Here are answers to our most frequent queries relating to Trading with Alpari (US).
The procedure for opening a Demo Account is explained here. Your Demo Account will remain open for 30 days. If you would like to extend your demo account or open another one, please contact our Client Services department.
The procedure of Live Account opening is explained here.
Demo and live accounts have the same functional capabilities. However, profits and losses on a demo account are not real therefore no financial risk is involved. On demo accounts all transactions are processed automatically by the server, whilst on live accounts some transactions may be processed manually by a dealer. On demo accounts you may experience a spike due to an erroneous price being quoted and make a trade, whereas on live accounts any spikes are deleted and all trades affected by the spike are amended or deleted.
For a Standard Account, the minimum initial deposit is $500.
Yes, we do. SWAP free accounts incur no interest charges/payments but on the other hand they incur commission charges. Swap free accounts must pay 10 units of base currency per lot per day. For example, if you were trading 1 lot EUR/USD on a swap free account you would have to pay 10 Euros per day to be able to hold the trade. If you want a swap free account please complete the online application and then send a request to our Client Services Team , to change it over to swap free status.
Please see our Contract Specifications page for more information regarding Alpari (US) Spreads.
Usually a losing position is automatically closed by the system when your margin requirement is less than 100%. However, the Forex market is volatile and if you have a low margin level during an economic news release or under abnormal market conditions, the market can rapidly move against you and your open positions will be closed at the next best available price. Also, it is not uncommon for the market prices to gap when the market re-opens for trading after weekends or major holidays. These circumstances could cause you to lose some or all of your account funds or leave you will a negative account balance which you are responsible for. You can use a stop loss to exit a position and reduce your risk exposure however; placing contingent orders may not necessarily limit your losses.
No, the time zone of our trading servers is always GMT/BST+1 (Western European Standard Time/Western European Summer Time +1). Having times in GMT/BST+1 avoids having small candlesticks on Sundays and therefore allows the running of technical analysis and back testing to be more smooth and straight forward.
Alpari (US) offers Forex; Forex is an OTC (over-the-counter, OFF exchange) market, so there are no defined trading sessions. If you have a Standard account with Alpari (US) you may trade Forex from 5:00pm EST Sunday to 5:00pm EST Friday. If you have a Pro account, you may trade from 5:00pm EST Sunday - 5:00pm Friday EST.
Our Client Service Team works from 9:00am EST to 8:00pm EST, Monday - Friday. Our Dealing Desk is open from 5:00pm EST Sunday - 5:00pm EST Friday.
All positions left open between 4:59:45PM and 4:59:59PM (EST) are subject to either a swap fee or swap credit based on the Rollover/Swap Policy. This can be a charge as well as a credit. More details can be found here.
Alpari (US) Standard account holders have access to 40+ currency pairs. In order to see all currency pairs available for trading, please right-click on the "Market Watch" window in MT4 and select "Show All" within the drop-down menu.
Alpari (US) Pro account holders have access to 60+ currency pairs.
We do not have any policies or restrictions on scalping.
1 lot is 100,000 units of base currency.
0.1 of a lot is 10,000 units of base currency
0.01 of a lot is 1,000 units of base currency.
Base currency is the first currency in the currency pair.
For further details, please refer to the our Contract Specifications page.
On a Standard Account the minimum lot size is .01 (1,000 units) and minimum step is 0.01 thereafter.
Alpari (US) offers leverage of 50:1* on major currency pairs and 20:1* on all other pairs. Alpari (US) can lower leverage by customer request.
*A higher degree of leverage can lead to greater gains as well as greater losses.
No, Alpari (US) does not charge a fee for depositing and withdrawing funds. However, we will relay the costs we pay our banks onto our clients. The bank fee for a withdrawal made by wire transfer is $20.00. Withdrawal by check is free.
No. All tax arrangements are your concern. If you have any doubts regarding your tax status we recommend you seek independent advice.
No. Currently we do not pay interest on funds.
Alpari (US) does not charge commissions on Standard accounts. Transaction costs are incorporated into the bid/ask spread.
For more information about Alpari (US) Pro account commissions, please contact a Sales representative.
Trading accounts will be designated as "inactive" once the account has been inactive for 90 days or more. The trading account will be charged a fee after the 120th day of inactivity. Please click here for details about the applicable fee.
We will NOT close your account if you have a zero balance. You can have a functioning live account with a zero account balance.
When placing a trade in the spot FX market, the actual value date is two days forward. A deal done on Thursday is for value Monday. A deal done on Friday is for value Tuesday, and so on. On Wednesday the amount of Rollover is tripled in order to compensate for the following weekend (during which time Rollover is not charged because trading is stopped for the weekend).
When calculating the Rollover, the value date is always counting two bank days later. Therefore, if you open your position on Monday and keep it until Tuesday, it will count as if you opened it on Wednesday and kept it until Thursday, in other words 1 day later. However, if you open the position on Wednesday and keep it until Thursday, it will count as if you opened it on Friday and kept it until Monday, in other words 3 days later. Therefore, triple Rollovers apply to positions kept overnight on Wednesdays! On all other days a single Rollover applies, including positions held from Friday to Monday. For a complete list of rollover charges , please visit our swap policy page.
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