Riyaan Ahmed
What Riyaan Owns at TradingCritique
Riyaan Ahmed is Co-Founder of TradingCritique.com. He co-founded the site with Sasitharan in April 2020 with a shared belief that broker reviews should be built on regulation and evidence, not sponsorship.
Before TradingCritique, Riyaan spent five years (2014-2019) working with FCA and CFTC regulated forex and stock brokers, in the same industry environment as his co-founder. He worked as a sales agent and senior sales agent for licensed retail brokers and consistently ranked among the top-performing agents on his desks. That period gave him direct, day-to-day exposure to how regulated brokers actually treat clients, how commercial pressure interacts with regulatory obligations, and where the industry’s failure points sit.
That experience shapes how he runs TradingCritique’s commercial side today. He knows what a legitimate broker looks like from inside the operation, and he knows what an offshore-routed retail flow looks like from inside the operation. Both perspectives inform every broker relationship TradingCritique approves.
Beyond TradingCritique, Riyaan writes and speaks publicly on personal finance, investment behaviour, and financial literacy under the handle Rise of RJ. His finance content reaches a combined audience of over 78,000 followers, with more than 5 million monthly views across platforms. This public work sits separately from his TradingCritique responsibilities and does not overlap with broker or affiliate coverage.
Broker Relationships
Riyaan is the point of contact for every broker TradingCritique reviews or considers reviewing. He handles introductions, information requests, factual clarifications, and ongoing communication with broker representatives.
Affiliate Governance
TradingCritique operates on a Regulation First principle. That principle applies to commercial relationships as strictly as it does to editorial ratings. Riyaan is responsible for filtering affiliate applications through that principle, and for declining relationships that would route retail readers to offshore entities. The approved affiliate list published on our Advertiser Disclosure page reflects his sign-off.
Finance and Legal
Riyaan manages TradingCritique’s finance and legal function on behalf of A2Z Publish LLP, the entity that operates the site. This includes commercial agreements, affiliate contracts, compliance with disclosure requirements, and financial governance of the business.
Background and qualifications
Riyaan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Loyola College, Chennai, one of India’s oldest and most respected undergraduate institutions.
He is also NISM certified (National Institute of Securities Markets, the certification body of India’s securities regulator SEBI) and IRDAI certified (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India), qualifying him to advise on Indian securities and insurance products.
He is based in Chennai, India.
Editorial independence
TradingCritique’s TC Rating is a 50-point scoring methodology across six pillars: Regulation, Trading Costs, Security, Products, Platform, and Support. Editorial ratings are produced by our Financial Research Analyst team and reviewed by our founder. Riyaan does not score brokers or influence editorial ratings. Commercial decisions and editorial ratings are kept separate by design.
You can read our full methodology and our advertiser disclosure for how this separation is enforced.