Beware! Alpho is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.

 

There is nothing to be amazed by at Alpho. This broker has taken the very average approach to basically all its aspects, but most evidently with the visuals. Nothing stands out, and as a result there is no remember it by. As for the trading aspects of the company, we urge you to read the review, because there is more than meets the eye, and not in the best of ways.

The registration process was a simple matter, one that took about 10 seconds to complete. However, we opened a demo account, becasue a live account required identification documents. The leading user dashboard resembled a portion of the website, and not its own individualised client area. Anyway, we were able to track down a trading terminal.

The EUR/USD spread we got was 3,4 pips which is incredibly high, and not at all worth your time and money. Let us hope that the live account offers a better cost of trade. The leverage is capped at 1:500; this is the most common leverage cap for offshore brokers, and is both helpful and dangerous at the same time. Users can trade with the following instruments: forex pairs, commodities, stocks, equities, ETFs, and futures.

The website can be accessed in English, Vietnamese, Tamil, Arabic, Filipino, and Indonesian.

ALPHO REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS

The holding company of the broker, Gulf Brokers Ltd, is registered and regulated in Seychelles, where the Seychelles Financial Services Authority is the one that issues licenses. The official database of the regulator checks out; the name of the holding company is found there.

The Seychelles Financial Services Authority has some requirements for wanna be brokers, which proves that this offshore licensing agency does take things somewhat seriously, even if the we are still sceptic. The most important one is that all potential brokers must incorporate a domestic company with a minimum capital of $50 000, with 2 shareholders and 2 directors. However, the overseer does not advocate for segregated bank accounts, so brokers regulated  in Seychelles do not have to keep users’ money in different bank accounts than their own capital, unlike most EU/US brokers. And furthermore $50 000 is definitely not a big sum, meaning that many suspicious firms can easily register.

This aforementioned scepticism is based on previous reviews of brokers that were regulated in the Seychelles, most of which were nevertheless shady. So even with a regulation in Seychelles, we still urge readers to be cautions when dealing with Alpho.

Note that the financial institution onto which the broker passes a user’s money can become insolvent. In such a case the user may not be able to get all of her money back!

Furthermost, there is a clause that we think reveals that the broker has no care for the user’s funds. It sates that Alpho can transfer money belonging to the client to buyers, essentially an undisclosed entity.

ALPHO TRADING SOFTWARE

As part of our profile, we were offered the best trading terminal in the industry, the MT5.

The MT5 is the best terminal for trading in the market. It is an improvement to the MT4 is almost every way. Here are some of its main features: more than 80 indicators and other tools, one click trading, EA’s, superior chart management, and so much more!

The broker has the right to close down clients’ positions when their margin levels drop below 50%.

ALPHO DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES

As we had not verified our account, the following info is taken from the website.

However, we could not find any solid deposit or withdrawal info on the website. There is no real minimum deposit amount revealed anywhere, no payment gateways, and no processing times for withdrawals. However there are fees to be aware of.

As many shady brokers, so does Alpho issue fees for its services and withdrawals, even though it has not all revealed what these services are and what the numerical value of these fees are. And furthermore, this provision is just one in a dozen or so stating basically the same thing.

There are commissions also connected to the enforcement of the legal documents!

What’s more is that Alpho will charge its users interest to all the amounts due, and what is more worrying is that this interest will be added on a daily basis.

The dormant fee of $10 per month is activated if a user has not have an active account for more than one month.;

There is a charge back fee, which is simply ridiculous. A user must pay $200 if she files for a chargeback. We remind users that a chargeback is done when the user suspects that the broker will not return her funds!

Further down the chargeback section of the Terms and Conditions, we found that the actual fee for a chargeback is $400. Even more worrying is that the broker will take this money directly from a user’s credit card!

The chargeback subsection is extensive, and there are so many clauses that we could easily fill this entire section with them! There is one that states that in the event of a chargeback, the broker will close down the account of the issuer and take all profits away!

Here we are with one of many indemnification clauses found throughout the Terms and Conditions. This basically keep the broker away from any liability, in case it causes any issues to the user.

Even with a license Alpho is definitely not recommended to anyone. As we have revealed, specially through the attached snips from the Terms and Conditions, this broker is in essence conducting many of its proceedings as if though it were unregulated. There is no reason to deposit, because you will be feed and fines all over the place.

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