FAQ : Accounts, Brokers and Products
Account Opening and Brokers
You select a preferred broker, open an account under your own name, and deposit your capital. Depending on the broker, you can monitor real-time P\&L and full history on the broker's supported platforms (mobile / desktop) anytime, anywhere.
This depends on the broker you choose. Most brokers support USD, and some also support multiple major funding currencies such as EUR, GBP, and others.
Our quantitative program currently trades FX pairs. Most major FX pairs are quoted with USD as the base or quote currency (e.g., EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF). Using USD helps you avoid extra FX conversion fees charged by brokers when converting your account currency into the pair's base currency, thus lowering trading costs and improving net performance. For non\-USD pairs (e.g., EURGBP, GBPJPY), conversion may be required when your account base currency is not aligned with the pair's base currency.
Your trading account is fully under your own name. After you grant permission, our quantitative program only has trading and read\-only access; only you can deposit or withdraw funds. Brokers, as financial institutions, also face liquidity and credit risks, so you should carefully review and understand the broker's terms and risk disclosures before choosing and using any broker.
Broker selection involves multiple dimensions: credit risk, spreads, trading fees, funding and withdrawal efficiency, and tax reporting. From the perspective of the quantitative program, high trading costs and expensive overnight financing are the key factors that can erode expected returns.
Offshore or onshore status depends on the account holder's country of residence. Generally, an offshore broker is incorporated outside the account holder's country of residence and is not regulated by that country's financial authority, whereas an onshore broker is. For example, in the UK, a broker that accepts UK residents and is regulated by the UK financial regulator is usually considered onshore. A broker that accepts UK residents but is not regulated in the UK would typically be deemed offshore.
Because our program often holds positions overnight, the broker's swap and overnight rates significantly impact trading costs. Based on our research, we have carefully selected brokers with relatively low overall costs for our supported list in order to help the strategy achieve its expected performance.
Our strategies require sufficient margin to absorb potential market volatility while still generating returns. Even when trading the minimum lot size allowed in the FX market (0.01 lots), we still need account equity above a minimum level to realistically target the expected performance.
Our current minimum investment amount is USD 10,000.
If you wish to add capital or withdraw funds, please contact us first and complete the process under our guidance. We need to ensure that the risk management engine of the running program can accurately track your updated account balance and equity.
We currently focus on FX, including major G7 currency pairs such as EURUSD, USDJPY, GBPUSD, USDCHF, AUDUSD, USDCAD, NZDUSD, as well as selected cross pairs such as EURGBP and GBPJPY.
The FX market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, with the broadest range of instruments. Except for weekends and major holidays in key financial centers, FX trades 24 hours a day. Compared to many other markets, FX typically offers lower margin requirements and allows participants to use leverage to seek returns with relatively smaller capital. Despite occasional central bank interventions, FX is widely regarded as one of the closest markets to perfect competition.
Should you have any queries about the FAQ, reach out to your account manager.