Alpari

Alpari Group has been a global FX and CFD broker since 1998 and according to its website, has over two million customers worldwide.  Alpari maintains regulation from the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius and the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles.  It is also incorporated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Australians will be trading under the subsidiary, Alpari International, regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Mauritius.  Although not considered one of the best international regulators, the FSC mandates that Alpari segregates all client funds from its operating capital in top-tier banks and adheres to strict financial standards.  It also ensures that Alpari provides Australian traders with negative balance protection so that they can never lose more than is in their trading accounts. 

Alpari has also been a member of The Financial Commission since 2013. Based in Hong Kong, the Financial Commission is an independent international body specialising in the resolution of disputes between Forex brokers and traders.  The fund provides investor protection up to 20,000 EUR per case, placing it on par with similar funds offered by EU-based regulators. 

Overall, because of its long history of responsible behaviour, FSC regulation, strict internal processes, and the fact that Alpari participates in a compensation scheme, we consider Alpari a trustworthy broker for Australians to trade with.

Opening a trading account at Alpari is a fully digital process and is hassle-free compared to other brokers.

All Australian traders can open an account at Alpari but will need to meet all the minimum deposit amounts to do so; these are:

• Forex Micro Account: 5 USD

• Forex Standard Account: 100 USD

• Forex ECN Account: 500 USD

• Forex Pro Account: 25,000 USD

Creating an account is straightforward, the process is fully digital, and accounts are usually ready within one to two business days.  

How to open an account at Alpari:

1. First, click on “Register.”

2. Alpari’s intake form requires clients to fill in their personal details, including name, country of residence, email address, and to provide a telephone number so that Alpari can send a verification PIN code. 

3. Clients are then required to fill in their financial information, employment status and answer questions about their trading knowledge.

4. Clients are required to choose their preferred trading account, trading account currency, level of leverage, and choose a trading account password.  

5. Accounts are immediately available for trading, and traders can make a deposit.  

6. In order to withdraw funds, Alpari requires individuals to submit a copy of their National ID or Passport with the signature page, as well as a copy of a recent utility bill or bank statement.  

7. Documents can be scanned or sent through as a high-quality digital camera picture.

8. We advise you to read Alpari’s risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading.  

Overall, Alpari’s account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free – new traders will be especially happy that they can start trading right away without having to wait for account verification.

Alpari offers trading on multiple assets, including forex, commodities, indices, metals, and cryptocurrencies.

Alpari’s trading fees are higher than average on its instant execution accounts, but competitive on its market execution accounts.  

Alpari offers four live accounts, including two commission-free instant execution accounts, a market execution ECN account with a commission per lot, and a commission-free pro account with no commissions and extremely tight spreads, but with a very high minimum deposit requirement.  

Alpari’s accounts were assessed to compare the costs to those of other forex brokers. The costs were evaluated based on the trading fees on one lot (100 000 USD) on the EUR/USD, including the spreads and commission.  

When making this calculation, we used one lot of EUR/USD as a benchmark as it is the most commonly traded currency pair and it usually has the tightest spread.

Alpari derives most of its revenue from spreads and commissions. As you can see from the table above, the trading costs on the commission-free Micro and Standard MT4 Accounts are 17 USD and 12 USD, respectively. The trading costs on most other brokers’ entry-level accounts tend to be around 10 USD, making these rather expensive options.  

However, the commission-based ECN Account has a minimum spread of 0.4 pips in exchange for a round turn commission of 3.00 USD, making it one of the most competitive offers available. Alpari’s Pro Account, a commission-free account with spreads that start at 0.4 pips on the EUR/USD makes it one of THE lowest cost accounts in the industry, but with a minimum deposit of 25,000 USD, it will be inaccessible to most traders.  

Swap Fees

Another cost to consider are the swap fees for holding a position open overnight.  A swap is the interest paid on leveraged positions.  When trading a currency, you are borrowing one currency to purchase another. The swap interest fee is calculated based on the difference between the two interest rates of the traded currencies.

For example, Alpari charges a swap fee of 1.0.1 on a short position and -0.67 on a long position.

Overall, Alpari’s trading fees are higher than average on its instant execution accounts, but extremely competitive on its market execution accounts, however, these require high minimum deposits.  

We opened and tested several of Alpari’s accounts:

Standard Accounts

There are two standard accounts at Alpari and both use instant order execution, and are only available on the MT4 platform. Spreads are generally wider than market execution accounts, but no commission is charged, and both are available as swap-free accounts.

Standard Account: This account type requires a 100 USD/EUR/GBP minimum deposit. Spreads start at 1.2 pips (EUR/USD), which is wider than the spreads on other brokers’ entry-level accounts, and the margin call is set at  60%. With this account, you will be able to trade 61 Forex pairs as well as spot metals and spot CFDs. Leverage is floating, but the upper limit is 1:1000, which is risky and could see accounts wiped out. If you are a new trader, we would recommend setting your leverage much lower.

Micro Account: This is an entry-level account, with a minimum deposit of only 5 USD/EUR/GBP. Spreads are wide, starting at 1.7 pips (EUR/USD), and the margin call is set at 50%. You are limited to trading only 25 Forex pairs (no exotics) and spot metals. Leverage is fixed at 1:400, which is still quite high, so be aware of this before you start trading. The real advantage of this account is the tiny minimum deposit, and the ability to trade in micro-lots, but if you can afford it, we would recommend opening the Standard Account instead, as spreads are tighter.

ECN Accounts

The two ECN accounts at Alpari use market execution and the Forex ECN account supports MT5 as well as MT4, though the MT5 platform will not support Islamic/swap-free accounts. As with all ECN accounts, spreads are much tighter.

ECN Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of 500 USD/EUR/GBP and offers spreads starting from 0.4 pips (EUR/USD). The commission is 1.5 USD/lot per side and leverage is floating from 1:1000. If you use this account on the MT4 platform, you will also be able to trade a limited number of cryptocurrencies. Should traders decide to trade on the MT5 platform, the number of assets will be limited, for example, there are 33 currency pairs available, instead of the 56 available on MT4, but it will give you access to everything MT5 has to offer (economic calendar, built-in chat function, market depth, more indicators and signals, deeper back-testing, etc.) 

Pro Account: This account is made for professional traders only and requires a minimum balance of 25,000 USD/GBP/EUR at all times. No commission is charged on trades and spreads are as low as 0.4 pips. Leverage is floating with an upper limit of 1:300, and the margin call is set at 120%. The only real downside to this account is that it is no supported on the MT5 platform.

Demo accounts

Demo accounts are only available for the Standard and ECN account options.  Virtual funds can be topped up on request and demo accounts do not expire unless no trading takes place for over 14 days, in which case it is deleted.  However, traders can open a new demo account should this occur. 

Leverage requirements

Before you begin your trading journey, it’s very important that you understand Alpari International’s margin requirements. Based on the margin requirement for the specific account, you can also calculate the maximum leverage you’ll be able to wield whilst trading. Having a clear picture of the right margin requirements prior to your trade allows you to apply good risk management. Not enough funds in your account could prompt a margin call which, in turn, could lead to the closing of a position and account wipeouts. The margin requirements on demo accounts mimic those on the live accounts.

Alpari’s mobile trading platforms are average compared to other Forex brokers.

MT4 and MT5 are freely available on both Android and IOS mobile phones and tablets. The advantage of using the MetaTrader platform is the cross-device and multi-broker functionality, making it easier to change brokers or use multiple brokers.  

Alpari’s MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further empowers traders while on the move.

Alpari offers support for MT4 – the most popular trading platform globally – and MT5 – the latest version of the industry standard. In addition to the desktop applications, Alpari also offers MT4 and MT5 WebTerminal, which are browser-based versions of the platforms, along with mobile and tablet versions of both iterations. The advantages of using MT4 are numerous, but most centre around the community support and the number of users that the tool boasts. 

The new and updated version of MT5 boasts state-of-the-art features including options for hedging, while MT4 is slightly less advanced and more suited to traders who are new to the markets.  MT5 also has a built-in news feed and an economic calendar, and trades can be made on a chart.

Metatrader 4 

Developed by MetaQuotes in 2002, MT4 is still the most popular CFD trading platform in the world.  Although the platform’s interface is now dated, MT4 is still widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, wide range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability.  Other features of MT4 include:

• Supports the creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.

• Supports MQL4 programming language.

• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 

• Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators.

• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes

• 31 graphical objects

• 30 built-in indicators

• 9 timeframes

• Three order execution types.

• Four types of pending orders

Metatrader 5

MT5 is more powerful and faster than MT4, especially when it comes to back-testing functionality for automated trading algorithms.  MT5 also has a built-in news feed, market depth indicator, economic calendar, and trades that can be made on charts. Additional features of MT5 include:

• 21 timeframes

• 38 technical indicators

• 44 graphical objects

• Six pending order types

• Multi-threaded strategy tester

• Economic Calendar

• MT5 allows traders to chat with other traders directly on the platform.

The benefit of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can use the platforms should they choose to migrate to another broker.  However, MT4 and MT5 are often not as user-friendly as platforms that are developed in-house.   

Note that MT4 and MT5 are only available on Windows PCs.

A well-regulated broker, Alpari ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed. As such, all non-profit funds are returned to the original deposit source. No matter your deposit method, the withdrawal of all profits must be made by bank transfer to a bank account in your name.

Alpari offers a number of deposit and withdrawal methods, including credit cards/debit cards, bank transfers, and e-wallets such as Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller, Webmoney, and Perfect Money.

Deposits are generally processed instantly, except for bank transfers, which can take up to 3 – 5 days, and withdrawals are processed within 24 hours. No fees are charged for deposits, but a withdrawal fee may apply, depending on the method.  Of particular note is the fee for bank wire transfers, which costs 30 EUR per transaction.

Alpari offers a limited number of base currencies compared to its competitors, and it does not offer AUD accounts.

At Alpari, you can only choose from four base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, and NGN.  NGN is only available for Nigerian residents.   

This is a disadvantage for Australians who will likely have bank accounts denominated in AUD and will thus have to pay conversion fees.  Conversion fees can make trading very expensive and are usually not presented on the fee report but affect your profitability.

For traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month), it is better to open an account denominated in USD, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Alpari offers virtually no trading tools to help traders make better decisions, however, it offers a copy trading service.

Alpari CopyTrade allows you to copy the trading positions of other traders, which Alpari calls Strategy Managers. This is especially useful for new traders who want to start profiting from the market while they are still learning, as you don’t need any advanced knowledge of forex trading to get started. Strategy Managers usually have a wealth of experience in the markets, with tried-and-tested strategic trading decisions. Once you decide whom to follow, you can subscribe to their trades and pay them a percentage of whatever profits you make.

Alpari supports the newest iteration of the popular MetaTrader platform, MetaTrader 5 (MT5). MT5 has a built-in economic calendar to keep track of important events in the financial world and live a market depth tracker, which is an excellent way to keep track of other traders’ moves in the market. However, most other brokers offer daily insights written by their team of in-house analysts, which is unavailable at Alpari. 

Alpari International offers a short educational section which will be very useful for beginners with little experience trading. Unfortunately, there are no video tutorials or webinars on offer at the moment, although Alpari dedicates a page on its website to webinars. 

The written material available is mainly composed of a Beginners Guide to Forex Trading. This includes an explanation of the main concepts involved in Forex trading and a glossary of the most commonly used terms. It’s capped off with an introduction to the different types of charts used by traders.

Accompanying the Beginner’s Guide is an introduction to trading strategies, which is useful for familiarising yourself with the ideas and terms used when developing a trading plan.

Unusually, Alpari also offers customer support from 12:00 – 20:00 (all hours GMT+2/3) on weekends. This is very welcome and something we wish more brokers would do. Help is available via live chat, Telegram, phone, email, and the myAlpari hub.

Please note that the Deposit/Withdrawal customer service team only works from 02:00 – 20:00 during the week and from 13:00 – 17:00 on Saturday.

For the purposes of this review, we found the customer service responsive and well-informed.