General comparison of copy-trading PAMM and MAM accounts

Learn the differences between copy-trading, PAMM, and MAM accounts

This article explains when to use each account type: copy trading (also called social trading ), PAMM, or MAM.

Copy-trading accounts

• Best for retail clients.

• Easy to use: designed for simplicity, with minimal need for users to understand complex details of its behaviour.

PAMM accounts

• Suitable for both retail and professional money management.

• Flexible Leaderboard options: can be used with or without the Leaderboard, depending on the business model. Without the Leaderboard, it can also function as a type of MAM for professional managers.

• Commonly viewed as an investment fund: this account type is widely recognized and understood as an investment fund, making it easy to explain to users.

• Complexity for retail investors: deposits and withdrawals aren’t processed immediately, which can be more complex for retail investors than copy trading.

MAM accounts

• Only for institutional or professional money managers.

• Full control: money managers have the ability to adjust allocation settings for each investor.

• General investment structure: MAM is a broad term for any investment structure where the money manager has comprehensive control over allocation methods. In some cases, PAMM accounts may also be considered MAM.

• ‍Combination options: MAM can be combined with PAMM. For such setups, please contact the Support team for a consultation.

No.	Feature	Copy Trading	PAMM	MAM	Comment
1	Money managers appear on the Leaderboard	Yes	Optional	Optional	It’s better to hide MAM money managers from the Leaderboard since their performance may differ from the investors’. MAM managers can activate or deactivate investors and use different formulas for copying trades to investment accounts.
2	Investors can subscribe to money managers by themselves	Optional	Optional	Optional	Any master account can be hidden from the Leaderboard, preventing investors from seeing or subscribing to it.
3	Investors can see open positions in MT5	Yes	No	Yes	PAMM investors receive only balance operations reflecting their share of the PnL from the PAMM master account, without seeing the positions.
4	Investors receive the exact same return as the money manager	No	Yes	No	In Copy trading and MAM, trades are replicated from the master account to the investment account, which takes some time. As a result, execution prices may vary slightly between the money manager and the investor.
5	Deposits and withdrawals on the investment account affect the equity of the master account	No	Yes	No	In PAMM, the master account is a pool of several investment accounts. Therefore, when funds are deposited to a PAMM investment account, the same amount is reflected in the master account. In MAM and copy trading, investment accounts are separated from the master account.
6	Instant deposits and withdrawals	Yes	Optional	Yes	PAMM accounts typically handle deposits and withdrawals during scheduled rollovers, ensuring the money manager can anticipate changes. However, it is possible to configure them for immediate processing.
7	Immediate subscriptions and unsubscriptions	Yes	Optional	Yes	Subscriptions and unsubscriptions usually trigger deposits or withdrawals, so the same logic applies as above: PAMM money managers can control when investors can subscribe or unsubscribe by using scheduled rollovers.
8	Investors can trade on their investment accounts	Yes	No	No	In PAMM and MAM, investment accounts are in read-only mode, meaning that investors can’t trade on those accounts.
9	Investors can close positions opened by the money manager	Yes	No	No	In PAMM and MAM, investment accounts are in read-only mode, meaning that investors can’t close open positions on their accounts.
10	Investors can reverse positions	Yes	No	Yes	In copy trading and MAM, investors or money managers can enable the reverse copy option, allowing them to take the opposite positions from the master account. In copy trading, this feature helps investors profit by copying losing traders.