alpho.com briefly
Alpho is a registered brand of Gulf Brokers Ltd., which is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA). Customers can trade more than 250 currency pairs, indices, commodities, and shares through one of the latest versions of the MetaTrading terminal – MetaTrader 5 (MT5) with floating spreads. The spread of the EUR/USD pair starts from 3 pips, the company claims. You can open a live account with as low as USD100.
Regulation
It is particularly important for you to know whether and where the company is regulated. The FAQ section of the alpho.com website says that Alpho is a limited liability company incorporated and licensed under the laws of the Financial Service Authority of Seychelles (FSA) to carry out certain categories of financial investment business as permitted under license number SD013. About customer money security, the company just says that it has an excellent team of risk management experts who have implemented strong risk management policies at every stage of the business model Alpho operates in. Moreover, the Client Agreement document informs that the company may deposit client money in overnight deposits and will be allowed to keep any interest. This means that your money is not guaranteed by any authority and if the company is unable to meet its obligations, you will probably not get your money back.
Account Types
There are no different types of live trading accounts. Trading conditions are equal for all groups of traders, regardless of the deposited amount. The spread is not fixed and can widen beyond the typical values. The minimum value for the EUR/USD pair is 3 pips. Clients can start trading by investing a minimum of USD100. The leverage for currency pairs is 1:500, which is an extremely high value, leading to greater risk. The margin call will be triggered at the 50% margin level and the stop out will be triggered at the 30% margin level.
What Type of Broker the Company Is
We have found in the Client Agreement document that in relation to all individual CFD trading the company will receive the client orders and transmit them for execution to a third party which will be the execution venue and counterparty in the CFD. The Company will not be the counterparty in a CFD. All this means that Gulf Brokers Ltd. transmits orders on the external market – its execution venues using the Straight Through Processing model (STP), transferring the risk and avoiding the main conflict of interest.
In the Order Execution Policy file, it is also written that slippage may occur when trading financial instruments, which means that at the time that an order is presented for execution, the specific price requested by the client may not be available; therefore, the order will be executed close to or several pips away from the client’s requested price. The company informs that this is a normal market practice during the period of low liquidity or high volatility. The orders will be executed at the next available market price.
It is noted that slippage can occur also during stop loss, take profit and other types of orders. The company does not guarantee the execution of your pending orders at the price specified and as such, stop loss orders are not guaranteed and will be filled at the next best available market price.
In addition, the same document shows that in instances where your open positions are liquidated, and your trading account reaches a negative balance, you are liable for all losses and must immediately make a payment. This means that you are not covered by Negative Balance Protection and can lose more than the total sum invested for trading CFDs.
Fees
In addition to the usual fees such as spread, swap, etc., there is also an inactivity fee, so in the case of no activity for a period of one (1) month (no deposits, withdrawals or trading activity) in the trading account, the company reserves the right to charge a maintenance fee of USD10 (or currency equivalent), subject to the client having sufficient funds available in return for the provision of the continued availability of the trading account.
Deposits and Withdrawals
The Client Agreement file shows that deposits can be made via the methods and in the currencies accepted by the company as amended from time to time. The detailed information about deposit options is shown on the website. However, the only information we found on the website was photos of Visa and MasterCard.
Withdrawals should be made using the same method used by the client to fund his account and to the same remitter. Client fund transfer requests and withdrawals should be performed from the company’s client portal located on the website or by sending a request to [email protected]. All fees are covered by the client. The company reserves the right to charge up to USD200 research fee if a chargeback is placed with the client’s credit card company for any deposit made to the client account. Withdrawals are processed as soon as possible, the company claims.
Trading Platforms
You can trade via one of the latest versions of the most popular terminal in the industry – MetaTrader 5 (MT5). MT5 is the newer version and successor to MT4. It is a great choice for any trader who loves one modern and comfortable trading platform. MT5 offers more execution options, order types, indicators, and graphical objects. You can use built-in plug-ins created to speed up the ways of trading. An economic calendar is built-in, and you can see the market in depth (Level II quotes). You can also create your own trading robots, charting objects, and technical indicators. MT5 is available as a downloadable version for Mac and Windows machines, as a web version and as a mobile app for Android devices and iOS.
Assets
Alpho offers four asset groups for trading:
Forex – More than 60 popular major, minor, and exotic currency pairs can be traded. The spread for the EUR/USD pair starts at 3 pips.
Indices – You can trade 14 of the most popular major and minor indices globally, such as US Dow Jones, UK100, German30 etc. The typical spread for the German30 is 20 points.
Commodities – 9 metals, 5 energy products and 10 agricultures are available for trading such as Gold, Silver, Platinum, Oil, Natural Gas, etc. The typical spread for the Crude Oil is USD0.09.
Shares – Alpho offers CFDs on shares of major companies from the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. There is a commission of 0.5% (minimum USD20) of the traded volume.
Summary
Alpho is licensed under the laws of the Financial Service Authority of Seychelles (FSA). This regulation allows it to provide financial services but be careful because it is not as strict as the regulation in the European Union for example. Gulf Brokers Ltd – the company that stands behind Alpho uses the STP model to execute orders, so there is no major conflict of interest. The company provides a wide range of trading instruments via the popular MT5 terminal. You can open only one type of real account, starting with USD100.
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