Worked example
Practising on Alpari's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Alpari publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
Alpari does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. Alpari offers 5 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- MicroThe entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- StandardA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- ECNA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- Pro ECNA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- DemoA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: Micro, Standard, ECN, Pro ECN, Demo. Platforms listed: MT4, MT5.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are Alpari's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mwali International Services Authority (MISA), Comoros · Comoros (Mohéli) | Parlance Trading Ltd (reg. HY00423015) | T2023236 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
No top-tier line appears on this file. That does not make the firm illegitimate, but it does mean the compensation-scheme and capital-rule protections a beginner usually assumes are present are not evidenced here. 1 line is offshore registration; treat those as a company address rather than as supervision.
The record behind these numbers
- Alpari's own site states the brand was founded in 1998 and that it serves more than 1 million clients.
- Alpari states it is licensed by the Mwali International Services Authority (MISA) as an International Brokerage and Clearing Company under number T2023236; MISA is a Comoros (Mohéli) offshore authority.
- Alpari's legal footer names the operating company as Parlance Trading Ltd, registered number HY00423015; the MISA registrar's public verification page lists the same licence number T2023236 against the name Alpari (Comoros) Ltd.
- Alpari (UK) Limited, a separate former UK group company, entered the Special Administration Regime on 19 January 2015 following the Swiss National Bank's removal of the EUR/CHF cap (source: FCA).
- The current Alpari offering is not covered by any tier-1 regulator's supervision.
- Alpari's Client Agreement (clause 7.8) states: "Your funds are held in our accounts, including segregated accounts opened in our name on your behalf for holding your funds. This is separate from our own funds" (https://alpari.com/en/documents/client-agreement/).
- Alpari's Client Agreement (clause 8.6) states a client who owes more than their account balance "will pay the amount representing the excess within two (2) Business Days of the obligation arising other than where negative balance protection exists under Applicable Regulation" — i.e. the agreement does not itself grant negative balance protection (https://alpari.com/en/documents/client-agreement/).
- Alpari's account comparison lists Micro (min $30, leverage up to 1:500), Standard ($100, up to 1:1000), ECN ($300, up to 1:3000) and Pro ECN ($500, up to 1:3000) accounts, and its leverage page states forex and metals leverage of up to 1:3000, cut to a maximum of 1:200 during Dynamic Margin Requirement periods around major news and market closures (https://alpari.com/en/trading-accounts/).
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: minDeposit; maxLeverage; spreadEurusd; accountTypes; segregatedFunds; negativeBalanceProtection; publiclyListed; whether the MISA licence T2023236 is currently in force (registrar page listed an end date of 12 April 2025; renewal status not confirmed); account types; negative balance protection; spreadEurusd — the site publishes only advertised floors (Micro from 1.5 pips, Standard from 0.3, ECN from 0.1, Pro ECN from 0.0 plus commission); no typical EURUSD spread is stated, and the homepage live-rates snapshot (1.0 pip at capture) is not a spec figure; negativeBalanceProtection — Client Agreement clause 8.6 makes clients liable for amounts exceeding their balance except where NBP exists under applicable regulation; no affirmative NBP statement was found in the Client Agreement, Terms and Conditions page or Risk Disclosure (checked 20 Aug 2026); publiclyListed — no investor-relations page or exchange listing found for the Alpari brand or its operating company Parlance Trading Ltd (a Comoros IBC); absence of a listing cannot be verified from a primary source; MISA licence T2023236 current status — the registrar's public list page (https://mwaliregistrar.com/list_of_entities) sits behind a Cloudflare JS challenge and could not be queried (checked 20 Aug 2026); the seed's note that the register listed an end date of 12 April 2025 remains unconfirmed; instruments — the live site also markets Stocks, ETF CFDs and Futures CFDs (MT5) beyond the seeded list, but the seeded array was left unchanged. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
pipdojo.com does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.