How we check a broker

The first check: can you actually use it

The first check is whether a resident of South Africa can open an account, fund it and withdraw from it. A broker that ranks well on paper but cannot take a South African applicant, or cannot pay one back, is not useful, so this check comes before anything about platforms or pricing. We look at whether local cards and bank transfers in ZAR are accepted and whether e-wallets are supported, because that is how most readers here will move money.

If a broker fails this first check, it does not move forward in the ranking regardless of anything else. Where a broker passes, we note which funding routes were confirmed and which were not. We do not state a minimum deposit, a spread, a commission or a swap as a number on this site, because those are set by the broker and change; instead we describe what the cost consists of and what it depends on.

How each class of figure on this site is sourced

Every figure we publish falls into one of three provenance classes: live market data, broker-published terms, or our own worked calculations. Live prices for gold (XAU/USD) come from a market feed and are timestamped at the point of display. Broker terms such as leverage caps and platform availability come from the broker's own published documentation for the entity serving South Africa. Worked examples, including the margin figure for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200, are calculated by us from those inputs and shown with the formula so you can check them.

Broker-sourced facts are tied to the specific legal entity named on the account, not to the brand as a whole. For FxPro, the entity serving South Africa is FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL, and the leverage cap we quote is up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument. We record which entity a fact belongs to because the same brand can publish different terms through different licences, and a figure that is correct for one entity may not apply to your account.

Our own calculations are labelled as such and never presented as broker quotes. The margin example uses the reference price of 4275.0 and the standard contract size of 100 oz per lot; at 1:200, a 0.10-lot position requires about $85.50 margin. That number depends on the reference price and the leverage cap in force, so it moves when either input changes. We show the inputs alongside the result so the figure is reproducible rather than asserted.

The formula behind each calculator, in plain words

The margin calculator multiplies position size in ounces by the reference gold price, then divides by the leverage ratio. Position size in ounces is the lot size multiplied by 100, because one standard lot of XAU/USD is 100 oz. For a 0.10-lot position at a reference price of 4275.0, the notional is 10 oz times 4275.0, or $42,750; dividing by 1:200 gives about $85.50 margin. The result is in US dollars because gold is quoted in USD, and we show it that way rather than converting to rand at an unstated rate.

The pip-value calculator multiplies the number of pips by the pip size and the position size in ounces, then expresses the result in the quote currency. For XAU/USD the pip is 0.01, so one pip on a 0.10-lot position is 0.01 times 10 oz, or $0.10. On a 1.00-lot position one pip is $1.00. The arithmetic is deliberately simple and shown in full so you can substitute your own lot size and reference price without needing our tool.

The rand conversion step uses the USD/ZAR rate at the time of display and is labelled as indicative. We do not treat the converted rand figure as a broker quote, because your broker will apply its own conversion rate when funding or settling. The conversion exists so a South African reader can size a position against a rand budget, not so the converted figure can be compared line by line with a statement. Any rand amount on the site is therefore a planning aid, not a settlement figure.

The limits of what we test

We test by reading and comparing documents, not by trading real money through every account we write about. That means we can tell you what a broker's own paperwork says about funding, leverage and entity, and we cannot tell you how a withdrawal felt on a Friday afternoon or how support behaved under pressure. We say this plainly because a review that hides its limits is worth less than one that names them.

Leverage is a cap, not a setting to aim at. Up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument is the ceiling the broker allows, and using the full cap on gold is a quick way to lose an account. Our pages describe the mechanism and the risk, and they do not tell you which setting to choose.

The known limits of this method

The method cannot tell you what your broker will charge, because we do not publish spreads, commissions, swaps or minimum deposits as numbers. Those costs depend on your account type, the entity your account is opened with, and market conditions at the moment of execution. We describe what a cost consists of and what it depends on, and we stop there. A reader who needs an exact cost must get it from the broker's own schedule for their own account, not from a methodology page.

The method also cannot guarantee that a published term still applies to you. Leverage caps are stated as up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, which is a cap and not a setting to aim at. Whether you qualify for a higher cap depends on your classification and on the instrument, and the entity serving South Africa, FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL, applies its own onboarding checks. A cap published on a page is not a promise about your account.

Finally, the method is not a substitute for a statement. Our rand figures are indicative conversions, our margin example uses a reference price rather than your fill price, and our pip arithmetic assumes the standard 100 oz contract. Real results differ by the price you actually get, the conversion your broker applies, and any costs layered on top. The site is built to make the arithmetic transparent, not to reconcile your account. Where precision matters, the broker's statement is the authority and our page is the explanation.

What happens when two sources disagree

When two sources disagree, the broker's own documentation for the entity on your account wins, and our text is corrected to match it. A third-party summary, a forum post or an older copy of a page does not override the current published term. If the disagreement concerns a number we are allowed to state, such as a leverage cap, we check the entity-specific document rather than the brand's global page. If it concerns a number we do not publish, such as a spread or a minimum deposit, we remove the conflicting claim rather than pick a side.

Disagreement between a live price and a broker quote is expected and is not treated as an error. Our live gold price comes from a market feed and is timestamped; a broker quote comes from that broker's own liquidity and includes its own markup and execution logic. The two can differ without either being wrong. We keep the live figure labelled as a market reference and never present it as the price you will get, because the price you get depends on your broker's quote at the moment your order is filled.

If a disagreement cannot be resolved from published sources, we say so rather than guess. The page will describe what the figure depends on and note that the broker's schedule is the authority. We do not fill a gap with a plausible-looking number, because an invented spread or deposit figure would be worse than an honest blank. Where the caveat applies, we repeat the instruction to check which entity your own account is opened with, since that entity's terms are the ones that bind you.

What refreshes automatically and what a person reviews

Live gold prices and the timestamp beside them refresh automatically from the market feed. The rand conversion shown alongside a USD figure also refreshes automatically, using the prevailing USD/ZAR rate. These are the only elements on the site that change without a person looking at them. Everything else, including leverage caps, platform lists, entity details and the regulator caveat, is stored as reviewed text and changes only when an editor updates it after checking the source.

Broker terms are reviewed by hand because they are legal and contractual, not market data. The leverage cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument is a published term, and a feed cannot tell us whether it still applies to the entity serving South Africa. A person checks the broker's documentation and records the date of the check. The same applies to the list of platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge are named because they are published, and a person confirms that list rather than a scraper.

Worked examples are recalculated by hand whenever an input changes. The $85.50 margin figure for a 0.10-lot position at 1:200 depends on the reference price of 4275.0; if the reference price is updated, the example is recomputed and the new inputs are shown. We do not let a calculator silently drift away from the text that explains it. Where an example and a live figure could diverge, the example is dated and the live figure is timestamped, so you can see which is which.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure we publish comes from the broker's own documents, and we record the date we read them. That includes the leverage cap, which is up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, and the worked margin figure we reference, where a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin at that retail cap. One standard lot of gold is 100 oz and one pip is 0.01, and we keep those definitions fixed so the arithmetic on the page can be followed.

Because documents are revised, each page carries the date of the last check, and a reader should treat any figure older than the current broker document as out of date. We do not fill gaps with estimates. If a broker does not publish something we would like to state, we say that it is not published rather than supplying a plausible number.

How a broker fact is dated and re-checked

Every broker fact on the site carries the date it was last checked against the broker's own published documentation. The date refers to the check, not to when the term was first created. When we state that the entity serving South Africa is FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL, or that leverage is capped at up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, that statement is tied to a review date. If you are reading it long after that date, treat it as a prompt to confirm with the broker.

Re-checking is triggered by three things: a scheduled review, a visible change on the broker's site, and a reader report of a discrepancy. A scheduled review means a person opens the source document and compares it with our text line by line. A visible change, such as a platform being added or removed, triggers an immediate edit. A reader report is logged and checked before any change is made. In all three cases the review date is updated only after the source has been read, not when the edit is queued.

The regulator caveat is re-checked with particular care because it names licences. The wording we use is that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, and we ask you to check which entity your own account is opened with. That sentence is reviewed as a unit; we do not shorten it or split it across pages, because a partial version could mislead a South African reader about which regulator stands behind their account.