Alpari Moves Exotic Currency Pairs into Close Only Mode

According to an announcement on Alpari’s website, the company will implement a close only mode on a number of exotic currency pairs, most notably involving more volatile currencies and currency pegs such as the DKK, NOK, SEK, PLN, ILS, HKD and others.

In the aftermath of the Swiss National Bank’s announcement about the drop of the Swiss franc cap on its exchange rate a number of brokerages have taken preventive measures to protect themselves against another unexpected spike in the exchange rates of pegged currencies.

On the other hand, a set of European FX pairs, including Scandinavian Swedish and Norwegian krone and the Polish zloty, have recently become very volatile due to the unprecedented monetary policy conduct announced by the ECB in January.

Alpari aims to protect itself from excessive currency moves and is looking to limit the exposure of its offering to a number of pairs which are not heavily traded. With the bulk of the pairs which are put into close only mode being traded by less than 0.5% of the brokerage’s customers, the company considers its move prudent in managing risks.

The changes will take effect on the 20th of February, while on the 27th there will be a hard deadline for traders to close their positions on the pairs. On that date all open positions held by clients will be closed by the brokerage.

The full list of currency pairs follows:

AUD/DKK
AUD/NOK
AUD/SEK
CHF/NOK
CHF/PLN
EUR/HKD
EUR/ILS
EUR/PLN
EUR/ZAR
GBP/DKK
GBP/HUF
GBP/NOK
GBP/PLN
GBP/SEK
GBPTRY
USD/CZK
USD/HUF
USD/ILS
XAG/EUR
XAU/EUR

In addition, the company has announced that it will be adding some pairs depending on the different account types offered by Alpari. On the pro.mt4 and its ecn.mt4 offerings the firm will add the GBP/SGD and the NZD/SGD.

On the nano.mt4 accounts, Alpari Russia will add 26 new currency pairs: AUD/SGD, CHF/SGD, EUR/DKK, EUR/NOK, EUR/RUB, EUR/SEK, EUR/SGD, EUR/TRY, GBP/NZD, GBP/SGD, HKD/JPY, NZD/CAD, NZD/CHF, NZD/SGD, SGD/JPY, USD/CNH, USD/DKK, USD/HKD, USD/MXN, USD/NOK, USD/PLN, USD/RUB, USD/SEK, USD/SGD, USD/TRY, USD/ZAR.