Mam account
Family V · Platforms
Not to be confused with demo account, forex account, cent account.
MAM account stands for multi-account manager account: a master account through which a manager places trades that are copied proportionally, or by fixed lot, onto linked sub-accounts. Each sub-account remains separately owned and separately margined, so one client's losses do not draw on another's funds. The allocation method, minimum deposit, fee structure and permitted instruments are set by the broker and vary widely between providers and jurisdictions.
How allocation works
When the manager opens a position on the master account, the platform splits it across sub-accounts according to a preset rule. Common rules include:
- Lot allocation — each sub-account receives a fixed number of lots, regardless of its size.
- Equity-proportional — lots are divided in proportion to each sub-account's equity at the time of the trade.
- Balance-proportional — lots are divided in proportion to each sub-account's balance.
- Percentage allocation — the manager assigns a fixed percentage of the master order to each sub-account.
Sub-accounts are usually margined individually, so a sub-account with insufficient free margin may receive a reduced allocation or none at all. The manager's own capital is normally held in the master account and is treated as one more allocation.
Worked example
A manager runs a master account with three sub-accounts and uses equity-proportional allocation. The master order is 3.00 lots of EUR/USD.
The three allocations sum to the original 3.00 lots. If the manager later changes the allocation rule to fixed lots, the same order would be split by the new rule instead, and the sub-account shares would no longer track equity.
Points to check before using one
Terms differ by broker and by regulator, so the following should be confirmed in the account agreement rather than assumed:
- Whether the manager can trade on behalf of sub-accounts at all, and under what licence.
- The allocation method and whether it can be changed mid-trade.
- Performance fees, management fees and how they are deducted.
- Minimum deposit per sub-account and any maximum number of sub-accounts.
- Whether stop-out and margin call are applied per sub-account or to the master.
Because orders are aggregated, a large master order may be filled in several partial executions, and the average fill price is then passed to each sub-account according to its share.
Often confused with
- demo account
- A demo account uses simulated funds and produces no real fills or allocations, whereas a MAM account trades real money across linked sub-accounts; the visible sign is whether withdrawals and deposits are possible.
- forex account
- A forex account is a single trading account for one owner, while a MAM account is a master structure that distributes one order across several separately owned sub-accounts; the visible sign is the presence of multiple sub-account balances under one master.
- cent account
- A cent account is a single account denominated so that balances and profits are shown in cents, whereas a MAM account is defined by multi-account allocation rather than by denomination; the visible sign is whether the account statement lists one balance or several sub-account balances.