Alpari

South Africans 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 South African traders with negative balance protection so 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 participation in a compensation scheme, we consider Alpari a trustworthy broker for South Africans to trade with.

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

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

• Standard Account: 100 USD
• ECN Account: 300 USD
• Pro ECN Account: 500 USD

Creating an account is straightforward, 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 details, including name, country of residence, and 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 and 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 derives most of its revenue from spreads and commissions. As you can see from the table above, the trading costs on the commission-free Standard Accounts are 17 USD. The trading costs on most other brokers’ entry-level accounts are around 10 USD, making these rather expensive options.  

However, the commission-based Pro 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 has an instant execution Standard Account and two market execution ECN Accounts. The ECN Accounts are more suited to experienced traders, with higher minimum deposits, low ongoing trading costs, and access to the MT5 platform. The Standard account has lower minimum deposits, and while no commissions are charged, spreads are wider than average.

Standard Account

This account type requires a minimum deposit of 50 USD/EUR/GBP. 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 can trade 61 Forex pairs, spot metals, and spot CFDs. Leverage is floating, but the upper limit is 1:1000, which is risky, and accounts could be wiped out. If you are a new trader, we recommend lowering your leverage.

ECN Account

This account requires a minimum deposit of 300 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 can also trade a limited number of cryptocurrencies.

Pro ECN Account

This account is made for professional traders only and requires a minimum balance of 500 USD/GBP/EUR at all times. No commission is charged on trades and spreads are as low as 0.0 pips. Leverage is floating with an upper limit of 1:3000, and the margin call is set at 120%. 

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. 

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

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

Alpari’s MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere. They have nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. The ability to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real time, and trade tick charts 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 offers MT4 and MT5 WebTerminal, 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 community support and the tool’s large user base. 

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, a 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 regarding 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.

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.

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

Alpari offers several deposit and withdrawal methods, including credit and 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 Trading Central and FX Blue for the MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms.

Trading Central

Find out what’s driving the markets and give your trading an extra edge. Trading Central’s Market Buzz cuts through the noise to provide timely, relevant investment content and data visualisations. You can also analyse market sentiment – across assets classes – with innovative indicators.

FX Blue

Create, modify and close orders with ease via FX Blue’s Mini Terminal. Each order field on the deal ticket – volume, s/l, t/p, and trailing stop – includes its own calculator to help you work out your trade size and margin requirement. You can also create templates for one-click order entry.

Dig deeper into market movements with FX Blue’s comprehensive suite of technical indicators. Whether you want to examine currency strength or identify bullish and bearish extremes, you’ll find the perfect indicator for your strategy.

Alpari has a limited news section, providing daily market updates on the day’s most important stories. 

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.

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

Like most brokers, Alpari offers 24-hour support from Monday to Friday. However, unusually, Alpari also offers customer support from 12:00 to 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.