I trade on Alpari MT5 ECN account, i got over 15pip spread during the news once, that completely destroyed my position. Shocked as this is meant to be an ECN account. On normal market conditions I have nothing against them, good broker.. But spreads are rubbish at news, impossible to make any gain.

Dennis 12/04/2012

(0) (1)

Run! Run! Run! Alpari UK is not any better than a bucket shop.

Requotes, frequent slippages, server busy and all the shit are norms to them, just to rip you off. You can lose but not win.

When I first started trading with them, I lost and slippages and requotes were not frequent, but the very moment I started winning by scalping consecutively for several days, all hell broke loose!

They denied playing dirty and gave lots of silly and stupid excuses at first, but when I challenged them to declare officially on the FPA forum that Alpari UK never uses VDP or any similar system in place to counter trade against traders, they chickened out and simply kept mom until today.

Order can even disappear into thin air, and they couldn't give me an explanation until today, and refused to compensate me at all.

Frankly, Aplari UK are heartless robbers, thieves, cheats and overly evil scammers!!!

If the majority of reviewers here gave them the thumbs down, you can safely discount those who gave them thumbs up here, They are Alpari UK's own cronies or their own insider people faking as satisfied traders with Alpari!

I have video clips as valid proofs of their unscrupulous scams tactics.

Links to my detail report and the corresponding video clips are below showing how Alpari UK uses MT4 VDP (or similar type of Virtual Dealer software) to rip you and me:

http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/ReportForFPA.pdf
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/1_Order30643544.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/1_Order30658677.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/2_Order30645479.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/2a_Order30659038.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/2b_Order30659038.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/3_Order30659054.wmv
http://www.dpherbal.com/alpari/4_Order30663890.wmv

Good luck!

Charis 11/05/2012

(1) (12)

I've micro and classic accounts. On both they do re-quotes. Once the market is violence, you can't send any proper trade, forget it! They simply refuse to trade with the market quotes.

Rafal 09/13/2012

(0) (10)

Slow execution, HORRIBLE slippage and customer service is rubbish.
I've >50k yearly turnover account and they make the problems with withdrawal of only 500! It takes weeks. They ask me about why I want to withdraw my own money? I've provided for them plenty of documents and they still ask me for another bunch of some "documents". They're trying to force you trade and lose your money! JUST RUN!!!

Rafal 09/13/2012

(2) (12)

I like this broker a lot. Their customer support is always helpful and the trading conditions are great for small retailers.

kevin s. peters 06/25/2012

(12) (2)

Started trading with Alpari a few months ago, so far nothing to complain about.
Execute speed: super quick on MT5;
Support: efficient and always available during office hours;
Deposits: no fees on credit card deposits of over $3K;
Withdrawals: I got charged some significant fees by my bank but nothing to do there;
MT5 charting: again, no complaints.

james 05/27/2012

(9) (1)

I have been trading with Alpari UK for a few years now. My overall experience is that they are an honest and professional broker that is well worth dealing with. Thumbs up!

Lucy 05/21/2012

(11) (1)

I have been trading with Alpari for about a year and they have always been nothing but impeccable. Fast and competent chat support (you don’t even have to give them your account info, just ask them a question and they answer right away), and my withdrawals are always mega-quick.

Coleen Watson 04/05/2012

(11) (1)

My beef with Alpari UK is twofold.

1. After a length e mail exchange I deduced that this company charges spread on both ends of the same transaction. Meaning if you a buy a pair and later sell it. Spread is made by Alpari UK twice. For this I posted an extensive file in the Scams folder. This is titled "Spreads and Alpari UK"

2. Their extremely high and unnecessary charges to send you back your money.

Ernest 09/21/2011

(3) (19)

Here are the Alpari's disadvantages:

(1) Slow execution
(2) Slippage on entry, slippage on stop loss. HORRIBLE slippage. Each trade you lose two pips, this is a lot over time.
(3) Customer service is basically not there. Troubles depositing, withdrawing money. The trouble is that it is slow. I wait up to two weeks for deposit/withdrawal to apprea.


RUN FROM ALPARI AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!!

Lotta 09/13/2011

(3) (18)

I have been using Alpari UK with a mini acc. for about 2 years and traded profitable with them. Withdrawal was never a problem.

Sometimes I recognized a slow order execution, but not as bad as now and definitely their reply to my inquiry was an eye opener. They told me the order execution could take 15 seconds and more, while the Metatrader Software would reject my order after 5 seconds. That means your order get rejected and rejected again 5 or more times and you get a very bad order entry then if at all. Exactly that happened to me at least twice in the last 4 weeks.

Alpari obviously is more engaged in promotions (look at their website) than to deliver a reliable order execution.

If 5 pips more or less in quiet markets is not your problem, you can use it, but if you believe you can count on their 1.6 pips eurusd spread without any huge requotes, forget about using this broken broker! If you have a scalping strategy, forget about it as well!

Alpari Joe 09/06/2011

(0) (9)

I am considering leaving Alpari UK because of their high slippage during news release.

They are dangerous to use during the news period.i cannot risk high lot size for now until I noticed an improvement and i will come back here and post please it. Help if u know a broker with very little or no slippage during the news.

Lauren 09/05/2011

(0) (14)

I av been trading live with alpari uk for over 4years now. sincerely, I dont have any negative complain about them, I only wish that their costumer sevice support will improve. My fx adventure has taken me around so many brokers but Alpari is the best amongst them all.

Deposit, withdrawal, stop loss, take profit. Alpari uk is the leader of all brokers. Dont be fooled by negative comment that are somethings the doing of traders.

Come to ALPARI UK and experience PEACE IN TRADING.

Sokari 09/03/2011

(14) (2)

I'm trading with Alpari UK for 3 months now.

Spreads are OK,even during high market impact news they stay quite thight.

However requotes are unbelieveble, I'm requoted on every trade I try do make.

I have the intention to move my account to another broker in near future.

Moris 08/22/2011

(1) (14)

If you are looking for serious forex trading broker Alpari UK is in the top-ten.

I profit on regularly basis since two years and I have no problems at all. I trade on daily and hourly charts with an automated trading MT4 EA, designed to trade on a medium-size forex account. Yes, I have a few requotes in high volatility market, but under normal market conditions I get instant execution and reasonable spreads.

Alpari UK is not for gamblers that wants only to play with their $100 and waste their time.

Dobro 08/01/2011

(11) (2)

I just tried to close a long EURUSD position for 5 times and could not do that - the result I got is Stop Loss: -50 pips on my account.

Even whenever on demo account price is going to fill your take profit order spread shoots up like a rocket. For example spread goes up from 3.4 to 18.

MitoM 07/19/2011

(2) (15)

I am having problem with withdrawing fund from Alpari as well. Here is my case details.
When Alpari uk introduced funding option by credit card (cc), I have phoned in and asked for details. I was told that after cc funding, I need to make some trades. So that's what I did. So on 9 June, I deposited fund by cc (>USD64K). I made some trades (>80 returned trades to be exact). Then on 27 June, After receiving my withdraw request (USD50K), I have this email from Alpari

****
Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received your withdrawal request. However since your last deposit there has been minimal trading on your account.

Can you please advise why this is the case?

Where an account has been funded and we subsequently receive a withdrawal/transfer request following minimal trading activity, the rationale for the request is sought. In this case your account has been fairly inactive and has lead to these questions being asked.
This procedure is performed to ensure that our clients are using the services of Alpari (UK) for trading purposes and not as a “banking” facility.

We value our clients highly and apologies for any inconvenience caused. However, should you require further clarification please do not hesitate to contact me or another member of the Back Office Department.


Regards
****

I then received a call from Alpari seeking for my clarification (at that time I didn't read the above email yet). I told her that I saw other oppotunity and needed to invest elsewhere for a while.

Later on, I come home and read the above email. I called them to make sure that there is no problem with the fund withdraw. A guy answered the phone this time. After couple of minutes, explaining my case, he said you have made some trades, I see no reason of blocking the withdraw. I will ask my staff to process it at the end of the day.

Then I received another email at 5:58 pm london time (I think they are really bad on the timing, we all know that their back office only open from 9-6, so it seems they want to make sure that I will not have time to call them on the same day)
here is its content
***
Dear Sir,

Further to the telephone conversation you had with my colleague XXXX earlier today- we will require an explanation as to why there has been minimal trading on your account since your last deposit, before we can process your withdrawal request.

Additionally, we are currently undertaking additional security checks on credit/debit card payments to ensure that we maintain the highest possible standards at Alpari in protecting your card payments. As such, please could you provide us with a statement issued within the last 3 months for the card you have used for your recent transactions with us (card number ending 8888.)

Upon receipt of this information we shall update our records.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused, but believe that this will assist with the continued security of your card payments to Alpari.


Kind regards
***

So they are surely didn't ask for much, an explanation and three statements. Plus their reason is so weak. I have been using that cc for the last 2 years with them.

Of course, this is very frustrated to me. I want to share/alert you about (what I considered) their bad practice.

I was happy trading with them before. I have been with them since 2007. With this incident happened for the second time and with the level of control they exercise over client fund. I think Alpari uk no longer needs to retain existing clients and/or acquiring new clients.

I ofcourse will close the account in due course. but for now, what should I do.
Many thanks
Reply With Quote

Peter, FPA 06/27/2011

(2) (16)

I have been trading with Alpari UK for a year now,I have a classic account, everything clear and good till the beginning of this month, when I started making quite unexpected profits and bigger than my average records.

After a couple of heavy scalping trading days on CFDs, Alpari started flooding my accounts with requotes and various other problems with MT4. So I had to reduce my trading activity down to zero.

As soon as I requested a withdrawal from the account to my bank account, this was ignored at first and then, after asking them more details several times on the phone and by email, on June 10th, I received an email from the Compliance Office saying that they were investigating on my trading activity and so the withdrawal are blocked/denied.

As I consider this behaviour inacceptable, I contacted the FSA (Financial Services Authority - UK) and the Financial Obudsman Service (uk) and I opened a complaint about this conduct of Alpari, they started and Investigation against Alpari regarding my case.

In the meantime I spent the week from the 13th to the 19th of June asking more details about this claim by phone and emails and all my requests were ALL totally ignored.

Finally, on the 20th of June I received another email in which they say that they are still investigating on my trading as they are concerned that my trades were subjected of "manifest error on prices" and more importantly, THEY WILL TAKE THE RIGHT TO DELETE the trades they FEEL are not in the spirit of their agreement, Section 9.36 - not giving me any specific explanation.

I am still waiting for more explanations and replies to my requests.

I would not suggest Alpari to anyone now!

Lorenzo Bassetti, FPA 06/23/2011

(1) (16)

I have been looking for an ECN broker for some time now. I have contacted Alpari.co.uk through their website three times over a period of two months. They just do not reply to my mails. No one answers the phones either.

I have sent emails to their sales as well as theri support email addresses and sent a message using their online for as well.

If this is the state of theri customer service before one signes up with them what will be the response if a live account holder has any problem?

A sorry state of affairs, or perhaps they are too big for small fish!

Dexter Figg, FPA 06/17/2011

(2) (12)

I was with GoMarkets for years and transferred my account to Alpari UK for their April Bonus Promo.

Oh boy.. that was the biggest mistake in my trading career. One re-quote after the other and the slippage can be up to 10pips in normal market conditions for GBPUSD.

I'm not a scalper and never execute any trades during the news. After 2 months of torture with Alpari I'm transferring my account back to my old broker. R.I.P Alpari.

JK, FPA 06/07/2011

(1) (14)

I have been trading with Alpari for some time now. All went well except some requotes that are normal for broker, but lately I have been running very profitable EA on Micro account and suddenly as account balance grew I started getting many requotes! I have send inquiry about this to my account rep and waiting for reply.

I suspect Alpari is using Virtual Dealer Plug-in or some other means to interfere. I believe most MT4 brokers leave client orders on their own books and therefore any client making consistent profits will eat into broker profits, and thus becomes "unwanted" client.

Do not support these crooks and open account with ECN intermediary! Especially if you belong to the 5% minority of retail traders who make consistent profits!!

Luke 06/06/2011

(1) (13)

have been trading with Alpari for some time now. All went well except some requotes that are normal for broker, but lately I have been running very profitable EA and suddenly as account balance grew started getting many requotes! I have send inquiry about this to my account rep and waiting for reply.

I suspect Alpari is using Virtual Dealer Plug-in or some other means to interfere. I believe most MT4 brokers leave client orders on their own books and therefore any client making consistent profits will eat into broker profits, and thus becomes \"unwanted\" client.

Do not support these crooks and open account with ECN intermediary! Especially if you belong to the 5% minority of retail traders who make consistent profits!!

Alapri Client 06/05/2011

(1) (9)

We had a good business from Gujrat before in partnership with employee of alpari india mr Pramit.

When it cames the time to collect rebate we face many problem. I am main IB for alpari india in gujrat, now i am giving complain to fir. This company is cheating.

Suresh Feroz, FPA 05/23/2011

(2) (12)

I have been using Alpari for some years now and have been very pleased with their service. I opened the account and was subject to normal UK identity requirements - which are onerious I have been using Alpari for some years now and have been very pleased with their service. I opened the account and was subject to normal UK identity requirements which, for money laundering purposes are onerous.

Since then I have traded and place a dozen or so trades per week. Re-quotes are not uncommon but are manageable. Stop losses and take profit trades have always been successful. I have taken money out from time to time my instructions have always been honored without concern. I like them.

Frank, FPA 04/21/2011

(11) (4)

I've been using alpari uk for nearly 3 years now (live account). Always found them honest, even had a loosing trade cancelled by them once, must have been activated on a spike. withdrawals have been timely, although one time i recieved an e-mail back stating that my signature didn't match- sure enough it didn't!!! so good sot by them.

After reading a lot of these reviews, i'm left shaking my head wondering if some of these people actually know how these markets work. Of course you're gonna get requotes with market orders if the price no longer exists- if that makes you unhappy then go with an ecn and then you can moan about slippage!

So c'mon and actually learn about the industry if you're serious about trying to make it.

Ian, FPA 03/19/2011

(11) (2)

"Alpari UK uses Virtual dealer plug" is just a misconception .

This is third time when i am writing about re-quotes problem. Set the deviation of 15 points (in fact it is 1.5 pip) in order-window, and you will not get re-quote . And it is impossible to enter exactly at the same price which you clicked in EU and US sessions .

Price is given in 5 digit after decimal and fluctuates within nano/micro second . So you need to set the deviation to avoid re-quote . I have no problem of re-quotes. I use 15 point (1.5 pip) deviation during normal time and 40 points (4 pips) at news time for news trading.

Anand Kumar Dubey, FPA 03/06/2011

(10) (1)

Had an account with then for more then one year.

Constant requotes trading manually during normal market hours so they real spreads are the double. Extensive use of Virtual dealer plug in so that when the market was favourable you get requotes if it moves against you you get immediate fill...of course.

Demo account with spreads of Pro account so testing with them is a wast of time with scalpers if you are not going to open an account of this type. Several experts opening a lot of trades with ECN broker accounts and with their real account almost never...

Only good point was fast withdrawal of the money.
Total waste of time

Lopes, FPA 02/27/2011

(1) (10)

I don't understand all those negative reviews. I had pro account for several weeks (closed it because 3 lots as minimal order size proved to be too much) and there were no problems.

Opening the account took about 2 days, execution was fast, no disconnections (there were several disconnections on demo account though).

Withdrawal request was processed next day after submitting it. I really recommend this broker.

Jacub, FPA 02/16/2011

(11) (1)

whenever I try to trade news i got re-quote re-quote and re-quote. till it over especially when they know it will favour you ALPARI IS EVIL

STELLA 02/11/2011

(1) (16)

I had an account with Alpari Uk for around 3 Months. I've been trading for around 5 years, so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.
Alpari has very good spreads, not the lowest out there but very competitive. EUR/USD was 1.6 pips around 80% of the time.

I recently closed my account after a trade that proved to me that aplari is using the Virtual Dealer Plug-in for MT4. I haven't complained to them about the trade as I see no point, it wasn't a terrible loss. I just want others to know of my suspicions.
The trade I opened was around news time, I happened to click on the wrong order, buy instead of a sell, happens rarely but it does, and I accept this to be my mistake.

However what happened to my order was what botheres me. My order was held for around 10-15 seconds, after the price had moved against me I was executed at the price I clicked. You'd think this is great, they give good fills, well I'm telling you it's only on orders that you will make a loss on. As soon as I realized I clicked the wrong price I tried to open an order in the opposite direction hoping I would instantly hedge the position. I was only executed on the losing order and the opposite order had been re-quoted.

Having read about what the virtual dealer plug-in is capable of doing, this exactly fits the description. The plug-in delays your order and checks against the real market price, if the price has moved against you it executes you, if not it re-quotes you.

This could happen for any trade depending on how they have it set-up.
Now a company won't publicly admit to using the plug in so no point in asking, we're simply left with our suspicion.

Alex I, FPA 02/09/2011

(2) (16)

last week i requested for found withdrawal around 40$ of total equity after they did that i had a couple positions opened with a very low margin, then i was not able to open any position (not enough money) and after they close all positions in minus with out any notice(i did not even come close to the margin call) and till now i am not able to open a trade, it has been more than 1 week and they are still investigating?!!!!

dani 02/06/2011

(1) (16)

I traded - or better: I tried trading - with alpari live.

I could not close profitable trades, I very often get re-quotes, even off-quotes (all during normal traffic times!).

The MT4 freezes always when I'm profitable, and when I finally get back into trade after re-open the program agan and again, it was profitable no more.

Don't give it a try - it's useless.

creatifx 02/03/2011

(1) (15)

I enabled maximum deviation from quoted price 15 pips (it is 1.5 pips in fact because it is a 5 digit broker) . And i have no requote problem.

I use to close order at a slippage of 0.2 to 0.9 pips in my favor and sometimes against me. But it does not matter. I'm getting very low spreads on major pairs what i trades.

Anand, ForexPeacearmy.com 01/25/2011

(12) (2)

DON'T EVER use this Broker. When my enter trades are running and when I wants to close it I have to wait for the broker to "REQUOTES" and "REQUOTES" and when I keeps trying and trying to close my Trades, the Broker Disconnect my connections to my account.

And Recently they Jammed my account and I cant close my trades and it burst my account. And they force me to close my account with them.

Alpari UK is a SCAM BROKER ... Don't Ever Use It. I have Evidence to Prove It.

Benjamin Tan, FPA 12/21/2010

(0) (17)

I'm scared of platfrom of ALPARI UK.

I have always seen spread widening in asian session. And some times during news, spread increases from 3 to 10.

And whenever I try to trade news i got re-quote re-quote and re-quote.

And I got never able to set bu limit or sell limit at 10-15 pip difference from cuurent market price before news.

Anand, FPA 12/13/2010

(8) (1)

Alpari is quite a decent and reliable broker.

Spreads are fine, execution ok, only during news releases difficult to get good fills.

Important: money withdrawal usually quite fast and easy. And they are regulated by FSA.

WinFX, FPA 11/08/2010

(8) (0)

Very very good broker.

Good customer service,fast withdrawals I am having live classic account with this broker from 6 months i am satisfied with this broker services.

Only drawback is requotes.

Aktharpasha, earnforex.com 10/23/2010

(9) (1)

I have experience server down while I am still trading & after I downloaded a new platform, I couldn't open my login, password failed & it took days days to recover my password due to bad + slow
customer service & I had lost all my money because I couldn't cut loss.

HS Bong, 100forexbrokers.com 07/21/2010

(0) (11)

Hi, all.

SPREADS from 1.6pips to 10,2 pips EURUSD
WHAT 10,2 pips?
YEAH, 10,2 pips at certain hours for hours.

I'll post the screen shoot next week.

Bernard, Indonesia 07/08/2010

(1) (12)

Swing trading with mini and micro lots no problem, no slippage, good platform speeds and reliable service.

Intraday 15min and under and platform starts to pause, plenty of re-quotes even when you set maximum allowed slippage upto 2pips! Platform disconnections, very suspicious considering the performance for longer time frames.

As already said customer service is good and responses and transfers good as well. For accounts under $5k it's a reasonable choice but don't expect to be competitive on intraday.

Sam, 100forexbrokers 06/23/2010

(1) (1)

I started trading with Alpari after the initial training since March 2010.

I've had no reason to regret doing business with alpari,but for the incessant reqoutes even at that, i still rate them high ,i also rate them high on customer relations.

WELLDONE ALPARI NIGERIA !

AJAYI K LAWRENCE, Earnforex.com 06/19/2010

(8) (0)

Hi all,

I have been using Alpari micro and classic for some months and this is my opinion.

They have two positive aspects, one is the strength of the company and the other is a customer service that, at least, anwers in a short time.

Never scalp because during the low volume negotiation they use spreads that are simply a SCAM. A few days ago I suffered spreads on eurchf of 23 pips !!! At the same timeframe no other brokers used spreads higher than 6 pips. To see spreads of 6 or 11 pips is not unusual.

The requotes are constant when the market goes in your favor, never when it goes against you.

The dealing desk manipulates too much.

You have to fight the market and the broker.

To use 23 pips spread is simply unethical, when other broker use 6 pips... the market is the same for all of them.

Good luck and find a better broker if you want to earn money in forex.

Josep, FPA 05/25/2010

(0) (16)

This my last review with Alpari as I will be closing my account and changing to a real broker soon. Well, after 3 years trading with them, what can I say? They used to be good, now they suck. They probably have too many customers, no worries, I will make my seat available in no time. Servers are slow, I mean sss lll ooo www, and everytime that I scalp into a winning position I get a requote, and then another requote, and (surprise) even more requotes! Alpari is history, only an idiot would submit his or her trades through a dealing desk nowadays. They claim to have a true ECN account but the minimum you can trade is 3 lots. Not for me. Bye bye Alpari.

2007-12-08 5 Stars Well, this is my second review because now I already have a live account with them and the experience from the demo has been similar. Fast execution, good customer service, and outstanding withdrawal procedures. First time I withdraw money, they took ONE HOUR to put the money in my (foreign) account. Impressive. Not many requotes as well. 5 stars.

2007-10-29 4 Stars Well, I have only been trading demo account with Alpari. It has been going really good, I can trade the news, EAs work fine, no problems. Good customer service as well. SO I will open an account (live) with them. I compared them with others (InterbankFX, FastBrokers, ODL Securities) and regarding DEMO accounts their execution is far much more superior. Now I only hope that my live (real) experience with them is going to be as good. Cant give 5 stars because I traded demo, so 4 stars.

Pedro Roque, FPA 05/05/2010

(0) (10)

Advantage:

1. Allow to trade mico 0.01 lots.
2. Only Pro. account is ECN and with low spread.
3. fast respond when e-mail and open account.
4. No commision for Micro and classic account.
5. Leverage 1:500 for micro and classic.
6. min deposit $100 for open micro classic account.
7. some event got promotion 20% credit for transfer.

Disadvantage:
1. Execution alway frequenly 'off-quotes' and 'coomon in error' causing a lot of profitable trades had loss.
2. Mico & Classic account have high spread and Dealing desk.
3. require capital $20,000 to open pro. account for ECN and low spread.
4. They charge commission for pro. account.
5. Leverage 1:100 for pro. account

I had a micro account and using EA like FAP turbo:
result: Low performance on scalping.
require hedging on EA, observe result from other brokers using the same EA.

Leong, FPA 05/05/2010

(0) (0)

I have a micro account for 3 years already with Alpari. Never demo traded, but traded live several hundred trades. Withdrawals were processed fast. Execution is fine. That included an expert advisor I had gotten programmed.

I do not understand what the fuzz is all about, scam, no withdrawals, etc.
I have made 5-6 withdrawals so far and all were processed within 24 hours.

Only downside I encountered was that the server connection sometimes broke maybe 3-4 times a day for a couple seconds and I had re-log-in at times.

So 4 stars from me.

Robin, FPA 04/28/2010

(8) (0)

I design automations for the MT4 plateform. I am in the process of beta testing some of the latest fixes to our most successful automations, one of our clients is a client of Alpari UK, I have already sent out a warning to my clients about this situation, so I will just paste it here for your awareness:

I just received a series of emails from a client through Tech Support stating that he/she has multiple accounts both live and demo running our product in default settings of both on Alpari. One started out with opening a trade with the lot size of .04, the other with .01. When our code requests requirements from the broker, we ask for the following variables:

double One_Lot=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MARGINREQUIRED);
double Min_Lot=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_MINLOT);
double Step =MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_LOTSTEP);

I think I would reconsider usage of a broker that provides one requirement for demo vs one for live. This is a deception that serves a purpose. Now the question is, why would a company choose to do this? Or Why would I assume a deception to begin with? Let??™s take a look at this...

1. The user used the same product on both live and demo, this means we didn't have anything to do with changing the lot size. The rule of mathematics states that as long as the variables remain the same, the result will remain the same. Since the user was using the same product and both of them generated different results, this leaves the broker as the difference. Since the user was using the same broker and the only change was the difference between a demo and a live account. These were the only variables changed. This means that the resulting difference was created by the difference between live and demo of the same broker.

2. Why would a broker change the settings or act as if being deceptive. Several reasons come to play, of which I am not sure I am the one to answer this question, I believe it should be asked to the broker. I will attempt to apply my own insights, but they may not be accurate. If the demo allows for higher lot sizes based on the calculation, and lower on the live, then it is possible that the broker may be encouraging the user by showing higher returns in demo to encourage them to trade live. Live may be set lower to provide a higher protection to the users account margin. This sort of deception may not be a serious issue as it seems to have the user in mind, with a slight sales pitch to begin trading, however it presents a caution flag to me.

With any broker you use, you really do want to test their systems as best you can just as you do an automation. In the past I learned this lesson well with a company called TradeView. As a side note, TradeView was bought out by Alpari. For this reason, I do not wish to indulge in either one. TradeView in my opinion was a thief. I caught them at a really bad deception 2 years ago that cost me $10k to learn the truth.

I cannot stop people from choosing a broker, but I can place warnings when I can. If you choose to use Alpari, then that is your choice, but I will not be held responsible for their actions. If they are deceptive between demo and live, you might want to ask where else their deception lies.

Personally, I am not pleased with the situation that was just uncovered and I believe I might even consider writing some code that would check for bad brokers.

Thank you for your time.

Larry Hayes

Larry Hayes, FPA 04/07/2010

(0) (9)

I had two demo accounts with Alpari Uk. One was a scalper EA amd the other a manual trader.

Surprisingly the scalper did fairly well at first, until it started doing really well, at which point trades were delayed,not closed at their TP and it began to lose money.

The manual trader was always coming up against a 'terminal busy' signal at critical moments, always losing money. Both accounts were bounced by Alpari regulary without warning and without a rescan or re-log on.

Something stinks here. Needless to say I have not opened a live account with this company.

JJ Bosh 03/18/2010

(0) (14)

I have been trading with Alpari for close to two years now...I agree that during news period and the attendant volatility, several re-quotes are offered. To overcome this, i usually place pending buy/sell orders and this completely solved it...all my orders where honored. Also it is a good place for EAs. Order execution are excellent and in accordance with forward testing with my strategy tester. Also a good VPS providing services should not be overlooked; I use www.vpsland.com at $18 per month, which is one of the cheapest in the business and their services - excellent.

SnappyNap 01/04/2010

(8) (1)

I've been with this broker for almost a year now. A friend of mine who traded forex for a living recommended me. It was hard to get approval for the account at first (very strict, but I was almost pissed, but since I just have to do it once, I just give what they wanted), but I would not blame them, its for the good of both sides. Then customer service is very friendly, they replied my email quite fast, and I called them when I have problem with my account, they gladly help me to sort it out. The only problem is their flexible spreads (sometime its too high which is bad and sometime its too low which is good) but I prefer it just like before, things would be easier. Another thing is Live Chat, I really do like to chat rather than calling them. But I guess they wanted to retain their standard. Deposits are fast, and lastly, I've just made my withdrawals and received it today. They promised that it would appear in 5 days, but it came in just only 2 days. Excellent!

Wan, FPA 12/01/2009

(10) (0)

well I'm with alpari for the past 3 months.. probably im still new but alpari work fine to me...for now.. =)

but there r indeed 2 things that i dislike about it..

1. YES.. Re-quotes.. it drives me crazy sometime..

2. Their customer service sometimes seem to be very confused. My story- I deposit roughly around usd550 and they sent me a mail stating a lesser amount it already been deposit into my account. But when i check my account on my statement it was really usd550 deposited.. LOL

other than that everything seems fine atm..

evoangel, forexfactory.com 11/06/2009

(2) (0)

I am using this broker live for the last 6 weeks as I live in the UK.
I do not have any experience of other brokers but Alpari for me are not good.

Re quotes are very common and at times when there is no news and liquidity should be good and the price is not moving fast.
Invalid price quotes so you cannot close a trade when you want to.
Platform freezing and just this week a spread of 30 pips on the pound dollar at 9pm uk time just as I wanted to place a buy order...hmmm.

I'm researching and looking for another one.
This is just my experience from a live micro account and would not trust them with standard lot sizes.

slimcat, forexfactory.com 11/04/2009

(0) (0)

Slippage is common place. Also pip spread as suggested is not honerable so expect to see considerable price move against you on entry. Heavy dealing desk participation so know your game. Best point someone always answers the phone.

Sam, earnforex.com 11/01/2009

(1) (8)

I have been using alpari Uk on a live account for about 2 months. Spreads are variable, mainly around the times I trade With Fapturbo,ie 20:00 - 24:00 GMT. I also run demos with 5 other brokers and track the spreads and find that the live Alpari generally gives me slightly better. Can t really find any fault at the minute. Havnt tried to get money out yet but dont think it will be a problem

Eddie Oneill 11/01/2009

(7) (0)

When I joined Alpari UK some months ago I was very happy with them. The "flexible spread" story is shocking and completely distroys decent after hours or robotic trading!! Recently however my account has been rapidly depleted. Why? Well I'm not saying that I'm a great trader but when your buy or sell stop trade constantly gets triggered and the price immediately reverses once or twice it's just bad luck but when it happens time and time again, one starts wondering who you as a small retail trader are actually up against. One thing is for sure, most of these brokers are NOT on your side!!

Nigel, FPA 11/01/2009

(0) (10)

Under the pretext of mirroring market conditions, ALPARI UK is using variable spreads to syphon off profits.
It is very obvious what is going on here: they want to chase away people trading by EA only, and no doubt, in a short time you will achieve this objective. What completely escapes me, is how they can be so stupid as to risk destroying what little they have left of their reputation over short term profits. They do not seem to have any clue what negative public relation can do to the future of their company. Well, they should just think of what happened to the SHELL Oil company after their PR fiasco some time ago. To this very day they have to spend fortunes for campaigns trying to correct their image. Smaller companies without such means might not have survived this.

Gustave LeBon, FPA 09/10/2009

(0) (10)

- some spreads are huge compared to other brokers
- slow execution, often with slippage in their favor
- small leverage on cfd's stocks and commodities

Rush, Goforex.net 09/10/2009

(0) (1)

These guys are terrible and I have yet to have a worse experience.

I am the president of the Northern NSW traders. We are small with just 17 traders. 16 of us opened an account with Alpari UK and only one remains because he cannot withdraw his money.

The constant requotes, chasing stops and massive slippage belies belief. As does the handling and security of personal documentation.

Stay well away and don't get caught like we did just because you think it is a UK regulated company.

Do yourself a big favor and stay away!

Mason, FPA 08/25/2009

(2) (16)

I was surprised to read unfavourable reviews about this God-sent broker. Indeed it appears some frustrated people(doubt if they're traders) wake up & post disgusting reviews on this forum. My experience with this broker is so far so good for the past one year. Unlike many brokers, the uniqueness of this broker is their fixed spread even on important news releases with excellent customer service. And they never place the platform into frozen state as wrongly accused, which I have experienced with few other high profile brokers. As for slippage, I had a little discomfort at first but I informed them about it and they fixed the problem right away. One of the features I like most is their "One Click" order filling enabled by their account-type split, which I think is cool to make the server faster and no reqoutes at all, except the minimals in abnormal market.
Needless to say, this broker is under-rated and will give them at least a 5 star(since that's the highest rate) to commend them for the great job they had done, is doing & shall yet do.

I wish to recommend Alpari UK to all traders hoping to do more with forex.

Ages, FPA 08/23/2009

(11) (1)

I have been using a scalping system with them for a week and usually do around 30 trades a day. I must say their requotes are *atrocious* and highly hostile to a scalper, so far I am not impressed. I would say I get reqoutes 80%+ of the time and usually 2 and many times 4 requotes in a row until my trade is no longer profitable. this type of activity even occurs during very calm low volatility 'tubing' sessions during Sydney and Tokyo markets.

James, Earnforex.com 08/11/2009

(1) (11)

Alpari is just like all the rest of the Market Makers out there. Set-up and account with them (Open a Demo, as I am going to tell you WHY NOT to put your hard earned $ here.) Everything is great.. until you start taking the house!
Just like Velocity (Hamilton Williams) it was an eerily similar situation. Want to manually close out your position to bank $? Forget it. "Common Error" or "No Connection" Errors.

LV, Goforex.net 08/11/2009

(0) (10)

Continued requotes. Sometimes it can take 15 seconds to get an order on or off. Just the other day I had a trade turn on me and could not get out before my stop was hit. I complained about this and they returned with a reply . It must have been your IT server. That is a load of c**p. Because I have 2 totally different connections. If one fails the other takeover. Lately I have found the platform to start freezing, especially around Major news times.

Customer support is very bad also. I have been trying to withdraw funds for over one month now. to no avail.

Stevenson, FPA 08/11/2009

(0) (11)

In the last 6 months using Alpari live I have encountered many misquotes and average execution. On many occasions they have misquoted my closing price even though the price hadn't moved on the tick chart. They would continue misquoting until your profits and been decreased. They have also on many times locked me out of my account if I have had a few trades about 100 pips up and haven't let me back in until they were about 20 pips. They tell you there is no connection but thats a scam as I have other accounts opened.
They at one time had taken profits away from me the next day saying that the closing price was incorrect and said that particular trade incurred a loss. Theres was nothing I could do as a $250 profit turned to $200 loss.

Adrian, FPA 08/11/2009

(0) (11)

They state spreads can vary I never see it move always 2 pips euro solid. FSA regulated.

Tom Laud, Earnforex 08/11/2009

(0) (0)

I have read so far and had so far about alpari's advantages and disadvantages;especially on requoating that syphon customers'money and run them down to lost.Ok such a big company like alpari should find an urgent and immediate solution to such a stigma.
To others, i had that stop loss is the best so try it on alpari's platform.

Paul, Earnforex.com 08/11/2009

(0) (1)

Must say their requotes are *atrocious* and highly hostile to a scalper, so far I am not impressed. I would say I get reqoutes 80%+ of the time and usually 2 and many times 4 requotes in a row until my trade is no longer profitable. This type of activity even occurs during very calm low volatility 'tubing' sessions during Sydney and Tokyo markets.

RealFX, Goforex.net 08/11/2009

(1) (9)

I joined Alpari and initially good for Asian trading, the evening (London) session is TERRIBLE. constant requoting its a joke now, the service seems to be going bearish.. like a rapidly declining chart reaching new lows. Staff have been good to deal with, then again, the staff arent making dollars in your back pocket and if cant get good fills whats the point.

AussieGuy, FPA 08/11/2009

(0) (9)

Alpari.co.uk
Everything is ok, except news time - really bad execution.

Leonid, Goforex.net 08/11/2009

(1) (2)

I have been dealing with Alpari UK for about two months and they seem to be an excellent broker. Spreads are good, execution is fast and support is on the ball - I asked to change from "Micro" to "Classic" account and it was done within a day. Account setup was very straight-forward - sent them the standard bundle of identification documents, wired funds and was trading inside 5 days. No complaints (yet).

Paul Ray, Earnforex.com 08/11/2009

(9) (0)

At first you will think Alpari is a good broker but they are not! I turned $1000 to $8100 in just two months but Alpari wiped out the whole lot in just 15 minutes! They did not allow me to close my trade when I wanted to and when the trade started going against me and I decied to close, they refused untill all my capital and profit were gone. The only balance I have with them now is just $28! Alpari is SCAM no more than that.

Isaac, FPA 08/11/2009

(0) (24)

They are thieves. I invested 905 US Dollars with them but will forever regret ignoring negative reviews I had read on this forum regarding this forex scammers. The first day of my trading on their MT4, I made 234 USD and eraly morning of the next day, I had a profit of 328 Dollars. Immediately after this, their MT4 began to freeze, requotes, slow entry of orders strated to happen until I finally lost all my investment within 2 days.

Traders should stay away from this company.

Samuel, FPA 08/11/2009

(0) (13)

Honestly, their servers has huge delays (10+seconds) when excuting an order, and they are not honest about the behavior either, I would suggest to avoid if you are thinking of scalping.

JT, Goforex.net 08/11/2009

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