What our composite score is built from, how referral compensation factors in, and what we do when we're not confident about a fact.
Each broker's composite score reflects four main factors. Final placement combines this research with editorial judgment: we don't pretend a single formula can capture everything that matters to different traders, but the criteria below are what drive it.
How many credible regulators cover the broker, and whether we could confirm license details directly on a regulator's public register versus only on the broker's own site or third-party aggregators.
Headline spreads and, where available, raw/ECN pricing, not just marketing minimums.
MT4/MT5/cTrader support, account types on offer, and any notable proprietary tools or features.
How long the broker has been active, and any regulatory actions or enforcement history on record.
We pull from regulators' own public registers wherever possible, brokers' own published terms, and independent review aggregators when primary sources aren't accessible. Where sources conflict or we couldn't independently confirm a figure (a minimum deposit, an offshore leverage cap, a license number), we say so rather than presenting an average or a guess as fact.
Broker conditions change. We revisit and update reviews periodically rather than in real time, so treat every review as a snapshot at the time of writing, and verify current terms directly with the broker before depositing.
We don't copy phrasing from other review sites or from a broker's own marketing copy. Every review reflects our own research and our own wording. We don't assert a regulator license number or status without a source, and we flag anything we couldn't verify against a primary source rather than presenting it as confirmed fact.
If you're a broker representative or a trader with more current or accurate information than what's reflected in a review, contact us and we'll look into it.