How we rate brokers
One score out of 100, applied identically to every broker. Our sites present it differently - as stars, out of ten, or raw - but the underlying number and the ranking it produces are the same everywhere.
What we measure
- Regulation
- Which authority licenses the entity you would actually open an account with, and under what number. Weighted highest, because it decides what happens to your money if the firm fails.
- Trading costs
- Spread and commission together, taken from the broker's published schedule rather than a promotional page. A raw spread with a high commission can cost more than a wider all-in one.
- Platforms
- What you would actually trade on, and whether your setup transfers if you later leave.
- Access
- Retail leverage, markets covered, and how money gets in and out - including whether the withdrawal routes match the deposit ones.
- Minimum deposit
- What it costs to start, in the currency the broker quotes.
- Transparency
- Whether all of the above can be found without contacting a salesperson. If the terms need a phone call, that counts against them.
The same instrument, every time
A rating is only worth reading if the thing producing it does not change between one broker and the next. The six measures above are applied in the same order, from the same kind of source, to a firm we are paid by and a firm we have never spoken to.
What we ignore
Bonuses and sign-up offers carry no weight. They change monthly, they are almost always conditional on trading volume, and rating them would reward marketing budgets rather than trading conditions.
Where the figures come from
Each broker's own published material in the first instance, recorded with the date it was compiled. Every broker is shown their own review and asked to confirm it before we treat it as settled, and corrections are made on evidence rather than on request.
Where we hold no confirmed figure, the review says so. An empty field is more useful than a plausible guess.
How we are paid
Some brokers pay us a commission when a reader opens an account through our link, at no extra cost to the reader. It has no bearing on the score: the measures above are applied the same way to brokers who pay us and brokers who do not, and several brokers listed here have no commercial relationship with us at all.