HY Markets Review

I opened an account with HY Markets just over a month ago and have had a really good run trading with them. I would like to warn anyone who thinks of day-trading with these guys though - don't! Besides the no scalping policy, HY Markets has unusually high spreads, particularly for smaller accounts, so if you are in and out of trades often, your costs will add up very quickly. They offer 3 types of accounts:

• Mini - $50 min. deposit, 2,000 unit min. trade size, 7 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;
• Standard - $750 min. deposit, 10,000 unit min. trade size, 5 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;
• Premium - $2,500 min. deposit, 100,000 unit min. trade size, 3 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;

I had a Standard account, and was really feeling it every time I opened a trade. I had a strong run of trades which made it seem insignificant, but I know that if I had had a string of losses, those costs would have been unbearable. The Premium account, while offering slightly better spreads (although still higher than most brokers), has the disadvantage of standard lot deal sizes. There is no way someone with a $2,500 account could handle standard lots, so I find the combination to be somewhat predatory in nature - they push traders to upgrade their accounts by providing better spreads, but then screw them by making them over-leverage due to huge minimum deal sizes.

Still though, a trader has only himself to blame if he is taken in by such practices. An experienced trader would never allow himself to be taken advantage of like that. The fault ultimately lies with you if you agree to such trading conditions.

On the positive side, for those who are well capitalized and/or don't mind the high spreads (read, longer-term traders), HY Markets offers investors a solid package, mostly because of the vast array of tradeable instruments on tap. You can trade anything from silver to cocoa to IBM to EUR/USD on the HY Markets MT4 platform. The best thing about it is that because of the way HY Markets structures their CFDs, all the instruments can be traded long or short at any time.

HY Markets also provides the safety offered by an FSA (UK) regulated broker and the financial stability of a well capitalized business that has been in the finance world since 1977.

These facts alone can easily overcome the negatives, particularly for those who are not necessarily just looking to trade forex, but other instruments.

PROS:
Safety of FSA regulation (FSA #186171);
Long-term business commitment;
Well capitalized;
Client funds are segregated from company operating capital;
Staggering array of tradable instruments;
Ability to long and short any of the instruments available;
Stop losses guaranteed against slippage;
Swap-free accounts available to Islamic traders;
Deposits and withdrawals available by Visa and MasterCard;

CONS:
Ridiculously high forex spreads for Mini and Standard accounts;
Mediocre swap rates;
Inflexible deal sizing for Premium accounts;
No demo accounts available;

Quick Facts:
Henyep Investment (UK) Ltd. in business since 1977;
Offices in London, Dubai and Hong Kong;
Downloadable (MT4), Browser, and Mobile (Pocket PC) trading platforms available;
Deposits and withdrawals by Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Wire Transfer;
Maximum Leverage 200:1 on all account types;

If you would like to open an account, please visit HY Markets. Thanks for stopping by!

Alpari Review

I would like to note first that the Alpari I'm talking about here is a separate company from Alpari UK and Alpari US, although the strings are pulled by the same Russian puppet masters. Alpari is run by Russians as a Seychelles company until recently (now a New Zealand company). I somehow seem to always find myself faced with a possibly dodgy situation to trade in. Maybe it's just that trading itself has lost its excitement, so I am looking for another thrill... But to be quite honest, I have had a much better experience trading with Alpari than with brokers found in much more "reputable" places. I will talk more about that in my next post, as there is a broker I have gotten myself into quite a dispute with. I have to give them a chance to unbreak my account before spewing vitriol about them, but stay tuned, it's coming.

Anyway, this post is about Alpari, and Alpari is well known among the hardcore retail forex traders as being very fair when dealing with trading disputes or ambiguities. Alpari is also well known among the same group of traders as having the best quality free historical charts data available. As a result, most people doing backtests on their MT4 Expert Advisors use Alpari data, unless they can bankroll some paid data, which is rare in the case of retail traders.

I have had personal experience with Alpari now, and can confirm that most of this reputation comes for a reason. There have been no disputes yet, so I can't report on that right now, but I have had all my orders respected to the pip so far. Combined with low spreads and a wide range of instruments to trade, Alpari is as competitive as any other MT4 broker out there. If you like MT4, then there is no reason not to give Alpari a try. Good reputation, low spreads, tons of instruments to trade, and a well-known, reliable trading platform are what you can expect from this broker.

PROS:
Stellar reputation for resolving disputes in a fair and logical manner;
MT4 platform ease of use and reliability, as well as automated trading heaven;
Lots of tradable instruments (see Quick Facts below);
Low spreads (from 1.8 pips on EUR/USD);
Been around since 1998;

CONS:
Unregulated, capitalization unknown;
MT4 platform lack of features;
Dodgy legal setup;

Quick Facts;
Tradable instruments: 51 spot currency pairs, CFDs on various US stocks, CFDs on index shares, CFDs on futures on stock indexes, CFDs on commodities and precious metals, etc.;
Headquarters in New Zealand and Moscow, Russia;
Target spread on EUR/USD is 1.8 pips (0.00018);
Established 1998;
Metatrader 4 (MT4) platform;

If you would like to open an account at Alpari, please visit their website.