How we rate gold brokers

1. Protection you actually get (35%)

We first work out which company would open your account in your country. A group can hold an FCA licence and still serve Indonesia from Seychelles; your protection comes from the Seychelles company, so that is what we score.

The regulator of that company sets the base: Tier 1 60 points, Tier 2 46, Tier 3 32, Tier 4 16, Tier 5 (company registration only) 0.

Then: negative balance protection required by the regulator +12, or promised by the broker +6; an investor compensation scheme +8; a listed parent company +8; at least one Tier 1 licence somewhere in the group +6; years in business up to +6.

Licences the broker advertises that we cannot find on the regulator’s register: −20.

2. Gold trading cost (25%)

Measured, not copied from the broker’s website. On a live standard account we record the XAUUSD spread at three fixed times every trading day for 20 days (02:00, 09:00 and 14:30 UTC), add the commission, and take the median round-trip cost of 1 standard lot in dollars.

Overnight financing is recorded from the platform each week and shown next to the cost, because gold swaps can cost more than the spread for anyone holding trades for days.

Scores are relative: the cheapest measured broker gets 100, the most expensive 20, the rest in between. We need at least three measured brokers before this pillar counts.

3. Execution under stress (15%)

For every US jobs report and Fed decision we record the widest XAUUSD spread in the two minutes either side of the release and divide it by that day’s median spread. Lower is better.

Stop orders placed through these windows are logged for slippage; that data is published but enters the score only once we have 10 events per broker.

4. Money in and out (15%)

Each quarter we deposit and withdraw a small amount through the most common local method and record the hours from request to arrival, plus any fee.

5. Platforms and gold conditions (10%)

MT4 20, MT5 20, TradingView 15, cTrader 10, own platform 5, minimum order of 0.01 lot 15, a swap-free (Islamic) account 15. Capped at 100.

Regulatory record

For every broker we search the regulators’ enforcement notices and the trade press for fines, orders and warnings, and link each one to its source on the broker’s page.

A fine or a regulator order (for example a cease-and-desist or business improvement order) dated in the last five years takes 4 points off the protection pillar, up to 12. Older actions are shown but not scored.

Breaches a broker reported itself and compensated clients for, and public warnings that a firm is not licensed in a country, are shown but not scored: they matter to readers in that country, and the licence rules already handle them.

Trader Voice (shown beside the score, never mixed in)

The Trader Voice score answers a different question from ours: how do real clients feel? It sits next to the XAU expert score and does not change it.

Public part: the broker’s Trustpilot score × 20, minus half the share of one-star reviews (brokers that invite every client inflate the average; the one-star share shows how many have a serious problem). If Trustpilot has suspended the score for breaking its review rules, we use the star breakdown and take off another 10. Where Trustpilot barely covers a market (Japan) we use the largest local review site instead. Small samples are pulled toward 70: weight = reviews ÷ (reviews + 200).

Reader part: readers rate withdrawals, support, platform stability, spreads as advertised and whether they would recommend, each 1–5. The average × 20 is the reader score. Each account rates a broker once (it can update), ratings count after the account is 72 hours old, and reviews with links or contact details are refused.

The two parts are blended by how many readers have rated: weight of readers = readers ÷ (readers + 10). With no reader ratings, Trader Voice equals the public part.

We only publish review themes we read ourselves in public reviews, with the source and date. We never write reviews for a broker.

Trader evidence (readers and brokers can add to the record)

Withdrawal reports: a reader picks the method, the amount band and how long the money took (or that it is still pending or was refused). Reports are public at once and count after the account is 72 hours old. We show the median time, the share that arrived within 24 hours, and pending and refused counts for the last 12 months.

Complaints: a title, what happened and at least one evidence link (statement, email, screenshot). An editor checks the evidence before anything is published; evidence links and contact details are never published. The broker can reply publicly after we confirm the reply comes from a work email at the broker. A complaint is marked resolved when the trader says so or the evidence shows it.

Corrections: anyone, including the broker, can point out wrong data with a source (a regulator register page, the broker’s published terms). Accepted corrections change the data and are logged on the broker’s page with the date.

No pay-to-remove: nobody, including brokers we have a commercial relationship with, can pay to remove a complaint, hide a report or change a score. Evidence is the only thing that changes a record.

Hard rules

If the company that would hold your money is only a company registration (Tier 5), the total is capped at 30, whatever else the broker does well.

If it is a light offshore regulator (Tier 4), the total is capped at 70.

A pillar we have not measured is left blank. The total is calculated from measured pillars only and is marked provisional until all five are in.

Data rules

Licences: only companies we can find on the regulator’s own register count. Entries marked “register check pending” come from the broker’s legal page and are being checked one by one.

Commercial relationships: we have partner agreements with some brokers. They never enter the calculation, and partner brokers are labelled on the ratings page.

Updates: the rating is recalculated whenever new measurements arrive. Changes to weights or rules are dated and listed below.

Corrections: if a broker or reader finds an error, send the regulator register link and we fix it within five working days.

Which company we assume for each country

For each country we first check whether the broker has a company licensed by that country’s own regulator and takes retail clients there. If yes, that company is used. EU residents are matched to the group’s EU company in this order: BaFin, Danish FSA, CySEC, Central Bank of Ireland, KNF, Estonian FSA.

If there is no local company, we use the company named in the broker’s terms for “all other countries”. If the broker only takes clients in its licensed countries, it is shown as not available.

US residents can only be served by CFTC/NFA-registered firms, so offshore companies never count for the US.

Example: the UK page →

Regulator tiers

Change log

• 2026-11-05: v1.2. Every broker researched: fees, deposits and withdrawals, regulatory record with sources (fines and orders in the last five years now cost up to 12 protection points), and public review signals. Trader Voice score added beside the expert score, with reader ratings.
• 2026-11-04: v1.1. 24 brokers (21 international, 3 local) across 20 country contexts; per-country pages, broker profiles, comparisons; EU preference list adds Danish FSA, KNF and EFSA; Indonesia uses BAPPEBTI entities; FCA entities that only serve professional clients no longer count for UK retail clients.
• 2026-11-01: v1 published. Protection and platform pillars live; cost, stress and money pillars waiting for lab measurements.