Australia
Canada
United KingdomBrokerRaters aims to empower you with impartial, precise, and insightful information about online trading to build your confidence in trading or investing online. We gather, rigorously scrutinise and provide trusted guidance to do this. It’s the reason we provide clear and concise evaluations of top-tier brokers and platforms. Since you and millions of others trust us to help you find the right broker, it’s only fair to walk you through how we rate these brokers.
Broker review is not a one-off thing. The internet landscape is continually changing, and service providers adapt to it. So, as evaluators, we also continually refine our proprietary testing methods and frequently fact-check and audit data for our guides, reviews, and articles to ensure you provide the most current and accurate information.
Our team consistently gathers data, tests products, and conducts thorough research. Your trust and the trust we’ve garnered over the years is not something we would put at risk. So, let’s walk you through our broker review and testing principles that have earned the trust of millions of readers.
Functions We Check
Evaluating brokers is time-consuming and tedious, but it is worth the time. Our examination includes an in-depth dive into all the broker’s websites, scanning through the content across various mediums before we thoroughly test the broker’s proprietary tools and software.
We only review legally registered brokers. So, we only look at a broker’s offerings after verifying its regulatory status. Regulatory status is the first indicator of a broker’s trustworthiness in keeping your money safe. We always advise our readers to settle for nothing less than a legally operating trading platform. Only such brokers can you trust.
We assess a broker’s functionality, which puts its products and services to the test. It’s often a comprehensive analysis of each function. We have the bare minimum of features we expect any excellent online trade broker to have.
We conduct in-depth website and content analysis, rigorously test proprietary tools, and validate data. From this analysis, we score points, and our experts give their unbiased opinions on the non-quantifiable aspects.
For each function we test, our experts give a score. Once done, we collectively validate the various data points and get down to putting our outcome in a readers’ quickly decipherable format. So, our expert researchers and writers write their opinion scores for the non-quantifiable aspects of a broker.
Once we have completed our quantitative and qualitative analysis of the broker’s product and service offerings, we focus on its payment options. Though we save this for last, it’s perhaps the most important because you’d want to know how to fund your broker account to trade and withdraw your profits. But that comes once you have established that the broker’s services meet your expectations.
And when we say testing, we actually go for a drive. We deposit funds and trade on them, compare the features and give a score based on our hands-on experience. Just to be sure we don’t miss something, we compare our experience with those of other users who have used the platform. So, we use testimonials on the App Store, Google Play, and Trustpilot before we give our final ratings out of 5. The tedious process ensures that we are transparent, factual and unbiased. So, we only recommend the best. (Find the table below on how we score points for every function)
| Category | Explanation | Percentage Score | Rating Score (Out of 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulatory status | Licenses held | 100% | 5 |
| Reputation of the regulatory body | 100% | 5 | |
| Security | Encryption protocols | 100% | 5 |
| Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) | 100% | 5 | |
| Secure Payment Gateways | 100% | 5 | |
| Trading Platform | Intuitiveness | 90% | 4.5 |
| Stability | 80% | 4 | |
| Trading tools and indicators | 95% | 4.75 | |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | 100% | 5 | |
| Copy trading | 70% | 3.5 | |
| Analysis tools | 80% | 4 | |
| Trading Instruments | Variety of trade instruments e.g. stocks, currency pairs, ETFs, etc | 70% | 3.5 |
| Costs | Trading Cost including spreads, commissions, and overnight swap fees | 85% | 4.25 |
| Minimum Deposit | 100% | 5 | |
| Deposit and Withdrawal costs | 80% | 4 | |
| Deposit & Withdrawal Options | Availability of a range of deposit and withdrawal options | 90% | 4.5 |
| Customer Support | Availability and Response time | 90% | 4.5 |
| Knowhow of the customer support team | 90% | 4.5 | |
| Phone Support (Toll-Free?) | 100% | 5 | |
| 90% | 4.5 | ||
| Live Chat Tool | 85% | 4.25 | |
| 80% | 4 | ||
| Education & Research Tools | Variety of educational resources, including webinars and trading guides | 90% | 4.5 |
| Research tools, such as market analysis and economic calendars | 90% | 4.5 | |
| Trading Conditions | Jurisdiction covered and services available | 90% | 4.5 |
| Reputation (User testimonials) | Trustpilot | 95% | 4.75 |
| Google Play | 95% | 4.75 | |
| App store | 95% | 4.75 | |
| Overall Score | 90% | 4.5 | |
Tools We Test
Trading requires quick and accurate decisions, and to do this efficiently, having the right tools make a difference. Brokers offers many different trading tools and it could be quite challenging to know what you necessarily need. In our reviews, we identify the must-have trading tools you should consider and run our comprehensive tests. These tools are explained in the table below.
| Tool | Explanation | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Trading Platform | It’s the software linking you to the financial markets and enable you to execute trades. Examples: MetaTrader 4, TradingView, and cTrader. We scrutenise its functionalities, user interface, and stability | User-friendly Reliable Real-time quotes Order management |
| Charting Tools | They visualize price movements enabling you to identify trading opportunities. Here we consider the quality and the flexibility of the charting tools and technical indicators provided. We answer the question, can a trader customise them to fit their needs? | Trend lines Technical indicators Customize timeframes |
| News Feed | While there are many news services available, brokers have their own built-in news feeds. Sometimes they link to standalone news outlets that covers the markets and asset classes traders are interested in | Real-time market news Economic data Other related news |
| Economic Calender | An economic calendar provides schedule of upcoming economic events that could affect the market. Alternatively, a trader can use standalone economic calenders by third-parties | Central bank meetings GDP releasesInflation data |
| Trading Journal | A trading journal allows you to track your trades, keep an eye on your performance, and see areas for improvement | Trade entry and exit points Supporting reason for each trade Result of each trade |
| Risk Management Tools | Risk management tools helps you identify and mitigate potential risks and in advance to protect your capital | Set stop losses Set take profits Manage position sizes |
| Order Execution Systems | These systems place, route, and complete trades as directed by you. But it they do this fast, usually microseconds. Examples include: – Stop orders – Limit orders – Stop-Limit orders – Trailing stop orders – One-cancels-the-other (OCO) orders | Order routing – Directing orders Price matching – Executing orders at the best price available Confirmation – Letting you know immediately that order has been executed |
| Education & Research Tools | Whether a beginner or a seasoned trader, you may benefit from trading education. Advanced traders can expand their knowledge and understanding to keep a close eye on the changes in the market. Responsible trading platforms provide education materials to ensure you are better informed about the market conditions and trends | Demo Trading Account Blogs Webinars YouTube Videos |
| Research and Analysis Tools | Trading platforms provide research and analysis to allow you to analyze securities and check any trends in market movements | Charting Chart patterns Technical indicators |
| Mobile Trading App | We want the ability to trade on the go and the mobile app should offer as much functionality as the website | User-friendly Reliable Real-time quotes Order management |
Our Principles
We understand that picking a broker can be complex and daunting, which may discourage you from starting your trading journey. So, we strive to make it simple and accessible to all. We do the research and provide transparent, expert-backed and impartial recommendations. Doing so is what earns your trust.
We are:
- Competent and reliable
- Honest and transparent
- Impartial
These principles inform our assessments of our responsibilities to you, our readers. In line with the above principles, to uphold our integrity, we:
- Prioritise your safety by transparently disclosing any risks associated with brokers or service providers.
- Candidly share areas for improvement or services to avoid, always putting your welfare first.
- Openly commend outstanding companies or services, free from external pressures or influences.
- Remain undeterred by our affiliate partnerships, and don’t hold back our opinions.
- Are impartial and do not selectively emphasise or obscure products or services to maintain affiliate relationships.
- Ensure our proprietary Broker Score and Trust Rating systems are free from manipulation to favour any brand related or unrelated to us.
- Keep marketing revenue and advertising campaign data separate from our researchers and editorial team.
These practices ensure we provide reliable, unbiased, and valuable advice, always prioritising your interests at BrokerRaters.com.