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Most frequently asked questions
Here are the most common questions a trader would normally ask us or consider to ask before opening an account with us.
For more information on help resources related to AIMS and the products we offer,
simply type your question below or visit our live chat service.
Raw Spread Account: This account shows the Raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. There is a commission charge of $7 per standard lot round turn.
Standard Account: We do not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead, there is a mark up applied to the spread of 0.8pip above the raw Inter-bank rate received from our Liquidity providers.
Further information about the different types of trading accounts available can be found on our Account Overview page.
AIMS has two ST5 account types, a Standard account and our market leading, The Raw Spread account. AIMS does not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead applies a spread mark up of 0.8 pip above the Raw inter-bank prices received from our liquidity providers. AIMS Raw Spread account shows the raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. On this account we commission of $7 per standard lot round turn.
Below are commission rates for different base currency accounts:
AUD | 9.00 round turn |
USD | 7.00 round turn |
EUR | 6.50 round turn |
GBP | 5.50 round turn |
SGD | 9.50 round turn |
JPY | 1100.00 round turn |
CHF | 6.60 round turn |
NZD | 12.00 round turn |
HKD | 54.25 round turn |
To find more about products offering click here: range of products.
We also strongly suggest to thoroughly read our Account Terms available for the attached costs, risks and your responsibilities before deciding to trade with us.
ECN: ECN stands for 'Electronic Communication Network' which is simply a technical term that is used to describe how banks and liquidity providers connect to each other to form a bid and offer price. In the Forex industry, it can be used to identify providers who use this type of pricing mechanism in order to offer raw interbank pricing to retail traders. Under this model your broker will stream raw prices and your trades will be offset with another client, a liquidity provider or held internally by the broker. This usually results in faster trade execution. This is distinct from order execution that may result in an offsetting order placed with a liquidity provider.
STP: This term stands for 'Straight Through Processing' and is used when a Forex and CFD provider processes all trades at market prices obtained from a liquidity provider, this price is simply passed on by the broker. This is not dissimilar to the ECN pricing model in that the price is not altered and there is no dealing desk intervention when the trade is processed, hence it is known as STP.
AIMS is the issuer of the products it provides. We consider ourselves to be a forex provider offering the ECN pricing model as we source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers , these prices are passed onto you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed we do not offset each and every position with our liquidity providers. We do this in order to provide you with a better overall trading experience.
Once your on-line application form has been approved by our accounts team you will be emailed your trading account login details and password.
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Questions about AIMS
Questions about Trading with AIMS
Opening time: 00:01 ST5 Server Time (Monday)
Closing time: 23:57 ST5 Server Time (Friday)
Please note the trading times of certain instruments may vary; you should refer to the relevant product section on our website for specific information.
Year | DST Commencement Date | DST Ending Date |
---|---|---|
2019 | 10th March | 3rd November |
2020 | 8th March | 1st November |
2021 | 14th March | 7th November |
2022 | 13th March | 6th November |
The trading hours for gold (XAUUSD) are:
Opening time: 01:02 ST5 Server Time
Closing time: 23:57 ST5 Server Time
The trading hours for silver (XAGUSD) are:
Opening time: 01:00 ST5 Server Time
Closing time: 23:59 (Friday 23:57) ST5 Server Time
Wire transfers and Bpay within Australia normally take one to two business days. For international bank transfers, please allow up to three to five working days.
Once your online application form has been approved by our accounts team you will be emailed your trading account and secure Client Area login details and password.
Identification must be provided in the form of photo ID and proof of address to enable us to verify your identity.
Photo ID
• Must be clear and visible
• Must be issued by a government agency
• Name, signature, expiry date and date of birth* must be clear
* Please note that AIMS does not accept account applications from any persons under the age of 18
Proof of Address
• Must be no older than 6 months
• Must show the same name and address as your account application
Our anti-money laundering policy contains further information regarding our identification requirements.
ECN: ECN stands for 'Electronic Communication Network', which is simply a technical term that is used to describe how banks and liquidity providers connect to each other to form bid and offer prices. In the Forex industry, it can be used to identify providers who use this type of pricing mechanism in order to offer raw interbank pricing to retail traders. Under this model your broker will stream raw prices and your trades will be offset with another client or liquidity provider, or held internally by the broker. This usually results in faster trade execution. This is distinct from order execution, which may result in an offsetting order placed with a liquidity provider.
STP: This term stands for 'Straight Through Processing' and is used when a Forex and CFD provider process all trades at market prices obtained from a liquidity provider. This price is simply passed on by the broker. This is not dissimilar to the ECN pricing model in that the price is not altered and there is no dealing desk intervention when the trade is processed; hence, it is known as STP.
Market Maker: Typically, market makers operate a dealing desk in order to create their own prices. These prices can be based on their own proprietary trading positions or overall risk exposure and may not reflect the prices in the underlying market.
AIMS is the issuer of the products it provides. We consider ourselves to be a Forex provider offering the ECN pricing model as we source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers. These prices are passed on to you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed, we do not hedge each and every position with our liquidity providers. We do this in order to provide you with a better overall trading experience.
We do not operate a proprietary trading book, we source our prices from external unrelated liquidity providers or directly, these prices are then passed onto you with no dealing desk intervention.
Although AIMS's prices come from its liquidity providers and AIMS is not practically involved in the making of the price, simply streaming prices which it receives, the prices nonetheless become AIMS's prices when it provides them to its clients to trade on. This is the case for all derivative products which AIMS offers to its clients.
If you trade 100,000 (1.00)
Commission is $3.50 for opening, and $3.50 for closing; $7.00 for the full round-turn
If you trade 10,000 (0.10)
Commission is $0.35 for opening, and $0.35 for closing; $0.70 for the full round-turn
If you trade 1,000 (0.01)
Commission is $0.035 for opening, and $0.035 for closing; $0.070 for the full round-turn
On ST5 all commission charge for a position is applied at the opening of the trade.
On ST5 commission is charged per side (opening/closing).
*On ST5 the commission column is not rounded up to 3 decimal places but to 2 decimal places only. Thus, commission on a micro lot size $0.035 per side is rounded to $0.04
Technically, when you buy a product at AIMS, we are selling that product to you. It is not possible for you to buy that product at the exchange directly to complete the transaction due to the attached requirements for higher trade sizes, and margin costs, etc., thus, it has to be dealt with AIMS on a principal basis alone.
Typically, market makers are considered to be Forex and CFD providers who operate a dealing desk in order to create their own prices, these prices can be based on their own proprietary trading positions or overall risk exposure and may not reflect the prices in the underlying market.
You should note that swap rates can be negative or positive, depending on the currency pair traded and the prevailing interest rates at that time.
Questions about the Forex market
In this example, Mary deposits $5,000 into her Forex trading account and nominates the leverage on her account to be 1:100. As a result of leverage, Mary’s buying power on her $5,000 deposit becomes $500,000. Mary decides to buy 0.1 lots of the AUD/USD par at a price of 0.99802. Three days later, the price of the AUD/USD is 1.04069 and Mary decides to close her position. Mary’s profit is calculated as (1.04069 – 0.99802) 426 pips. As Mary opened a position of 0.1 lots, she made a profit of $426, or $1 per pip.
Of course, should the AUD/USD have moved against Mary below the opening price of her trade to a level of 0.97802, Mary would have incurred a loss on the trade of (0.99802 – 0.95542) 426 pips. As Mary’s position size was 0.1 lots, she would have incurred a loss of $426 or $1 per pip.
It is important to be aware that when trading Forex you can also incur losses which can be greater than your initial deposit.
Understanding ST5 problems
Understanding the trading platforms
Once you have your account number and password, simply install the MetaTrader4/5 platform on your PC and select 'File' then 'Log in to Trade Account'. A login box will then appear in which you will be able to enter your account number, password and select the relevant server.
When typing your password, you should ensure that it is entered correctly. If you are copying and pasting, make sure not to copy any extra spaces over.
You should also ensure that you select the server name mentioned in the email containing your login details. If you cannot see the server in the drop-down list, simply type it manually as live(server number).icmarkets.com and select ‘Login’.
You will see your connection status update in the bottom right-hand corner of the platform. If the connections status shows ‘invalid account’, make sure your password was entered correctly. If it shows ‘no connection’, double-check that the server address was entered correctly.
Once your cTrader ID is confirmed, you can sign in to the cTrader platform using your email address and the password in your welcome email. You will then see that your AIMS trading account automatically appears.
If you open an additional cTrader account, it will be automatically linked to your cTID and you will see it the next time you log in to the platform.
1. Go to ‘Settings’
2. Click on 'Manage Accounts' or 'Settings'
3. Then click on the small plus sign or select 'New Account'
4. Then select 'Log in to an existing account'
5. Search for the broker name
6. Select the server your account was set up on
7. Enter your login credentials and password
8. Click on 'Sign In'
Firstly, download and save the EA executable file. Identify whether the file is archived or in its normal format. To perform this check, right-click on the file and select ‘Properties’. At the top, it will say if it is a MetaQuotes Language 4 file. If it is not, it is most likely an archive. If the file is archived or zipped, make sure to unzip the file.
Now, open your ST5 platform. At the menu bar, click ‘File’ and navigate to ‘Open Data Folder’. Double click the ‘MQL4’ folder and open the ‘Experts’ folder. Now go back to where you have downloaded your EA and drag it into the open ‘Experts’ folder.
Once done, close all windows. Restart ST5 platform and the EA should appear in your ‘Navigator’ panel.
Although we will attempt to close your position when the margin level falls to 50% of the required margin (stop out level), we cannot guarantee that your account will not enter into a negative balance. You will be in margin call when the margin level drops to 100% of the required margin; at this point, you will see the position change colour in your trading platform. This is an indication to take appropriate measures by either reducing the exposure or adding additional funds to the trading account. If the margin level drops a further 50%, the platform will automatically start closing out positions.
Server requests usually come about as a result of an EA being left active. This results in the creation of server messages such as:
- “open order”
- “close order”
- “pending order”
- “no money”
Please check your account and make changes to your EA to reduce the number of server messages.
Go to ‘Tools Options, Server’, and select ‘Change’. Enter your current (master) password, tick ‘Change Investor’ (read-only) password and enter your desired password.
As the platform is installed locally on your computer, we cannot influence how slowly or fast it works. There might be several reasons, such as:
- too many indicators being installed and used on charts,
- too many charts opened at the same time,
- any extra software, such as EA,
- small RAM on your PC
- or a large influx of data received at your platform
We suggest you install a separate platform and run it without any EA and indicators to see if it fixes the problem. You may also contact our support team, who will be able to troubleshoot the problem for you.
To change the password on the platform, select the ‘Tools - Options - Server’ tab and then the ‘Change’ button.
Enter your current password and make sure ‘Change Master Password’ is checked.
Enter your new password, ensuring it is a minimum of five characters long and is a combination of upper- and lowercase letters and digits. Confirm the password in the second box and select ‘OK’. The change was successful if no error messages appear.
If you have forgotten or lost your password, you can reset it via your Secure Client Area. Sign in and select ‘Change Trading Account Password’. Enter and confirm your new password and select ‘Save’. You will also receive an email confirming the change was successful.
Having said that, ST5 is a much older platform and it has a great deal of support, with features available online and through the MetaQuotes forum. There is also a vast range of custom indicators and EA that are readily available for MetaTrader4.
For example, use live15.icmarkets.com for an ICMarkets-Live15 account. This information is also available under the login credentials email and the platform credentials in your Secure Client Area.
For the inbuilt feature, go to the 'Tools' menu, and click on 'Options'. Now switch to the 'Notifications' tab and update the settings as required.
Enter your current password and choose the 'Change Master Password' option. You may now set your desired new password and click on the 'OK' button to save your new password.
Questions about Trading Forex CFDs Online
Once you have downloaded and installed the trading platform, simply log in and double click on an instrument in the Market Watch screen. In the Order window that appears next, enter your desired trading volume and then click on ‘buy market’ or ‘sell market’. A market execution order will then be processed.
The ST5 platform will automatically fill your order providing there are sufficient funds in your trading account. Your open position will appear in the trading terminal and the profit / loss and margin will be calculated in real time according to price movement.
Margin is calculated using the following formula:
Margin required = (current market price x volume) / Account leverage
In practice, this would be calculated as follows:
If you open a position of 0.1 (10000) in EUR/USD at the current market price of 1.35645 and your account has a leverage of 1:400, you would calculate the margin required as follows:
(1.35645 x 10000) / 400 = $33.91
In this example, the margin on this position would be $33.91; therefore, in order to open a position of this size you would require at least $33.91 in free margin in your trading account.
The margin stop out level is calculated using the following formula.
Margin level = equity / used margin x 100%
= margin level %
Worked example
The margin on a $10,000 USD (equity) trading account with 1 standard lot open position on USD/JPY and 100 times leverage would be calculated as follows:
= 10,000 / 1,000 x 100%
= 1000% margin level
If the position moves against you and your equity fell to $5,000, the calculation would be:
= 5,000 / 1,000 x 100%
= 500% margin level
If the position moved against you even further and the equity fell to $499, the position would be stopped out as the margin level would have fallen below 100%.
= 499 / 1,000 x 100%
= 49.9% margin level
If margin level falls below Smart Stop Out level, then positions will start being partially closed until margin level reaches above the Smart Stop Out. The logic of Smart Stop Out will only close what is absolutely necessary from the largest position in order to safely restore margin level and protect the position itself, the position entry point and the trading account for as long as possible.
For more information, see cTrader Smart Stop Out page.
By way of example if you BUY 1 standard lot or 100,000 units of EUR against USD you are entering into a ‘long’ position. If on the other hand you sell 1 standard lot of 100,000 units of AUD against USD you are entering into a ‘short’ position.
Events such as markets gapping over the weekend or on major holidays, where liquidity is thin, can increase the chance of your positions being stopped out and a negative equity situation occurring. We advise that you use stop loss orders to limit your risk and monitor the margin level in your account regularly. You will be responsible for any negative balance in your trading account.
Stop loss orders, when triggered, enter the market as market orders; therefore, there is no guarantee that your order will be filled at the price you placed your stop loss.
The instructions below explain how a ping test can be conducted:
Step 1: On your computer, go to the ‘Start’ menu and type 'CMD' in the 'search programs and files' field.
Step 2: Type in the word 'ping' followed by a blank space and the IP address of the server you wish to ping.
Step 3: The bottom line on the resulting output will show in milliseconds the minimum, maximum and average time it took to send and receive data between your computer and the server.
A pending order is broken up into six types:
- Buy Limit
- Sell Limit
- Buy Stop
- Sell Stop
- Buy Stop Limit
- Sell Stop Limit
Please note that different hedge margin level and settings may be applied to different products and platforms. The option to hedge a position while in negative Free Margin may not be available across our full product offering. We suggest you make yourself fully aware of the product specifications of the instruments you are trading or intend to trade. We recommend establishing a demo account to familiarise yourself with the Hedging Mechanics and associated risks.
For further clarification, please contact our support team.
This process usually takes place on the day following the expiry. Open positions are not rolled to the next month, so any clients wishing to hold long-term positions must reopen the trade on the next available contract.
Alternatively, you may directly subscribe to the signals from the ST5 platform.
Account Application
Company Information
1. Copy of your company’s constitution or articles or incorporation
2. Certificate of Incorporation
3. Details of directors and shareholders
4. Company proof of address (utility bill or bank statement no older than 3 months)
All proof of residence documents must be no older than 180 days.
Please note that both parties need to agree in order to proceed with the joint application.
Client Area
In general, the rules applied are:
Deposit using debit/credit card - Withdrawals processed back by Visa/Mastercard Direct or bank wire
Deposit using Safecharge 3D-Secure card - Withdrawals processed back to card via SafeCharge
Deposit using 3D-Secure Verified by Visa / MasterCard Securecode - Withdrawals processed back to Visa/Mastercard Direct or bank wire
Deposit using FasaPay/bank transfer/broker to broker/Bitcoin - Withdrawals processed by bankwire (20 AUD bank fee)
Deposit using Neteller - Withdrawals processed by Neteller (free of charge)
Deposit using Skrill - Withdrawals processed by Skrill (free of charge)
Deposit using Paypal - Withdrawals processed by Paypal (free of charge)
The rules above are subject to change from time to time.
After you upload a copy of the card, we will approve it as quickly as possible for you. We can accept either a scanned copy or a clear photograph. Once the card is approved by our compliance team, you can make instant deposits at any time.
TradingView FAQs
Opening a TradingView account is simple! Visit TradingView to open a free or subscription-based account today.
You can only trade on TradingView with our cTrader Raw Account.
You can transfer funds from your Secure Client Area to your TradingView account. You can find more information on funding and withdrawals here.
Yes, you can! You can trade with a Demo account while your live application is pending.
You can open a Demo TradingView account in your Secure Client Area or on TradingView. Once you have logged into TradingView, you can connect using the Trading Panel, just as you would with your live account.
Currently, only one account type is available. We are continuously improving our services to ensure that you have access to all available options.
If you are an existing cTrader user, you can access your positions and continue trading as usual. The integration with TradingView will not affect your pre-existing cTrader account.