Forex Magnates spoke with Shoaib Abedi, Director at ICM Capital, for his take on the firm’s unique product suite and expansion into the USD/CNH pair, along with the perceived impact of FCA regulatory status on trader protection. His full-length interview can be read below.
1. Can you describe ICM Capital’s unique product offering and how it distinguishes itself from competitors?
We are continuously lowering our spreads and margin requirements on our most popular products; the most recent improvement was made on gold with a reduced margin requirement to 0.5% and 1% on silver. In addition to this we keep adding features, which we know, will improve trading experiences, including trading signals, VPS hosting, MAM accounts, live trading championships and advanced leverage of 1:500. We have recently opened our Shanghai office and added the USD/CNH pair; which has received an outstanding response, globally, not only from our Asian markets. As if this wasn’t enough, we’re also adding Google, Apple and coffee to the platform next week and fixing our spreads on all products.
2. You mentioned the reduction on margin requirements for commodities (silver and gold), what was the reason behind this and do you feel this will help attract new clients?
We decided to reduce the amount of collateral needed to trade our precious metals for a number of reasons. Our goal is to provide an unmatched trading environment for all our clients no matter what they like to trade. However, gold is amongst our most popular products and we just wanted to let our client’s trade more with less capital; it’s a reward for their loyalty. With this liquid commodity clients can now have the tight fixed spread of 40 cents, which we have provided for over a year, along with low margins, enabling them to enter and exit positions more cost effectively.
3. How has ICM Capital approached the mobile market and are there any initiatives in the pipeline?
Things are very different these days now that everything is mobile-based. Huge changes can be seen in the industry compared to even just five years ago. We’re in the process of launching our custom built mobile application to keep ahead of these changes. We want to give our clients more resources to help them keep up with the speed of today’s financial markets. This custom- made ICM Mobile App allows them to manage their trades better with deposit and withdrawal options, live streaming news and straightforward account management. It’s very easy to download on all smartphones and extremely user friendly.
4. Regulation is a form of trust with clients and investors, have you noticed this trend given your FCA regulatory status? Alternatively, can emerging players be successful without this ‘gold standard’ of (FCA) regulation?
We are a strong advocate of trader protection and consider client safety to be our ultimate objective.
Forex and CFDs have become a lot more popular in recent years especially since more traditional trading methods have become rather volatile. Along with this change there is the unfortunate reality of new unregulated brokers popping up on a daily basis, these can give our industry a bad name, with excessive commission and fraudulent activities. They don’t always offer the client protection traders deserve. We provide our clients with a sophisticated approach to trading the markets, with the underlying stringent protection of the FCA in each trade they place.
5. What sort of growth prospects are you seeing at ICM Capital and are there any industry headwinds on the horizon?
From the first day of operation till today we have not stopped developing our services, products, spreads, margins, Trading Platform and execution. I believe that you can never stop improving. You can feel a sense of passion for trading and excellence run throughout our whole organization, which I’m very proud of. We just celebrated our Shanghai office doors opening and have another 3-4 offices planned before 2014 is out. With this momentum of growth we still ensure that we never lose sight of the requirements different regions around the world have and cater to each unique market on an individual basis.
