I have opened a demo account with them because I noticed they used the Metatrader4 platform which quite a few babypips members seem to use. So I thought I would give them a try. I love the platform, but don’t know anything about Alpari. Does anyone use them and would you recommend them?
Thanks in anticipation!
In what country are you located?
2 stars does not look great imho:
Alpari-US | Alpari-US.com reviews and ratings by Forex Peace Army
Alpari | Alpari.co.uk reviews and ratings by Forex Peace Army
I always look for reliable brokers. If you want to do yourself a favor: Use a real ecn broker. If you use a market maker it is very likely it eats up a lot of your profits if not all by spread spikes, requotes, disconnection issues, etc. etc.
If you don’t mind about 10 pips plus or minus for your entry plus another for your exit, then go with a market maker. So, if you trade on the weekly or monthly chart primarily go with it. If you use an EA or intraday strats, forget about any market maker! I’m not going to say they all rise all the issues intentionally or you can’t make money with it (I did!), but it doesn’t matter to me if I have problems with my broker because they run after my money intentionally or if they invest more in promotions instead of a reliable server platform.
I live in Durban, South Africa, but would prefer to use a UK based broker.
Thanks for the links - will check them out. My live account is with a company in South Africa who use CMC Markets UK and I pay GBP1 commission for every time I press the buy/sell button plus the spread. As I trade fairly small it is often makes a difference as to whether I make a profit or not having to pay the extra GBP2 on every trade. Is is possible for you to recommend a broker? I am based in Durban, South Africa, but my funds are in the UK.
I mostly prefer to use a USA based broker.
Hi Buckscoder! which ECN broker do you suggest?
there are many so called ECN’s that isn’t truly ECNs
after a while they turns out to be not so good,
which are your current broker?
Hello! I do not suggest any broker. There are too many. I do also not suggest my broker, because if I suggest it and get a problem tommorrow with this broker then I would regret it. Here you can look for ecn brokers:
ECN brokers list | ECN/STP Forex brokers
If you look at Alpari, their ecn takes a min. deposit of $20000. All accounts below is just a market maker account.
Plus if you click that cybersearch button there top left then you can fill in the form to filter your brokers of choice. Adapted to what you want. 
Regarding “truly ecn”: If you get the dom, have close to interbank spreads and a commission, it is very likely the closest you can get to an ecn. Small orders might be bunched for a later hedge, but a ecn makes the money with commission and not trading against their clients.
No dealing desk by the way means nothing! If they have a dealer plugin code, then a computer algo trades against you. Without dealing desk!
I hope that helps.
Thanks for the input will check it out Have also seached on Review and Rating on Forex Peace Army link that you suggested previously. Lots of negative stuff out there about the different brokers - it makes you wonder about the amount they spend on advertising.
I would avoid Alpari,
they are a lot of negativity about them