Alpari are deceptive between demo and live accounts

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