- METHODOLOGY
- VERSION 1.3
- UPDATED 9 OCTOBER 2026
How we rate brokers, scored on a 50-point system.
When you give a broker your money, two things have to hold. We rank on those two. Spreads and platforms come after.
1. The firm
Will not take your deposit and disappear.
2. Your way back
If something goes wrong on their side (a system failure, an unfair close-out, a withdrawal held for weeks), there is a path to your money that does not depend on their goodwill.
50
Total points per broker, across 6 weighted pillars
40%
Regulation's weight in every TC Rating
38+
Minimum score for the TC Validated badge
5
Year rolling window for minor enforcement actions
01
Our One decision, Should you open an account?
- The TC Rating answers one question: should you open a live money account with this broker.
- It judges the client-facing offer and the record behind it, not the firm's culture, staff or market share.
- Every rating traces back to primary evidence. If a claim cannot be verified, it does not move the score.
Regulator register
Enforcement notice
Ombudsman decision
Companies House filing
Broker’s own legal documents
Rated
Forex, CFD and multi-asset brokers
Brokers offering leveraged derivatives to retail traders.
Rated, own basis
US retail forex
CFTC RFED plus NFA Forex Dealer Membership counts as Tier-1. No US compensation scheme and no negative balance protection, by law, so neither is deducted. Every US review says so.
Gated
Futures and US equities
No TC Rating until each category's addendum is published. US equities (SEC, FINRA, SIPC, Rule 605/606, PFOF) is in development.
02
Five outcomes. Two tracks.
A broker needs a full 38 out of 50 to be TC Validated. The three no-recourse statuses are not ranked against each other.
03
Does the protection actually reach you?
Test 1
Regulatory strength
How rigorous is the regulator the entity sits under?
FCA, ASIC, CFTC, SEC
>
CySEC
>
Bahamas SCB
>
St Vincent
Test 2
Reader coverage
Does that protection reach the entity you are onboarded to? A broker can hold an FCA licence and route you to its Seychelles entity. The licence is real. It will not help you.
Domestic regulator, domestic client
Full protection. A UK resident on an FCA entity.
Strong regulator, client outside it
The licence does not cover you. We score the entity you are actually on.
Offshore, serving foreign clients
No scheme, no realistic complaints route. Not scored. We verify what we can, including complaints, and say it plainly.
Absence of complaints is not reassurance. An unsupervised broker has no route for complaints to reach a register.
04
50 points, 6 pillars.
Six pillars, weighted by what protects you most
Bar width shows each pillar's share of the 50 points.
05
Every deduction ties to a sub-category and a source.
PILLAR 01
Regulation
20/50 points
Tier-1 licences 5 pts
FCA, ASIC, CFTC, SEC or equivalent, and clients in those countries are actually onboarded to those entities. A Tier-1 licence held for display while clients go offshore earns nothing.
Tier-2 licences 3 pts
Full authorisations such as CySEC, FSCA, SCB, UAE SCA, Kenya CMA, BMA, Labuan FSA, DFSA. Representative offices do not count.
Operating history and transparency 4 pts
Years operating, filing history, named auditor, published accounts, named custody banks, Pillar III disclosures.
Enforcement and regulatory incidents 3 pts
Fines, sanctions, licence conditions and upheld ombudsman decisions in the last five years. A clean record earns full marks.
Segregation and disclosure 5 pts
Client money segregated, compensation scheme stated accurately, one consistent loss rate per entity, no factual errors on the broker's own pages.
PILLAR 02
Trading costs
8 / 50 points
Spreads 2.5 pts
Typical or average spreads published per instrument, with worked examples.
Commissions 1.5 pts
Whether, where and how much, and whether the revenue model is disclosed.
Swaps 1.5 pts
Formula published, benchmark named, broker margin stated per asset class.
Non-trading fees 1.5 pts
Deposit, withdrawal, conversion and inactivity fees, published and reasonable.
Value-adds 1 pt
Features that cut client cost or risk. Unused features are not deducted.
PILLAR 03
Security
7 / 50 points
Above-regulatory insurance 1.5 pts
Lloyd's or equivalent cover beyond the statutory minimum, scored on scope.
Negative balance protection scope 1.5 pts
Scored for retail clients where the regulator mandates it. Professional carve-outs not deducted.
Fund segregation practices 1.5 pts
CASS or equivalent, named custody banks, client money never mixed with firm money.
Financial stability 1.5 pt
Capital above minimums, consistent profitability, no public distress signals.
Account security 1 pts
2FA, password policy, encryption, a published security page.
PILLAR 04
Product range
6 / 50 points
Forex breadth 1.5 pt
Majors, minors and exotics suited to the broker's clients.
Non-forex instruments 1.5 pts
Covers the range of other instruments such as indices, commodities, and stocks.
Leverage 1 pt
Regulator caps applied, offshore leverage disclosed truthfully.
Specialty products 1 pt
Real shares, guaranteed stops, spread betting, swap-free, unleveraged accounts.
Accessibility 1 pt
Minimum deposit, demo, account currencies, app.
PILLAR 05
Platform and execution
6 / 50 points
Platform quality 1.5 pts
Proprietary platform, MT4, MT5, TradingView, API.
Proprietary tools 1 pt
In-house tools that add measurable value.
Execution quality 1.5 pts
Execution model stated plainly, execution data published. Principal models judged on the evidence they publish.
Order types 1 pt
Market, limit, stop, trailing, OCO, guaranteed stop where offered.
Charting and algorithm 1 pt
Indicators, chart types, EAs, backtesting.
PILLAR 06
Support and education
3 / 50 points
Availability 1.5 pts
Channels, hours, languages covered by live staff.
Quality 0.75 pts
Published complaints procedure, vulnerable-client policy, response commitments.
Education 0.75 pts
Learning path, video, webinars, glossary, research.
06
How we treat regulatory actions.
Rule A
One fault, one place.
A fine, outage or disclosure gap is deducted once, in the pillar it belongs to. A missing forex pair count is a Regulation 1.5 fault, not a Product Range fault too.
Rule B
No deduction for what clients do not need.
No crypto CFDs at a US broker is US law. No tax-wrapped accounts at a CFD broker is not what its clients came for.
The guardrail: both rules remove wrong deductions. Neither softens a real one. A broker that misleads clients, buries a cost or has been acted against by a regulator still scores low.
RULE 01
Five-year window
Only enforcement and platform incidents from the last five years deduct. Older ones are context.
RULE 02
Major violations are permanent
Fraud, misused client funds, revocation, unregulated operation. Cleared only after 10+ years under new ownership.
RULE 03
Minor breaches expire
Small procedural issues older than two years are noted, not deducted.
RULE 04
Overturned fines are not counted
Cancelled on final appeal: not scored. Under appeal: scored until ruled.
RULE 05
Operational issues are scored under Platform
An outage that stopped trading or closing is deducted in 5.3, not Regulation.
07
Every claim traces back to primary sources
✓ ACCEPTED AS PRIMARY
- Regulator registers and announcements
- Regulator enforcement notices
- Ombudsman decisions and equivalent complaint bodies
- Companies House and corporate registries
- The broker’s own disclosures, legal documents and pricing
- Reuters, Bloomberg, FT, Finance Magnates, FX News Group, Finance Feeds, major national press
✗ Not accepted for scoring
- Other broker review sites
- Wikipedia
- WikiFX
- Forums, Reddit, Telegram
- YouTube and social video
- Trustpilot and similar user reviews
Out of scope
- Subjective preferences we cannot test
- Features outside a broker's category
- Marketing claims we cannot verify
- Industry-wide regulatory limits (ESMA leverage caps, no US forex compensation scheme)
Multi-entity brokers
- One rating per broker group, not per entity
- Every review has a regulator check table: each entity, licence, and register link
- We state which entity your region is onboarded to and what that means for you
08
Four things we deliberately do not score
Not TC Rated
Regulated, not yet through the full scoring pass. Mentioned, not endorsed.
Not Covered, Red Flags, Warning
Documented in full, never ranked.
Excluded From Best-Broker Lists
Not covered, red flags and warning brokers never appear in rankings. Not TC Rated brokers are mentioned only when clearly marked.
OUR EDITORIAL COMMITMENT
We do not adjust ratings for affiliate deals, advertising, or commercial pressure. Every TC Rating is independent, evidence-based, and defensible from primary sources.
09
How to contest a score.
Raise it
Email [email protected].
Name the claim
The exact rating point you dispute.
Show the source
Regulatory filing, legal document or audited report.
We verify
Against your source and our own research.
We decide
Evidence holds: revised and disclosed. If not, we share why.
Editorial contact: [email protected]. We respond within 5 working days. Meet the team on our About us page.
10
Changed openly, never quietly.
- A meaningful change means a new version number on this page.
- Affected brokers are rescored.
- v1.3: brokers scored under the earlier sub-category weights are being rescored.
- v1.3, 9 October 2026. Sub-category weights corrected (Tier-1 8 to 5, History 3 to 4, Disclosure 3 to 5, with matching changes in Costs, Security and Product Range). Five outcome labels. Two-test regulation framework. Rule A and Rule B with the guardrail. TC Reviewed renamed TC Caution. Sources list.
- v1.2, 22 August 2026. One issue counted once. US retail forex basis. Outages under Platform. Trustpilot as awareness only.
- v1.1, 17 July 2026. First consolidated methodology page.