What is a PAMM account?
PAMM stands for Percentage Allocation Management Module. These types of accounts are comprised of numerous deposits from multiple Investors and are controlled and traded by a specific Money Manager. The managers of such accounts are generally professional traders, experienced in maximizing profits of their accounts and for their investors. Each individual investor may allocate their personal funds to one or more accounts and managers. Overall, these accounts feature a management module that distributes the sizes and results of trades according to an allocation percentage amongst the various investors that contributed to the overall capital of the account.
For example, suppose the manager makes a 100-lot trade on the EURUSD. This trade is then divided amongst the individual investors based on each investor’s contributing percentage in relation to the manager’s account. This means that if the size of an individual investor’s contribution is equal to 1% of the manager account's equity, the size of the trade will be one lot (1% of 100 lots). Any profits, losses, and fees are distributed according to this percentage as well.
To ensure the security of Investors' funds, their deposits remain in their personal trading accounts. The Money Manager does not have access to these accounts and, therefore, cannot make any withdrawals. The individual investors are the only ones who can make deposits & withdrawals to/from these managed accounts. However, the performance fees earned by managers are automatically withdrawn from investor accounts, according to the terms of the contract.