Rating of Forex market brokerage companies represents the irreplaceable help for traders in the search of a reliable broker. GuruTrade team of experienced professionals represents an independent Forex brokers Rating. Brokerage companies were estimated by objective parameters and public data including the date of foundation and the complete list of services offered by them.
Method of Forex Brokers Rating Calculation
GuruTrade professionals used the complex evaluation method based on 14 basic criteria with the fixed number of points to calculate the Forex brokers Rating. Such approach allows to observe objectivity of an overall picture where separately taken criteria can't be dominating among other parameters, providing to all set of key brokers characteristics the maximum balance and reliability.
Charge of Points in the Rating Is Made by the Following Principle:
1. Age of the company
Points are charged for every year from the moment of the foundation of the company:
- 1 year = 3 points
Thus, for 2 years of service activity in the exchange market the company will get 6 points, for 3 years - 9 points, etc. “Old” brokers get the higher trust, in this case amount of information about the company is much larger. The trader can easily find traders' reviews about the company at forums, in independent communities and ratings. The longer company provides the service, the bigger confidence have the clients and can entrust their means without any fear.
2. Regulating authorities and control of company activity
Assessing the regulating organizations exercising control of Forex brokers' activities the priority if offered to the American and British state regulators:
- CFTC = 50 points
- FCA = 50 points
- FINRA = 50 points
- FSA = 50 points
- NFA = 50 points
- SEC = 50 points
- SIPC = 50 points
- CySEC = 40 points
- FSP = 30 points
- FFMS (Russia) = 20 points
- CRFIN (Russia) = 10 points
- KROUFR = 5 points
Apparently from the list, licenses of supervisory authorities significantly differ on value and “weight”: the license of the American market regulator NFA will have much greater influence on the broker's indicators, then registration on the Marshall Islands or the island of Mauritius.
3. Forex brokers offices and branches
The greater is the geography of broker's activities, the more authoritative position the company will have among competitors:
- The countries within CIS = 1 point
- Foreign countries = 2 points
To open the representative office in Europe, Latin and North America, and in Asia it is necessary to bring the existing business model into accord with the local legislation and activity requirements of the financial organizations. As a rule, these changes are transformed to the services range expansion and improvement of their quality. The most successful innovations often extend to other branches of the broker.
4. Commissions and spreads
The priority is given to the best trading conditions:
- Low spread = 150 points
- Average spread = 70 points
- High spread = 0 points
In the market of Forex services the level of competition is very high, and to achieve the success companies has two alternatives - to offer the lowest spread, earning due to a number of the attracted clients, or to support the high level of spreads, receiving a more profitable commission from a smaller number of traders.
5. Positive and negative reviews about Forex brokers
Customer feedback about brokers' work is considered as follows:
- Positive review = + 1 point
- Neutral = + 0,5 points
- Negative review = - 1 point
It is quite obvious that in addition to positive reviews to the companies, not flatter opinions are expressed as well. The trader's task in this case - to analyze the comments and to decide which of them should be taken into account and which have to be ignored. Sometimes traders can write claims because of their own mistakes, but it can be also an “invited negative” from competitors. Sometimes the author of review never had been the client of the company about which writes. However, the same story often happens to the positive comments too.
6. Analytical services of the company, market reviews, and forecasts
The section of market analytics practically is always the most popular and readable heading on the sites of all broker companies:
- Daily analytics = 30 points
- Analysis department availability = 20 points
- Weekly analytics = 20 points
- Monthly analytics = 10 points
- Multilingual analytics = 10 points
- Non-recurrent irregular reviews = 0 points
Analytical reviews and forecasts are demanded by beginners, and experienced market players to help them making more mindful and reasoned trading decisions. The absence of analytics on the broker's site forces his clients to look for similar information on other resources, wasting thus not only time but also real money from the profit missed during searches.
7. News of broker's company
Monitoring of Forex broker's news publications provides to the traders timely receipt of the most up-to-date information about life of the company:
- Daily news = 30 points
- News block availability = 20 points
- Weekly news = 20 points
- Monthly news = 10 points
- Multilingual version of news = 10 points
- Non-recurrent irregular publications = 0 points
The news line provides the report of the latest news and other data, including messages on the implementation of new services and features, and also company's promotions or competitions.
8. ECN accounts availability
The broker company which gives to the clients' trading opportunity on ECN accounts automatically gets additional points to the rating:
- ECN accounts availability = 30 points
It is well known that ECN accounts guarantee the direct trading with direct access to an interbank network. Trading on ECN accounts, the trader can forget about delays in order performance.
9. PAMM accounts availability
Even if you don't have enough time for trade training and constant practice, all of you can equally get a profit in the Forex market by investment into PAMM accounts:
- PAMM accounts availability = 30 points
Thanks to PAMM accounts you have an opportunity to entrust the equity to the managing director presented by the experienced trader. Each investor has an opportunity to distribute the investments between several PAMM accounts, thereby reducing possible risks and leveling failures of certain managing directors.
10. Organization of the Forex contests
The broker company organizing various Forex contests offers everyone a chance to approve oneself in trading competitions and to win a cash prize:
- Each active contest (for every language) = 5 points
Regardless of your experience, you can be a beginner or a experienced trader, participation in Forex contest will bring you unforgettable impressions, unique trading experience and fresh ideas for optimization of your trading strategy.
11. Free education
High-quality Forex education always fructify, however, to find really effective Forex training programs or courses is not so simple. Therefore, free education available at the brokerage company has been always a benefit, worthing encouragement:
- Free education = 5 points
Forex education is the irreplaceable assistant not only for beginners but can be very useful for traders who already possesses a certain experience and investors in order to increase the professional skill and qualification.
12. Number of available payment systems
Each of the clients of broker companies usually uses one, the most familiar and convenient payment system for him. These traders hadn't to change the habits, so the brokers try to expand the list of available payment methods as much as possible:
- Each payment system = 5 points
Some systems have restrictions and can be available only in certain countries or regions. Connecting with new payment systems, Forex company increases convenience and provides favorable conditions for inflow of new clients.
13. Automatic withdrawal availability
The automatic withdrawal system is the almost instantaneous withdrawal of funds from your trading account. The system of automatic withdrawal guarantees instant handling and execution of withdrawal requests:
- Automatic withdrawal availability = 20 points
Withdrawal of funds is one of the important criteria in job evaluation of the broker. The automatic withdrawal allows accelerating the process that makes the work of the trader more comfortable and considerably raises the status of the broker.
14. Website evaluation
The official site of every Forex company can be named its face. Here is presented information, necessary for trader's work: trading conditions, specifications of contracts, contacts of the support service and a lot of other useful information. Considering the importance of this parameter, in the Forex brokers Rating was added with new criteria - “Website evaluation”. This parameter considers not only the convenience of navigation on the site, availability or absence of information and simplicity of its search, but also Support service response speed, and some other parameters:
- Availability of information = from 1 to 12 points
- Trading conditions = from 1 to 12 points
- Online support = from 3 to 8 points
- Specifications of contracts = from 1 to 7 points
To choose a proper broker is a difficult and very important task, faced by each market participant. Information on brokers' companies provided on GuruTrade is urged to render to the traders the effective assistance and help in the choice of reliable financial intermediary for conducting stable and productive trading.