Claiming to excel in customer support, with a body of awards already received for such, Alpari International is actually seen by the online trading community to commit to the cause. What could go wrong right? Organic search for reviews regarding the brokerage prove that nothing actually could. But there’s a catch: while there are no accusations of fraud hurled against the broker, Alpari International only undergoes self-regulation.
The trading community does see excellent trading conditions in Alpari International, alluding not only to the aforementioned customer support aspect, but also to the access it provides to various financial markets.
With these in mind, this brokerage review will focus largely on Alpari International’s offers with the aim of rendering a pointed and informed assessment of the all its capabilities. These facets would be as follows:
- Trading Instruments
- Offered Trading Platforms
- Available trading accounts
This review is a result of months spent with Alpari International, with the review team employing an exhaustive usage of all the firm’s services and its site’s features.
About Alpari International
Declaring a total of 2 Million traders under its wing, Alpari International can easily be assumed to be accommodating and legitimate. With the latter assumption, the firm finds membership through the Financial Services Commission of the Republic of Mauritius. However, one should note that this is not tantamount to regulation. A membership in a financial commission does not necessarily say anything about its legal status.
It does, on the other hand, make good in more solid transaction processes as card transactions with Alpari International are made through FT Global Services Ltd.
Alpari International was established back in 1998, a time in Russia which saw the government defaulting on its loans, the decline of the rouble, and the near collapse of the Stock Market. The firm’s founders pushed through with the aim of building a broker that stood against the threat of a financial downfall with them building the firm around the areas that had remained unaffected by the financial crisis. As this is the case, the group decided to specialize in Forex initially.
With these factored in, Alpari International is seen to be legitimate and reliable.
Probably the only thing that the review team had noted is the closure of their U.K. office. This untimely shutter took place back in 2015 due to the Swiss Central Bank’s shock announcement regarding the scrapping off a 3-year old cap on the Franc. The Social Media called it the “Francogeddon”.
And apart from its apparent membership, Alpari operates independently and deals with its own disputes filed by its own clients. The clients are guaranteed to complaint coverage of over $20,000. The client who would be filing a dispute are could only be disbursed of the amount once the broker is proven guilty.
However, the downside to this seemingly fair condition is that the broker itself, Alpari International, would be the one to perform the dispute resolution, something that might only prove partial to the broker given they have the reins to do the inquiry.
In addition to this, the fact that the broker does its own DRS does not necessarily mean that it is better than an actual government regulation. In this case, as with any other, being sanctioned by a central government or being associated with a central bank allows for a more legal methodology in handling cases or accusations of fraud.
Alpari International, while being a Hong Kong-operated entity is actually based off of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Much can be said of the region, given that its government does not regulate Forex trading; doubt can easily be thrown at the firm’s legitimacy. It is in this note that Alpari International, partially falters.
Offers and Services
Trading Instruments
Alpari International trades over 250 assets which include Forex Currency pairs, Commodities, and Precious Metals. The firm does not trade actual cryptocurrencies, but CFDs for cryptocurrencies namely, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple.
The following leverage limits are offered by the firm:
- Commodity CFDs: 33:1
- Crypto: 2:1
- Forex: 1,000:1
- Index CFDs: 50:1
- Spot Metals: 500:1
The levels of leverage are seen as decent and wholly reasonable. Another worthy of note is that Alpari adjusts the leverage limits depending on the size of the position one takes on in order to manage the risks on the platform.
Offered Trading Platforms
The brokerage had partnered with MetaQuotes to offer its two well-known platforms, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
Between the two, MT4 is the more popular in light of its offered Technical Indicators and its intuitive interface. MT4 is easy to navigate through and provides a myriad of trading tools.
MT5, on the other hand, tweaks a lot of the features that MT4 has, but specifically zeroes in on its capability of showing the recommendable trading hours and the positions of certain functions.
Both of these platforms allow for easy trade execution and monitoring.
Trading Accounts
The firm offers four trading accounts. Two of these fall under the category of Standard Accounts and the other two on ECN Accounts. The screenshots below detail the pertinent specifications of each account:
Standard Accounts
What can be immediately noticed with these details are the Minimum Deposit amounts that a trader needs to make to be open Live Accounts. These are obviously costly and might easily turnoff some novice traders. But then, if we look closely at the Trading instruments available for each account, it is to the opinion of the review that these are expansive and would make good for a well-rounded investment portfolio.
However, the review team still sees that amendments could still be made with costs in light of the firm’s questionable self-regulation.
The Takeaway
If one is to look solely at the features and the offers available to Alpari International traders, it is easy to see how one can be enticed to sign up for its services. However, the matter stands that the team can’t let the question of regulation pass. While the DRS is a plus, the team maintains doubt on its conduct given that it is still the company’s discretion whether or not to award the aggrieved party of the $20,000 cover charges.
As this is the case, the review team recommends that the readers of this review consider signing up for the Alpari International, albeit taken with a grain of salt. It would be wise to practice due diligence and make further research on the brokerage.