Scoring methodology

The eight categories

Each category is scored out of a hundred from the facts on the broker's record. The categories and what each one weighs:

Regulation

The tier of each licence the broker holds, which legal entity holds it, whether client money is segregated, whether negative balance protection applies, and whether a compensation scheme stands behind the firm.

Trading costs

The published spread on the main account, the commission that comes with a raw-spread account, overnight financing, and the fees that are not trading fees: inactivity, withdrawal and currency conversion.

Platforms and tools

What is offered, on which devices, and whether it supports automation, copy trading, charting and an API.

Markets and products

The range of instruments and asset classes, and whether the broker's own product list matches what it advertises.

Accounts and accessibility

Account types, base currencies, minimum deposit, minimum trade size, Islamic and professional accounts, and how quickly an account can be opened.

Deposits and withdrawals

Funding methods, processing times, minimum withdrawal, fees on the way in and out, and local payment options.

Support and education

Hours, channels, languages and response times, together with what the broker publishes to teach and whether a demo account is available. The two are scored separately and averaged for this category.

Transparency and history

How long the company has operated, whether its entities, addresses and ownership are published, and whether the record and the broker's claims agree.

How they combine

The overall score is the average of the eight, shown out of ten to one decimal place. A category that has not been assessed is left out of the average rather than scored zero, because a broker nobody has assessed on support is not a broker with no support. Where a category cannot yet be assessed on its own, it takes the value of its nearest neighbour until it can: accounts from platforms, deposits from costs, transparency from markets.

What moves a score

A score changes when the record changes: a licence gained or lost, a fee introduced, a platform withdrawn, a warning published. Every change is logged with the previous value, the new one and the reason, and the profile shows the date the record was last checked. A score never changes because of a commercial arrangement, and the rankings print the rule they are ordered by so the order can be checked against the number.

What a score is not

It is not a prediction of how your account will go, and it does not say which broker suits you. A 9.6 with a Tier 1 licence in a country you cannot open an account from is worth less to you than an 8.5 you can. The score is a summary of what the record says, and the record is on the profile for anyone to check.