Currency Secrets : ACM Review

Advanced Currency Markets (ACM)

What’s The Attraction?

The initial attraction with ACM is the 3 pip spread on the 4 majors. They also have made guarantees that they will honor stops and that there is no slippage on limit and stop orders - this may not last with other larger brokerage firms no longer providing such a guarantee.

Live & Demo Differences

We found no difference between the demo and live accounts.

What We Liked About ACM:

The charting package was quite good.

Being Swiss based may be advantageous depending on where you are on the globe.

One click dealing seems to be one of the major highlights that ACM pushes, however, I didn’t particularly think that clicking on the bid or ask price ONCE was generally the best way to trade - I would prefer a confirmation screen, only because I’ve had bad experiences in the past with brokers who have this feature. Maybe it’s just my clumsy fingers!

Accounts can be denominated in either USD, EUR or CHF.

Overall the benefits weren’t too bad, provided you protect your mouse.

What We Didn’t Like About ACM:

I just didn’t like their platform. I especially didn’t like the fact that the one click dealing buttons were large on the screen… any accidental click made on the page had a high probability of landing on one of those transaction buttons! I also felt that the platform lacked some form of sophistication, but maybe that’s just me. I felt like I was in kindegarden with big numbers flashing over the screen and the ability to only display a handful of bid/ask spreads.

I suppose some forex traders will prefer this set up, however, I just found it too dangerous.

Also… when opening a live account you need to have your passport notarized (authenticated). I don’t know if this is due to some Swiss banking law, but it sure as hell is annoying as you need to fork out between US$50-100 to have a copy of your passport notarized. As far as I know ACM is the only broker that does this… but I haven’t reviewed any other Swiss forex broker so it could just be Swiss based brokerage firms.

In summary then…

ACM PROS:

• 3 pip spreads on major currency pairs
• Swiss based
• 100:1 leverage
• No slippage on stop orders (apparently?)
• Since partnering with REFCO they now are the largest forex dealer
• Charting package ok
• EUR, USD or CHF currency accounts available

ACM CONS:

• Their platform is not the best I’ve used. I wish they did have a more stable downloadable version, as I don’t particularly like browser based ones
• Is anyone comfortable with one click dealing?
• News package could be better