What is a marketplace? Today it is one of the most in-demand investment models. With its development, businesses have gained an impressive number of users, and users have received the best offers on the market. And the entire financial world has seen yet another example of ideal commodity-money relations, not tied to the economy of a particular country.
The ACB investment service has significantly contributed to the formation of this model by creating a comfortable, simple and convenient financial environment for the investor. But is this the only key to their success? CALCULATOR was fortunate to speak with the founder of ACB Incorporation LTD on this and other topics. Together with Lynne Connel, we selected the most frequently asked questions about ACB, and she tried to answer them in as much detail as possible.
– What is the ACB investment service? And how did you envision such a company?
It all began in 2015. At the time, almost all of ACB’s key investment consulting experts were working in another firm under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. It became clear at that point that something needed to radically change. The problem was that — just like many companies at the time — we experienced certain difficulties with the ever-changing requirements of the central banks: we had to adjust, but, unfortunately, it was to the detriment of our ability to offer the most superior terms on the market.
We are used to the fact that the regulator serves as a formal safeguard of the client’s assets, a sort of reliability standard of the investment provider, if you will. It had always been this way and had often worked against traders, who had been forced to play by the strict rules of the regulators. The data unyieldingly affirmed that after the introduction of the ESMA directives limiting the size of our leverage, more and more clients were choosing to work in an unregulated jurisdiction, which at the time seemed inconceivable. It went against all principles of consumer protection. Though even then it should have been obvious that due to advancements, potential clients have many more tools at their disposal to objectively assess any company. More and more traders wanted unrestricted freedom. They wanted to decide for themselves on what conditions to trade. The constraining framework of regulators, naturally, could not permit such freedom.
We decided to give traders what they wanted. Of course, at the beginning of the journey the mission seemed impossible to achieve, but we took up the challenge and ultimately did it. As you know, nothing is impossible when you are surrounded by people who believe in you. I gathered like-minded people who were all passionate about the same thing.
-How did you start? What were your first steps?
Keeping up with the times in the technical sense was crucial at that point. With the development of blockchain technology, it became clear that companies or projects that do not have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in the form of regulatory bodies of political, economic or any other institutions or countries are growing increasingly popular among users from around the world. Technological advancements have made it possible not only to dialogue directly with consumers, but also to make them the best offers, without middlemen and the restrictions they impose. Knowing this, I decided not only to open a company in an unregulated area, but to create a service that offers the widest range of trading instruments at the best prices, without limiting leverage, with one fee for everything and with the option of opening an account quickly without being physically present in the office. And that is our product: the ACB investment service.
– What sort of team do you need to ensure your service runs smoothly?
Everything depends not on quantity but on quality. You can have a thousand managers and it wouldn’t do you any good. Or you can invite a hundred talented professionals who, thanks to their experience and intelligence, will develop an optimal innovative solution for managing all processes. At present, ACB has 96 employees who provide over 9,000 users the opportunity to work in the market. From anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our clients must be able to carry out any financial operation they may need. To this end, all our employees are a highly coordinated team of professionals, each of whom possesses a creative approach to solving problems of any complexity, successful work experience in their field and an absolute focus on results. Every employee continuously monitors new technologies and market offerings, analyzes competitors’ experience and applies these skills on the job every day.
– Tell us about the partners of ACB
We approached the selection of partners thoroughly, since this is a make-or-break moment for our users and, therefore, for us. They will not open an account if they realized they cannot trade with special terms and conditions. We put in tremendous effort and in the end landed partnerships with all the largest and most influential companies. These are major market liquidity providers. These are new news and information agencies that provide analytical modules with the option of system integration. These are developers of trading software. These are companies that provide access to top investment services like social trading, portfolio investment, etc.
– Can ACB partners interact directly with the users of the service?
No, and that is the point. We do not engage clients to work directly with our counterparties. This significantly speeds up and simplifies their work process. Our users use the services of our counterparties, but they are all clients of ACB and we are responsible for the quality of the services they receive. ACB is a point of entry for the client who wants to use an investment service, and we spare no effort or expertise to provide this service at the highest level of quality.
You mentioned services. What assets does ACB provide?
We provide over 6,000 trading instruments on the market and the best quotes feed available today.
– How can you provide such a large number of instruments?
We can do this because we are not constrained by regulators’ demands. No central bank has the power to limit the number of instruments we provide by determining, for example, that they are high risk, or to change the margin requirements as they see fit simply because their experience in some European country led to large losses among a certain segment of the population, and so on and so forth.
You see, it is all demand-driven. Today there is demand among clients for a large number of instruments, the best and most flexible margin requirements. And we can make them the offer that fits their needs.
– You mentioned that users of the service get the best quotations. How did you achieve this?
You know, this best price order execution service was previously only available for clients with deposits above 500,000 USD. These were Premium Clients and had so-called “green corridors” for executing positions. In fact, each broker with such a service spent money on servicing and renting an office, as well as on salaries of a large number of staff who worked with the client, etc. For this reason, the quotation for any given asset would steadily increase.
We completely did away with this old approach. It is inconvenient, expensive and already a relic of the past. We focused on what was most important. We provide an online platform essentially as the clients of our liquidity providers, who in turn do not spend their budgets on customer acquisition. We ourselves provide them with a large market volume. It is through such partnerships that we get the best terms for our clients.
You have to understand that ACB is a giant trading platform that has absolutely everything and at the most lucrative terms. This is why we have so many clients. This is why we have such a large trading volume. To draw an analogy, compare a regular store with a supermarket. Suppose that both owners buy their goods from the same supplier. The prices and choices will never favor the regular store. Manufacturers do not care about who exactly their client is; they go off of order volume. For a large client, the wholesale purchase price will always be lower because the client buys more things more often. This is how the retail price is formed in the end.
– How does ACB make money? What’s your stake in this?
The only thing we charge the client is for execution of trade orders. Beyond that, there are no “hidden” or “additional” fees. We do not have a conflict of interest with the client related to their profit or loss. The longer the client uses our service, the more profit we make, and the more profit our liquidity providers receive.
– If you look back on your work, are you happy with the result?
Yes, I think we succeeded with the task. The ACB investment supermarket combines convenience and accessibility. You could say this is a national service, where everyone has equal opportunity to make a profit. An additional positive is that trading no longer depends on central bank directives or conflicts of interest between the company and the client. Third, users can independently choose any investment proposals from among thousands of the best, all aggregated on a single platform. And, of course, it is important to note the flexible margin requirements.
– What do you see as the company mission?
From the very beginning, we took a rigorous approach to growth in pursuit of our goal: to develop a unique service that removes any geographical, political or conventional borders in the investment environment.
But the development of the ACB platform has never been an end in itself. It was a means for facilitating progress that now allows us to make your work with complex financial instruments as familiar of a process as choosing what to buy in an online store.
