Question 1

How do I open an account?

Accepted Answer

Apply online, upload your identity and address documents, and fund the account once it is approved. The whole thing runs in four steps, and the application itself takes a few minutes. The wait, where there is one, is verification rather than the form.

Question 2

How long does it take to open an account?

Accepted Answer

The application takes minutes. Approval depends on verification, which usually clears on the same business day when both documents are legible and the details match what you entered.

Question 3

Which account should I open?

Accepted Answer

It depends on how you trade, not on which sounds cheaper. Standard folds the cost into the spread, typically 0.8 pips on EUR/USD with $0 commission. The three raw accounts show you the raw spread and charge a fee on top: $3.50 per lot, per side on Raw Spread, falling to $1.50 per lot, per side on Raw Pro and $1.00 per lot, per side on Raw Pro+. Which works out better depends on your size and how often you trade, so run your own numbers rather than taking a rule of thumb from us.

Question 4

How much do I need to open an account?

Accepted Answer

Standard and Raw Spread open from $0. Raw Pro opens from $5,000 and Raw Pro+ from $100,000. There is no charge to put money in or take it out: $0 funding fees.

Question 5

Should I start on a demo or go straight to live?

Accepted Answer

If YAL is new to you, the demo is the honest way in: real YAL pricing, no deposit, no documents. When you are ready, the live account is the same platform with real funds.

Question 6

What does a demo cost?

Accepted Answer

Nothing. There is no deposit and nothing to pay, and opening one does not commit you to funding a live account.

Question 7

What do I need to open a demo?

Accepted Answer

An email address and a platform choice. Identity documents belong to a live account, because that is where real money and regulation come in.

Question 8

What are the demo's limits?

Accepted Answer

Your starting balance and how long the demo runs are both set when the account is created, and both are stated in the email that carries your login. If you run the balance down or the demo lapses while you are still learning, contact support and they will sort it.

Question 9

Which account type should I demo?

Accepted Answer

The one you would actually open. All of them can be demoed, Standard · Raw Spread · Raw Pro · Raw Pro+, and they do not cost the same to trade. Practise on the wrong one and you learn the wrong numbers.

Question 10

Can I trade the demo on my phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MetaTrader 5 has its own desktop, web and mobile apps, and one login works across all three. There is no separate YAL app to install.

Question 11

Is demo pricing the same as a live account?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is the pricing of whichever account type you demo, not one blended rate. On a Raw Spread account that is typically 0.1 pips on EUR/USD plus $3.50 per lot, per side; on Standard the cost sits inside the spread instead. The one thing a demo cannot reproduce is the fill, because no order is sent to the market.

Question 12

How do I go live when I am ready?

Accepted Answer

Open a live account and fund it. Standard and Raw Spread open from $0, and the whole thing runs in four steps. Your demo stays where it is, so you can keep testing an idea on it while you trade live.

Question 13

Which platform does the demo run on?

Accepted Answer

YAL runs MetaTrader 5, so that is what your demo runs on: the same platform, the same order tickets and the same charts you will use on a live account. Nothing you learn on the demo has to be relearned.

Question 14

Can I change my account type later?

Accepted Answer

You do not convert an existing account, you open another one and move funds across internally. That keeps the trading history of each account intact, which matters if you are comparing how the same strategy performs on two cost structures.

Question 15

What documents do I need to open an account?

Accepted Answer

A proof of identity, such as a passport or national ID, and a proof of address, such as a utility bill or a bank statement. Upload both during signup and we take it from there.

Question 16

Why do you need my documents at all?

Accepted Answer

Because anti-money-laundering law requires a regulated financial firm to establish who its clients are before it holds their money, and a brokerage cannot opt out of that. It is not a credit check and it is not discretionary. The practical consequence worth knowing early: an unverified account can usually be funded but cannot be paid out, so leaving verification half finished stores up a problem that only appears at the moment you want your money.

Question 17

How long does verification take?

Accepted Answer

Most accounts clear on the same business day when both documents are legible and current. A document that needs a second look, or a name or address that does not match across the two, takes longer because a person has to review it.

Question 18

Why was my document rejected?

Accepted Answer

Usually for one of five reasons, and none of them is a judgement about you. The image is cut off, so a corner or an edge of the document is missing. It is too dark, blurred or has glare across the detail that matters. The proof of address is older than the accepted window, which rules out most old bills people have to hand. The name or the address on it does not match what you entered when you registered. Or it is a document type we cannot accept, such as a screenshot of an online banking page rather than a statement, or a mobile phone bill where the provider does not confirm a residential address. Photograph the whole document flat, in daylight, with all four corners in frame, and check the name and address against your registration exactly, including spelling.

Question 19

I do not have a utility bill in my own name. What can I send?

Accepted Answer

This is common and it is not a dead end. Shared housing, family accommodation, company accommodation and recently arrived expatriates all produce the same situation, where every bill is in somebody else's name. Contact us before uploading something you expect to be rejected, describe the situation, and we will tell you what we can accept in your case. There is usually an alternative, such as a bank statement, a tenancy contract or an official government or employer letter showing your address. Sending the household bill with an explanation in the notes does not work, because the reviewer is checking a name against a name.

Question 20

My name is spelled differently on my ID and my bank statement. Does that matter?

Accepted Answer

It can, and it is worth raising rather than hoping it passes. Arabic names transliterate into English in several valid ways, and middle names are recorded by some institutions and dropped by others, so one person can hold two documents that a reviewer reads as two people. Tell us which spelling is on which document when you upload. Resolving it at verification is straightforward. Resolving it later, when a withdrawal has been returned by a bank over the same mismatch, is not.

Question 21

Why are you asking where my money came from?

Accepted Answer

Because for certain deposits we are required to, and the requirement scales with the amount and the pattern rather than with any suspicion about you. A salary certificate, a bank statement showing the funds arriving, a contract of sale or a tax document usually satisfies it. It is a standard part of anti-money-laundering compliance. Providing it promptly is the fastest route through, and it is a request that does not go away if it is ignored: the account stays restricted until it is answered.

Question 22

I am already verified. Why are you asking for documents again?

Accepted Answer

Because identity records expire and the law requires them to be current, not merely to have been checked once. The usual triggers are an expired passport or ID, an address change, a long gap since the last review, or a deposit pattern that requires a refresh of the file. It is routine, and it is not a signal that anything is wrong with your account.

Question 23

How do I change my address or my personal details?

Accepted Answer

From the client area, and a change to a name or an address needs a document supporting it for the same reason the original did. Keeping the address current matters more than it looks: an out-of-date address on file is one of the things that causes a withdrawal to be stopped for review later.

Question 24

Can I open an account in my company's name?

Accepted Answer

Corporate accounts require a different set of documents from an individual account, covering the company itself, its ownership and the people authorised to act for it. Contact us before applying and we will tell you what is needed for your company's jurisdiction.

Question 25

Do you accept clients from my country?

Accepted Answer

Not from every country. There is a restricted list, and it is published rather than discovered at the end of an application. If your country is on it we cannot open an account for you, and that is not something support can make an exception to.

Question 26

How do I fund my account?

Accepted Answer

From the cashier in the client area, not from the trading platform. You can fund by bank transfer, Visa, Mastercard, and local methods, and the methods available to you are shown at the cashier with their processing times before you pay. YAL adds no charge on any of them: $0 funding fees.

Question 27

How long before the money is in my account?

Accepted Answer

Instant card deposits, which means the balance is available to trade as soon as the payment is authorised. Bank transfers and local methods settle on their own rails and take longer, and the cashier shows the current time for the method you have chosen before you confirm.

Question 28

I paid but the money is not in my account. What now?

Accepted Answer

Check which method you used before assuming something has broken. A card payment credits as soon as it is authorised, so if a card deposit is missing there is usually a decline behind it that your issuer has recorded even though your banking app showed the payment going through. A bank transfer has not failed simply because it has not appeared: it is still moving, and it credits when it settles. If a card payment shows as taken by your bank and the balance has not moved after an hour, send us the payment reference and the exact amount and we will match it. Do not pay a second time to force it through, because that usually results in two payments to reconcile rather than one.

Question 29

Why was my card payment declined?

Accepted Answer

In most cases by your own bank rather than by us, and they will not always tell you why on the screen. The usual causes are an international or online transaction block on the card, a daily limit, a card that is not enabled for the currency, or a routine fraud check triggered by a first payment to a new merchant. Some banks decline payments to financial services by default until you authorise them. Calling your issuer and asking them to authorise the transaction clears it more often than retrying does. Retrying repeatedly can itself lock the card.

Question 30

Can I fund my account from someone else's card or bank account?

Accepted Answer

No. Deposits are accepted from accounts and cards in your own name. A payment arriving from a third party has to be returned to where it came from, which costs you the time of the return and the time of paying again properly. The same rule applies in reverse when you take money out, so the account you fund from is effectively the account you will be paid back to.

Question 31

What currency should I deposit in?

Accepted Answer

Ideally the same currency your account is held in. Your account base currency is one of USD, EUR, AED, chosen when you open it. Paying in a different currency means someone converts it, either your bank or the payment provider, and their rate and their conversion fee apply.

Question 32

How much do I have to deposit to start?

Accepted Answer

Standard and Raw Spread open from $0, so there is no deposit threshold to clear before the account exists. Raw Pro opens from $5,000 and Raw Pro+ from $100,000. What you actually need is enough to cover the margin on the positions you intend to open plus room for them to move against you, which is a larger number than the minimum and depends entirely on how you trade.

Question 33

Is there a fee to deposit or withdraw?

Accepted Answer

$0 funding fees from YAL, on every method, in both directions. Your bank or card issuer may charge you separately, and an international transfer can pass through an intermediary bank that takes its own cut, so it is worth checking their side rather than assuming the full amount will land.

Question 34

Do you offer a deposit bonus?

Accepted Answer

No. A deposit bonus is credit that is not yours until conditions are met, and those conditions are usually a trading volume target that costs more to reach than the bonus is worth. It also complicates withdrawals, because the bonus and anything it earned typically cannot leave until the target is cleared. We would rather compete on what a trade actually costs.

Question 35

Can I move money between my own YAL accounts?

Accepted Answer

Yes, from the client area, and an internal transfer does not go through the banking rails so it is not subject to the clearing times a withdrawal is. Both accounts have to be in your own name. If the two accounts are held in different base currencies the transfer is converted, so the amount arriving will not match the amount sent.

Question 36

How do I withdraw money?

Accepted Answer

Request it from the client area, not from the trading platform. MetaTrader 5 shows your balance but has no cashier in it, which is the usual reason a first withdrawal stalls before it starts. Sign in to the client area, open the cashier, choose the account to withdraw from, and enter the amount. YAL charges nothing to take money out: $0 funding fees.

Question 37

How long does a withdrawal take?

Accepted Answer

YAL processes withdrawal requests within 24 hours. That is our part: the checks, the approval and sending the money. After that it is on your bank's or card issuer's timetable, and that stage is the one that usually accounts for the wait. Card refunds and bank transfers clear on different schedules, and neither is under our control once the funds have left.

Question 38

My withdrawal was approved but the money has not arrived. Where is it?

Accepted Answer

Almost always with the payment rail rather than with us. Once a withdrawal shows as processed, the funds have left YAL and are moving through your bank, card issuer or local provider, and each of those has its own clearing time and its own cut-offs. A card withdrawal in particular is a refund against the original card, and issuers post refunds on their own schedule, which can be several working days after we have released it. Check the transaction history in your client area first: it shows the date and time we released the payment, which is the reference your bank will ask for. If that date is more than a full working week old, contact us with it and we will trace the payment from our side.

Question 39

Why was my withdrawal declined?

Accepted Answer

There are five common reasons, and four of them you can clear yourself. Verification is not complete, so the account cannot pay out until the outstanding document is accepted. The withdrawal method does not match how you funded, which we are required to correct rather than waive. You have open positions and the amount you asked for is committed as margin, so only your free margin is available. The name on the receiving account is not the name on the trading account. Or your bank refused the incoming payment, which shows on our side as a return rather than as a decline. A declined withdrawal is never a forfeited one. The funds go back to your trading account balance, and the client area records the reason against the request.

Question 40

Why do I have to withdraw to the same method I deposited with?

Accepted Answer

Because anti-money-laundering rules require the money to return the way it came, and the rule is not ours to waive. If you funded by card, we refund that card first, up to the amount you deposited on it. Anything above that is profit, and profit is paid to a bank account in your name rather than to a card, because a card refund cannot exceed the original charge. This is a common surprise in a first withdrawal, and it is worth knowing before you fund rather than after: the method you deposit with decides the method you are paid back with.

Question 41

Why can I only withdraw part of my balance?

Accepted Answer

Because your balance and your available cash are not the same number while positions are open. Money supporting an open position is committed as margin and cannot be withdrawn, so the amount available to you is your free margin, not your balance. There is a second reason to leave more than the minimum: withdrawing down to the edge of your free margin leaves nothing between you and a stop out if the position moves against you. Our stop out level is 50%, and a withdrawal that takes your margin level toward it does the same damage a losing trade would.

Question 42

The name on my bank account is spelled differently from my YAL account. Will that be a problem?

Accepted Answer

It can be, and in this region it is the most common cause of a rejected payment, so it is worth fixing before you request money rather than after. Arabic names transliterate into English in more than one valid way, and a bank that reads Mohammed where the trading account says Mohamed may return the payment even though both documents describe the same person. Middle names dropped by one system and kept by another do the same thing. Contact us before you withdraw and we will check the two records against each other. Where they genuinely differ we can usually resolve it with the same identity document you already provided, which is faster than a returned payment and a second request.

Question 43

Can I withdraw to someone else's account?

Accepted Answer

No. Money leaves to an account in your own name, exactly as deposits are accepted only from an account or card in your own name. A brokerage account is not a payment service, and moving client funds to a third party is precisely the pattern anti-money-laundering rules exist to stop, so there is no version of this we can approve on request. That includes a spouse's account, a family account and a company account, unless the trading account is itself in that company's name.

Question 44

Do you process withdrawals at weekends?

Accepted Answer

Requests can be submitted at any time and they queue immediately. Processing and the banking rails behind it run on business days, so a request made on a Friday evening or over the weekend is worked at the start of the next business day rather than held.

Question 45

What does a withdrawal cost?

Accepted Answer

$0 funding fees from YAL, on every method. Your bank, card issuer or an intermediary bank on the route may still apply a charge of their own, and an international transfer can pass through more than one, so the amount that lands can be slightly under the amount released. That deduction is theirs and it is worth asking them about it rather than us.

Question 46

Is there a minimum withdrawal amount?

Accepted Answer

The cashier shows any minimum for the method you choose before you confirm the request.

Question 47

Can I cancel a withdrawal after requesting it?

Accepted Answer

While it is still pending, yes, from the same place in the client area you requested it. Once it has been processed it has left us and cannot be recalled, and the money has to come back the way any incoming payment would.

Question 48

How do I take everything out and close my account?

Accepted Answer

Close any open positions first, then withdraw the full free balance, then ask us to close the account. Doing it in that order matters: an account with an open position cannot be emptied, and an account closed with a balance on it creates a payment we then have to trace back to you.

Question 49

What am I actually paying to trade?

Accepted Answer

Four things, and only the first two are always present. The spread, which is the gap between the buy and sell price and which you pay the moment you open a position. The commission, if you are on a raw account: $3.50 per lot, per side on Raw Spread, $1.50 per lot, per side on Raw Pro, $1.00 per lot, per side on Raw Pro+. Swap, if you hold a position past the daily rollover. And currency conversion, if you trade an instrument denominated in a currency other than your account's. On Standard there is no separate commission, $0, because that cost sits inside a wider spread instead: typically 0.8 pips on EUR/USD against 0.1 pips on Raw Spread. Funding is $0 funding fees from us, though your own bank may charge you.

Question 50

What is a spread?

Accepted Answer

The gap between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at. Buy and you enter at the higher of the two, sell and you enter at the lower, so a position starts fractionally down by the width of that gap. It is the most common cost in trading and the easiest one to overlook, because it is never charged as a line item: you pay it in the entry price. It is quoted in pips on currency pairs and in the instrument's own units elsewhere, and it moves with market conditions rather than sitting fixed.

Question 51

What does spread plus commission actually mean?

Accepted Answer

The spread is the gap between the buy price and the sell price, and you pay it the moment you open a position. A commission is a separate fee charged on top of that spread. On the raw accounts it is a flat amount per lot, per side. On Standard there is no separate fee, $0, because the cost is already inside the spread.

Question 52

What does per lot, per side mean?

Accepted Answer

That the commission is charged both when you open and when you close, so a round turn costs twice the quoted figure. $3.50 per lot, per side means that amount going in and the same coming out. Quoting it per side is the industry convention rather than a way of making it look smaller, but it is worth doubling when you compare brokers, since not all of them quote it the same way.

Question 53

What is the difference between Raw Spread, Raw Pro and Raw Pro+?

Accepted Answer

The commission, and what it takes to open. All three trade the same raw spread, from 0.0 pips, on the same platform. Raw Spread charges $3.50 per lot, per side and opens from $0. Raw Pro charges $1.50 per lot, per side and opens from $5,000. Raw Pro+ charges $1.00 per lot, per side and opens from $100,000. Nothing else differs.

Question 54

Is the spread you advertise the spread I will get?

Accepted Answer

It is a typical figure, not a floor and not a cap. 0.1 pips on EUR/USD, alongside $3.50 per lot, per side, describes normal conditions on a liquid pair. Spreads widen when liquidity thins, most noticeably around scheduled news and at the weekly open, and they vary by instrument. Your fill is what you pay. Any broker advertising a spread that never moves is either capping it artificially and charging for that somewhere else, or describing conditions rather than guarantees.

Question 55

Am I charged for currency conversion?

Accepted Answer

A conversion happens whenever a result is realised in a currency other than your account's base currency, which is one of USD, EUR, AED. Trading an instrument denominated in another currency therefore involves a conversion on the profit or loss, and the same applies to funding in a currency other than your account's.

Question 56

Which base currency should I choose?

Accepted Answer

USD, EUR, AED. You choose yours when you open the account. Pick the one you fund and withdraw in, since that avoids a conversion at both ends, and note that the choice is made once at account opening rather than changed later.

Question 57

Are there any other charges I should know about?

Accepted Answer

The charges that exist are the spread, commission on raw accounts, swap on positions held overnight, and currency conversion. There is no fee to open an account, and $0 funding fees to deposit or withdraw. Two things are still being confirmed and it would be wrong to tell you they do not exist: whether an inactivity charge applies to a dormant account, and the conversion basis. Both are flagged on their own answers rather than quietly omitted.

Question 58

Do I owe tax on my trading profits?

Accepted Answer

That depends on where you are tax resident, and it is not something we can answer for you. YAL does not withhold tax, does not file on your behalf, and cannot give tax advice. Your platform statement gives a full record of your trading for whoever does advise you.

Question 59

Why was my stop loss filled at a worse price than I set?

Accepted Answer

Because a stop loss is an instruction to trade at the next available price once your level trades, not a guarantee of that price. When your level is reached the stop becomes a market order, and it fills against whatever is actually available at that moment. If the market moved through your level rather than trading at it, the next available price is worse, and the difference is slippage. This is most visible around scheduled news and at the market open after a weekend, when prices can move a long way between one quote and the next. It is a property of the market rather than a charge, and it can also work in your favour: a market gapping through a take profit fills better than the level asked for.

Question 60

Can I guarantee the price my stop fills at?

Accepted Answer

Not on a standard stop loss, and any broker telling you otherwise is describing a different product with a fee attached to it. A stop guarantees that your position will be closed once the level trades. It does not guarantee the price, because a price nobody is offering cannot be filled. If gap risk is the concern, the levers that actually work are position size, and not carrying a position through a scheduled event or over a weekend.

Question 61

The price reached my take profit but the order did not close. Why?

Accepted Answer

Because your order is filled against the opposite side of the market from the one most charts display. A chart usually plots the bid. A buy position closes at the bid, but a sell position closes at the ask, and the ask is the bid plus the spread. So a sell that looks like it touched its take profit on the chart may not have reached it on the price that actually closes it. Check which side you were on and add the spread before concluding the level was missed. It is the most common apparent execution fault and it is almost always this.

Question 62

What is a gap, and what happens to my orders in one?

Accepted Answer

A gap is where the market reopens or jumps to a price with no trading in between, so a run of prices simply never existed. Orders sitting inside that range cannot fill inside it, because there was nothing to fill against. They fill at the first price that does exist on the other side. That means a stop can close a position materially worse than its level, and it is the mechanism by which a loss can exceed what a position looked like it risked. Gaps happen most often at the weekly open and around unscheduled news.

Question 63

Is it risky to hold a position over the weekend?

Accepted Answer

It carries a risk that an intraday position does not. Markets close, news continues, and the first price on Monday can be a long way from Friday's close with nothing tradeable in between. A stop placed on Friday does not protect the level it names across that gap, it simply becomes an order at the first available Monday price. Holding over a weekend also incurs swap on each night the position is open.

Question 64

Why does the spread widen around news announcements?

Accepted Answer

Because the spread reflects what liquidity providers are willing to quote, and around a scheduled release they quote more cautiously and in smaller size until the number is out and priced. Wider spreads at those moments are a market condition rather than a broker charge, and they affect every venue at once. This is why a spread figure is quoted as typical rather than as a maximum. Our EUR/USD reference is 0.1 pips on Raw Spread, alongside $3.50 per lot, per side. Typical, not a floor.

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