanilla options? Is it something AMarkets would consider adding to its services?
AMarkets focuses on conscious and professional trading, which gives a client real opportunities for earning. Thatâs why we are skeptical about these particular instruments and we donât see good reasons to add them to our services.
When does currency trading become gambling, where is the line?
Indeed, thereâs a thin line. It rather depends on the clientâs needs. Some people come to earn money and some come for adrenaline and emotions. Financial markets can provide both.
They say that the online Forex industry has already reached its peak. With regulation tightening worldwide and the alternative markets appearing, the future of retail FX trading does not seem bright. What innovations do you believe might revive the industry and make it better for everyone?
In the US, financial services are already strictly regulated, and now the European countries begin to introduce stricter rules and requirements. Companies and traders must be ready to adopt to the new conditions, and it is not always an easy process. We already see some companies leaving the market, but despite all the difficulties within the industry, the demand for financial services has not become smaller.
The industry is rapidly changing and we are changing with it. Recently we have launched a new investment solution — crypto portfolio, which consists of the most popular crypto pairs. This innovation has helped us attract new target audience and increase the number of active clients.
We keep expanding internationally. We are launching a new website and improving our trading conditions. I believe that the key for growth is flexibility and ability to balance between regulators and clients.
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