I’ve recently been looking for a broker. I was with Alpari when I first started trading a little while back, but they got caught when the Swiss made a sudden spectacular change to their currency (I don’t remember what it was exactly) and they had to cease trading. I’ve been having some difficulty finding one that could meet my requirements, which was originally NDD, micro and mini lots and spread betting.
Jason Rogers of FXCM has been helpful in a thread in the Broker Aid Station, but the minimum deposit necessary to access NDD with FXCM is higher than I want to commit to at this time.
But the point of this post is, I’m now having a rethink following the discovery of an article written by the Director of Trading of GKFX and hope that it might help anyone else who is trying to decide their criteria for choosing a broker. It was written in 2010 and cynics might want to point out that it was in his interest to write the article, as it gives the impression that at the time GKFX didn’t offer STP or ECN. But I think that the points made in the article are probably still highly relevant today when choosing a broker, and maybe even more so? This is NOT an attempt to promote GKFX (or any other broker), or even offer an opinion on DD or NDD. I still haven’t as yet chosen a broker.
I’m not able to include a link to the article as I haven’t posted enough yet, but just Google “Dealing Desk or No Dealing Desk – That is the Question!” and you should be able to find it.
I happen to know quite a lot about Alapri Ltd - I was with them when they went broke.
To be more specific, Alpari UK (who I assume you were with prior to them going into liquidation) were a subsidiary of Alpari Ltd (who are still operating as a broker). Although separate companies, it may be worth looking at Apari Ltd. This might sound ironic, going back to the parent company because its subsidiary went into liquidation; however it’s difficult to ignore the commercial structure of Alapri Ltd which is extremely well thought out.
I was put off by the Alapri Ltd website, it looks very ‘childish’ and is clearly aimed to attract new aspiring traders. Bonus offers and structures are really disappointing to see, mainly because they are not necessary. Regardless of this though, they may be worth looking at, if of course you are interested.
I only replied to this as I never knew Alpari UK and Alpari Ltd were two different companies
I believe Alpari Ltd are the worlds largest MetaTrader broker too (by volume of transactions)
Many thanks for that Jezzode, I had no idea Alpari still existed and presumed that when they occasionally popped up in search listings that this was due to old cached web pages. I’ll take a look…
Actually we can’t really know if broker NDD or creates “market” inside sometimes acting as a liquidity provider. Most retail brokers run regular hybrid model which is financially worthy for them and helps to maintain cheap access at the same time meeting needs of retail traders.
Yes, Alpari filed bankruptcy after the central bank of Switzerland removed the cap on their currency appreciation. This lead to huge volatility in swiss franc which left brokers, investors and banks with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and Alpari was one of them. And I totally agree with profitbaby, that we can’t really figure out whether a broker is DD or NDD, you can check there spreads for sure but most them use the hybrid model so it becomes a little difficult to figure out the true nature.
I doubt there is a sure way to tell apart NDD from Market makers. Check out broker ToS to see if there is a clause about MM on certain contracts. I made about 20 trades with hanseatic, WTI, Gold contracts and some majors, floating spreads, claimed STP execution, but it needs more time to discover drawbacks (if there is any). Also kept account at FXCM but now completely moving to one broker due to recent scandal.
