Alpari is one of the newer established forex brokers in the growing retail forex trading arena. Established in 2006, they are becoming a broker of choice with many professional traders and those that are just starting out trading and testing trading strategies.
With offices on Wall Street, in the U.K. and Russia they are one of the growing firms in the global forex brokerage arena.
A distinguishing feature of Alapari U.S. is that they are a registered member of the CFTC and the NFA. Which basically means that they have stricter accountablitily in terms of compliance. One such example of this is their maximum leverage ratio of 100:1 for trading.
On a recent phone call with Alpari it was noted that as of November 2009 all U.S. brokers will have to comply with new rules that limit maximum leverage on forex contracts to 100:1 and that firms that offer more such as 200:1 or 500:1 (at least in the U.S.) will be out of compliance and breaking the laws regarding new NFA rules.
Many smaller lot traders prefer trading 200:1 or even 500:1 so these new rules may affect trading strategies.
Alpari offers a micro account which is similar to other micro accounts which are sized at .01 in addition the offer a retail account which is sized at 0.1 which is the usual size for mini accounts at other firms.
Another interesting factor is that the size limits on a position with their micro account is $100k or one standard lot, and their position limits on their retail accounts have no limits.
Many over the counter forex brokers have a stated 50 lot or 100 lot limit on their positions, but Alpari is one of the few retail FX brokers that have no size limits on their standard accounts.
One thing to note is that Alpari does not guarantee “no negative balances”. Most firms in the retail FX arena do have a “no negative balance” policy, however Alpari does not. So in the very worst case scenario, you could be on the line legally for more than your risk capital. In this day of totally automated and hedged contracts on the broker side, positions usually get closed well before margins are wiped out, however Alpari does leave themselves a legal loophole to their own advantage. This is probably why they can offer no position size limits because they ultimately transfer all risk to the trader. This policy and procedure is pretty standard operating procedure in the futures and commodities markets with futures brokers, but recently in the retail forex arena many brokers offer a “no negative balance” guarantee.
Lastly setting up an account with Alpari is easy and straightfoward. They accept Credit Cards, PayPal, and bank transfers. Withdrawls are by check or wire transfer direct to your account.
For their retail account there is a $1000 minimum.
For their micro account there is NO minimum, so they become a good choice for testing new EAs in a live environment.
