Broker Rating Methodology: 6 Factors and Weights

Composed of two parts.

Group-level (0–3 points) — the broker's full licence portfolio:

• +1.5 if any Tier-1 licence is present (FCA, ASIC, BaFin, FINMA, MAS, SEC, CFTC)
• +0.9 if two or more Tier-1 licences
• +0.3 per Tier-2 licence (CySEC, DFSA, FSCA), max 0.6
• +0.15 per Tier-3 licence (FSA Seychelles, IFSC, FSC Mauritius, MISA, SCB, VFSC), max 0.3

Per-geo (0–2 points) — the licence under which the broker actually serves clients in Kazakhstan: Tier-1 → 2, Tier-2 → 1, Tier-3 or no licence → 0.

Final score = sum of both parts, capped at 5.

Composed of two parts.

Age bonus (0–1) is calculated automatically: 20+ years → 1.0, 10 years → 0.5, 5 years → 0.25, under 3 years → ~0.

Editorial score (0–4) is assigned based on monitoring of independent platforms (ForexPeaceArmy, BrokerScam, industry forums), regulatory actions and fines:

• 4 — Spotless: no regulatory penalties, no mass complaints about non-payments, transparent ownership
• 3 — Good: solid brand, occasional minor complaints
• 2 — Average: isolated complaints or minor past fines
• 1 — Questionable: notable withdrawal complaints, accumulated orders
• 0 — Poor: systematic complaints, major fines, documented incidents

Weighted sum of five sub-factors:

• 30% Minimum deposit: ≤$10 → 5, ≤$50 → 4, ≤$200 → 3, ≤$500 → 2, higher → 1
• 30% Trade cost (spread + commission/10 in pips): ≤0.3 → 5, ≤0.6 → 4, ≤1.0 → 3, ≤1.5 → 2, higher → 1
• 15% Number of instruments: <100 → 1, 100–300 → 2, 300–700 → 3, 700–1500 → 4, >1500 → 5
• 20% Platforms: +1 for MT4, +1 for MT5, +1 for cTrader, +0.5 for TradingView, +0.5 for proprietary, +1 for mobile apps
• 5% Swap-free: available → 5, no → 0, unknown → 2.5

Each payment method contributes based on its tier and direction:

contribution = tier × (0.4 if deposit + 0.6 if withdrawal)

Withdrawal carries more weight — being able to take money out matters more to traders.

Payment method tiers for KZ:

• Tier 3 — local KZ: Kaspi, Halyk, KZ banks. No USD↔KZT conversion, no bank fees, instant. Maximum value to a KZ trader.
• Tier 2 — international cards and stablecoins: Visa, Mastercard, USDT (TRC20). Funded directly from a KZ card or wallet, no separate account needed.
• Tier 1 — methods requiring extra steps: SWIFT (slow and expensive), e-wallets Skrill/Neteller/WebMoney (separate KYC account and pre-funding), Bitcoin and Perfect Money. They work, but offer less convenience to a KZ trader at otherwise equal broker terms.

Sum of contributions × 0.5, with a −1 penalty if no Tier-3 method is present (strong signal that the broker is not adapted to the KZ market).

Logarithmically weighted average across two sources — TradingView and Trustpilot:

(tvRating × log₁₀(tvReviews + 10) + tpRating × log₁₀(tpReviews + 10)) / (log₁₀(tvReviews + 10) + log₁₀(tpReviews + 10))

Log weighting prevents a broker with a few dozen enthusiastic reviews from outranking one with thousands of organic ones. If a broker is listed on only one source — only that source is used. If on neither — the factor is dropped and its 10% weight is redistributed across the others.

Editorial score based on test live-chat enquiries with concrete KZ questions (Kaspi payments, verification, taxation):

• 5 — 24/7 Russian + Kazakh live chat, reply < 1 min, competent KZ-specific answers
• 4 — Russian 24/7, reply < 5 min, general competence
• 3 — Russian during business hours or scripted replies, reply < 30 min
• 2 — English only, slow scripted answers
• 1 — Email only, replies > 1 day
• 0 — Non-functional / autoreplies