Trust & transparency

Editorial Policy & Review Methodology

Who writes our reviews, how we test brokers, where our facts come from, and the standards that keep our comparisons independent and trustworthy.

Our commitment

Choosing a forex broker is a financial decision, and we treat it that way. This site covers a regulated, high-risk product, so the information on it must be accurate, independent and clearly sourced. The standards below explain exactly how we research and review brokers, who is responsible for the content, and how we handle the commercial side of running an independent comparison site.

We are not a broker. We do not hold your money or provide personal financial advice. Everything we publish is for education and comparison, and is written to help you make a more informed choice before you trade.

How we review and rank brokers

Every broker is assessed against the same five criteria. Regulation is a pass/fail gate; the remaining factors are weighted by how much they affect a trader’s real-world experience and bottom line.

1
Regulation & safety
Pass / fail
A broker must hold a current ASIC Australian Financial Services Licence, segregate client money in Australian trust accounts and provide retail protections such as negative balance protection. Brokers that fail this gate are never listed, regardless of pricing.
2
True cost of trading
Weighted heavily
We calculate the all-in round-turn cost of a representative trade — spread plus commission — and account for swap, conversion and inactivity fees, rather than relying on headline “from 0.0 pips” marketing.
3
Platform & execution
Weighted heavily
We open live accounts and assess platform range (MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView, proprietary), execution speed, order types, charting and automation support first-hand.
4
Instruments & support
Weighted moderately
We weigh the breadth of tradable markets, the quality and availability of customer support, and the smoothness of account opening and funding for Australian clients.
5
Stability & transparency
Weighted moderately
Operating history, ownership transparency and whether a parent company is publicly listed all factor into our view of a broker’s long-term reliability.

Our standards

Editorial independence

Our rankings reflect real trading conditions, not commercial relationships. No broker can pay to be featured, to raise its rating, or to alter the wording of its review. Ratings are set by our analysts and can move down as well as up.

Independent fact-checking

Every regulatory claim we publish — AFSL numbers, leverage caps, client-money rules — is verified against the primary source by a compliance reviewer who did not write the original copy.

Primary sources

We rely on first-hand testing and authoritative sources: ASIC’s public registers and product intervention orders, brokers’ own Product Disclosure Statements and AFSL records, and live account data we collect ourselves.

Kept current

Spreads, fees and regulation change. Every broker review carries a “last updated” date, and we re-verify pricing and licensing details on a rolling schedule throughout the year.

How we make money

Some outbound links to brokers may earn us a commission at no cost to you. This never influences which brokers we include or how we rank them — our methodology is applied identically whether or not a commercial arrangement exists.

Corrections policy

If we get something wrong, we fix it promptly and transparently. Spotted an error or outdated figure? Contact us and we will review it against the source and update the page where needed.

Who writes and reviews

Our content is produced by a small team with direct, hands-on experience in Australian forex markets, trading education and financial compliance.

Marcus Hale

Senior Markets Analyst & Editor

B.Com (Finance), 15+ years in FX markets

Priya Nair

Compliance & Regulation Reviewer

LLB, RG146 compliant, 12+ years in financial compliance

Daniel Whitmore

Trading Educator

Accredited trading coach, 10+ years teaching retail traders

Meet the full team