Trust in Our Precise Methodology

At TopRatedForexBrokers, our aim is to help you to find the right forex broker by offering you clear and honest information at all times.

Every broker review or table you see on our website has been created using accurate data and unbiased facts. We never assess a forex broker without using our tested methodology. This ensures that every recommended broker has met the same high standards and you can trust it to offer a quality trading experience.

We’re proud to be transparent about our testing process, which is why on this page we’ve shared our methodology with you.

How does our reviewing process work?

In order to provide you with comprehensive forex broker reviews and rankings, we created a detailed methodology that assesses over 200 different criteria points in 10 key areas. Our methodology was devised using our years of trading experience. We’ve seen enough good and bad brokers to know which are worth your time.

Our methodology is also revised each year to ensure that it considers new products and services. In these revisions, we also listen to our users’ feedback, so that we can be confident that we’re accurately representing your wants and needs.

Discover our 10 key areas and 200+ criteria points

Each broker we review is judged on the same 10 key areas. This not only makes our rankings and broker comparisons fair, but it also guarantees that all of our recommended brokers excel in all departments.

For example, to receive a good ranking from our experts, a broker cannot simply offer good trading platforms. It must also have a diverse range of instruments, low fees, quality educational materials and so on.

Below you can learn more about each key area.

1. Licenses and Regulation

The first and most important key area we look at is licensing and regulation. Your safety is always our priority and so an unregulated broker will never gain a high score from us.

We check not only the licenses the broker claims to have for different countries, but whether these licenses are up to date too. We do this by verifying these facts with the regulatory bodies themselves.

We also award a range of points based around the strength of a broker’s regulation. Brokers who boast licenses from strict authorities, such as CySEC, ASIC and the FCA, for example, will gain more points.

2. Reputation

We check a broker’s reputation by taking an in-depth look at its history. We examine the company owners, where their operating capital comes from, and how long they’ve been providing their services.

Our experts also uncover any scandals or rogue activity that a broker may have buried. We then question current traders about their experiences with the broker and gauge public opinion. All of this gives us a complete picture of the broker and their trustworthiness.

3. Fees

To assess the fees a broker charges, we make a range of real trades. This includes trading different instruments and holding positions overnight. As a result, we can calculate trading fees with complete accuracy.

We also deposit and withdraw funds to check transaction fees and survey the broker’s terms and conditions to reveal any non-trading fees, such as inactivity charges.

Brokers gain points in this area by being upfront about their costs and by offering value for money.

4. Trading Platforms

We test every trading platform the broker offers. This includes common platforms such as MT4 and 5, as well as proprietary platforms. We look for specific features such as customizability and trading signals.

Brokers are also judged on how fast orders are filled, whether or not the platform supports robots and EAs, and whether the platform runs well on all devices.

5. Product Portfolio

In this wide-ranging key area, our experts look at what instruments and products are available to you. We look at trading instruments, social trading platforms, trading tools, and bonuses.

To score highly, a broker must offer an all-inclusive product. Their product portfolio should be suitable for all types of traders and it should allow you to diversify your trading plans, should you wish. As such, a broker offering everything from cryptocurrency pairs to copy trading will be awarded more points than one offering only futures, for example.

6. Mobile

Each time we create a new review or ranking score, we do so by testing the broker on more than five different devices including the latest iOS and Android smartphones.

The best forex brokers should allow you to trade anytime and anywhere you want. Brokers will gain points for offering complete functionality on mobile. Aside from offering a mobile-compatible trading platform, our high scoring brokers also offer you mobile deposits, withdrawals and customer support.

7. Security

Our methodology ensures that we only recommend brokers who are committed to protecting your personal data. Brokers gain points for having industry-leading security protocols in place, such as SSL encryption and watertight privacy policies.

In this area, we also investigate the broker’s insurance. We look at what investor compensation you receive and what recourse is in place should the broker become insolvent.

8. Deposits and Withdrawals

We deposit and withdraw with every broker we review. We do this via multiple payment methods and from different countries, to give us a complete understanding of how the process works for everyone.

We award points based on how convenient the funding process is. High scoring brokers will offer a wide range of payment methods, have no (or low) transaction fees, and have fair withdrawal policies.

9. Education

Although our experts have years of industry experience, we always test and review brokers with all types of traders in mind. Education and training materials are essential for beginner traders and specialized resources are beneficial to experienced traders too.

Points are given in this area based on what education materials are available, the quality of the materials and whether they cover a wide variety of topics.

10. Customer Support

No forex broker makes it on to this site without a thorough inspection of its customer support services. We contact a broker’s support agents at every step of the reviewing process which means we make 9 interactions. We do this via various methods, such as live chat, telephone and email.

High scoring brokers will offer around the clock support via a range of channels. Their support staff will be friendly, knowledgeable and quick to reply.

For each of the areas mentioned above, we have a list of different criteria points. Overall, each forex broker ranking is created by checking 203 criteria points. These are detailed in the table below.

Key Area	Number of Criteria
Licenses	5
Reputation	30
Fees	15
Platform	20
Security	5
Mobile	13
Product Portfolio	56
Deposits and Withdrawals	23
Education	21
Customer Support	15

We prioritize the things that matter most to you

Unlike other forex broker comparison sites, we give different weightings to each of our key areas. We do this so that our reviews accurately reflect the things that matter most to you.

For instance, we place the most emphasis on licensing and regulation. We consider your safety as a forex trader to be of the utmost importance. This weighting guarantees that only trustworthy brokers will ever gain a high score from us.

Below you can see how each key area is weighted.

Key Area	Weighting (%)
Licenses	18
Reputation	11
Fees	11
Platform	9
Security	9
Mobile	9
Product Portfolio	9
Deposits and Withdrawals	9
Education	6
Customer Support	9

How we award points in different areas

As you can see, our experts have put a lot of thought and time into ensuring our reviewing process considers everything which is important to you as a forex trader. All that’s left to learn, then, is how we award points in each area.

Yes/No Points

To start with, we award points on a yes or no basis. For each criteria point, we award 1 point if the broker offers this feature. For instance, if the forex broker offers a demo account, it will receive a point.

Opinion Points

Alongside a yes or no score, a broker will receive points on a sliding scale for how well they offer something. For example, when we consider the strength of a broker’s licenses, we award between 1 and 3 points. The full 3 points are only given to those brokers who have obtained licenses from strict and trustworthy bodies (such as CySEC or the FCA).

To make sure these points are awarded fairly, our experts use their own years of trading experience and also factor in real feedback from our users.

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