Choosing a PAMM money manager means assessing the person who will trade your money and the terms they set. Work through seven checks before you allocate: track record, drawdown, consistency, strategy transparency, fees, the manager's own capital, and withdrawal rules. Treat anything the manager will not explain as a reason to pause.

This guide assumes you already understand how the arrangement works. If not, start with what is a PAMM account and come back.

How do you find a PAMM money manager at ThinkMarkets?

You do not search for one. There is no public list, no leaderboard and no ranking table, so a manager has to invite you with a private link. In practice that means investors arrive through someone they already know, have worked with before, or have been introduced to.

That changes the nature of the decision. You are rarely comparing twenty strangers on performance figures. You are deciding whether to trust one particular person with your capital, which makes the checks below more important rather than less.

Is PAMM the right route for you?

The invitation-only model answers this for most people. If someone has already offered to manage your funds, PAMM is built for that relationship. If you are still looking for a strategy to follow, it is not, and copy trading through ThinkCopy is the model designed for choosing a provider yourself. The differences are set out in PAMM vs MAM vs copy trading.

Which route fits you

The invitation-only model answers this for most people

Someone has offered to manage your funds

PAMM is built for this

You already have a manager and want a hands-off, pooled arrangement. You join their offer with a private invitation link.

You are still looking for a strategy

ThinkCopy is built for this

You have no manager and want to choose a provider yourself from a marketplace, keeping control of your own account.

Seven checks to make before you allocate

Each check below is a question to put to the manager, not something you can look up. Their willingness to answer tells you as much as the answer does.

The seven checks

What to look at, and why each one matters

Track record

Ask: How long the strategy has run with live funds, and through what market conditions.

Why it matters: A record covering one trending year tells you far less than one that includes a sharp reversal. Check it is live trading, not a demo or backtest.

Drawdown

Ask: The largest peak-to-trough fall the strategy has had, and how long recovery took.

Why it matters: Drawdown tells you what holding the investment will feel like. A PAMM account has no drawdown limits, so the manager's discipline is the only control.

Consistency

Ask: How many trades the strategy places, the usual holding period, and whether it uses expert advisors, scalping or hedging.

Why it matters: A gain built from many modest trades behaves differently from one built on a handful of large positions.

Strategy transparency

Ask: Which markets they trade, how much risk they take per position, and what happens when the strategy stops working.

Why it matters: A manager who cannot describe their approach in plain language is harder to assess, and harder to hold to account later.

Fees

Ask: The performance fee and any equity tiers, the management fee, and the trading interval.

Why it matters: Fees come out of your return and are set by the manager, not by ThinkMarkets. The interval determines how often they are calculated.

The manager's own capital

Ask: Whether they have their own funds in the pool, and how much.

Why it matters: Managers are not required to deposit own funds. A manager with capital at stake shares the same percentage outcome as you.

Withdrawal rules

Ask: The minimum withdrawal, and how quickly they normally approve requests.

Why it matters: Withdrawals need approval and take effect at the next rollover, not instantly, so your exit speed partly depends on the manager.

1. What is the money manager's track record?

Ask how long they have traded the strategy and through what market conditions. A record covering one trending year tells you far less than one that includes a sharp reversal.

Two follow-ups matter. Is the record from live trading or from a demo or backtest? And is it the same strategy they intend to run for you, or an earlier version of it?

2. What is the largest drawdown?

Drawdown is the peak-to-trough fall in an account before it recovers. It tells you what holding the investment will actually feel like, which a headline return never does.

Ask for the largest figure the strategy has produced and how long recovery took. This question carries more weight in a PAMM account than elsewhere, because you cannot set a stop loss on your investment and nothing in the platform will halt a losing run. The manager's own discipline is the only control, which is covered in PAMM account risks.

3. How consistent are the returns?

Look at how a result was produced, not only the total. A gain built from many modest trades behaves differently from one built on a handful of large positions, even where the two end the year in the same place.

Ask how many trades the strategy typically places, the usual holding period, and whether it uses expert advisors, scalping or hedging. All three are permitted on a PAMM master account, so the answer tells you about their approach rather than about what is allowed.

4. How transparent is the strategy?

You do not need the manager's exact entry rules. You do need to understand which markets they trade, roughly how much risk they take per position, and what the strategy is designed to do when it stops working.

A manager who cannot describe their approach in plain language is harder to assess now and harder to hold to account later. Ask as well what you will be able to see once you have joined, because the reporting available to you is worth knowing before you commit rather than after.

5. What are the fees, and how are they structured?

Fees are set by the manager inside their offer, so two managers on the same platform can charge very differently. What you are checking here is their rates, not how the fee types work, which is explained in PAMM fees explained.

Ask for the performance fee percentage and whether it is tiered by equity, the management fee percentage, and the trading interval. The interval is the one people forget, and it decides how often you are charged.

6. Does the money manager invest their own money?

A manager is not required to put their own funds in the pool, although it is recommended. Where they do, those funds sit alongside yours and take the same proportional result.

Ask whether they are invested and how much. A manager with meaningful capital at stake carries their own decisions. That is not a guarantee of anything, but a manager with nothing in the pool has no financial downside from a losing period beyond the fees they forgo.

7. What are the withdrawal rules?

Check how easily you can get out, because this is the part investors most often overlook until they need it.

Ask for the minimum withdrawal amount in the offer and how quickly the manager normally approves requests. Approval speed is partly down to them, so it is a fair question. Two mechanics also apply to every PAMM withdrawal and are worth knowing in advance: leaving part way through a trading interval can create a pending performance fee, and open positions are closed only in proportion to your share.

What should you ask before you commit?

The seven checks condense into a short list you can take into a conversation.

Take these into the conversation

Seven questions, one per check

How long have you traded this strategy with live funds, and through what market conditions?
What is the largest drawdown it has had, and how long did recovery take?
How many trades do you place, and do you use expert advisors, scalping or hedging?
Which markets do you trade, and how much do you risk on a typical position?
What are your performance and management fees, and what is the trading interval?
Do you have your own funds in the pool, and how much?
What is the minimum withdrawal, and how quickly do you approve requests?

What are the red flags?

Some answers should stop the conversation rather than continue it.

Red flags worth taking seriously

Any one of these is a reason to stop and reconsider

Promised returns

A fixed monthly figure

No one can guarantee a trading outcome. A promised fixed monthly return is not a strategy, and a regulated firm will not offer one.

Time pressure

A closing window

A limited allocation or a deadline is a sales tactic, not a reason to skip the checks.

No drawdown figure

Returns only

A manager who quotes gains but will not discuss losses is showing you half the picture.

Vague on terms

Unclear fees

Fees and the trading interval are fixed terms in the offer, and the manager knows them.

Unusual payment request

Funds sent elsewhere

You fund your own PAMM investor account and allocate from there. You never transfer money to a manager personally.

What does the offer lock in?

An offer is the set of conditions you accept when you join a manager's pool, and it is the document that governs your arrangement with them.

What the offer locks in

None of these can be changed once you are attached to the offer

Term	What it sets	Why it matters to you
Performance fee	The rate, and any tiers by equity	Comes out of profit, so it decides your net return
Management fee	The rate, capped at 10 per cent	Charged whatever the result, including flat or losing intervals
Trading interval	When fees are calculated	Decides how often you are charged and when the high-water mark resets
Minimum initial investment	The smallest amount you can join with	Sets the entry point
Minimum additional deposit	The smallest top-up	Limits how you add to the position later
Minimum withdrawal	The smallest amount you can take out	Affects how flexibly you can draw down

Once at least one investor is attached to an offer, the manager cannot modify it. That protects you from terms shifting underneath you. It also means the terms you accept are the terms you keep, so the time to read them is before you confirm.

You will also be asked to accept an investor limited power of attorney, which authorises the manager to trade on your behalf, and an investor compensation agreement covering the fees. Read both in full and seek independent advice if any term is unclear. The arrangement is set out on the ThinkMarkets PAMM money manager page.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find a PAMM money manager at ThinkMarkets?

You cannot browse for one. ThinkMarkets PAMM money managers are private, with no public directory or leaderboard, so joining requires a private invitation link issued by a specific manager. Investors normally arrive through a manager they already know or have been introduced to.

Does ThinkMarkets recommend PAMM money managers?

No. ThinkMarkets provides the platform and the allocation technology. It does not select, vet for performance, recommend or endorse any money manager, and does not provide investment advice. The decision to allocate funds rests with the investor.

What is a good drawdown figure for a PAMM money manager?

There is no universal threshold, because an acceptable drawdown depends on your own tolerance and time horizon. What matters is that the manager can state the figure, explain how it happened and say how long recovery took. A manager who will not discuss drawdown is the warning sign.

Does a PAMM money manager have to invest their own money?

No. Depositing their own funds is recommended but not required. Where a manager does invest, their funds sit in the same pool and take the same proportional result, so it is worth asking whether they are invested alongside you.

Can I change money manager later?

You can exit an offer through the normal withdrawal process, which requires approval and takes effect at the next rollover, and you can then join a different manager's offer with a new invitation link. You cannot move an existing investment from one manager to another directly.

What happens if my PAMM money manager stops trading?

Investors exit through the standard withdrawal request process, approved and then processed at rollover, with partial close applying to any open positions. Investors can also detach from the PAMM account.

How many PAMM money managers can I invest with at once?

There is no platform limit on the number of offers you can join. Each investment is held separately and allocated against that manager's pool, so results, fees and withdrawal terms are tracked per offer rather than pooled across them.