Alpari Scraps CFDs Offering Citing Low Demand

Alpari's Russian and international units have announced on their website that due to low demand the company is going to cease offering almost all CFDs (contracts for difference) currently available to their clients. Notably, the firm outlined that it will continue offering the widely popular oil trading contracts based on Brent and WTI crude oil futures prices.

While the move was announced by the company as due to low demand, it may also be a preemptive measure to put the company’s offering in line with the incoming Russian regulatory environment when it comes to its subsidiary operating in the region.

With the Forex regulation law which was passed at the end of last year, CFDs were left out of the equation prompting questions around the industry how the legislation would treat the offerings.

Clients of Alpari will have a window of time within which to close their open CFD positions. Trading will remain active in close-only mode after next Monday, the 23rd of March. Clients who fail to close their open positions until the 27th of March, will get their positions closed on the last quote available.

Alpari is urging its clients to take measures to avoid that and close their positions before the set deadline.

In recent years more and more forex brokerages have been actively working towards diversifying their offerings with CFDs on commodities, indices and equities. As low Volatility engulfed the currency markets in the second half of 2013 and the first six months of last year, traders have been looking towards other asset classes to apply their strategies.