Alaric Securities: FSC licence 783-ДУКА

Alaric Securities OOD states it is authorised to provide services in Bulgaria and 26 further EU and EEA jurisdictions, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Poland. The site publishes no list of countries it refuses. Its registration form offers a very broad country selector, so the authorised jurisdictions above are the reliable guide to where it is entitled to operate.

No. Despite carrying a forex listing, the offering is cash equities, ETFs and options: about 3,000 US stocks and options plus European and Japanese equities. There is no retail currency or contracts-for-difference product, no swap-free account and no MetaTrader.

The site states that client money is held in segregated accounts with its banking partners and is covered by the Bulgarian Investor Compensation Fund up to EUR 20,000 per account. That ceiling is a statutory scheme limit and is well below the equity the top margin tier is designed around, so a larger balance is not fully covered.

The broker states it processes a withdrawal request within one business day, after which the receiving bank may take a further one to three days. A bank transfer withdrawal costs 0.15% of the amount with a $30 minimum and a $150 cap, or a flat $10 on Hammer Lite; SEPA is EUR 3.50 up to EUR 25,000 and EUR 7.00 above. There is no minimum withdrawal amount, and money can only be sent to a bank account in the client's own name.

Funding is by bank wire, SEPA transfer or credit and debit card, in EUR or USD only. USD wire deposits are free up to $5,000 and $29 above that, clearing in one to three business days, while card deposits clear in up to five minutes. Cryptocurrency is not accepted and deposits from a third party are refused.

Its own Hammer family: Hammer Lite for desktop, web and mobile, Hammer Lite Plus at $14.95 a month, and Hammer Pro from $29.95 a month. It also resells Sterling Trader Pro and Sterling LST for the desktop at $175 a month each, and publishes a WebSocket API. There is no MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5.

US stocks, ETFs and options trade commission free on Hammer Lite Plus. On the Active Trader schedule, US equities cost $0.0035 per share falling to $0.0010 at the highest monthly volumes, and US options cost $0.60 per contract falling to $0.25. European and Japanese stocks and ETFs are 0.045% of trade value, and call-in or margin-call trades are $30 per ticket. Platform access is billed separately, from free on Hammer Lite to $175 a month for each Sterling platform.

Buying power is graded by account equity. Starter accounts of $500 to $999 get 3:1 intraday and 1:1 overnight, Active accounts of $1,000 to $99,999 get 6:1 and 2:1, and Pro accounts from $100,000 get 9:1 and 3:1. On review, Active accounts can reach 12:1 intraday and Pro accounts 40:1 intraday with 10:1 overnight.

The site advertises no minimum deposit to open an account. For a margin account the stated minimum is $1,000 on Hammer Pro and $2,000 on the Sterling and Lightspeed platforms. The margin equity tiers themselves start at $500.

The operating company's earliest entry on the Bulgarian Commercial Register is dated 12 March 2011, giving it roughly fifteen years of corporate history. The broker's own site describes fifteen years of industry experience, which is consistent with that record.

The site is owned and operated by Alaric Securities OOD, a Bulgarian limited liability company registered under number 201482151 at 20 Todor Alexandrov Blvd, 1303 Sofia. A related company, Alaric Securities (UK) Ltd, is registered in England and Wales under number 10204731 at One Fleet Place, London EC4M 7WS, and operates its own separate UK site.

Alaric Securities OOD states on its own regulation page that it is authorised and regulated by the Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria under firm reference number RG-03-236-1, with the authorisation passported into 26 further EU and EEA states. The licence covers financial derivatives trading, securities trading and bonds trading. We confirmed the company itself as active on the Bulgarian Commercial Register at the address the licence is issued to. We did not open the Financial Supervision Commission's own register during this research, so a client who wants the authorisation confirmed at source should check it there.