Methodology 2026.1
The Trust Score, and exactly how it is calculated
The Trust Score is a single number from 0 to 100 that answers one narrow question: how much structural protection stands between a retail client and the broker holding their money. It is deliberately separate from the overall review score, which also rewards cheap spreads and good platforms — things that matter, but not when a payout stalls.
The calculation, in full
No hidden terms, no discretionary adjustment.
Why safety carries 55%
The Trust & Safety pillar is the only component that reflects what we observed first-hand: segregation arrangements, negative balance protection actually applied to our account, compensation scheme eligibility for the entity we were onboarded to, and whether the payout desk behaved when we asked for everything back. It carries the majority of the weight because it is the only part of the score built on evidence rather than on public record.
Why reach is capped
A tier-1 licence is worth roughly two and a half tier-2 licences and seven tier-3 licences in this model, and the total is capped at 100 so that a broker cannot accumulate an unbounded score by registering in many small jurisdictions. Collecting offshore wrappers is not the same as being supervised.
Why longevity is only 20%
Surviving thirty years in this industry is meaningful — it means a firm has been through several regulatory regimes and at least two liquidity crises without collapsing. But age alone protects nobody, so it is capped at roughly thirty years of operation and never allowed to dominate a weak safety result.
What is deliberately excluded
Spreads, commissions, platform quality, research, promotions, bonus schemes, awards won elsewhere, marketing spend and any commercial relationship with us. All of those either sit in the overall review score or nowhere at all. A broker cannot improve its Trust Score by cutting prices, and it certainly cannot improve it by paying us.
Every broker, component by component
The same three numbers that produce each headline figure.
| # | Broker | Safety ×0.55 | Reach ×0.25 | Longevity ×0.20 | Trust | Band | T1 | T2 | T3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OANDA | 97 → 53.4 | 100 → 25.0 | 100 → 20.0 | 98 | Exceptional | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | FOREX.com | 97 → 53.4 | 91 → 22.8 | 85 → 17.0 | 93 | Exceptional | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Pepperstone | 95 → 52.3 | 96 → 24.0 | 54 → 10.8 | 87 | Strong | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | AvaTrade | 92 → 50.6 | 71 → 17.8 | 68 → 13.6 | 82 | Strong | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 5 | Plus500 | 95 → 52.3 | 71 → 17.8 | 61 → 12.2 | 82 | Strong | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 6 | FxPro | 97 → 53.4 | 43 → 10.8 | 68 → 13.6 | 78 | Adequate | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | eToro | 90 → 49.5 | 53 → 13.3 | 65 → 13.0 | 76 | Adequate | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | XM | 78 → 42.9 | 43 → 10.8 | 58 → 11.6 | 65 | Watch | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 9 | Exness | 75 → 41.3 | 43 → 10.8 | 61 → 12.2 | 64 | Watch | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 10 | IC Markets | 75 → 41.3 | 34 → 8.5 | 65 → 13.0 | 63 | Watch | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Components are shown raw first, then multiplied by their weight. Small rounding differences between the sum of the three weighted columns and the headline figure come from rounding the final result once, at the end.
How to read a band
| Range | Band | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Exceptional | Multiple tier-1 licences, long operating history, no unresolved safety findings in this cycle. |
| 80–89 | Strong | Solid tier-1 oversight with a clean payout record; minor gaps in disclosure or entity structure. |
| 70–79 | Adequate | Regulated where it matters, but either a shorter track record or a heavier reliance on tier-2/3 entities. |
| 60–69 | Watch | Retail clients may be onboarded to a weaker entity than the headline licence suggests. Read the entity section before depositing. |
| below 60 | Not recommended | Structural safety concerns. No broker in this edition falls into this band; we publish it so the scale is not open-ended. |
How the Trust Score relates to the overall score
Two different questions, two different weightings.
| Pillar | Weight in overall score | Enters Trust Score? | Variables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fees & Costs | 20% | No | 26 |
| Trust & Safety | 20% | Yes — 55% | 21 |
| Deposits & Withdrawals | 15% | No | 18 |
| Trading Platforms | 15% | No | 24 |
| Product Range | 10% | No | 15 |
| Research & Education | 10% | No | 14 |
| Customer Support | 5% | No | 12 |
| Account Opening | 5% | No | 10 |
| Total | 100% | plus reach and longevity, from the public register | 140 |
A broker can hold a high overall score and a moderate Trust Score if it trades cheaply from a thinner regulatory base — OANDA and IC Markets sit at opposite ends of exactly that trade-off. Read both numbers before depositing. Every recorded field →