By: Hillel Fuld

Alpari is a retail forex broker that was established in Russia in 1998, and has since opened a UK brokerage (www.alpari-idc.com) in 2004, and a US brokerage (www.alpari-us.com) in 2006. They offer a retail dealing desk with fixed spreads, meaning they do take the other side of your trades. The three different brokerages are regulated by different government regulators, the FSA in the UK, and the CFTC and NFA in the US, and the Financial Regulation Agency (FRA) in Russia. There are some differences in broker offerings between the three for this reason. All three do provide strictly an Mt4 feed only for web-based trading. All in all this broker is recommended for good customer support, and good mt4 feed.

Alpari does offer a free, non-expiring demo account from all three brokerage websites. The mt4 download from the UK and Russia sites come more complete than the US download:  Dow, oil, gold, and other commodities, and CFD’s can be traded on the UK and Russian versions, but not on the US version. The US Mt4 accounts offer 23 currency pairs to trades, while the Russian and UK customers enjoy 55 different currencies. Also curious on the US mt4 feed is the 5th decimal currency rates that are offered.  Alpari staff says that the 5th decimal allows for more accurate trading, however this seems dubious.  This seems to make it more difficult for entry and exit in high volatility times instead.  Alpari states that they have no restrictions against scalp trading or any type of trading, but all Alpari Mt4 feeds do have a 3-5 second delay on execution which can be annoying and costly to very short time traders.

Both the demo and live accounts are easy to open with Alpari. Deposits are accepted via bank wire, Webmoney, or credit card.  Accounts can be opened in both USD or EUR.  All three Alpari websites have similar ease of use in general:  they are each easy to navigate however all three are fairly basic with not much detail.  Alpari customer support and help is quite good, with quick response times for all three brokerages.  Each has a live chat available on their website, along with email or telephone support.

Since Alpari only offers an Mt4 feed, if you know Mt4 there’s nothing new to learn as far as a trading platform goes.  As with all Mt4 platforms, there are numerous specially designed indicators available, as well as all the usual entry and exit orders, trailing stops, etc.  During this review process there were no interruptions of Alpari Mt4 service.   As mentioned before, the only noticeable issue when placing entry and exit orders there is a 3-5 second delay.

The Alpari Russia brokerage does have a demo and live trading contest offered for classic (mini lot), micro, and demo accounts.  Cash prizes are awarded at the end of each 2 month contest, 4 contests in all in 2009 will be offered.  The overall winner at the end of 2009 will be awarded a $50,000USD PAMM account (managed account) to manage through Alpari Russia.  Only the Russia brokerage offers this contest.