Broker Rating Methodology: 7 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 local clients. Tier-1 → 2, Tier-2 → 1, Tier-3 → 0.5, no licence → 0.

Final score: sum of both parts, capped at 5. A broker with no licences legitimately gets 0 (a meaningful result, not missing data), so this factor always participates in the calculation.

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 → close to 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 regulatory orders
• 0 – Poor: systematic complaints, major fines, documented incidents

Without an editorial score, the factor is dropped (excluded with weight redistribution).

Weighted sum of six sub-factors; a sub-factor with no data is dropped and its weight is redistributed to the others:

• 28% Minimum deposit: ≤$50 → 5, ≤$100 → 4, ≤$200 → 3, ≤$500 → 2, higher → 1
• 28% Trade cost (spread + commission/10 in pips): ≤0.3 → 5, ≤0.6 → 4, ≤1.0 → 3, ≤1.5 → 2, higher → 1
• 14% Number of instruments: <100 → 1, 100–300 → 2, 300–700 → 3, 700–1500 → 4, >1500 → 5
• 17% Platforms: +1 for MT4, +1 for MT5, +1 for cTrader, +0.5 for TradingView, +0.5 for a proprietary platform, +1 for mobile apps
• 5% Swap-free: available → 5, no → 0, unknown → not counted
• 8% Copy trading: available → 5, no → 0, unknown → not counted

The score depends on which tiers of payment methods are present and which direction they support, not on the number of listed methods. Within a single tier, deposit and withdrawal are combined as "at least one method," so five cards of the same tier give no advantage over one.

Each present tier contributes:

contribution = tier weight × (0.4 for deposit + 0.6 for withdrawal)

Withdrawal carries more weight: being able to take money out matters more to a trader. Tier weights: Tier 2 = 3.5 (base), Tier 3 = 1.6 (premium), Tier 1 = 0.9 (weak reserve). The sum of contributions is capped at 5.

Payment method tiers for Mexico:

• Tier 2 (base) – international cards and stablecoins: Visa, Mastercard, USDT (TRC20). Available at almost every broker and work everywhere, but require conversion to pesos.
• Tier 3 (premium) – local Mexican methods: SPEI (instant interbank transfers), OXXO (cash through a retail network), local banks (BBVA México, Banamex, Banorte, Santander México). No USD↔MXN conversion, no bank fees, usually instant. Maximum value for an MX trader, so this is awarded on top of the base.
• Tier 1 (reserve) – methods requiring extra steps: SWIFT (slow and expensive), e-wallets Skrill/Neteller (separate KYC account), Bitcoin, Perfect Money. They work, but offer less convenience.

There is no separate penalty for missing local methods: Tier-3 is rewarded with its own weight, and its absence simply skips the premium.

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 listed on neither, the factor is dropped and its weight is redistributed across the others.

Editorial score based on test live-chat enquiries with concrete MX questions (SPEI/OXXO payments, verification, Hacienda taxation):

• 5 – 24/7 Spanish live chat, reply < 1 min, competent MX-specific answers
• 4 – Spanish 24/7, reply < 5 min, general competence
• 3 – Spanish 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

Without a support score, the factor is dropped.

This factor measures only the localization that is not already captured by other factors: local payment methods are part of Payments, support language is part of Support, and the local regulator is part of the per-geo half of Regulation. What remains is a residual of four verifiable signals (weighted sum; a sub-signal with no data is dropped):

• 35% Localized website: interface in Spanish
• 30% MXN account: Mexican peso as the trading account currency
• 20% Localized education: learning materials in Spanish
• 15% Local contact: local phone number in Mexico or office in the country

Each signal: present → 5, absent → 0, unknown → not counted. If no signal is set at all, the factor is dropped and its 8% weight is redistributed.