| Broker Name: | Alpari Russia | Dukascopy | FXCM |
| Website: | www.alpari-forex.com | www.dukascopy.com | www.fxcm.com |
| Official Name: | Alpari IDC Corp | Dukascopy (Suisse) SA | Forex Capital Markets, LLC |
| Country of Domicile: | Russia | Switzerland | United States |
| Owners of the Firm: | Unknown | Unknown | DAHER FXCM INVESTMENT LP;FXCM HOLDINGS LLC; DROR NIV; MICHAEL ROMERSA; DAVID SAKHAI; EDUARD YUSUPOV |
| Name of Regulator(s): | Russian Financial Regulation Authority | Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority | US National Futures Association; UK Financial Services Authority; Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission; Canadian Securities Administrators |
| 1st Year of Regulation: | 2003 | | 2001 |
| Active FX Clients: | Over 50,000 (Forexds estimate) | Over 10,000 (Forexds estimate) | FXCM indicates that as of Jan 09, more than 200,000 accounts traded in FXCM platforms - this number includes trades from "white-label" partners of FXCM that use the FXCM backoffice for trade processing. |
| Client Funds: | Over USD300 million (Forexds estimate) | | USD 365 million, is what FXCM shows in customer funds in its own balance sheet through Mar 1, 2010. |
| Broker Name: | Alpari Russia | Dukascopy | FXCM |
| Account Types Offered: | Micro, Classic and Premium accounts. Micro-Accounts in USD and EUR.
Leverage 1:500, No minimum deposit, Minimum lot size – 0.01, 33 currency pairs, spread from 1.8 pips, no commission, CFD on US stocks, CFD on index shares; Classic-Accounts in USD and EUR, Leverage 1:500, 51 currency pairs, spread from 1.8 pips, no commission;
CFD on US stocks; CFD on index shares;(DJIA, Nasdaq 100, S&P 500);
CFD on futures on stock index (mini S&P 500, mini Nasdaq 100); CFD on futures on energy sources (gas, oil);
CFD on futures on precious metals
(gold, silver);
CFD on commodities (corn, soybean, wheat).
Minimum deposit – 200$ or 200 EUR. Premium-(I think this is more for institutional players) Offers personal manager; Change of the deposit currency; Advance credit — is made in the amount of 20% of the current margin; Commission free deposit and withdrawal of funds; Institutional swaps — improvement of the swaps to 20%;
Interest on the Clear Balance— in the amount of 2% annual.
| Private 10,000 (minimum deposit; in USD)
Institutional 50,000
API integration 100,000
Custodian service based 250,000
Bank guarantees based 250,000
Institutional White Label 1,000,000 Leverage ratio up to 1:100 | Segregated accounts: through UK subsidiary (FSA regulated); Gold accounts: Min deposit US$25,000; Standard accounts: Min deposit US$2000, max leverage 200:1; Mini accounts: Min deposit US$25, max leverage 200:1 |
| Islamic Account Available: | Yes | No | Yes |
| Minimum Deposit: | 1 | 10000 | 300 |
| Deposit Notes: | Bank transfer, Web-Money System or Credit Card. | Dukascopy (Suisse) SA only accepts wire transfers for the funding of an account.
| Checks (min $2000 - max $10000, USD only), bank wire, ACH transfer (US only) |
| Deposit Currencies Accepted: | USD, EUR, RUR | USD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD | USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, NZD |
| Bank Wire Deposit: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Credit Card Deposit: | Yes | No | No |
| Check Deposit: | No | No | Yes |
| PayPal Deposit: | No | No | No |
| Webmoney Deposit: | Yes | No | No |
| Lib Reserve Deposit: | No | No | No |
| Moneybookers Deposit: | No | No | No |
| Client Deposit Bank Used: | Rietumu Banka (Latvia) ASB Bank Limited (New Zealand) | USD deposits:
Bank:UBS, Rue de Rhone 8
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Beneficiary Account: Dukascopy (Suisse) SA
EUR deposits:
Bank: UBS, Rue de Rhone 8
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Beneficiary Account: Dukascopy (Suisse) SA
GBP deposits:
Bank: UBS, Rue de Rhone 8
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Beneficiary Account: Dukascopy (Suisse) SA
CHF deposits:
Bank: UBS, Rue de Rhone 8
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Beneficiary Account: Dukascopy (Suisse) SA
| US Dollar deposits: Bank of America, USA; EUR deposits: HSBC Bank, Plc, UK; GBP deposits: HSBC Bank, Plc, UK; JPY deposits: HSBC Limited, Japan; CAD deposits: HSBC Bank Canada, Canada; AUD deposits: HSBC Bank Australia, Australia; NZD deposits: HSBC Bank Plc, UK. |
| Name of Beneficiary: | | Dukascopy (Suisse) SA | Forex Capital Markets, LLC; if a segregated account is opened, then Client is the beneficiary of the account. |
| Broker Name: | Alpari Russia | Dukascopy | FXCM |
| Reader's Digest: | Sep 09 Update. Alpari is one of the best known names in Forex worldwide. The origins of the firm was in Russia back in 1999. Since then, it has served more than 100,000 accounts. With the support of foreign stakeholders, the company launched Alpari UK (regulated by UK FSA) in 2004, and Alpari US (regulated by the US NFA) in 2006. Alpari (Russia) is particularly well known in Russia, in Eastern European nations, and in some African countries like Marrocco. The company has also traded in CFD's and stock indeces since 2003, and is regulated in Russia as a futures and options broker. The Alpari success is closely tied to the decision back in 2000 to adopt the trading technology of MetaQuotes - creator of MetaTrader technology. Beyond that key partnership, Alpari has been known for sponsoring trading contests and providing training to customers. The Russian website of Alpari (alpari-forex.com) has a very good economic calendar and Dow Jones news (live account holders only). | Sep 09 Update. Dukascopy is a Swiss ECN broker that launched operations in 2004 and applied for a banking license in 2009, as required by Swiss law. Dukascopy is well regarded for its ECN business model and transparency. Its "Swiss FX Marketplace" has succeeded creating a place where institutions and individuals (through brokers) may participate on equal footing. It is important to note that Dukascopy primarily serves institutions - individuals must open accounts with at least US$10,000 ($50,000 minimum for standard accounts) - the higher the deposit, the more benefits, such as being able to trade with institutions, receiving bank guarantees and having a segregated account. | Sep 09 Update. FXCM is a company that has come a long way over the years. It has always excelled at marketing, but the client did not get as good of a deal under the dealing desk business model as they do today with an agency broker model. Experienced traders will invariably be less inclined to recommend people to FXCM, but current users appear quite content with the services and execution that they are getting. The capitalization of the company remains one of the largest in the industry - US$62.0m as of Jun ’10, but it is considerably down from Nov 08 when it reached a high of US$121.4m. One of the reasons for this considerable decline has been the acquisition of multiple operations from smaller brokers early in 2009. The services for clients are compelling, particularly for new traders. Kudos to FXCM for being the most regulated firm in the retail FX market: it has gone through separate regulatory registrations with entities in the: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, and France. The FXCM website (fxcm.com) is better than the average broker website because of two reasons: the web has both ample proprietary content and administrative functionality, and it also integrates additional content from affiliated websites. The fxcm.com site gets high marks for a nice platform video and for products (such as the managed account program and index program) that open Forex investment for groups beyond self-traders. The charting section is extensive and bound to please various types of traders. Its training programs and multilanguage capability are also nice features that have helped FXCM to reach a broad audience, particularly new traders. The second reason why we like the web experience of fxcm.com has to do with the rich and abundant content from dailyfx.com - the research arm of FXCM. The dailyfx.com line up includes timely comment on economic news, calendar data, strategy reports, and trading ideas. Like several of the major brokers, FXCM has broken up its proprietary offering in way that rewards the bigger accounts. Having said that, there is ample content available for free for demo and mini account holders. A separate but related entity FXCMmicro.com focuses on smaller accounts and has a dealing desk model. |
| Trader Evaluations: | 11 | 30 | 268 |
| Net Promoter Score (Best +100%, Worst -100%): | -27 % | -17 % | 0 % |
| Overall - All Time: | 5.73 | 6.83 | 7.34 |
| Overall - Last 90 Days: | 7.00 | 7.40 | 8.00 |
| Trading Platform: | 5.90 | 6.32 | 7.32 |
| Customer Service: | 6.00 | 7.12 | 7.11 |
| Accounts Department: | 6.00 | 7.08 | 7.17 |
| Funding Department | 5.80 | 7.32 | 7.27 |
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