Alfa Forex Review by professional Forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team, Finding out everything you need to know about the broker is in this AlfaForex Review.
Alfa Forex Review
Alfa-Forex has one type of account, similarly to other Russian forex brokers like Finam Forex and VTB24 Forex.
The broker has a portfolio of 36 forex pairs – majors and minors and a total of 160 instruments, including CFDs, metals, commodities, indices, stocks, etc. Compared to its competitors VTB 24 Forex and Finam Forex, Alfa-Forex has a bigger selection of forex pairs, but still smaller than that of FxPro with more than 70 pairs.
The Company. Security of Funds
Company Country Regulation
Alfa Group Russia CySEC
Alfa-Forex (Альфа-Форекс) is part of the Russian consortium Alfa Group, which has a rather varied business in Russia, including banking, insurance, investment, several supermarket chains and a waterworks company.
Alfa-Forex, as Alfa Capital Holdings is based and regulated in Cyprus, by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), but is mostly active in Russia. The broker does not have a license from Russia’s central bankk and even intends to discontinue customer service for residents of the Russian Federation as of 23rd of March, 2018.
Cyprus is a preferred destination for forex and binary options brokers active in Europe. On one hand Cyprus is an offshore zone, on the other – being in the EU its regulation is valid throughout the Union through the passporting rules of MiFID.
The local regulator CySEC provides a decent level of client protection, but not as stringent as that of UK’s FCA. It is often accused of being a bit lenient, but in the past months it has stepped up the oversight and requirements and has set a default leverage cap of 1:50 and banned the client bonuses.
Cyprus is the “host” of many forex brokers like FXTM, FxPro, Fibo Group, XM, etc.
Trading Conditions
Minimum initial deposit
Alfa-Forex does not require a minimum initial deposit, much like VTB24 Forex. Probably similarly to it, however, there is a certain sum required from clients to start trading. We, however, could not find information about it.
Spreads and commissions
Alfa-Forex offers floating spreads, starting from 0.7 pips for EURUSD. The average spread for the same pair is 1 pips. This is a rather tight spread for a broker that does not charge additional commissions. In comparison, the spreads of FXTM’s commission free accounts start from 2.2 pips and those of XM start at 1.7 pips.
Leverage
The maximum leverage Alfa-Forex offers is 1:200. It is higher than the default set by CySEC and higher than that of its direct competitors in Russia Finam Forex and VTB24 Forex with 1:40 and 1:50, respectively.
On the other hand, FxPro – another CySEC regulated broker – offers a leverage of 1:500.
Trading platforms
Alfa-Forex provides a good choice of trading platforms. It offers the very popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform and its successor MetaTrader 5 – both developed by MetaQuotes Software. Both MT4 and MT5 are including their mobile applications as well.
Other brokers that offer both MT4 and MT5 are FxPro, Fibo Group, FX Choice and FXTM.
There is also the automated trading platform ZuluTrade, which is compatible with MT4. Alfa-Forex’s requirements for the platform are a deposit of at least $300 and a maximum leverage of 1:100.
Methods of payment
Alfa-Forex accepts client deposits through debit and credit cards, bank transfers and the online payment system of Alfa Bank – Alfa-Click.
The options appear to be rather limited, compared to, for example Grand Capital, which lists numerous online payment systems, in addition to cards and bank transfers. Other brokers, like IG, however, are also accepting bank transfers and cards only.
Of the several Russian forex brokers we have reviewed recently, Alfa-Forex appears to offer the most favorable trading conditions, especially in terms of leverage and spreads. It also has a good selection of trading platforms, but the lack of clear information of the minimum sum required to start trading and the lack of a demo account are a drawback.
Instead of the forex broker you can use Plus500, XM, eToro, Fxpro or AvaTrade forex brokers.
Alfa Forex Review Conclusion
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