Risk Warning: This article is not a personal recommendation and is not an offer or inducement to invest. Investments of the type described carry significant risk, including the loss of all capital invested. The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise, and is not guaranteed. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Investments of this kind may be illiquid and difficult to sell. Seek independent professional advice before acting.
Dubai, 7 September 2026 — Global Investments has entered into an alliance with Equiti, the multi-regulated brokerage group, giving the firm's clients direct access to self-directed trading accounts across forex, indices, commodities and shares.
The arrangement, effective immediately, allows clients to open an account with Equiti online and trade on the MetaTrader platforms independently, alongside the long-term portfolios Global Investments builds and manages for them.
It marks the first time in the firm's thirty-year history that it has extended into self-directed trading, and it came about, its chairman says, because clients kept asking.
"They were going to do it anyway"
"For three decades we have worked at the opposite end of the spectrum from short-term trading," said Neil A Robbirt, Founder and Chairman of Global Investments. "Pensions, structured products, multi-manager funds, cross-border planning. Long-horizon by design, and deliberately unhurried. That has not changed and it is not going to."
"But a particular request kept coming back. A client who already holds a properly constructed portfolio with us wants, separately, to act on a short-term currency view, or hedge an exposure they already carry, or simply trade their own ideas without routing every decision through an adviser. That is a reasonable thing to want, and it is not what we do."
"Our answer used to be to explain why we do not offer it, and then leave them to find a broker on their own — in a market where the loudest advertiser tends to win, and where the difference between a properly regulated group and an offshore brand with a good landing page is not obvious to anyone who is not a specialist. They were going to do it anyway. Leaving them to it struck me as an abdication."
The firm assessed a number of brokers before selecting Equiti.
An introduction to Equiti
Equiti is a brokerage group with roots stretching back over fifteen years, operating today through separately regulated companies across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It is not a white-label of another firm's technology, and it does not run its global business on a single permissive licence — a distinction that carried weight in the selection.
What it offers. Equiti provides execution-only access to a broad multi-asset range: foreign exchange, global indices, commodities including energy and precious metals, single-stock and ETF contracts, and regional instruments such as MENA equities. Clients trade on MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 — the platforms most active traders already know — with web and mobile access alongside desktop. Accounts can be funded in a range of currencies, including dirhams for clients in the UAE.
Where it operates. The group runs businesses across four continents, including in Jordan, where it is registered with the Jordan Securities Commission, and in Kenya, where its subsidiary is licensed by the Capital Markets Authority. That regional presence matters to a client base spread across the Gulf, Europe, Africa and Asia: support is provided in local hours and in several languages, and account funding does not always have to route through a single jurisdiction.
How it is regulated. Two of the group's companies are relevant to Global Investments clients, and which one holds an account is determined by where the client lives.
Clients outside the UAE are onboarded by Equiti Brokerage (Seychelles) Limited, regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles. UAE residents are onboarded by Equiti Securities Currencies Brokers LLC, regulated by the Capital Market Authority of the UAE — the body formerly known as the SCA — both as a trading broker for over-the-counter derivatives and currencies, and as a broker for arrangement and advice.
Beyond those, the wider group operates entities authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, serving professional clients and eligible counterparties. Those arms form no part of this arrangement, but their existence was material to the assessment.
"That regulatory spread is the substantive point," Robbirt said. "A group that has submitted itself to the FCA and CySEC for its institutional business is operating under a different order of scrutiny from a brand with one licence in one place. It does not make trading safe — nothing makes trading safe — but it tells you something about who you are dealing with."
What it means for clients
Clients can now open an Equiti account directly, online, in a few minutes. There is nothing to arrange with Global Investments first and no adviser to wait for: registration, identity checks and funding all take place on Equiti's own portal.
Three account types are available, differing principally in how the broker is paid — through the spread, or through a lower spread plus a commission per lot traded. A free demonstration account funded with simulated money is also available, and the firm recommends it to anyone who has not traded leveraged products before.
Full terms for each account type, the regulatory position of both entities and Equiti's own risk disclosures are set out on the trading accounts pages, with individual pages for the Classic, Standard and Premier accounts.
The boundaries, stated plainly
Robbirt was direct about the limits of the arrangement.
"Three things people should know, and I would rather say them than have them discovered. We are paid by Equiti for introducing clients — it costs the client nothing extra and does not change the terms they get. We and Equiti are separate, unaffiliated companies; we are not their agent and cannot act for them. And a client who opens an account becomes Equiti's client, not ours. Their money and their positions sit with Equiti, under Equiti's regulator."
"That last one matters most. This is not an advisory service. Equiti is execution-only, and so is our involvement — which is to say, none. We will not be watching anyone's positions or offering a view on a trade."
He was equally direct about who the arrangement suits.
"These are leveraged products, and losses can exceed the amount deposited. That is a materially harder risk than almost anything else we arrange, where the worst case is losing what you put in. If someone is building a retirement pot, or the money has a job to do in three years, this is not for them and we will say so. It suits a client who already understands leveraged trading and is using money that is genuinely surplus. Anyone unsure which describes them should call us before opening anything."
Availability
The arrangement is live now. Clients and prospective clients can compare the account types and open an account through the trading accounts section of the Global Investments website.
Global Investments says the alliance does not signal a change of emphasis, and that the firm will continue to focus on what it has always done — long-horizon planning for internationally mobile families. It closes a gap clients had identified themselves, with a counterparty the firm was prepared to name.
About Global Investments
Global Investments has advised internationally mobile clients since 1994 on international investments, pensions, protection, wealth expatriation, and citizenship and residence planning. Regulated services are provided through the authorised entities set out on the firm's regulatory page.
About Equiti
Equiti is a brokerage group operating through separately regulated companies across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, offering execution-only access to foreign exchange, indices, commodities, shares and other instruments on the MetaTrader platforms.
Media enquiries
Risk Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice, a personal recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any investment. Rules, prices and regulations change; verify current requirements with a qualified adviser before acting. Global Investments is not authorised or regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Regulated services are provided through the authorised entities set out on our regulatory page. Nothing here has been approved as a financial promotion by an authorised person, and UK residents should not treat it as one.